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David had rest from his earthly
enemies. But there was one enemy who troubled him still.
Who? Not Saul, nor the Philistines, nor the Amalekites, nor Absalom;
it was not an enemy like these who troubled him now. It was Satan,
the enemy of our souls. Satan will be our enemy as long as we
live. Every day we must fight against him, because he tries every
day to make us sin. Can we conquer him? Not in our own
strength, but God's Holy Spirit will conquer him for us, if we ask
Him. David had often tried to resist Satan; he had asked God's help,
and then he had conquered temptations. But sometimes David forgot to
pray, and then Satan conquered him. How
did Satan tempt David now? He tempted him to be very proud.
When David thought of all his power, and possessions, and riches, he felt
pleased to see how great he was. Was this right? No; it is
right to be thankful and contented, but not to be proud of what we
have. David called Joab, and told him to go, and count all the
people in the kingdom, that he might know how many there were. Joab
knew that this was wrong; and he tried to persuade David not to number the
people; but David would not attend to his advice. Joab was not a
good man; but now he was right, and David was wrong; because David was
trusting in his own strength, and not asking to be taught of God. So
Joab went through all Canaan, to count the people, and brought the number
of them to David. There were many thousands in Israel then; and,
perhaps, David felt very much pleased when Joab gave the sum of them. David
soon felt how wicked he had been; and then he was very sorry, and asked
God's forgiveness; and did God forgive David? Yes, but He punished
him for his sin. Next morning, a messenger came to David. It
was Gad, the prophet of the Lord; and he brought a very sad message to
David. He said, God had sent him to say, that He must punish David
for his sin; and he offered him one of these three punishments:
three years' famine, or three months to be destroyed before his enemies;
or three days' plague in the land; and David was to choose which it should
be. David felt it hard to make a choice, but he submitted patiently
to God's will; for he knew it was right that his sin should be
punished. But what did he choose? He said, "Let us fall
into the hand of God, for his mercy is great, and let us not fall into the
hand of man." Then Gad understood that David chose the plague. It
was a fearful time for Israel, when God sent the destroying angel among
them. David had been proud of the number of his subjects, and now
God took very many of them away, to humble David's pride. But did
the Israelites deserve to be punished? Yes; they too had displeased
God: and they were punished, as well as their king. A
plague is a dreadful thing. There have been plagues in
England. Many years ago there was a dreadful plague in London, when
hundreds of people died every day. They were ill a very little
time: one hour they were well, and the next hour they were
dead. Every morning a cart used to go through the streets; and a man
rang a bell, and cried, "Bring out your dead." Then the
doors of the houses were opened, and the dead bodies were carried out, and
put in the cart, and thrown into great holes; for there was no time to
make coffins for them. All the houses were shut up, and everybody
was trembling for fear, and thinking, "Perhaps I shall die
next." Could any people be happy and peaceful then? Yes;
those people who were ready to die had no cause for fear. Death
could not really hurt them: it could only take them to Heaven, far
away from all sickness and sorrow for ever. Three
days the dreadful plague lasted in Canaan. The angel went through
the country, destroying wherever he went; and, at last, he came to
Jerusalem, where David lived. David looked up, and saw the angel
standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand.
The sword was over Jerusalem, ready to strike and destroy it. Then
David fell on his face before God, and cried for mercy. He knew how
merciful God was, and that He did not wish to destroy all His people; that
He is more willing to forgive than to punish; so David said, "It is I
who sinned; I commanded the people to be numbered: I have done
wickedly. Punish me, but spare my people, for what have they
done?" And did God hear David's prayer? Yes; he sent Gad
again with a kind message to David. God said, that David must build
an altar, and offer up sacrifices; and then He promised to forgive. There
was a good man named Araunah, who had a threshing-floor; and God told
David to build his altar in that threshing-floor. While Araunah was
threshing wheat with his sons, he looked up, and saw the angel standing
near; and he and his sons hid themselves for fear. But when David
came, Araunah went out, and bowed respectfully before the king. Then
David told Araunah what God had said, and he asked to buy the
threshing-floor, to build the altar there. Araunah was very
generous, and wanted to give all to David: but David said, "No;
I am going to offer a sacrifice to God, and I will not give Him what costs
me nothing." So David bought the threshing-floor, and wood, and
oxen; and built an altar, and offered sacrifices upon it, and called upon
God; and God accepted David's sacrifice, and sent fire down from Heaven
upon the offering, and commanded the angel to take away the sword, and
destroy no more.
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