David’s sad failure. Instead of being satisfied in knowing that the Lord was his strength, he wants to number the people to see how strong he is! When the people were numbered, each had to pay money for an atonement for his soul (Ex. 30:1212When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them. (Exodus 30:12)). Here none was paid, so punishment fell from God.
V.3 Joab didn’t care so much about pleasing the Lord, but he knew the Lord would be angry at his uncle, King David.
V.4-9 The king goes ahead nevertheless.
V.10-14 At first it looked as if God hadn’t noticed it, for He let it go for nine months and 20 days! The Lord saw everything and gives David three choices. David chooses to fall into the hand of God rather than into the hands of men. Because of love for David, God did not spare him. But in the middle of the plague, and in the very city from which the orders were originally given, mercy reaches out. The plague is stopped.
V.17 The guilty man speaks to God and is heard.
V.18-25 A Gentile provides the place for an altar to be built, to sacrifice to the Lord. It will cost you something to separate from other believers, to worship God in truth. The location was the very spot where the great temple of Solomon was to be built. This is a picture of a yet greater day to come on this earth, a link between heaven and earth. For near here our blessed Lord Jesus died upon the cross, shedding His precious blood, that we believers might be made fit to enter God’s presence.