As Goes the Leader…: Daily Thoughts from 2 Samuel (2 Samuel 24)

In America we get to elect our leaders. But sometimes we elect leaders whose character is atrocious because their politics agree with ours. Yet it is not only the politics of a leader that will affect his or her people, it is his or her character. We tend to take on the character of the one who leads us. And, of course, the leader’s character will lead to bad decisions that affect us as well.

Here David becomes arrogant, as it is so easy for leaders to do. And the impact on Israel is devastating.

Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army, who was with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and number the people, that I may know the number of the people.” But Joab said to the king, “May the LORD your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” But the king’s word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. They crossed the Jordan and began from Aroer, and from the city that is in the middle of the valley, toward Gad and on to Jazer. Then they came to Gilead, and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites; and they came to Dan, and from Dan they went around to Sidon, and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites; and they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beersheba. So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: in Israel there were 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000.

But David’s heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.” And when David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the LORD, Three things I offer you. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’” So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall three years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider, and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning until the appointed time. And there died of the people from Dan to Beersheba 70,000 men. And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Then David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father’s house.”

And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, raise an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” So David went up at Gad’s word, as the LORD commanded. And when Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Araunah went out and paid homage to the king with his face to the ground. And Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be averted from the people.” Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.” But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel. (2 Samuel 24, ESV)

2 Samuel ends on a sour note, a note of David’s sin and the great destruction it brought on his people. He had been a great leader but a flawed one, as all are. But a leader’s decisions affect those he or she leads, inevitably. In this situation, we are told that Yahweh was already angry with Israel (for what we are not told) and therefore a judgment was needed. But David was in some sense participating in the sin and, though God does not tempt us to sin (James 1:13), God is the sovereign without whom nothing happens that happens. In the Chronicles account of this episode in David’s life the author says Satan incited David to hold the census. God is the ultimate cause and Satan is the immediate cause. God used Satan as a pawn in this whole affair.

David’s sin is pride in “his” nation and it’s powerful army and resources, as if it’s strength comes from Him. He is failing to trust God as his protector. He is not thinking of his leadership as a responsibility from God to benefit the people but of how the people will benefit him. Thankfully, he repents and acknowledges that his sin led to the suffering of his people.

As a leader you must take responsibility for your actions and how they affect those you lead. You must never think of things only in terms of you. What you do as a parent affects your children. What you do as an employer affects those you lead at work. What you do as a neighbor affects those around whom you live. Your leadership matters. How will you choose to lead?

The author of 2 Samuel is not negating all the wonderful things David did, but giving us a lesson on what it means to be a leader. Under David’s watch 70,000 men died. His sin was very great and we have the potential of great sin as well. The author is rehearsing once again the theme God has taught him from this history, that Yahweh exalts the humble but humbles the proud.

Lord, please help us stay pure in our hearts as those who lead others.