DAVID’S CHOICE

1 Chronicles 21:9-13 NET.

⁹ The LORD told Gad, David’s prophet, ₁₀     “Go, tell David, ‘This is what the LORD says: “I am offering you three forms of judgment from which to choose. Pick one of them.” ¹¹ Gad went to David and told him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Pick one of these: ¹² three years of famine, or three months being chased by your enemies and struck down by their swords, or three days being struck down by the LORD, during which a plague will invade the land and the LORD’s messenger will destroy throughout Israel’s territory.’ Now, decide what I should tell the one who sent me.” ¹³ David said to Gad, “I am very upset! I prefer to be attacked by the LORD, for his mercy is very great; I do not want to be attacked by men!”

Our Bible reading this week has brought us to a pivotal moment in King David’s life. He makes a catastrophic mistake, and the LORD uses that mistake to teach him about making wise choices. Everyone needs to make wise choices, but the higher up the chain of leadership you are, the more dangerous your choices can be.

The recent news about the conflict between Israel and Hamas, as well as Iran, has reminded us of an important fact. Leaders on all sides, including our own American President, have made decisions that have led to serious consequences. These decisions were more than just personal; lives have been either lost or saved because of the choices made by the leaders involved.

First, let’s review David’s sin—the poor choice he made that caused him to end up in this mess.

Israel faced an enemy. David was used to facing enemies. He had faced enemies as a young shepherd. Whenever a lion or a bear would come into his sheepfold to carry off a sheep from the flock, he would hunt that enemy and strike it down with his trusty sling. If the animal got too close for his artillery, he would grab it by its jaw, strike it with a club, and kill it. For every attack, David had an appropriate weapon.

David thought about this new enemy. It wasn’t just a personal rival; it was another nation opposing the one David ruled as king. Naturally, David wanted to know if his kingdom had enough resources to fight and defeat this other nation. He told his commanding general, Joab, and the other leaders of his army to gather their troops and take a count. He wanted a complete total of warriors from the southern outpost in Beersheba all the way to the northern outpost in Dan.

David is making a poor decision here. His first mistake is that he has bypassed those he should have consulted before making such a decision. Today’s chapter highlights Joab, the commanding general, as one of the people he should have consulted. Joab would have known the approximate strength of his troops. Joab was also aware of the prohibition against taking a census. He tried to intervene by pleading with the King not to proceed with this action. He knew that taking a census at this time would bring judgment upon the nation. But David refused to consult his general. For some reason, David would not listen to his military leaders.

The Bible teaches us that it is wise to seek advice from others when making important decisions. It says, “Plans fail when there is no counsel, but with abundant advisers they are established” (Proverbs 15:22). David had many military advisers, but he chose to ignore this support system. As king, he believed no one could stop him from doing what he wanted. This is pride, arrogance, and a stubborn refusal to listen to anyone but your own heart. The human heart is more deceptive than anything else and is incurably wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). Whenever we start thinking “I can handle this,” we are risking disaster. That is what David was doing.

David also had other advisers he could have consulted. Today’s text mentions Gad, the king’s prophet. The prophets served as God’s voice to his people. When God had a word of encouragement, He spoke that word through His prophets. When God had a word of condemnation and judgment, He spoke that word through His prophets. Why didn’t David go to Gad and find out what the LORD wanted him to do? Again, it was David’s pride and arrogance that kept him from reaching out to God’s representatives. David said, “This is my problem and I’m going to handle it my way.” That might have worked for Frank Sinatra in the song, but it is not wisdom.

David could have directly sought the LORD for guidance on how to handle his adversary. The Bible says that a person is blessed if they find joy in the LORD’s commands and meditate on them day and night (Psalm 1:2). David was more focused on his own commands than on discovering what God actually commanded.

David’s decision that day was simple, but it had disastrous consequences. This chapter states that God was offended by it, so God attacked Israel. Then, all of a sudden, David realized he needed to pray. He came to the LORD and told Him that he had greatly sinned by ordering this census. He begged the LORD to remove his guilt and admitted that he had acted very foolishly. But instead of immediately forgiving David for his terribly bad decision, the LORD tested him by giving him a multiple-choice quiz.

David had three options. The LORD sent this message to David through the prophet Gad: ‘This is what the LORD says: “I am offering you three forms of judgment from which to choose. Pick one of them. The nation can have three years of famine, three months of being chased by your enemies and being struck down by their swords, or three days of being struck down by the LORD himself through a plague.”

There was no simple answer to this quiz. Either of David’s choices would result in innocent people dying because of his sin. There are always consequences for sinful actions. Nobody evades sin’s repercussions. If our sins don’t cause immediate pain or embarrassment, we might be fooled into a false sense of security. But this situation showed David that, as king, his decisions could either bless his people or bring judgment upon them.

If David had chosen the first option, his kingdom would have endured three years of famine. The nation would have lost people to starvation and been forced to seek aid from neighboring nations for subsistence. This is similar to what happened to Israel during its early days. The Patriarch Jacob had to send his sons to Egypt to buy grain from the Pharaoh, with Joseph overseeing the process. When the people ran out of money to buy Egyptian grain, Joseph made them slaves to Pharaoh. David would have known this history. He was not going to allow his nation, rescued by God from slavery, to be forced back into it.

If David had chosen the second option, his kingdom would have become an easy target. For three whole months, the surrounding nations would attack repeatedly and gain more territory. City after city would fall, and no matter how many soldiers David’s generals managed to gather, they would be defeated on the battlefield. Israel had experienced this before. They had been told about their ancestors’ conquest of this same land. Their grandparents passed down stories of the fall of Jericho and other battles of the conquest. David got himself into this mess because he feared a neighboring nation. There was no way he was going to let that happen to his people.

That left the third option. It didn’t seem much better. It would mean three days of plague. Again, the Israelites were familiar with the concept. Their ancestors had lived in Egypt when the LORD had struck that nation with the ten plagues. When a plague becomes global, we call it a pandemic. We know the fear that COVID brought us a few years ago. Nobody would choose to experience that. But David faced not a worldwide pandemic, but a local epidemic. He figured they could handle that judgment best because it would stay within his nation and wouldn’t involve aggression or domination by an outside nation.

His choice also shows David’s faith. He said, “I prefer to be attacked by the LORD, for his mercy is very great; I do not want to be attacked by men!” This is the David we know — the man of faith who trusted God to help him do the impossible.

The LORD sent the epidemic, and it struck the nation of Israel, killing 70,000 Israelite men. Perhaps those men would have been part of the warriors counted by Joab and his generals. The entire nation would have mourned the loss of its sons. But God was not finished yet. He then turned his attention to Jerusalem, the capital city. He sent a destroying angel. Once again, the Israelites would have remembered the stories they had been told about that destroying angel who struck down the firstborn of Egypt. This time, there was no remedy. No blood on the doorposts and lintels could stop this destroying angel. It would bring death and destruction wherever it went. It was going to ravage Jerusalem.

David was no longer cocky. He and his leaders wore sackcloth and threw themselves down, faces to the ground, humbled and repentant. David looked up and saw the destroying angel approaching. This mighty angel stood between the land and the sky with his sword drawn. The whole city could have been destroyed, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

But God—this same God that David said is merciful and compassionate—watched and relented from his judgment. He told the destroying angel to stop. He said, “That’s enough.” David once again takes responsibility for his bad choice and offers to sacrifice to God right there at the threshing floor of Ornan. David purchases the threshing floor and offers the sacrifice. That would become the place where the temple of God would be built by David’s son, Solomon.

What can we learn from today’s lesson? What does it reveal about the decisions we make? What does it teach us about choosing wisely? Consider these principles. When you’re facing a problem, don’t assume that you already know the answer. Seek help from others before responding to the issue. Look for godly advisers. Second, set aside some time for prayer. You want to understand God’s will. God is not stingy with his will, but he probably won’t tell you what he wants unless you take the time to ask for it.

But what happens if you fail to follow these principles? What if you’ve already made a bad decision and are facing the consequences? Don’t hide it. Don’t try to distance yourself from the problem. Humble yourself before the LORD and submit to His mercy. Do what you can to make amends for the harm you’ve caused. Trust the LORD to turn your failure into a blessing for yourself and others. We all sin, but after sinning, we have a choice. We can choose to hide it or we can choose to confess it. We can choose to take pride in our sins or to repent of them. David decided to repent. He admitted that he was the one who sinned and committed this terrible deed. He demonstrated faith and wisdom when he said, “Have Thine own way, LORD!”