The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 334

by his own forcible confession in the seventeenth verse of the present chapter. The brunt of the su_ffering, on the other hand, falls upon the people, who were cut down by the pestilence, and upon those who, from the ties of nature, to say none other, mourned the!r loss. This is so entirely the tenor of the history, that our exposition has no cho1?e but to follow its lead. And we shall therefore unfold the moral and spiritual s1gmficance of the section from the standpoint of David, counting him the sinner, holding him responsible for the suffering, watching him in his struggle to emerge from the consequences of his conduct, and to lift his people out after him, and observing the sanctified result to which all was turned by the over- and ever-ruling providence of God. Let us notice- I. THE SIN OF DAVID IN NUMBERING THE PEOPLE. (Vers. 1-6.) 1. Whatever was the exact nature of this offence, we are not at liberty to discount it in allowing any- thing for the consideration already supposed, that Israel was ripe for some.punishment, and stood in need of some severe visitation. This may have been true enough. .Yet their leader, their shepherd, their king, should have been the first to watch each symp- tom of the kind, to study them anxiously, to counteract them in place of neglecting them or of co-operating with them, above all of becoming the actual exponent of them. It is for the shepherd to warn, to watch, to keep the flock. For every station in life there are its own proper duties, and for every increased and more exalted privilege of life there are its own proportioned opportunities and responsibilities. This is a moral canon of human life and society, always, everywhere, and that cannot be escaped in its solemn obligation. But how far David practically forgot it appears from this history. It is Scripture that represents it thus to us, that Satan knew the readiness of Israel to fall, designed disastrous damage to the flock, but that he saw and used his opportunity with no miscalculation, "scattering the flock" actually through and by aid of the shepherd. Once this way ascertained to be practicable in this instance, and Satan knew too well for Israel that it was the readiest way, the method most trenchant-easiest for himself, and most humiliating to those for whom he designed harm. A man's own sphere, special privilege, particular duty, will always have it in it to reveal the possi- bilities of sin, to find the occasion for sin, to enhance the triumph of sin, and to make it burn with fiercer bhze and more lurid glare. Many difficulties have been made out of such detail as the language of Scripture contains here, and in places of similar kind. But Scripture traverses all these, simply ignoring the sceptic's misuse of them. Scripture keeps in the tracks of the undoubted analogies of fact. Israel was ready to go wrong. Granted; but so also was he whose highest work and highest honour it was to watch and to know and to guard Israel from going wrong. 2. David's sin was the further removed from excuse, in that those who were secmd to him in place anc.l. authority put him in mind, and remonstrated with him, anc.l. evidently with that earnest, nervous feeling which should have been at once as good as conviction to him. The offence was deliberate, determined, and would not brook expostulation. For so it is written, "The worc.1. of the king prevailed against that of Joab and the captains of the host." It ill the same thing as to say that the word of intolerant and arbitrary authority was encouraged to override the" Law and the testimony," the suggestions of memory, ibe remonstrances of conscience, and the kindly spoken, courteous ac.l.vice of friendly and constitutional counsellors. The man who has it in him to set at nought certain kinds of expression of disapproval, that tell tales so true to nature's touch, has it in him also, so far at least as that humour is concerned, to set anything at nought . .And the impression cannot be resisted that it was just so with David at this crisis. 3. The offence of David in numbering the people, unrelieved as it was by any external considerations, offers also a peculiar kiud of evidence of the large infusion of the moral element. It is not, indeed, that the record of Scripture fails to furnish the grounds on which bis aclion stood c::mdemned; yet it may be admitted that we feel them to be wantincr in some measure in precision. C,msiderincr all ihat resultec.l. from the offence, this ve~y thing proves the larger presence of no technical, no mere ceremonial fault, but of deeper moral fault. Is David condemnec.l. by the letter? He is conc.l.emned tenfold by the spirit. On the evidence, we are bound to find him guilty on the ~cunts of principle rather than of the violation of positive commandment. Why, for rnstance, does not Joab in his ill-disguised disgust (which even grew with his task, ver. 6) quote the com- mandrnent, give cha1iter and verse for his intense disapproval and indignation? Oh OH, XXI, 1-30.] THE FIHST BOOK OF 'HIE CHRONICLES.