THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

The Books Of The Chronicles: God's Preservation Of His Davidic And Levitical Covenants

XV. Learning The Timeless Lesson That God Will Provide

(1 Chronicles 21:1-22:1)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

From the human perspective, we really cannot handle the many big spiritual problems we face in the world:

(1) In his opening statement at the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, U. S. Representative Adam Schiff said, "(T)he president's misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won." (Nate Madden, "Schiff claims that if President Trump is not removed from office by impeachment, Americans can't trust the results of the 2020 election," January 23, 2020; theblaze.com)

However, many Democratic lawyers hired by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team that used many millions of dollars of taxpayers' moneys for many months to find collusion between Trump and the Russians that affected the 2016 election found no such thing, so Schiff's claim at the Senate trial is a brazen lie, a great evil in our government.

(2) We face big spiritual issues in some of our big businesses: the story, "Boeing employees had doubts about 737 Max" (Ibid., January 11, 2020, p. 7A) noted, "Boeing employees raised doubts among themselves about the safety of the 737 Max, hid problems from federal regulators and ridiculed" those who designed and oversaw the jet. Messages by employees were found that told of their not letting members of their families fly on a Max, Ibid.

(3) We also face great spiritual problems in evangelicalism: the back cover of Brannon S. Howse's book, Marxianity, 2018, claimed one of the core strategies of the "Marxist playbook" is to "undermine . . . Christianity" by co-opting it "from within," corrupting it and rendering "it no longer an opponent to Marxism, but a willing participant in fulfilling the goal of the Marxists." This strategy has proven to be effective, for "communists and cultural Marxists have co-opted countless pastors and once sound evangelical organizations to carry out an information operation promoting left-wing Christianity that will support Neo-Marxism," Ibid., p. 251.

(4) Also, Ken Ham in Answers Insider, January 2020, p. 2-3, noted we believers face many big, godless issues in the culture -- gender, climate change, abortion, gay "marriage," euthanasia, evolution, atheism and parental rights.

Need: So we ask, "If we face many big spiritual issues that we cannot handle, what does God want us to do?!"

I. David sinned by relying on human might to handle the threat to Israel's national security, 1 Chr. 21:1-6:

A. When God became angry at Israel for some sin not named in the Biblical text, He let Satan incite David to number Israel, 2 Samuel 24:1 with 1 Chronicles 21:1; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to 1 Chronicles 21:1.

B. This census was taken of Israel's warriors, for David told Joab, the commander of the army, to take the census (1 Chronicles 21:2; 18:15a), and those counted were "men that drew the sword," 1 Chronicles 21:5b,c.

C. David's census thus violated God's Deuteronomy 17:16 command not to rely on human might for security:

1. Deuteronomy 17:16 forbade Israel's kings from multiplying horses unto themselves.

2. Heeding this order would leave Israel's army humanly weaker than many of their Gentile foes, for God wanted Israel to trust Him for security and not their human might and weaponry, B. K. C., O. T., p. 295.

D. Joab objected to David's order for the census, explaining that it was sin, but David's order as king prevailed over Joab's protest, 1 Chronicles 21:3-5. (Though Joab carried out David's order, he so loathed the census that he refused to number the men of the tribes of Levi and of Benjamin, 1 Chronicles 21:6.)

II. God thus corrected David, teaching him to rely on the Lord and not human might, 1 Chronicles 21:7-30:

A. Since David's sin angered God, He slew some of David's subjects, punishing him and the people with whom the Lord had already been angry for a reason not stated in the Biblical text, 1 Chron. 21:7 with 2 Sam. 24:1.

B. David confessed his sin to the Lord, and God led David to start relying on Him as God instead of trusting in Israel's human might by how the Lord arranged for David's punishment, 1 Chronicles 21:8-13:

1. God gave David the choice of being punished either by man or by God Himself, 1 Chronicles 21:8-12.

2. David sensibly decided to avoid being left vulnerable to cruel human foes, so he threw himself upon his merciful God, choosing to let the Lord punish him instead of letting cruel man do so, 1 Chronicles 21:13.

C. God thus directed the Angel of the Lord to slay 70,000 of Israel's people, 1 Chronicles 21:14.

D. When David saw the Angel of the Lord hover over Ornan the Jebusite's threshing floor poised to destroy Jerusalem to its south, God told David to sacrifice there, so he bought the land and sacrificed on it, v. 14-26a.

E. The Lord responded to David's sacrifice, signifying He had accepted by igniting it with fire from heaven, and God then directed the Angel of the Lord to cease slaying Israel's people, 1 Chronicles 21:26b-27.

F. This event led David to fear worshiping the Lord at any other place but this threshing floor, even if it meant his not going to the tabernacle at the high place in Gibeon (1 Chronicles 21:28-30). David concluded that God thus wanted His temple to be built on that threshing floor just north of Jerusalem, 1 Chronicles 22:1.

III. Significantly, the HISTORY of the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite that God had David buy and there offer a sacrifice to save Israel's people held a timeless lesson on relying on the Lord versus man:

A. When David's son Solomon later followed David's directive to build the temple of the Lord on Ornan's former threshing floor, that same site was also known as Mount Moriah according to 2 Chronicles 3:1.

B. At that same location, 1,000 years before David, Abraham had offered up Isaac (Ibid., Ryrie, p. 2021-2025):

1. Genesis 22:2 reveals Abraham offered up Isaac on a mountain in the land of Moriah, and in Genesis 22:14 ESV, we find Abraham named that place Yahweh yireh (Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 29), "the Lord will provide."

2. This name testified of God's providing an animal for sacrifice in Isaac's place, a ram caught by its horns in a thicket, just as Abraham had told Isaac that God would provide an animal for sacrifice, Gen. 22:7-8, 13.

3. Then, Genesis 22:14 ESV adds, "(A)s it is said to this day, 'On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided,'" so on that mountain where Abraham offered Isaac that 1,000 years later became Ornan's threshing floor, and then even later the mount of God's temple, the Lord would provide for His people's needs.

C. Abraham had not always trusted God to provide, but as with David, God had taught it to him in a life of faith:

1. Back in Genesis 16, Abraham and his wife Sarah had tried to solve their childless problem by arranging for Abraham to produce Ishmael by union of Abraham with Sarah's younger, naturally fertile maid Hagar.

2. However, God wanted Abraham to trust Him to produce a son by Abraham and Sarah though they were humanly too old to have a child, and God miraculously produced Isaac by them, Gen. 17:15-21; 21:1-7.

3. When God later told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, He was testing Abraham's faith that God Himself beyond Abraham's might as a man could and would miraculously raise Isaac from the dead to fulfill His covenant promise to bless Abraham's seed through Isaac's lineage, Genesis 22:1-2 with Genesis 17:19.

4. Abraham believed God was able and willing beyond his own might to raise Isaac (Hebrews 11:17-19), and as Abraham prepared to slay his son, God stopped him and provided a ram in Isaac's place, Gen. 22:10-13.

D. Thus, based on God's saving Isaac in Abraham's day and God's saving Jerusalem in David's day, the timeless message of that spot for all generations was that God's people should trust God, not man for deliverance.

Lesson: When David relied on human might instead of the Lord for Israel's national security, God caused him to learn to rely on Him like Abraham before him learned, directing his actions, a timeless lesson for all God's people.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ for salvation, John 3:16. (2) In facing a lot of big spiritual issues we really cannot handle today, may we apply the timeless lesson of God's people dating back to David and even further back to father Abraham, the lesson of relying on the Lord instead of human might and heeding God's calling for us.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

To address our vulnerability to spiritual defeat on big issues we face in the world as seen in our introduction, in line with this sermon's lesson, Jude wrote that Christ is able to keep us from falling into such apostasy, Jude 24.

As we then rely on Christ to keep us from falling into apostasy, He calls us to perform certain tasks in Jude 20-23 that He uses in overcoming evils that lead to apostasy in our personal walk (as God led David to choose his punishment and making a sacrifice): (a) Christ calls us to minister to our own souls by (i) fortifying our minds with Biblical truths that defend our faith (Jude 20a), (ii) praying in reliance on the Holy Spirit (Jude 20b), (iii) keeping ourselves in the love of God via heeding His Word (Jude 21a; John 14:21-23) and (iv) waiting expectantly for Christ's return (Jude 21b). (b) In relation to others, we are to (i) encourage believers who doubt Biblical truth (Jude 22 ESV), (ii) evangelize the lost that they escape hell (Jude 23a) and (iii) show mercy to believers who sin and are heading toward apostasy, being careful not to let ourselves be contaminated in any way by their sin, requiring that we practice some degree of separation from them (Jude 23b; 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14-15). [The word "garment" (KJV, ESV) or "clothing (NIV) in Jude 23 translates the Greek word chiton, a close-fitting undergarment (Richard C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, 1973, p. 184-185). This figurative expression urges one not only to abhor the contaminated flesh itself, but to abhor even the unseen undergarment that has merely been spotted by contact with the contaminated flesh! The point of the illustration is not to tolerate any corruption or any compromise with apostasy!]

May we trust in Christ for salvation. In facing spiritual problems too great for us to handle in today's world, may we rely on Christ instead of man, and focus on fulfilling His personal assignments for us that He uses in overcoming apostasy in our personal walk like Jude 20-23 directs.