Brian Luke - I Have Set My Affection To The House Of My God - Class 1 - This Is The House Of The Lord God

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   But this time it is our privilege to begin to give our attention to our brother Brian Luke as he deals with the subject. I have set my affairs to the House of my God, and he’s entitled his first session. This is the House of the Lord God, Brother Brian.

2. 0:24

   Dear brother Ron and my beloved brethren and sisters and young people, I must say that just looking around made me think that we perhaps were in the wrong spot for the moment because I thought that Idlewild was up on the mountains. And yet looking around here just reminds me so much of of being at the Bible school and seeing all of your faces.

3. 0:44

   And I would like to say, you know, Ron has said how privileged it was for the local brethren sisters to be here and to see so many of you come from such wide distances to be here. And I just feel a bit like a local at the moment because I’ve been enjoying the, the domestic environment here.

4. 1:06

   And I just have really felt just how true that is. You just wouldn’t know what it means, I suppose, coming from other ecclesias to feel how a group of three or four brethren sisters in this locality feel when suddenly the whole place is is filled with familiar faces and warm faces. And it does mean a tremendous amount to them.

5. 1:27

   And I’ve been thankful to experience just what that means. You know, it’s something about brotherhood, isn’t it, that there is such a desire to travel and to be with each other. That’s a tremendous spirit. And I pray that it might continue. We are a small community, but it’s part of our our wonder as Christa Delphines to be able to have that tremendous bond that brings us together.

6. 1:53

   I don’t really earnestly believe there is anything like that in the world. And your coming here today is part of the perpetuating and maintaining of that spirit, that spirit of sacrifice and dedication.

7. 2:09

   Now, this is not altogether an easy study. This is quite a day today. You’re feeling frisky now, but by the end of the day you’ll probably be glad that the, the, the 5:30 has come. We’ve got some difficult chapters here, though. They look difficult, don’t they? First Chronicles 2221 through to First Chronicles 29.

8. 2:28

   There’s a lot of detail there and it’s probably a section when we’re doing the readings that we say, well, now what was all that about? And young 13 year old or 14 year old stumbling over all the, the names of the different priests in, in First Chronicles chapter 24. And you’re finding it awkward to sort of make some comment about this section to the children when we’re dealing with this section of Chronicles. Well, I hope that after today we might be able to say, well, you know, really there are a lot of details there, but why aren’t they interesting chapters?

9. 3:03

   And what a wonderful prospect they have left for the future Kingdom which is to come, because that’s really what they’re there for if you come to the 29th chapter.

10. 3:21

    You get some sense of what these last chapters in Chronicles are all about. Thus it says in verse 26, David, the son of Jesse, reigned over all Israel. It’s a very summary statement full of powerful reflections. And the time that he reigned over Israel was 40 years. A seven years reigned he in Hebron, and 30 and three years reigned he in Jerusalem. He was 70 years old when he died. He died in a good old age, full of days, riches and honour. And Solomon, his son reigned in his stealth. But in the latter part of his life, there was a season of extreme interest, and that’s what we’re looking at today. We don’t often look at this section of his life. And there was a burning theme in that part of his life expressed in two beautiful little statements, one in First Corinthians 29.

11. 4:33

    Just turn the page back to verse 3 where it says, moreover, because I have set my affection to the House of my God, isn’t that a beautiful expression? I have set my affection to the House of my God. Therefore I have of my own proper good of gold and silver, which I have given to the House of my God over and above all that I have prepared for the house and so on. Because of that affection to the House of God. David had brought all of his life and all of its fruitfulness.

12. 5:10

    He had brought it to that ’cause that’s one beautiful little expression. The other one is more towards the beginning of this latter section, Chapter 22.

13. 5:28

    He has found where the sacrifice will be made, where a temple will be built. And so he addresses Solomon that has this tremendous unique responsibility upon his youthful shoulders. David said, Solomon, my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded before the Lord must be exceeding magnifical. Only David could put that together.

14. 5:54

    Right of fame and of glory throughout all countries. What a mind he had. I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death. I have set my affection to the House of my God. And so his latter years, my dear brothers, sisters, were given to this. This dedicated purpose he was going to put aside and put aside and prepare and concentrate and organize so that that house would become the great place that it should be, bearing the name of the God of Israel. I have set my affection, said the older man, to the House of my God.

15. 6:40

    And what a life, my dear Red and sisters, David’s had been, just in brief sketch. Just let your mind run through these thoughts and imagine that perhaps we were there in First Chronicles 29 on what we might call the great congregation of David’s life. And standing up in front of us is an old man, it says. And David stood up on his feet.

16. 7:01

    Well, where else did a man stand from? But the point of that was this, that it really was an amazing thing that he was standing there because there’s only a short time before he was. So I’ll you might remember, he was so cold, he was so almost death stricken that it needed unusual means by which they could try and bring some warmth into the old King’s frame. And now we begin to see some of the wonder of this remarkable man that Despite that that remarkable inability that he had a description that’s not found anywhere else in Scripture. Despite that, that man got out of that bed and he set his heart, his heart towards the things of God and he concentrated upon that purpose and he prepared abundantly before his death.

17. 7:55

    What an inspiration. Don’t often look at this part of David’s life, do we? We look at his youth and the brilliance of his youth and the stone that went through Goliath and so on. The the more brilliant parts of his life, but this area of his life was really very, very wonderful. So the mind is, is watching him putting those things together and standing before Israel.

18. 8:19

    This is perhaps some of the thoughts that would have gone through our mind, the mind of a perceptive person in Israel and filled him with the greatest emotion. This is the David who kept the few sheep on the space and broken hills of Bethlehem despite the lion and the bear.

19. 8:43

    This is the David that rose to national prominence in the Valley of Elah when he put his youthful foot upon the crown of the Philistine champion whose harp then later so skilfully assuaged the evil spirit of Saul, who won the hearts of the valiant of Israel, of their singing women, of soul’s servants, even of soul’s daughter, and yes, even of his eldest son Jonathan. This is the one who built faith and love and wisdom into that group of discontents who were with him in the wilderness and later became his principles.

20. 9:34

    This is the David who rose to the throne over all Israel, Israel and Judah, and in the summer of his life vanquished the Gentiles on every side and established Jerusalem, the strong and indivisible capital of a nation under God.

21. 9:54

    This is the David that gave us Psalms and personally designed the instruments to go with them. And a new and beautiful order of worship was established in Israel.

22. 10:07

    A wide bearing mind who executed justice and mercy to all in the land and brought us close to the God of our fathers who loved Yahweh and received promise of an eternal throne not equalled by any other man and a son to sit there on even the Son of God

23. 10:36

    over whom later we we wept in unbelieving sorrow when the news of Bathsheba and the Uriah filled it in hushed whispers throughout the land. Our David then shamed by his son, who endured the stones of Shimiai, and let his stinging words of jealousy fall upon the shield of his faith.

24. 11:09

    Our king in Jerusalem again, the father of wise young Solomon, Old, tired, weak, cold. Frequently I’ll still beset by jealous rivalries, but despite every adversity, actively pursuing the preparation of the House of Yahweh Elohim. Not to build it, or to see it in fact, but giving everything he had to prepare for it. There’s something young and refreshing about David in every area of his life, a buoyant and powerful spirit. What’s so thrilling, my dear brothers and sisters in this study, is to see that what we know of David of old, in all of the early parts, in the middle parts of his life, which was so inspirational, we’re going to find that it’s the same person in an older guise in these last few years of his life. It’s the same person.

25. 12:22

    And that’s inspiration, wasn’t it? He won’t see that house. You’ll never prepare it in the sense of actually building it, but he did everything he possibly could to make sure that it would happen. What an inspiration he truly was. Now, it’s the numbering of Israel that really was the the turning point, the pivotal event that sent him into this last era of his life. We know that David was old because it tells us that in Chapter 22, doesn’t it?

26. 12:55

    We just read in verse 5. So David prepared abundantly before his death. So he was old when he began this work. Confirm chapter 23, verse 1. So when David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son, king over Israel. So this is set in the last few years of his life. There are two records of the event. There’s First Chronicles 21 that our brother read for us today and there’s Second Samuel 24.

27. 13:33

    They are parallel passages. When you think of the outcome of this event, it’s really is very significant, isn’t it? The outcome of the numbering of Israel was as as we might say in in four things. A humbled king, a chastised nation. There are 70,000 men lost.

28. 14:01

    A new place for sacrifice in Israel has been found. It was at Gibeon where the altar was. Now sacrifice will be made in a different place in Jerusalem.

29. 14:18

    And fourthly, it provided A tremendous impetus for the old King in the latter years of his life to prepare for the house that would be built upon the new site. A humbled king, a chastised nation, a new place for sacrifice, and vast preparations for the house that will be built there. You know, that’s inspirational in itself, isn’t it? Out of sin and repentance and sacrifice came praise and worship for centuries thereafter. You know, this is a token of what our God is like, isn’t it? You might have thought that such an event could never bring forth good things, but it’s not true, isn’t it? When God Forgives, he truly forgives. And he forgives it absolutely.

30. 15:16

    And the man that is said to be the Sinner in the story is the one that prepares the place and finds the place, is given the knowledge of the place, and after that, centuries of true worship will be based upon that very place. What an amazing thing is the mind of our God.

31. 15:34

    Now, it’s interesting to come back to the Samuel record, second Samuel 24, this great rebound of faith in David’s life and of the Kingdom really. I suppose this is one of the reasons why we really love David, isn’t it? We sometimes feel that we can draw near to people like David because there was some failures and all of us that feel that in our own lives from time to time. And so David is someone that we sort of feel we could go up to because he would understand.

32. 16:08

    And it’s this tremendous rebound of faith that’s so inspirational about David. Doesn’t matter whether it’s his early life or it’s his later life, it’s always a tremendous sense of rebound toward God. He gets over his problems and he comes up in faith toward God. Now I don’t know if you’ve ever read this carefully, my dear brother and sisters in Second Samuel 24 because it it is important to read it to read it carefully because it says, as the opening indicated to this story, that the reason it all happened was because of God’s anger toward Israel. It says, and again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say go number Israel and Judah.

33. 17:04

    Now, in the Chronicles record, it says that Satan moved David to do this matter. I want to just push that point right home in our minds because that’s why the event occurred. It says that it was again, that the anger of the Lord came. And that seems to refer back to Second Samuel chapter 21 where there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year. And David inquired and Yahweh answered, it is for Saul and for his bloody house because he slew the given arts. That seems to be the first occasion. And so the again in chapter 24 verse one is taking that in mind.

34. 17:48

    But why do you think it was that God’s anger was kindled against Israel? It doesn’t actually say that, does it? I suppose the most likely way to come to an answer to that is to say, well, what actually happened and what happened was that there was 70,000 of Israel are taken out verse 15 So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel. His anger was upon Israel.

35. 18:21

    The Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed and there died of the people from dead even to be a Sheba 70,000 men. No doubt the cause is related to that outcome and it’s clear that God was not angry with David, is it? That’s very clear. That’s a very important part of this story.

36. 18:43

    Really. His feelings were against Israel. The king became involved. He was made sin, as it were. He was enveloped in the circumstances, but Israel’s Israel was the cause of God’s anger and Israel was the one that received the judgement. Well, I suppose it’s really not too difficult to understand what God was doing. Many years of prosperity, of superiority among the nations had no doubt generated a lot of people in Israel that were wealthy and well to do.

37. 19:17

    And and the situation of pride and prosperity always comes in its way. There was an independence, no doubt, as we are feeling in our own good years, an independence of God because people don’t feel the same need of him. When there was battles and David was going out against this nation and against that nation, then the nation was driven together, weren’t they? Because they’re common enemies.

38. 19:41

    But now the times have been good and there’s been plenty and prosperity and that Israel is clearly an advantage nation. And so we can imagine in the ranks that there are many men that have become much less godly than they were in the early days of David. Swelling ambitions were around the king. They were against the king.

39. 20:03

    There were angry spirits about. They’re just a little insight into that Psalm 71. You know that this is the Psalm of David’s old age. We’ll be coming to it, in fact, tomorrow. But just a little insight into just what the circumstances were like out there in Israel.

40. 20:30

    In verse 9 of Psalm 71, is this the Psalm of David’s old age? We know it is. He tells us that in verse 17 and 18. O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I declared Thy wondrous works. Now also, when I am old and grey headed, O God, forsake me not until I have showed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to everyone that is to come.

41. 21:01

    That’s David, isn’t it? But look at verse 9. Was the king lying back in idle pleasure, where all his servants at his beck and coal was everybody behind him? He was old. I’ll cold and fraught with enemies. Cast me not off in the time of old age. Verse 9 Forsake me not when my strength faileth, for my enemies speak against me, and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together, saying, God hath forsaken him, persecute and take him, for there is none to deliver him. They thought he was a lost cause, and so being so long in that bedroom, in that cold state of inactivity, they thought he was finished.

42. 21:53

    And of course, what happens in times like that is that people begin then to debate the future, don’t they? Succession becomes the obsession of the public’s mind. What’s going to be hereafter? And you know, just before this time or just after this time, Adonager was the one, his second son, who had arisen against him. And that’s instructional because you’ll remember the circumstances out of which David was raised when Adonager endeavoured to usurp the throne.

43. 22:25

    David was was clearly gone as it were. He was in that bed of languishing. He was cold and Abishag was given him to try and warm up the old body. It was a unique experience in Israel. A donager rose up and he wasn’t without principles that came with. He was able to obtain the the popularity of the king and many important people, even Joab that had not gone with Absalom.

44. 22:54

    Joab now switched camps, so do one of the high prinests. So it shows us, my dear and sisters, what we would never have imagined, that he arrived at the end of his life when he’s got all these laurels of achievement on every side. Yet there are bitter and evil spirits in that Kingdom that are seeking his, his downfall and would wish him evil as speaking against him. In the corridors of power outside that bedroom, there’s all kinds of intrigue going on.

45. 23:23

    And all that David says is, Oh God, be not far from me. Oh my God, make haste for my help now also when I’m old and Gray headed, Oh God forsake me not. What did he want to do until I have showed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to everyone that is to come.

46. 23:43

    Your beautiful man, wasn’t he remarkable man? And I think that those thoughts help us when we come back to Second Samuel chapter 24 by taking in that, that national situation, that national picture, that helps us to realize what God was doing. Was he not carving out 70,000? Was it not his choice as to who they were?

47. 24:09

    It was the Lord sent a pestilence, verse 15. I don’t imagine for a moment that that was arbitrary. I think that God was taking out of that nation 70,070 because they were like Gentiles, though they were in the Kingdom of Israel and they had never seen that God had have given them that man. They would see his sins, they’d see his failings, but they never saw that God was behind that man. He was.

48. 24:39

    It was God that gave him strength to tear the lion and the bear. It was God that gave him the direction to the sin, the stone into into Goliath. It was God that gave him the strength to Vanquish the enemies. It was God that gave him the Psalms and the inspiration for Israel.

49. 24:53

    You couldn’t deal with a man without realizing that, never mind his sins. It was God that forgave him. But there were men who wouldn’t forgive that and who wouldn’t have acknowledged that. And consequently there was this growing discontent in the nation, and the old man was physically incapable to deal with that situation.

50. 25:15

    And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he took 70,000 out of that nation, 70,000 that acted like Gentiles, as though they had no knowledge or revelation of God, and he treated them like a 70,000. And what a security He was therefore providing for the young, the Solomon, when he should come to reign, that those troublemakers were generally eased out of the nation.

51. 25:42

    Well, that seems to make sense, doesn’t it, as to why God did that. And I repeat again that it wasn’t his anger against the David in this event. That was the prime thing. The prime cause was his anger against the people. So in a sense, my dear Bernard sisters, in a sense, David’s going to suffer in this matter on behalf of the people. True, He’s going to be involved in the transgression, but it wasn’t he that was the ’cause it was the people for whom he would suffer.

52. 26:21

    That’s got very beautiful overtones. In a sense. He was made sin for the people’s sin. There’s a a very lovely overdrop on this whole thing that where true sacrifice was going to be made and the place for that was going to be determined. It would come out of this event. They never knew that it should be there that the temple was going to be built.

53. 26:43

    They never knew that sacrifice should be made there. Deuteronomy chapter 12 had spoken about a place, a place, hadn’t it? That I would put my name there and it true sacrifice will be made and no one knew where that was. Well, it not yet been declared. One has to indeed wonder if David had not some revelation when he took the head of Goliath all the way 25 miles up to Jerusalem and laid it. Well, it would have been outside the camp, wouldn’t it? Because he couldn’t have gone inside. It was filled with Jevezites.

54. 27:14

    So he laid the head of the serpent, as it were. He laid that at the well. Perhaps it was in this very place. The fact that he went all that way with the head of Goliath is a clear intimation that he had some knowledge of things to come. But in this incident it becomes crystal clear, in fact, by the very Angel himself, and David senses that.

55. 27:38

    And so in that very place where true sacrifice would be made, it’s interesting to see that we have these overtimes of the greater, the greater than David, the son of David, who too would be made a sin, that he might take away the sin of his people. Was it wrong to number Israel? Well, it doesn’t actually say it was wrong. You come back to Numbers Chapter 1. There are some statements made about this, this matter that don’t seem seem to have got into our our history or into our knowledge, but they’re not altogether supported. It was not a wrong thing in itself to number Israel. In fact, Numbers Chapter 1 says, Take you the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel after their families by the House of their fathers, with a number of their names, every male by their poles, from 20 years old and upward. All that are able to go forth to war in Israel, Thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies, and with you there shall be a man of every tribe, everyone head of the House of his fathers.

56. 28:53

    Verse 19. As the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai. But here it clearly was a numbering commanded by God. But the numbering in itself can’t be the evil, surely, Or here he was commanded by God to do that very thing. Now David says in Psalm 33, which is a very relevant passage to the numbering of Israel. There is no king Psalm 33 and verse 16. There is no king saved by the multitude of an host. A mighty man is not delivered by much strength. So numbers is not really the question. David wrote Psalm 33, but in the first of Chronicles just keeping our hand in in Samuel.

57. 29:56

    If you’ve still got it, but turning back to the other recording verse of Chronicles 21, verse Chronicles 21 and verse 3, there’s this important little passage we read here in verse 3 of Joab’s comment to him. And Joab answered, Yahweh make his people his people, and 100 times so many more as they be, if they’re multiplied 100 times more. But my Lord the king, are they not all my Lord’s servants? Why then doth my Lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel? Now I suppose we’re inclined to think that they’re very good words from Joanne, but stop and think for a moment. We know there is intrigue all around David. The Psalm tells us that so does the first of Kings chapter one with a donagers usurpation having occurred all right in this very period of time.

58. 31:19

    David’s aware that those things are happening. He’s incapable of resisting them. If Joab comes to him and says, But my Lord the King, are they not all, my Lords, servants? And if you’d had a life’s experience with Joab, what would you think to yourself?

59. 31:41

    They sound so glib, so, so fair words. But knowing Joab, my dear brother and the sisters, David would have read that another way, wouldn’t he? Joab clearly has perceived the concern of the king. But David would know Joab through and through, and there’s nothing that would perturb him more than having Joab make these fair words. Does Joab really believe those words? Why?

60. 32:08

    He’s just been in the pocket of Edonager. He’s just trying to set up a rebellion against David. If it’s not just before, then it’s just after. It’s in this period of time. So verse 3 shines in a different light when you put the background behind it, doesn’t it? That’s not a statement of fidelity. It’s a statement of absolute treachery. Joab doesn’t mean a word of that because Joab is setting the people against David at this very time. So we have to put put the records together because that’s very instruction.

61. 32:43

    Joab’s words sometimes sound, my dear and sister, so right. The denial found. The indelible rule with Joab is, if you think this, that Joab will be thinking for himself. You’ll always be correct. It’ll always work out right in the overall picture. Joab will think for himself. In the case of Absalom, what was he told to do?

62. 33:03

    Leave the young man? What did he do? He did the very opposite of that in the case of Edonager. He thought, right, the time is up, David can never go at that. He went with Edonager, but of course was found to be failure. Joe will always put his own case first, whether it’s the case of Abner again, who came to bring peace to Israel, or later Sheba or Amassa. In all of those cases, you’ll find that Joab will think for Joab as #1.

63. 33:35

    So verse 3 has more behind it as read by David than what we might imagine. And so verse 4, his words prevailed against Joab. It seems, doesn’t it, from verse three that David had been troubled to think that that the Kingdom was getting away from him, that Israel really was moving away from him, and that the motive of the consensus was therefore to sort of number them and say these are mine because I numbered them. I send out my servants to determine the number of Israel and it was such and such and they are my servants. They belong to me as king of Israel. That seems, doesn’t it, to be the motive behind that. Now my dear brother says, I can’t explain all the way in which God brought that determination upon his mind, but I do know that the record says that Yahweh moved David to do that.

64. 34:39

    Or as it’s put in First Chronicles chapter 21 verse one, and Satan stood against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. Perhaps there were shades of uncertainty that were cast into his mind and in the depth of his of his physical weakness and of his inability to cope with the enormity of this empire that he’d build up.

65. 35:04

    He was momentarily shaken and he thought, well, I’ll create a numbering of the of Israel and therefore they will all know that it was my people that went out there and numbered them. Why didn’t Joab want to be involved in that?

66. 35:19

    Well, if you were Joab and your own position is #1 you wouldn’t, with David in that kind of condition, want to be away from the Kingdom, would you? You wouldn’t want to be, you know, free booting all over the land, numbering every Tom, Dick and Harry in the land when the great issue of succession was facing you in Jerusalem. You’d want to be right there, right where the power was. Because, of course, that was Joab’s motive. He was always interested in his own position, and so to be sent away on this, this long business that took in fact over nine months was contrary to Jehovah’s interest and hence the fair words.

67. 36:00

    It’s the last thing that Jehovah wanted to be sent away at this period of time. He wanted to be right there where he could make his influence felt.

68. 36:13

    So he says in verse 3, Why does the king delight in this matter? And it is an amazing thing that the king was very strong in this matter. That’s in the second Samuel 24 and verse 3. But why doth my Lord the king delight in this matter? And that, my dear? And the sisters, there may have been the very means by which God brought that provocation before David.

69. 36:42

    For if it hadn’t been Jove that said those words, the king might have been persuaded. But being Joab, the king saw it in another way. Now in the subsequent verses, verses 5 to 9, we have the record of the numbering, and it was quite a business. It says they passed over Jordan and pitched in Arawa on the right side of the city.

70. 37:05

    So they’re on the eastern side of Jordan. They really took in the whole 12 tribes that life in the midst of the river of Gad and toward Jaisa. They came to Gilead, still on the eastern side of the Jordan, and to the land of TA Tim Hodchi, and they came to Danjan. They’re right up the north now, Dan to Beersheba.

71. 37:25

    So they’re right up the north and about to Sidon, even beyond Dan to the coast, and came to the stronghold of Tyre, up in the area of Phoenicia, Tyre and Sidon. So they went to the very extreme. They were going to count, as it were, the last man, so it seemed, and to all the cities of the Hivites and to the Canaanites. And they went out to the South of Judah, right down through the land on now the western side of the country, even to Beersheba, damned to Beersheba.

72. 37:55

    So when they had gone through through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and 20 days, and Job gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king. And there were in Israel 800,000 valiant men, and in Judah 500 thousand, 1,300,000 together. Now it’s interesting to go back to Chronicles. We’re doing a bit of this.

73. 38:21

    So perhaps put a little marker in Second Samuel 24, Come back to First of Chronicles again in chapter 21, and there we find that jab really betrayed the trust that was given to him in First Chronicles 21 and verse 6 it says but Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them, for the King’s word was abominable to Joab. That’s a bit of Gaul, isn’t it?

74. 38:58

    Why didn’t he count Levi? Why didn’t he count Benjamin? Why didn’t he do the job properly? He just really did what he wanted to do. And when he’d finished with that, he came back home. I suppose it was a more difficult area to go into, wasn’t it? Benjamin, of course, was the tribe of the previous dynasty, and so he would have been unlikely to want to go into the area of Benjamin where the Kingdom of Judah was never all that favoured.

75. 39:24

    David’s line was never all that favoured. So he he skipped Levi and he skipped Benjamin. He counted them not. We might also notice that there’s a tremendous increase on the numbers that are given back in Numbers chapter one. In Numbers chapter 1, the number was 603,550. As we said, the number now is well over a million. So there’s been a substantial increase. And then it says in chapter Second Samuel chapter 24 and verse 10.

76. 40:00

    Something which is so indicative of David. David made his mistakes but he was a God fearing man. It says in verse 10 and David’s heart smote him after he had numbered the people. It keeps on saying that it’s all about what David did. And David said unto Yahweh, I have sinned greatly in that I have done, and now I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done very foolishly. There’s a sense of full responsibility by David. Isn’t four times in that statement. He says the fault lies with me and his heart smote him. After that he had numbered the people. You know, in a cold world that we live in that is in fact not concerned is it with sin at all.

77. 41:06

    You never see a person today rarely see a person today that is concerned about their sin. The most atrocious evils are read in our papers and in that sense, my dear and says we become don’t we inured to the to the wickedness of sin against God. Well, he’s a king for 40 years tells this person to do what tells that person to do whatever he likes a king. But it says there in verse 10 of a sensitivity of his position before God.

78. 41:39

    That would be the envy of all of us. David’s heart smote him after that. He had numbered the people. What a beautiful man he was the same kind of person wasn’t that we found in the beginning a sensitivity of God, a love of God and all that he stood for. I have sinned, I have done the iniquity of thy servant, I have done very foolishly. My dear Princess, That’s a wonderful thing as we live in a in an age that is just just cold towards sin. What’s sin churches, they don’t concern themselves about sin. The factos or fornication or whatever it might be. Let them all come in Sodomite’s the law. What’s sin?

79. 42:20

    But with David there is always isn’t a beautiful sensitivity of his position before God. His heart internally smote him after he had numbered the people. What a lovely man he was, a God fearing man. And so verse 11 when David was up in the morning, the word of the Lord came unto the prophet Gad David seer saying, Go and say unto David, Thus saith the Lord, Ioffer thee 3 things, choose the one of them. So Gad came to David and told him, and said unto him, Here’s the three things.

80. 42:58

    Shall 1 seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land or two? Wilt thou flee 3 months before thy enemies, or three? And shall there be 3 days pestilence in thy land? Now advise and see what answer I shall return to him that sent. Now, my dear sister, see this, that it wasn’t David’s intent originally to be involved in this. God has involved him in it.

81. 43:27

    His anger was not with David, His anger was with Israel. It’s an amazing story. It’s an incredibly interesting story. It’s a unique story. I can’t think of anything else quite like this where it specifically says that Yahweh moved David to do this. David has become involved, but my wording has accepted the sin, hasn’t he? It’s all him in verse 10.

82. 43:50

    He doesn’t worry about the sins of the people. He could have gone on for a whole 2 hours about all the sins of the people and about those people in his palace. He had a sort of word about that.

83. 43:59

    Just like so often, it’s easy to point out other people’s sins when you know you’ve got your own and sort of you hide your own by enumerating other people’s sins. But David was greater than that wasn’t.

84. 44:13

    And he says in verse 14, I am in a great straight, let us fall now into the hand of Yahweh, for his mercies are great, and not let me not fall into the hand of man. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed, and 70,000 people from Dan even to be a Sheba. There’s a little take off I’m sure of verse 2 there, isn’t it where the command was, go now through all the tribes of Israel from Dan even to be a Sheba.

85. 44:44

    And the Lord followed up and the Angel went through that land and there fell from down even to be a sheba, as though it was following the course of those who took the census and 70,000 men were taken. What import the figures, if so, in such a brief time after it’s wrong at least by the 70,000.

86. 45:09

    So we have and David a man of tremendous the conscience toward God. He’s made his choice that he would fall into God’s hand and this great tragedy has occurred. Now look at the the quality again of of David. It says in verse 16. And when the Angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented him of the evil and said to the Angel that destroyed the people.

87. 45:40

    It is enough. Stay now thine hand and the Angel of the Lord was by the threshing place of all runner, the Jebusite. So the Angel has come back, having done the complete circuit of Israel, has come right back to Jerusalem itself. And it is at that point that God stops the play. And you might have thought that if it was against David that God’s anger was wrought, and then in fact He would have allowed that to proceed.

88. 46:11

    But He stops it just in front of Jerusalem. Now let’s come over to the Chronicles record again. Now we’ll take it up from there. I’m sure that God took out of Israel the ones that He wanted to take.

89. 46:31

    And in verse verse 15, we have the record now a little more amplified here concerning the subsequent events. God sent an Angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it. That’s very emphatic. And as he was destroying, Yahweh beheld. Now do you notice the difference? God sent an Angel, but Yahweh beheld and he repented him of the evil and said to the Angel that destroyed it is enough. Stay now thy hand.

90. 47:00

    So 1 Angel with superior name bearing qualities. It’s a sort of an echo isn’t it, of Exodus 23 where God had one Angel that bore his name in a in a greater sense than the other Angel, and he was sent in place of the previous Angel that was promised. And so here we have one Angel giving command to another. And as he was destroying, Yahweh beheld, and he repented him with the evil, and said to the Angel that destroyed it is enough, stay Now thine hand.

91. 47:31

    And the Angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor, born onan the Jebusite or runner in second Samuel 24 is onan the Jebusite here in verse 15. And David lifted up his eyes and saw the Angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. So the threat was still there.

92. 47:54

    It was stayed, but the threat was there. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth fell upon their faces. And here’s the greatness of this amazing man. David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? Even I’d is that have sinned and done evil indeed?

93. 48:19

    But As for these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, O Lord, my God, be on me and on my father’s house, but not on thy people, that they should be plagued. Now an actual fact, my dear. And sisters, it was all the other way around, wasn’t it? Was the people’s sins that God was moved by, Not David’s.

94. 48:46

    But David sees it entirely around the other way, doesn’t Is it not I that commanded? The sin is mine. And the man who first looked after sheep in the wilderness and treated Israel in those early days as though they were sheep and would put his life on the line for them, is the same man here who in the latter part of his life says, they are the sheep. I’m the shepherd that was responsible for them. What have these sheep done?

95. 49:11

    And yet that palace was full of intrigue, and the streets of the city were full of gossip about succession and about the sins of David. And David wipes over all of that and says, is it not I that have sinned? What an amazing man that can think first of his own failures. What a tremendous lesson that is for all of us.