“Who’s Counting on Whom?” – 1 Chronicles 21-22:1

July 8^th, 2012

I Chronicles 21-22:1 (2 Sam 24)

“Whose Counting on Whom?” 

Download Mp3

Bible Memory Verse for the Week: . . . If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. — 2 Chronicles 7:14

Background Information:

• This passage stands out from the rest of the Chronicler’s portrait of David’s reign in that it concentrates on David’s major sin.  For the most part, the Chronicler omitted David’s failures in favor of focusing on his exemplary accomplishments.  As we will see, however, the Chronicler actually emphasized the severity of David’s sin in this passage more than the parallel account in Samuel.  In the end, however, the Chronicler turned even this event into one of David’s positive achievements.  The manner in which David handled his circumstances modeled the kind of behavior and attitudes expected of the post-exilic readers as they sought to restore the worship of God in Israel.  (Richard L. Pratt, 1 & 2 Chr, A Mentor Commentary, 167)
• Braun (R. Braun, “Solomon, the Chosen Temple Builder”, 216-18) has conveniently summarized the most significant variations between the accounts of the census-taking in Samuel and Chronicles.

(1) The Chronicler refers to an “adversary” or “Satan” (so NIV for Heb. śatan, 21:1).

(2) Numerous alterations in the Chronicler’s account actually increase David’s culpability in calling for the census of the Israelites (e.g. 21:3, 8, 17).

(3) The story in Chronicles has a stronger emphasis on God’s initiative (e.g., 21:9, 15, 26).

(4) Even as David’s guilt is heightened by the Chronicler, so too his righteousness in seeking God’s mercy to stay the judgment and in his securing of the site of the future temple.

(5) Chronicles places more dramatic emphasis on the intervention of the angel of Yahweh in the sequence of events related to divine judgment.

(6) There is a variance in the tally in Chronicles (1,570,000 militia, 21:5) when compared to the tally in Samuel (1,300,000 militia, 2 Sm 24:9).

(7) The Chronicler reports God’s acceptance of David’s prayer and sin offering with fire from heaven, just like Elijah’s sacrifice in the contest with the prophets of Baal (cf. 1 Kgs 18;38).  It is this divine approval that becomes the basis for claiming this threshing floor as the future temple site.

(8) Finally, the Chronicler’s account is overlaid with subtle allusions to other OT events concerned with altars and holy places.  (Andrew E. Hill, The NIV Application Commentary: 1 & 2 Chr, 292)

(v. 1) The Role of Satan in God’s Economy

• We wonder how God and the devil can both be involved in the same act of moving David to number his people.  We point ourselves in the right direction by using the compass of Jas 1:13, “God doesn’t tempt anyone (for evil).”  After that, we can only say that God had his good reasons and Satan had his evil reasons.  God’s overall good intent and purpose is affirmed by what we read later.  For some loving reason known to God (even if hidden to us), the Lord gave the devil room to maneuver in this matter.  In spite of the devil’s malice, the Savior God overruled the evil to make it “work for good” (Rom 8:28).  (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 223)
• As a result of God’s progressive revelation during those intervening centuries, the Hebrews came to understand the agency of Satan in relationship to God and the problem of evil.  That is, as sovereign Lord, it is God’s prerogative to use Satan as his agent of testing and/or judgment to accomplish his redemptive purposes in the created order.  This fact, however, does not absolve David of his personal guilt in the matter.  (Andrew E. Hill, The NIV Application Commentary: 1 & 2 Chr, 293)
• In Job 1-2 and Zec 3:1-5 “the Satan” or “the Accuser” is the malicious prosecutor in the celestial law court, gloating over human weakness and exploiting it.  He is like a vicious watchdog, alert for moral trespassing but kept on a leash and prevented from going too far.  He has a mysterious role in the purposes of God, but the harm he is permitted to do is limited by His sovereign control and by His eventual overruling.  The entrapment techniques which he practices permit no denial of human responsibility for human actions.  (Leslie Allen, Mastering the OT, 1, 2 Chr, 139)

 

(v. 2) Beersheba to Dan:

• The expression “from Dan to Beersheba” (i.e. from North to South) is found many times in the OT (see Jgs 20:1; 1 Sm 3:20; 2 Sm 3:10; 17:11; 24:2, 15).  The Chronicler, however, reversed the formula to “from Beersheba to Dan” (i.e. South to North) in three places (see 2 Chr 19:4; 30:5).  This shift reflected the Chronicler’s conviction that Jerusalem and Judah were the center of post-exilic hopes.  (Richard L. Pratt, 1 & 2 Chr, A Mentor Commentary, 168)

 

(v. 3) Census ethics:

• Commanded by God in Exodus 30:11-16 in order to raise money through a temple tax for an offering to the Lord to operate the tabernacle.  In Nm 1:2, it seems the census here is commanded by God in order for the Israelites to muster the confidence they need to take the Promised Land that God has awaiting them but that they will decline to take out of fear. The census would also be useful when Joshua needed to divide the Promised Land up according to the size of each tribe, family and household.  But here in 2 Sm 24 and 1 Chr 21, it is forbidden by God because all it is serving to do is bolster David’s confidence in the flesh and ignore the fact that the battle is the Lord’s.  Not a huge standing army.
• It is not difficult to understand why censuses should have such a vile and dangerous reputation.  A king would need to count his people for three major reasons, none of them good news for the ordinary subject.  First, the census count enabled the ruler to set tribute: a census usually meant that taxes were about to increase.  Second, a census could determine the size of a population available as a forced labor pool (2 Chr 2:17; remember, too, the use to which David put the citizens of Rabbah).  Third, the census gave the government a sense of how large a force could be conscripted into military service (Nm 1:3; 26:2; 2 Chr 25:5-6).  David’s census was evidently of this third sort:  note that it was carried out by the military, and that the people numbered were “men who drew the sword” (21:5; compare 2 Sm 24:9).  The point, for the Chronicler as for his source, is that the census is an evil act, which will bring down divine retribution on Israel.  (Steven S. Tuell, Interpretation: 1 & 2 Chr, 84)
• Even though each one of his victories had been the Lord’s gift, David began to glory in the gift more than the giver.  When David was still a “nothing,” he knew enough not to find his security in armaments or fighting men but “in the name of the LORD” (1 Sm 17:45).  Now that God had made him something and filled his hands with success, David thought he had something to lose.  That is why he stopped finding security in the Lord and began instead to seek it in “how many (Israelites) there are” (v. 2).  (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 224)
• The fact that Joab conducted the census suggests that it was military in nature.  (Joe O. Lewis, Layman’s Bible Book Commentary, Vol. 5, 144)
• David’s rejection of God as his military security was contrary to wisdom derived from national experiences of the past (see Dt 2:32-37; 3:1-7; Josh 6:1-21; 8:1-17; 10:6-15; 10:28-43; 11:1-9; Jgs 7:1-8:12) and from David’s own military encounters (see 18:1-20:18).  (Richard L. Pratt, 1 & 2 Chr, A Mentor Commentary, 172)
• The reaction of Joab to David’s orders implies a reluctance to take a census, because the strength of the nation’s population was a kind of barometer of the Lord’s favor (Gn 12:2; 2 Sm 7:9-11).  As such, it was not to be “read” so as to justify human pride in human achievements, or to boost royal ambitions.  (Joyce G. Baldwin, Tyndale OT Commentaries: 1 & 2 Samuel, 295)
• Joab had been with David for a long time, and he knew David pretty well.  He could see through David’s words, and he understood that David’s motives were sinful.  Joab therefore offered his king some very good advice that was never heeded.  “May the LORD your God multiply the troops a hundred times over,” he said.  “But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”  “David,” Joab seemed to be saying, “you’re giving the impression Israel’s accomplishments and recent victories were all due to you and the superior strength of your army.  That’s not right!  David, don’t be foolish!  What’s the sense of doing such a thing?”  (John R. Mittelstaedt, The People’s Bible: Samuel, 324)
• If we are to discover a reasonable explanation at all, we must look to motive.  Presumably the implication of the passage is that David had come upon his own prowess as a general–a natural human reaction, no doubt, following so many victories.  Joab’s words (v. 3) certainly suggest that the numerical strength of the people is the Lord’s affair, and that David should content himself with his delegated role.  The irony of David’s self-admiration is that it leads directly to a depletion of his visible resources when the judgment falls (v. 14).  The way of real strength, and strengthening, is the recognition that it comes from God.  (J. G. McConville, The Daily Study Bible Series, 1 & 2 Chr, 71)
• Joab’s charge is enlarged in Chronicles to explain why God reacted so strongly to what may appear to have been a mere peccadillo.  From his point of view, failure to trust the Lord in military matters was a serious violation to be avoided by his readers.  As they faced military threats all around them, they must not turn to human strength as David did.  (Richard L. Pratt, 1 & 2 Chr, A Mentor Commentary, 171)

 

(v. 3) The implications of a leader’s sin

• The entire nation was suffering divine displeasure because of David’s sin.  In the OT, kings had a special representative function before God.  Their righteous deeds often brought blessings to the nation, but their sins also brought wrath on the entire nation (see 1 Kgs 18:16-18; 2 Chr 16:7-9; 1 Kgs 21:10-15; 2 Kgs 19:20-36; 20:6).  (Richard L. Pratt, 1 & 2 Chr, A Mentor Commentary, 172)
• How could Israel be held accountable for something David did?  There are numerous examples in the OT of the unwitting community being involved in the guilt of one of its members.  Achan’s sin at Jericho is but one example (Josh 7).  The law of Moses even made provision for the sacrificial cleansing of the community if they sinned “unintentionally” (Lv 4:13-21).  Part of our problem here is that we live at a time that no longer sees sin in its true nature as a horrid stain on God’s good creation.  Even one sin disturbs the harmony God intended for the world he made, a harmony that he desires especially for his people.  In a broad sense, the sin of one member of the body of Christ brings harm to us all (1 Cor 12:26).  (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 224-25)

 

(v. 5) Census discrepancies between 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21.

• The numbers in this chapter differ somewhat from those in 2 Sm 24.  The figure for the census is 1,100,000 rather than 1,300,000.  And the price of the threshing-floor is 600 shekels of gold rather than 50 of silver.  Chronicles appears here to use numbers in a stylized way.  The 1,100,000 probably represents a round figure of 100,000 on average for the eleven tribes numbered (Joseph being divided into two, Ephraim and Manasseh, and Levi and Benjamin being omitted).  The figure of 600 shekels, on the other hand, is based on a figure of 50 for each tribe, emphasizing that Jerusalem belongs to an ideal all-Israel, not just the tribes actually represented in the restoration period.  (J. G. McConville, The Daily Study Bible Series, 1 & 2 Chr, 76)
• The word thousand is likely to be used here in its military sense, “contingent.”  If this is so, the figures cannot be used with any accuracy as a basis for estimating Israel’s population at the time of David.  (Joyce G. Baldwin, Tyndale OT Commentaries: 1 & 2 Samuel, 296)
• We can either chalk up this difference to a copyist’s mistake, or we can ascribe it to Joab’s apparent reluctance to include “all Israel” in the census.  He did not count the tribe of Levi (an act forbidden by the Law, see Nm 1:49), nor did he include the Benjaminites (for reasons more obscure).  We do know that the task “was repulsive to him” (v. 6).  So he may not have been overly concerned with the strictest precision in bookkeeping.  In addition, the outbreak of plague as the census was winding down led to a holy fear of entering the final results in the annals of the king (see 1 Chr 27:24).  There may well have been in existence several different versions of the count in various stages of completeness.  The discrepancy, then, between Chr and 2 Sm would accurately reflect Joab’s carelessness and these somewhat confused conditions.  (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 226)
• It is likely that behind this there lies an ancient belief that such a numbering infringes on the area of divine rights.  We could readily understand the census being subsequently interpreted, in view of its military connections, as indicative of a lack of trust in the God whose prerogative it is to give victory, whether by few or many.  The Chronicler’s battles frequently exemplify this point.  (Peter R. Ackroyd, 1 & 2 Chr, Ezra, Neh, 75)
• (v. 9) A seer is a prophet who is also capable of looking into the future.  One who has exceptional spiritual sensitivities.
• (v. 13) David’s (and Jonah’s) understanding of the merciful nature of God as opposed to man.

 

(v. 15) Can God repent?  

• We serve a relational God, not an unmoved mover.   God responds and adjusts (?) based upon human contingencies (actions, repentance, attitude, heart and minds changed).
• The expression “the LORD…was grieved” (v. 15) is simply a strong figure of speech that ascribes human emotions to a changeless God.  From man’s earthbound point of view, it appeared as if God had a sudden change of heart and decided instead to adopt a different course of action.  (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 229)

 

(v. 25) Purchase price discrepancies between 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21.

• For those who may be troubled with the difference between this amount and the fifty shekels of silver mentioned in 2 Sm 24:24, we need only point out that 1 Chr talks about the purchase price for the entire “site”–threshing floor with its surroundings–whereas 2 Samuel mentions the price paid only for the threshing floor itself and the oxen for the sacrifice.  (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 223)
• The price paid (v. 25) is very large (600 shekels of gold, as against 50 shekels of silver in 2 Sm 24:24), as befits a site which is to be so sacred.  (Peter R. Ackroyd, 1 & 2 Chr, Ezra, Neh, 76)
• The great rabbinic Bible scholar Rashi, noting that the price in gold paid in Chronicles was twelve times the price in silver paid in 2 Samuel, suggested that David paid fifty shekels for each tribe.  To be sure, the increase is a reflection of the Chronicler’s view:  first, of David’s fairness and generosity (Ornan has certainly received “the full price” [21:24] for his field); and second, of the preciousness of this sacred site.  (Steven S. Tuell, Interpretation: 1 & 2 Chr, 89)       
• (v. 26) God’s verification of David’s actions – fire from heaven. The Chronicler admitted that the tabernacle…and the altar of burnt offering were at that time in the high place at Gibeon (21:29).  In the strictest sense, David should have made his sacrifices there, but his circumstances were very unusual.  As the Chronicler explained, David was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord (21:30).  In other words, David was in an emergency situation and had to appease divine anger as quickly as possible.  As in other incidents, the Chronicler showed himself not to be a pedantic legalist.  Priorities arising from particular circumstances often led to the approval of unusual and otherwise prohibited behavior (compare 2 Chr 5:11-12; 30:2).  (Richard L. Pratt, 1 & 2 Chr, A Mentor Commentary, 176)

 

 

The question to be answered is . . . Since this is the last real act of David that the Chronicler records (outside of his planning for the building of the temple for Solomon) what is the Chronicler attempting to communicate to his post-exilic audience and to us?

 

Answer:  David was a man after God’s own heart.  And David’s heart was such that when he recognized any failure to live up to what he understood to be God’s expectations for his life, David was absolutely devastated.  This can only mean that the supreme value of David’s heart was not pride, ego, or self-concern; but to be all that God created and designed for him to be.  A man created in the image of Almighty God.  

 

Men are often willing to be baptized, to pay their money, or do anything that is respectable, rather than humble themselves by repentance.  But it is all of no avail.  We come to the footstool of sovereign mercy only by genuine self-abasement.

A man who has counterfeit money is worse off than one who has no money.  Preaching unscriptural ideas of repentance does, perhaps, more damage than not preaching repentance at all.  It is harder to unlearn an error than it is to learn the truth.  (B.T. Roberts, Fishers Of Men, 125)

 

The Word for the Day is . . . repent

 

What is the Chronicler teaching his audience in 1 Chronicles 21:1-22:1?:

 

 

I.  Even mighty David is vulnerable to Satan’s temptation. (1 Chr 21:1-5)

 

His name announces him as the accuser, but his essential crookedness is revealed here, by the way in which he seduces to the misdemeanors of which he would like to accuse (cf. his role in Job).  (J. G. McConville, The Daily Study Bible Series, 1 & 2 Chr, 69)

 

The letter to the Ephesians knows that flesh and blood is involved in a spiritual battle (6:10ff.), and is vulnerable on three fronts–viz. “to the world, the flesh and the devil” (2:2f.).  (J. G. McConville, The Daily Study Bible Series, 1 & 2 Chr, 70)

 

We are sometimes told that Chronicles marks the beginning of a trend in Judaism towards a dualism in which the devil was thought to exercise an independent power in opposition to God, a clash between warring principles of good and evil such as is known in Persian and Greek religion.  The comparison of 2 Sm 24:1 and 1 Chr 21:1 does not lead to such a conclusion, however.  Rather it shows, as indeed does the prologue of Job, that behind and above the spiritual agent of evil God reigns.  This is the antithesis of dualism, for it amounts to an assertion that all evil, however vicious and potent, is subject ultimately to the power of good.  It is important to keep this aim in mind when faced with the allegation that the OT makes God the author of sin (as in a passage like 2 Sm 24:1).  Passages which seem to speak this way are really saying that the God of Israel brooks no rival in his sway over the world he has made, and they exist to offer a sure hope to those besieged by the power of evil.  (J. G. McConville, The Daily Study Bible Series, 1 & 2 Chr, 70)

 

The name Satan appears in the OT in only three passages as a reference to an evil, angelic being (see Job 1:6-2:10; Zech 3:1).  In Hebrew his name means “the accuser” and indicates one of the special roles this creature played in the heavenly court.  Satan brought charges against the people of God.  As the story of Job illustrates so clearly, one of his duties as “accuser” was to tempt and test human beings.  Much more attention is given to Satan in the NT.  For example, the Greek transliteration of “Satan” occurs 34 times and the word “devil” appears 36 times.  The NT makes it clear that Satan had such power over the nations that he was called the “ruler of this world” (see Jn 12:31; 14:30).  Though he and his demonic cohorts were disarmed by Christ (see Col 2:15), he is still active and tries to thwart the purposes of God.  Thus, he persecutes Christians (see Rv 2:10), places counterfeit Christians in the church (see Mt 26:41; 1 Pt 5:8-9).  Satan hinders (see 1 Thes 2:18) and buffets believers (see 2 Cor 12:7).  Although God himself tempts no one (see Jas 1:13), God gives Satan permission to test believers (see Mt 4:1-10; Lk 22:31-32; Rv 2:10).  (Richard L. Pratt, 1 & 2 Chr, A Mentor Commentary, 170)

 

Without warning or preamble, Satan comes on the scene.  Only at the end of the NT is he fully identified as the dragon, the serpent, the devil, and the deceiver.  In the OT he appears three times, and the appearance here is like that in the Book of Job.  In each case he incites to evil, but the evil that he brings about is both permitted and limited by God.  (Michael Wilcock, The Message of Chr, 90)

 

In the previous chapter Hanun the king of Ammon heeded bad advice.  Here we see David paying no mind to Joab’s good advice.  Either way spells disaster.  David wanted his will to be done; “the king’s word overruled Joab” (v. 4).  His action became all the more rebellious in that he plunged ahead in spite of admonition.  This was not a sin committed without calculation.  David’s example makes clear to us how easy it is to be blinded by pride, anger, greed, despair, or by some other powerful vice and strong emotion.  The devil puts us in such a fog that the wrong actually appears right to us and the right wrong.  (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 224)

 

Here, instead of the śatan, the text reads simply śatan.  Most interpreters take this to mean that Satan here is a proper name–the first such occurrence in Scripture, and the only one in the Hebrew Bible.  However, it is also possible to translate the term as “an adversary.”  In that case, some nameless, human advisor would be responsible for influencing David’s decision.  Favoring this mundane reading is the absence of any other trace of a personal Satan in Chronicles.  On the other hand, the LXX of 1 Chr 21:1 reads diabolos here, a Greek word generally translated as “devil” in the NT.  This is not definitive, as the LXX uses diabolos three times with reference to a human enemy (the nameless accuser in Ps 109:6; Haman in Est 7:1; 8:1; and Antiochus in 1 Macc 1:36).  But elsewhere, diabolos is the LXX rendering in all the Hebrew references to a heavenly, supernatural śatan, suggesting that the figure in 1 Chronicles was also understood by the LXX translators to be a supernatural adversary (note, too Wis. 2:24: “but through the devil’s [Greek diabolos] envy death entered the world, / and those who belong to his company experience it”).  (Steven S. Tuell, Interpretation: 1 & 2 Chr, 86)

 

The fault lies not in the temptation itself, nor in the desires that give temptation its power, but in surrendering to temptation.  The temptation of Jesus in the gospel narratives (Mt 4:1-11; Lk 4:1-13) demonstrates this principle.  Satan was able to tempt Jesus to turn the stones into bread because Jesus was hungry.  He could tempt Jesus to throw himself form the pinnacle of the temple because Jesus knew the angels would indeed save him.  Satan could even tempt Jesus to turn aside from God and worship him, because God’s road led to Golotha, and Jesus did not want to suffer and die!  None of these desires was sinful in itself.  Only if his desires had led Jesus to yield to temptation would Jesus have sinned.  But Jesus triumphed over temptation.   Therefore, as the author of Hebrews says, Jesus understands our struggles, having been “in every respect tested as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15-16).  (Steven S. Tuell, Interpretation: 1 & 2 Chr, 87)

 

David’s need to count his people, like the compulsion of a miser to count his gold, speaks at once of possessive pride, and of neurotic insecurity.  God has promised to preserve David’s kingdom.  Why then should David worry about how many swords he can place in the field?  In Chronicles, David in his righteousness was a model for the Chronicler’s community.  So also, in his pride and rebellion, David stands as a warning.  If even David could fall, and had to face the consequences of his failure, the Chronicler’s community needed to be all the more attentive and obedient to the will of the Lord.  (Steven S. Tuell, Interpretation: 1 & 2 Chr, 87-88)

 

Pride goes before a fall.  Dt 8:11-17 warns of the temptation in the midst of material success to take selfish credit for it: “My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth” (Dt 8:17).  In Lk 12:16-21 Jesus wove the warning into a parable of self-centered engrossment with “my crops,” “my goods”–and “my soul.”  This claim to be in control of one’s own life is the last straw, and it triggers a nemesis whereby it is taken away in death.  In David’s case God “struck Israel,” the object of his selfish pride (v. 7).  That triangle of beautiful harmony featuring God, David, and Israel in earlier chapters is broken into pieces because of David’s folly.  David had cut off the lifeline between himself and God, and now God followed his cue by snapping the lifeline of blessing that linked Him to Israel.  (Leslie Allen, Mastering the OT, 1, 2 Chr, 140)

 

II.  David’s heart (which is after God’s) compels him to severe repentance.  (1 Chr 21:8, 13, 17, 22-30)

 

Perhaps the one thing that impresses more than David’s sins in his life are his repentances (cf. 2 Sm 12:13ff., and, associated in its heading with the same incident, Ps 51).  We do well to let his willingness to come fully to terms with his deficiencies inform our own responses to our moral failures before God.  A similar issue arises in Rom 7:20 where Paul pleads that when he does what he does not want to do “it is no longer I that do it but sin which dwells within me”.  This too, however, is in a wider context which freely recognizes personal responsibility for sin: e.g. Rom 2:6-16.  (J. G. McConville, The Daily Study Bible Series, 1 & 2 Chr, 71)

 

Despite his repentance, David had to suffer a period of severe consequence for his violation of trust in the Lord.  By including this fact in his account, the Chronicler reminded his post-exilic readers that they too had suffered many consequences for rebellion against God.  (Richard L. Pratt, 1 & 2 Chr, A Mentor Commentary, 173)

 

III.  Restoration and atonement can only take place in the presence of divinely provided sacrifice and atonement.   (1 Chr 21:18-22:1)

 

In the remainder of the chapter there is a complex interplay between the themes of judgment and mercy–both essential, in the end, to an understanding of the purpose of the Temple.  (J. G. McConville, The Daily Study Bible Series, 1 & 2 Chr, 72)

 

It is one of the great themes of Israel’s prophets that the mere possession of the trappings of religion is valueless without a response of whole-hearted obedience to God (cf. Isa 1:11ff.; Amos 5:21ff.; Ps 50:7ff.).  Malachi exposes the fraudulent religion of those who make offerings of animals that are of no value anyway (Mal 1:13f.).  David knows instinctively what was later so devastatingly expounded by Jesus himself, that discipleship is a sham if it is not costly (Lk 9:23-25).  (J. G. McConville, The Daily Study Bible Series, 1 & 2 Chr, 75)

 

In David’s penitence, intercession and purchase of the threshing-floor we have seen the subjective cost, the cost experienced by the person who would be in fellowship with God.  The objective cost is symbolized by the Temple and the sacrificial system for which it was intended.  That system was not new.  It dated from Moses’ period (v. 29), and was currently being carried on at the high place (or sanctuary) of Gibeon. But there is a reaffirmation in this chapter that God has provided a way of atonement for the sin of his people.  The rituals testify to God’s decision to deal with sin.  That decision, independent of any human penitence etc., has ever been an essential feature of reconciliation between God and man.  We know that it culminated in the death of Christ and that the rituals of the OT were passing shadows (cf. Heb 10:1-18).  Yet God’s decision regarding OT times was for those times real and effective.  And when David built the altar and called upon the Lord (v. 26), the angel’s sword was finally returned to its sheath (v. 27).  (J. G. McConville, The Daily Study Bible Series, 1 & 2 Chr, 75)

 

The devotion of David’s heart leads to the promise through Nathan of the eventual building of a house for the ark (17:12), and the evil resulting from David’s sin leads to the command through Gad to set up the altar (21:18).  The two converge in David’s own words in 22:1: “here shall be the house…and here the altar.”  (Michael Wilcock, The Message of Chr, 91)

 

Scripture says that God is not a man, so He does not lie nor repent, and He does whatever he says He will do (Nm 23:19).  Yet in this instance, God does not complete the entire three days of plagues that He said would happen.  While we can count on every promise of God to come to pass, David’s experience is an ideal example of the mercy of God.  The Lord does not inflict on humankind all that it deserves.  Scripture also reminds us that, “Through the LORD’S mercies we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; great is [His] faithfulness” (Lam 3:22-23).  (Dr. Tremper Longman, Quicknotes, 1 Chr Thru Job, 39)

 

The essence of sacrifice to God is self-denial and self-giving.  We usually give to God what we can easily do without.  But when did we ever hold off buying something for ourselves because we wanted to give something to our Savior in response to his love for us?  (John R. Mittelstaedt, The People’s Bible: Samuel, 327)

 

In the third option, David knew he would be dealing directly with the Savior-God.  That is why he said, “Let me fall into the hands of the LORD” (v. 13).  Men’s hearts are hard.  They show no mercy for an enemy and have precious little to spare even for a friend.  But God’s mercies are everlasting and new every morning.  God may chasten, but he will not utterly consume.  All must serve the interests of his love.  Even if we are suffering the bitter consequences of a sin, it is by far the better thing to put ourselves into God’s hands rather than to run away from him.  (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 228)

 

This “change of heart” had occurred before David even began to utter his prayer of intercession for his people.  Even so, David could not see into God’s heart and know his plan.  What he and the elders saw was the angel standing on top of the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite.  What they saw was the angel’s sword still drawn and stretched out menacingly over the city.  Once again, God gave David the heart to believe that death and destruction were not his final words to his people.  He saw the fearsome aspect of God’s avenging angel acting in judgment; yet he dared to hope in God’s mercy.  Such faith could have been based only on God’s Word and promise, and not on anything David was experiencing at the time.  (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 230)

 

Sin incurs a debt; that debt is called guilt.  Guilt is more than just the internal feeling I have when I do something wrong.  It is the objective reality that describes my standing before God after I sin.  Put simply:  I owe.  What I owe, of course, is my life, since I have rebelled against the holy and infinite God who demands that I be holy.  Under the Old Covenant, God graciously accepted the blood of bulls and goats as a substitute payment for the debt.  David recognizes here that he cannot take from someone else to pay to God the debt he owes, nor can he offer a sacrifice that costs him nothing.  That would be no sacrifice at all.  (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 233-34)

 

When the plague was at its height, all movement in the country had stopped.  David himself was afraid to make the journey there to “inquire of God” (v. 30).  Only when God himself gave the command did David think to offer sacrifice elsewhere.  Once God had given that command, however, and David had seen how God received his sacrifice from Araunah’s threshing floor, David then realized that this new site and this new altar, too, had God’s approval.  After the plague David continued to sacrifice three (v. 28).  Even more than this, he realized that God had selected the place where his house would be built (1 Chr 28:1).

“The LORD will provide.”  Through righteous David, the Lord had given his people rest from their enemies.  Through David’s pride, the Lord had chosen a site for his temple to be built.  The Chronicler points this out to us, not to encourage us to sin, but to magnify God’s grace in overruling evil and turning it to good.  God can work through our strength.  God can also work through our weakness.  Because “his mercy is very great” (1 Chr 21:13), we can be sure that at the same moment the devil is present to destroy us, our loving God is also right there, present to preserve us.  He can turn our greatest defeats into the most astounding victories of his grace.  (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 235-36)

 

The descent of fire onto the altar took place in the OT only three other times (see Lv 9:24; 1 Kgs 18:38; 2 Chr 7:1; see also Jgs 6:21).  On each occasion it displayed extraordinary pleasure from God toward his people.  The Chronicler added this element to his account of David’s census in order to highlight God’s approval of David.  The fire from heaven demonstrated that God enthusiastically approved of David’s sacrifices.  (Richard L. Pratt, 1 & 2 Chr, A Mentor Commentary, 175)

 

The divine acceptance of David’s offering is made explicit in that his prayer and offering, like Elijah’s (1 Kgs 18) was answered by fire from heaven (v. 26).  That approval then becomes the basis for David’s declaration that Ornan’s threshing floor is to be the future site of both the temple and the altar of burnt offering.  (Roddy Braun, Word Biblical Commentary: 1 Chr, 218)

 

Despite its horrible potential, David chose punishment directly from God.  His reasoning was remarkable and indicated a significant shift of disposition.  When ordering the census, David displayed distrust in God.  Now he selected chastisement from God because he believed God’s mercy is very great.  David’s trust in God had been renewed.  (Richard L. Pratt, 1 & 2 Chr, A Mentor Commentary, 173)

 

In the Chronicler’s mind, what better place for God’s permanent sanctuary than the site identified as the prime location for repentant prayer and divine absolution?  As Thompson has aptly noted, God has empowered Israel to defeat their human enemies, and now he provides a place of atonement where they can (at least) hold at bay their spiritual enemy–Satan.  (Andrew E. Hill, The NIV Application Commentary: 1 & 2 Chr, 291)

 

The answer to David’s prayer for God’s mercy by the sign of fire sent from heaven upon the altar is presented as divine confirmation of this shift in the location for Israel’s worship center (21:26).  The theological addendum also explains why the Israelite sanctuary is transferred from Gibeon to Jerusalem, since David is unable to go to Gibeon to inquire of the Lord because of the “destroying angel” (cf. 21:16).  (Andrew E. Hill, The NIV Application Commentary: 1 & 2 Chr, 295)

 

The continuity in Israelite worship from the Mosaic tabernacle to the Solomonic temple is further solidified by the association of the temple site with Mount Moriah, the place of Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac (2 Chr 3:1; cf. Gn 22:2).  God’s responsiveness to David’s prayer and burnt offerings indicate that this site, in one sense, has already become a house of prayer and a temple for sacrifices (cf. 2 Chr 7:12).  The emphatic position of the phrase “to be here” [zeh huʼ] in the syntax of the original language further underscores David’s understanding that this is to be the site for the new altar and the new house of God (22:1).  (Andrew E. Hill, The NIV Application Commentary: 1 & 2 Chr, 295)

 

There is an unfortunate tendency to disparage the OT as full of God’s wrath and to prefer the new as full of God’s love.  The reversal of negative and positive factors in this pair of cases is a warning against such generalizations.  Here “distress” (v. 13) due to “greatly” sinning (v. 8), would find mitigation, “for His mercies are very great” (v. 13).  Sin was serious and devastating in its consequences but was succeeded and surpassed by God’s grace.  Where sin abounded, grace was to super-abound, to paraphrase Rom 5:20.  Indeed, this is to be the message of the whole chapter.  The temple, whose site is discovered, is to be a monument to divine grace.  (Leslie Allen, Mastering the OT, 1, 2 Chr, 142)

 

It is to be David’s sacrifice, and so he must bear the cost if it is to have personal value.  Otherwise it could hardly function as a symbol of his repentance.  Malachi was making a not dissimilar point when he complained that some of the sacrificial animals which the people were bringing had been stolen, while others were blind or lame (Mal 1:8, 13-14)!  Sacrifice had to reflect spirituality.  For integrity’s sake there had to be equivalence between the offering and its value; to proceed otherwise would be an act of disrespect to God.  This is a principle worth pondering by the Christian in offering to God the spiritual sacrifices of praise and good turns and shared resources (Heb 13:15, 16).  The ostensible price tags do not necessarily represent the value, which often only God and the giver know.  As Jesus graphically illustrated, drawing attention to the respective donations of the widow and of the wealthy (Lk 21:1-4), the same act done by different persons can be of utterly different worth in God’s eyes.  David’s sacrifices, duly offered in a right spirit on the altar built on the designated site, are graciously accepted, and the threat to Jerusalem is withdrawn.  (Leslie Allen, Mastering the OT, 1, 2 Chr, 144)

 

The religious site had been found by following God’s leading.  In verse 26 the Chronicler has added the last clause.  He is drawing a parallel with 1 Kgs 18:38, whose context is the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.  It is not insignificant that Elijah first built an altar and then prayed to the God of Israel that He would prove that he had “done all these things at Your word.”  In response “the fire of the Lord fell.”  So here there is an endorsement of David’s religious actions.  The Chronicler recapitulates v. 26 at v. 28, stressing the divine endorsement of David’s sacrificing.  His sacrifice was a trial offer, one might say, that, once accepted by God, proved that the altar had a far wider-reaching significance.  (Leslie Allen, Mastering the OT, 1, 2 Chr, 144)

 

CONCLUSION/APPLICATION: What does the Chronicler’s message have to do with Christ and me?:

 

 

A-  Realize all of us are vulnerable to Satan’s attack.  Even Jesus. (Job 1-2; Mt 4:1-11; 5:37; 6:13; 13:19, 38-39; 16:23; Mk 1:13ff; 4:15; 8:33; Lk 4:1ff; 8:12; 13:16; 22:31; Jn 8:44; Acts 5:3; 13:10; 26:18; 1 Cor 7:5; 2 Cor 2:11; 11:14; Eph 4:27; 2 Thess 2:9; 3:3; 1 Tm 5:15; 2 Tm 2:26; Heb 2:14; Jas 4:7; 1 Pt 5:8; 1 Jn 3:8; 5:18-19; Rv 12:9-10)     

 

“I think one may be quite rid of the old haunting suspicion—which raises its head in every temptation—that there is something else than God—some other country…into which He forbids us to trespass—some kind of delight which He “doesn’t appreciate” or just chooses to forbid, but which would be real delight if only we were allowed to get it.  The thing just isn’t there.

Whatever we desire is either what God is trying to give us as quickly as He can, or else a false picture of what He is trying to give us—a false picture or else a false picture which would not attract us for a moment if we saw the real thing.  Therefore God does really in a sense contain evil—i.e. contains what is the real motive power behind all our evil desires.  He knows what we want, even in our vilest acts:  He is longing to give it to us.  He is not looking on from the outside at some new “taste” or “separate desire of our own.”  Only because he has laid up real goods for us to desire are we able to go wrong by snatching at them in greedy, misdirected ways.  The truth is that evil is not a real thing at all, like God.  It is simply good spoiled.  That is why I say there can be good without evil, but no evil without good.  You know what the biologists mean by a parasite—an animal that lives on another animal.  Evil is a parasite.  It is there only because good is there for it to spoil and confuse.  (The Quotable C. S. Lewis, 265)

 

“The essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride.  Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that are mere fleabites in comparison:  it was through Pride that the devil became the devil . . . It is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began.  Other vices may sometimes bring people together:  you may find good fellowship and jokes and friendliness among drunken people or unchaste people.  But pride always means enmity—it is enmity.  And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.  (CS. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 109-111)

 

(Commenting on St. Augustine’s theological influence on Milton:)

“1.  God created all things without exception good, and because they are good, “No Nature (i.e., no positive reality) is bad and the word Bad denotes merely privation of good.”…

2.  What we call bad things are good things perverted…This perversion arises when a conscious creature becomes more interested in itself than in God, …and wishes to exist “on its own.”. ..This is the sin of Pride…

3.  From (Augustine’s) doctrine of good and evil it follows (a) That good can exist without evil,…but not evil without good…(b) That good and bad angels have the same Nature, happy when it adheres to God and miserable when it adheres to itself…

4.  Though God has made all creatures good He foreknows that some will voluntarily make themselves bad…and also foreknows the good use which He will then make of their badness…For as He shows His benevolence in creating good Natures, He shows his justice in exploiting evil wills…Whoever tries to rebel against God produces the result opposite to his intention.  (The Quotable C. S. Lewis, 266)

 

Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist.  (C. S. Lewis)

 

The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.  (Barbara Johnson)

 

“In our members there is a slumbering inclination towards desire which is both sudden and fierce.  With irresistible power, desire seizes mastery over the flesh.  All at once a secret, smoldering fire is kindled.  The flesh burns and is in flames.  It makes no difference whether it is sexual desire or ambition or vanity or desire for revenge or love of fame and power or greed for money or, finally, that strange desire for beauty of the world, of nature.  Joy in God is . . . extinguished in us and we seek all our joy in the creature.  At this moment God is quite unreal to us, he loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real; the only reality is the devil.  Satan does not fill us with hatred for God, but with forgetfulness of God . . .   The lust thus aroused envelopes the mind and will of man in deepest darkness.  The powers of clear discrimination and of decision are taken from us.”  – Dietrich Bonhoffer  (Charles Swindoll, Temptation – The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart,  566)

 

Yielding to temptation is like getting shocked with electricity.  If you catch enough of the amperage of electricity it can get to the point where you can no longer let go (as per my experience in the GG).  -Pastor Keith

 

Demon Uncle Screwtape speaking to under-ranking demon Wormwood on getting his patient to sin:

You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness.  But do remember, the only thing that mattes is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy.  It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing.  Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick.  Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.  ( C. S. Lewis; The Screwtape Letters, 56)

 

He who flees temptation should not leave a forwarding address.

 

Opportunity knocks only once; temptation leans on the doorbell.

 

The way you respond to temptation will make you or break you.

 

Lead me not into temptation (I can find the way myself).

 

Do not let ourselves be troubled when we are sometimes beset by adversity, for we know that it is meant for our spiritual welfare and carefully proportioned to our needs, and that a limit has been set to it by the wisdom of the same God who has set a bound to the ocean.  Sometimes it might seem as if the sea in its fury would overflow and flood the land, but it respects the limits of its shore and its waves break upon the yielding sand.  There is no tribulation or temptation whose limits God has not appointed so as to serve not for our destruction but for our salvation.  God is faithful says the Apostle, and will not permit you to be tempted (or afflicted) beyond your strength, but it is necessary for you to be so, since through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God in the steps of our Redeemer who said of Himself, Did not the Christ have to suffer all these things before entering into his glory?  If you refused to accept these tribulations you would be acting against your best interests.  You are like a block of marble in the hands of the sculptor.  The sculptor must chip, hew and smooth it to make it into a statue that is a work of art.  God wishes to make us the living image of Himself.  All we need to think of is to keep still in His hands while He works on us, and we can rest assured that the chisel will never strike the slightest blow that is not needed for His purposes and our sanctification; for, as St. Paul says, the will of God is your sanctification.  (Father Jean Baptiste; Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, 31-33)

 

We ought to conform to God’s will in interior trials, that is to say in all the difficulties met with our spiritual life, such as temptations, scruples, anxieties, aridity, desolation and so on.  Whatever immediate cause we may attribute to these states of mind, we must always look beyond to God as their author.  If we think they come from ourselves, then it is true to say that they have their origin in the ignorance of our mind, the oversensitiveness of our feelings, the disordered state of our imagination or the perversity of our inclinations.  But if we go back farther, if we ask where the defects themselves come from, we can only find their origin in the will of God who has not endowed us with greater perfection, and by making us subject to these infinites has laid on us the duty of bearing all the consequences of them for our sanctification until He is pleased to put an end to them.  As soon as He judges it in the right moment to touch our mind or heart, we shall be enlightened, fortified, and consoled.  (Father Jean Baptiste; Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, 81-82)

 

My temptations have been my masters in divinity.  (Martin Luther as quoted in Rick Warren; The Purpose Driven Life, 201)

 

To mortify our indwelling sin is constantly to weaken it.  We can do this in three ways: starve it out, cut it out or crowd it out.  The world today offers plenty to feed a person’s sinful nature, such as periodicals, books, movies, television programs and even conversations.  We have to remember that indwelling sin is nourished in the mind with its thoughts and imagination.  It is there that our jealousies, resentments, lust and selfishness are fostered.  We can begin mortifying sin in us by depriving the mind—starving it out—of the foods that feed its cancer.  If there are pleasures, relationships or environments which add to our temptations, we shall wherever possible avoid them.”   (Kenneth Prior, The Way of Holiness, 158-59)

 

Self-reliance is not the way to holiness, but the negation of it.  Self-confidence in the face of temptation and conflicting pressures is a sure guarantee that some sort of moral failure will follow.  (J. I. Packer, Rediscovering Holiness, 92)

 

Faithfulness without temptation to infidelity is not true faithfulness.  Faith without temptation of doubt is not true faith.  Purity without temptation to impurity is not true purity.  (Paul Tournier, Guilt & Grace, 45)

 

It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer. The truth is that in order to enjoy the Word, we ought to continue to read it, and the way to obtain a spirit of prayer is to continue praying. The less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray.  (George Muller, A Narrative of Some of the Lord’s Dealings with George Muller)

 

Satan uses the weaknesses and limitations of men to entice them to sin (1 Cor 7:5).  He also employs the allurements of the world (1 Jn 2:15-17; 4:4).  He commonly tempts men to evil by the falsehood that they can attain a desired good through the doing of wrong.  His mode of operation is vividly demonstrated in the account of the Fall in Genesis 3.  Deception is a universal feature of his activities, justifying his description as “the deceiver of the whole world” (Rv 12:9).  He constantly lays “snares” for men to make them his captives (1 Tm 3:7; 2 Tm 2:26).  A fundamental temptation employed is pride (1 Tm 3:6).

Satan opposes the work of God through his counterfeiting activities.  He oversows the wheat with darnel, placing counterfeit believers among “the sons of the kingdom” (Mt 13:25, 38, 39).  These counterfeit believers form “a synagogue of Satan” (Rv 2:9; 3:9).   Satan often disguises himself as “an angel of light” by presenting his messengers of falsehood as messengers of truth (2 Cor 11:13-15).  Those who thus give themselves over to evil and become the agents of Satan to persuade others to do evil are the children and servants of the devil (Jn 6:70; 8:44; Acts 13:10).  (The Zondervan Pictoral Encyclopedia of the Bible Q-Z, 283)

 

To prevent these satanic strategies from succeeding, Christians need to employ several counterstrategies.  (1) They must keep themselves purposefully occupied, since idleness leads to sin and the devil’s accusations (1 Tm 5:13-15).  To counter Satan’s role as accuser of God’s people, (2) church discipline must never be so harsh as to imply the impossibility of forgiveness (2 Cor 2:6-11), and (3) only persons with a good reputation should be appointed to church office (1 Tm 3:2f., 7).  (4) To avoid temptation through lack of self-control, husbands and wives should not abstain too long from conjugal relations (1 Cor 7:5).  (5) New Christians, no matter how promising their gifts, should not be given responsible positions in the church, since Satan works to incite the inbred human tendency to self-exaltation (1 Tm 3:6).

The essence of Satan’s strategy, however, is to weaken a Christian’s faith in such precious and great promises as, e.g., Rom 8:28 (“in everything God works for good with those who love him”), by means of the lie that the tribulations and misfortunes that befall Christians can deprive them of any hope for a bright future (1 Thess 3:2-5).  Satan’s game plan is to destroy the Christian’s confidence that God’s plans are “for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer 29:11).  So to be victorious against Satan, Christians must understand the necessity of being armed with “the shield of faith” i.e., of having an arsenal of promises from God’s word (cf. Rom 10:17) ready for use as a shield to quench all the fiery darts of Satan (Eph 6:16).  According to 1 Pt 5:9 Christians must resist the devil steadfastly in the faith.  Since the promises of Scripture are the proper object of faith (Rom 4:20), Christians must use, against each temptation to become discouraged, at least one of God’s “many and very great promises” (2 Pt 1:4).  If tempted, e.g., to be covetous and despondent about not having enough of this world’s goods to be financially secure, the Christian must “fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Tm 6:12) by affirming that, since God will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb 13:5f.), covetousness is totally contrary to childlike faith in God.  By meditating on this and similar promises of “the faithful God” (Dt 7:9; cf. Heb 10:23; Ti 1:2) until filled by “all joy and peace in believing” (Rom 15:13), Christians perform the essential task of holding their “first confidence firm unto the end” (Heb 3:14).  (The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Volume Four: Q-Z, 343)

 

There is nothing in the world that renders a man more unlike to a saint, and more like to Satan, than to argue from mercy to sinful liberty; from divine goodness to licentiousness.  This is the devil’s logic, and in whomsoever you find it, you may write, This soul is lost. (Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, 55)

 

For such a wretch as thou art to attempt repentance is to attempt a thing impossible.  It is impossible that thou, that in all thy life couldst never conquer on sin, shouldst master such a numberless number of sins; which are so near, so dear, so necessary, and so profitable to thee, that have so long bedded companions with thee.  Hast thou not often purposed, promised, vowed, and resolved to enter upon the practice of repentance, but to this day couldst never attain it?  Surely it is in vain to strive against the stream, where it is so impossible to overcome; thou art lost and cast for ever; to hell thou must, to hell thou shalt.  Ah, souls!  He that now tempts you to sin, by suggesting to you the easiness of repentance, will at last work you to despair, and present repentance as the hardest work in all the world, and a work as far above man as heaven is above hell, as light is above darkness.  Oh that you were wise, to break off your sins by timely repentance. (Thomas Brooks; Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, 65)

 

“If you want an easy time as a Christian, all you have to do is to get far away from Jesus Christ—move away to the periphery of the battle.  If you are out there, Satan is not going to bother you much.   That is where he wants you.   However, if you draw close to the Lord, as Paul wished to do, and join with Him in the battle, then Satan’s arrows will start coming at you.  The battle will be hard.  And you will find it necessary to use God’s weapons for the conflict.”   (James Boice;  Commentary on Phil 3:13-14,  230)

 

“When Satan does not succeed in stopping the church with a frontal assault, he attacks from within.   This usually happens subtly—an invitation not sent, a job unnoticed, a critical comment overheard, jealously over something that really does not matter (like the size of piece of ham slice).  When the murmuring begins the devil smiles.” (Kent Hughes, Acts: The Church a Fire, 98)

 

For effective victory over Satan believers must recognize that on the basis of the work of Christ Satan is a defeated foe.  They are called upon to take a firm stand against the devil.  “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (Jas 4:7).  Any attempt to flee from the devil would be useless, but in claiming the victory of Christ man can put the devil to flight.  In order to experience victory over Satan believers cannot remain “ignorant of his designs” (2 Cor 2:11).  Recognizing that he is a powerful and crafty foe, they must “give no opportunity to the devil” by allowing sin in their lives (Eph 4:25-27).  Instead, they must “be sober, be watchful,” alert to the danger from the devil, and firmly resist him in faith (1 Pt 5:8, 9).  Eph 6:10-17 repeatedly stresses the need to take a firm stand against the satanic enemy.  (The Zondervan Pictoral Encyclopedia of the Bible Q-Z, 285)

 

On the other hand, millions of Christians live in a sentimental haze of vague piety, with soft-organ music trembling in the lovely light from stained-glass windows.  Their religion is a thing of pleasant emotional quivers, divorced from the will, divorced from the intellect, and demanding little except lip service to a few harmless platitudes.  I suspect that Satan has called off the attempt to convert people to agnosticism.  If a man travels far enough away from Christianity he is always in danger of seeing it in perspective and deciding that it is true.  It is much safer, from Satan’s point of view, to vaccinate a man with a mild case of Christianity, so as to protect him from the real thing.  (Chad Walsh, Early Christians of the 21^st Century, 11)

 

B-  Stop making excuses.  Confess YOUR part in the sin. (Gn 3:12-13; Ex 32:22-24; 2 Kgs 5:10-14; Lk 14:14-24; Acts 24; Rom 1:18-25; 2:1)

 

Love will find a way.  Indifference will find an excuse. 

 

Excuses can be lies packed in the skin of reason. (Chuck Swindoll, “Strengthening Your Grip – On Authority” )

 

Throw away the excuses and face reality!  The fact that you are grumpy in the morning does not mean that “you got up on the wrong side of the bed.”  It means your old sinful nature is in control.  Because you enjoy hearing some “dirt” about other people does not mean you have an inquisitive mind.  It means that you are not abiding in Christ.  Because you easily “blow your cool” does not mean you have a short fuse.  It means you have a weak connection to Jesus.  (Don Matzat; Christ Esteem, 125)

 

Your poorest effort is more pleasing to God than your strongest excuses.

 

One of the cultural factors most clearly associated with increasing the prevalence of alcoholism is the general acceptance of “alcoholism-as-a-disease.”  Native Americans, for example, imbue alcohol with enormous power and take it as a “given” that they cannot drink it in a controlled manner.  Various American ethnic and cultural groups with low rates of alcoholism, such as the Jewish and Chinese communities, do not accept “loss of control” as an excuse for drunkenness.  These cultures assume that their members ought to control their alcohol intake and are fully able to do just that.  Thus it appears that to tell people that they are “powerless” over their alcohol consumption is to utter a self-fulfilling prophecy. (William L. Playfair, MD, The Useful Lie, 39-40)

 

Co-dependency advocates say that those who live with an alcoholic are just as dependent on alcohol as the alcoholic himself, because they too are subjected to its destructive effects.  Thus, they are “co-dependent.”

Key to understanding the co-dependency mind-set is the term “enabling.”  In co-dependency thinking, those who live with an addict are thought to materially contribute to his addiction by helping to create a favorable environment in which he can indulge.  They “enable” the addict to continue his addiction.  Enabling includes such behaviors are making excuses for the addict, denying the addiction, covering for the addict, taking responsibility for the addict, and protecting family and friends from the addict’s destructive behavior.  (William L. Playfair, MD, The Useful Lie, 117)

 

Those who label as simplistic a thoroughly Biblical approach to dealing with the problem of substance abuse among Christians woefully underestimate God’s power, God’s Word, God’s love and God’s grace.  In short, they underestimate God Himself.

…Scripture however, does not recognize “can’t help myself” excuses for sin.  You do or do not because you will or will not sin. (William L. Playfair, MD, The Useful Lie, 165-66)

 

The salesperson who makes a mistake, then offers an excuse for it, has made two mistakes.

 

A man who wants to do something will find a way; a man who doesn’t will find an excuse.  -Stephen Dolley, Jr.

 

He who is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else.  

 

What do the words success and excuses have in common?  Nothing!  Those who achieve success never rely on excuses.  And those who rely on excuses never achieve success.

 

“Men know their course is evil and such as God condemns.  They know that this and that and the other practices which they indulge in are sinful.  They dare not justify them, but they still their consciences with the thought that they intend to repent later.  They reckon upon no great difficulty in this, assuming the repenting is theirs, under their control, and all will be well.   They do not seem to realize that these purposes to repent in the future abundantly harden and make them bold to continue in sin against all counsel and reproof.  But alas, repentance is not so easy a work.  The heart that is now so much in love with sin and so full of enmity against holiness will not be easily changed.  A deceitful heart will find other excuses when the present ones are answered.  The old man will struggle hard before it is subdued.  Perhaps they do not know that  repentance is a grace of God’s giving.  The heart of stone is too hard for any created power to break.   Repentance is a gift that only God can give and fortunately when He gives it He does so freely.  Because men can only repent when God enables, Paul said to Timothy, “God peradventure will give them repentance” (2 Tm 2:25).  Many that presume upon having repentance at leisure find themselves disappointed.  Either a sudden death arrests them or a hard heart and a sleepy conscience seizes upon them.  It is a very bold adventure to reject God’s gracious offers, presuming upon future time or grace.”  (Robert Roberts, Sanctify the Congregation, 131)

 

To err is human; to blame it on the other guy is even more human.

 

To blame others for our failures is to live in unresolved bitterness and to cause frustrations over influences beyond your control.  To blame yourself is to live in hope and expectations of “doing it better” next time.

 

If the criminal is later held accountable, he blames the victim for the violence because he interfered in the successful execution of the crime.  Exclaimed one man who shot his victim during a robbery, “That man must have been nuts!  It wasn’t my fault that he was crazy enough to risk his life over the fifty bucks in his wallet.   …“If I started feeling bad, I’d say to myself ‘tough rocks for him.  He should have had his house locked better and the alarm on.’” (Stanton E. Samenow PhD, Inside the Criminal Mind, 115)

 

As a general rule, people ask for advice only in order not to follow it; or if they do follow it, in order to have someone to blame for giving it.  (Alexandre Dumas, Leadership …with a human touch, March 6, 2001, 10)

 

When you blame others for your problems you give away control of your life.

 

When you blame others, you give up your power to change. (Robert Anthony in  Leadership, October 16, 2001, 5)

 

“If you didn’t run into Satan, it is a good indication that you were going in the same direction.”  (Steve Brown, July – Sept 1998 Keylife Newsletter, 11)

 

If the truth about my salvation lies in the realm of my feelings, my digestive system, my nervous organism, I am going to be a poor Christian; because that will be changing from day to day according to the weather or to something else.  Oh no!  Truth; where is the truth?  “Not what I am, but what Thou art,” That is where the truth is, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  Free from what?  Bondage!  What bondage?  Satan clapping his chains of condemnation upon you because today you are not feeling up to scratch.  You are feeling bad in your constitution, and you are feeling depressed, you are feeling death all around, you are feeling irritable, and Satan comes along and says, You are not a Christian!  A fine Christian you are!  And you go down under it.  Is that the truth?  It is a lie!  The only answer for deliverance and emancipation is, “it is not what I am, it is what He is; Christ abides the same.”  He is not as I am, varying here in this human life from hour to hour and day to day:  He is other. (T. Austin-Sparks, The School of Christ, 25)

 

Yet, though he INCITED DAVID TO NUMBER ISRAEL, and hence divine anger was incurred against David and his people (v. 7), Satan is not here to be seen as independent of God or simply as opposed to him.  As in the passages mentioned in Zechariah and Job, Satan or the Satan (the presence or absence of the definite article may or may not show a greater or less sense of individuality) is operating within the divine purpose, and what he does is still within divine control.  He may be seen as testing David’s loyalty to God.  Furthermore, there is no possibility of man shifting the blame for his action to an alien force; David and his people must bear absolute responsibility.  (Peter R. Ackroyd, 1 & 2 Chr, Ezra, Neh, 74)

 

The enemy is shut out from the inner part of you, he has no place there.  The peace of God stands sentinel over heart and mind through Christ Jesus; the citadel is safe.  What Satan is always trying to do is to get into the spirit through the body or soul and to capture the stronghold, the spirit, and bring it into bondage.  But we can remain free inwardly when we are feeling very bad outwardly.  (T. Austin-Sparks, The School of Christ, 26)

 

One impressive characteristic about David, however, is how quick he is to repent and confess after being chastened by God.  King Saul had looked for excuses and tried to blame others for his shortcomings, but David takes responsibility for his actions and immediately seeks to make things right with God again.  (Dr. Tremper Longman, Quicknotes, 1 Chr Thru Job, 38)

 

Once again we see why David is called “a man after God’s own heart.”  He was sensitive to God, and no doubt some word of God struck home as he reflected on what he had done.  David didn’t look for an excuse, but admitted his folly and confessed his sin.  “I have sinned greatly in what I have done.  Now, O LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant.  I have done a very foolish thing.”  (John R. Mittelstaedt, The People’s Bible: Samuel, 325)

 

C-  To the degree you are able to profess true,  evangelical, biblical, godly repentance will in large part dictate the degree of restoration, reconciliation, renewal, revitalization and reform in your life. (Mk 1:15; Lk 13:3, 5; Acts 2:38; 2 Cor 7:9-10; 2 Pt 3:9; Rv 3:19)

 

The usual biblical word describing the no we say to the world’s lies and the yes we say to God’s truth is repentance.  (Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, 25)

 

True repentance only begins when one passes out of what the Bible sees as self-deception (cf. Jas 1:22, 26; 1 Jn 1:8) and modern counselors call denial, into what the Bible calls conviction of sin  (Cf. Jn 16:8).  (J. I. Packer,  Rediscovering Holiness,  123-24 )

 

True evangelical contrition, true repentance, must be preceded by a falling in love with God. (Leadership, Spring 1999, 42)

 

Repentance Defined

Louis Berkhof in his work, Systematic Theology, defines repentance as “ . . . that change wrought in the conscious life of the sinner, by which he turns away from sin” (1991:486).  This is a good, succinct definition of repentance.  But, I believe that the eighteenth-century Scottish Presbyterian, Dr. John Colquhoun, gives us a much clearer impression of what true biblical repentance is, by comparing the true with the false.   Colquhoun states in his book, Repentance,

Natural repentance is that natural feeling of sorrow and self-condemnation, of which a man is conscious for having done that which he sees he ought not to have done, and which arises from a discovery of the impropriety of it, or from reflecting on the disagreeable consequences of it to others, and especially to himself (1965:9).

He goes on to define legal repentance:

Legal repentance is a feeling of regret produced in a legalist by the fear that his violations of the Divine law and especially his gross sins do expose him to external punishment.  This regret is increased by his desire to be exempted on the ground of it from the dreadful punishment to which he knows he is condemned for them.  He is extremely sorry, not that he has transgressed the law, but that the law and the justice of God are so very strict that they cannot leave him at liberty to sin with impunity (1965:9).

Finally, Colquhoun describes for us true, or in his words, evangelical repentance.

Evangelical repentance is altogether different from either of these.  It is a gracious principle and habit implanted in the soul by the Spirit of Christ, in the exercise of which a regenerate and believing sinner, deeply sensible of the exceeding sinfulness and just demerit of his innumerable sins is truly humbled and grieved before the Lord, on account of the sinfulness and hurtfulness of them.  He feels bitter remorse, unfeigned sorrow, and deep self-abhorrence for the aggravated transgressions of his life, and the deep depravity of his nature; chiefly, because by all his innumerable provocations he has dishonored an infinitely holy and gracious God, transgressed a law which is ‘holy, and just, and good’, and defiled, deformed, and even destroyed his own precious soul.  This godly sorrow for sin and this holy abhorrence of it arise from a spiritual discovery of pardoning mercy with God in Christ, and from the exercise of trusting in His mercy.   And these feelings and exercises are always accompanied by an unfeigned love of universal holiness, and by fixed resolutions and endeavors to turn from all iniquity to God and to walk before him in newness of life.  Such, in general is the nature of that evangelical repentance, to the habit and exercise of which the Lord Jesus calls sinners who hear the Gospel (1965:10).

As can quickly be discerned, there is a significant difference between natural repentance, legal repentance, and evangelical repentance.  If real change and real reforms are to be accomplished via the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing about corporate repentance, then it must begin with an evangelical repentance.  Only evangelical repentance will facilitate and motivate one to the proper worship, obedience, and devotion that God seeks.  Anything less than evangelical repentance is to make a mockery of God’s holiness, the seriousness and integrity of his judgments, and the command by God and Christ to love him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength.  In order for any pastor to facilitate corporate repentance within the congregation he or she serves, this is the kind of repentance for which he must labor, aim, and pray. (Taken from Pastor Keith’s Doctoral disertaion)

 

No true forgiveness comes apart from repentance and acceptance of the atoning work of Christ. (William L. Playfair, M.D., The Useful Lie, 106)

 

Much of our problem in continuing fellowship with a holy God is that many Christians repent only for what they do, rather than for what they are. (A. W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, 72)

 

The gospel is not at all what we would come up with on our own.  I, for one, would expect to honor the virtuous over the profligate.  I would expect to have to clean up my act before even applying for an audience with a Holy God.  But Jesus told of God ignoring a fancy religious teacher and turning instead to an ordinary sinner who pleads, “God, have mercy.” Throughout the Bible, in fact, God shows a marked preference for “real” people over “good” people.  In Jesus’ own words, “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”  (Philip Yancey, What’s so Amazing About Grace?, 54)

 

I know of only two alternatives to hypocrisy: perfection and honesty.  Since I have never met a person who loves the Lord our God with all her heart, mind, and soul, and loves her neighbor as herself, I do not view perfection as a realistic alternative.  Our only option, then, is honesty that leads to repentance.  As the Bible shows, Gods’ grace can cover any sin, including murder, infidelity, or betrayal.  Yet by definition grace must be received, and hypocrisy disguises our need to receive grace.  When the masks fall, hypocrisy is exposed as an elaborate ruse to avoid grace.   (Philip Yancey; What’s so Amazing About Grace?, 204)

 

Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son makes a similar point.  The prodigal son had no leg to stand on, no possible basis for spiritual pride.  By any measure of spiritual competition he had failed, and now he had nothing to lean against but grace.  God’s love and forgiveness extended equally to the virtuous elder brother, of course, but that son, too busy comparing himself to his irresponsible sibling, was blinded to the truth about himself.  In the words of Henri Nouwen, “The lostness of the resentful ‘saint’ is so hard to reach precisely because it is so closely wedded to the desire to be good and virtuous.”  Nouwen confesses:

I know, from my own life, how diligently I have tried to be good, acceptable, likable, and a worthy example for others.  There was always the conscious effort to avoid the pitfalls of sin and the constant fear of giving in to temptation.  But with all of that there came a seriousness, a moralistic intensity—and even a touch of fanaticism—that made it increasingly difficult to feel at home in my Father’s house.  I became less free, less spontaneous, less playful. . . .

The more I reflect on the elder son in me, the more I realize how deeply rooted this form of lostness really is and how hard it is to return home from there.  Returning home from a lustful escapade seems so much easier than returning home from a cold anger that has rooted itself in the deepest corners of my being.

The spiritual games we play, many of which begin with the best of motives, can perversely lead us away from God, because they lead us away from grace.  Repentance, not proper behavior or even holiness, is the doorway to grace.  And the opposite of sin is grace, not virtue.   (Philip Yancey, What’s so Amazing About Grace?, 204-206)

 

So began the Reformation, and at its heart lay Luther’s great discovery: Repentance is a characteristic of the whole life, not the action of a single moment. (Sinclair Ferguson, The Grace of Repentance, 11)

 

If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless.  But if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day, and are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow, and so our case is hopeless again.

…Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness.  It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know that they need any forgiveness.  It is after you have realized that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with that Power–it is after all this and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk.  When you are sick, you will listen to the doctor. (C. S. Lewis; Mere Christianity, Bk. I, 38-39)

 

One evidence of true repentance and a true believer in Christ is ongoing repentance.  

 

Let us not forget that it is broken and contrite hearts which God will not despise; therefore, any ministry which fails to produce them, no matter how acceptable, is nevertheless in the sight of God a failure.  (John D. Drysdale, The Price of Revival, 33)

 

The churches that mature in health and effect lasting change are the ones that come to God in brokenness and humility and beg Him to produce the obedience of faith in them.  (Donald J. MacNair, The Practices of a Healthy Church, 231)

 

“Gospel repentance is not a little hanging down of the head.  It’s a working of the heart until your sin becomes more odious to you than any punishment for it.”  (Richard Sibbes)

 

Seldom do we know the precise chain of events that leads to a persons’ repentance.  Sometimes trials humble a person and make him more open to the Word.  Sometimes a fellow-Christian’s loving rebuke, delivered in a timely way, will reclaim a brother on the spot.  Sometimes the fog of sinful thinking and feeling and wanting simply lifts, and we see clearly the mess we’re in.  All we know for sure is that God has given us his Word and sacraments and promised that the Spirit works through these means to create in us a clean heart and renew in us a steady spirit.  But God gives us no timetable telling us exactly when he will do that in the individual cases we deal with.  (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 226)

 

“When our lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “repent (Mt 4:17), he willed that the whole life of believers should be one of repentance.’    (the first of Martin Luther’s ninety-five thesis nailed to the Wittenberg church door in 1517)   

 

Growth in holiness cannot continue where repenting from the heart has stopped. (J. I. Packer; Rediscovering Holiness, 139)

 

“Christians are called to a life of habitual repentance, as a discipline integral to healthy holy living…conversion must be continuous…There has to be for all of us some form of entry into the converted state, in which none of us is found by nature…But there is more: following from ‘the hour I first believed,’ conversion must now become a lifelong process.  Conversion has been defined from this standpoint as a matter of giving as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of God.  This means that our knowledge of God and ourselves grows (and the two grow together), so our conversion needs to be repeated and extended constantly.”  (J. I. Packer; Rediscovering Holiness, 121, 139, 140)

 

“Repentance means turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God, and as our knowledge grows at these three points so our practice of repentance has to be enlarged.”  (J. I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit, 104)

 

“So we receive Christ not by just repenting of our sins, but also of our best achievements as self-salvation, by making Christ not just an example, teacher, and helper but actually a savior.”   (Luther’s preface to the Galatians)

 

“The antithesis of worldly behavior, and the cure for conformity to the world, is set forth particularly in the “upside-down kingdom “ of the Sermon on the Mount.  The lifestyle of the kingdom is not proud but poor in spirit, not self-confident but meek and sensitive to conviction of sin, not self-righteous but repentant, not praise-seeking but God-obeying even to the point of suffering persecution, not vengeful but forgiving, not ostentatious or laborious in piety but secretive and simple, not anxious or acquisitive but content in serving God, not judgmental but merciful.  If these patterns can be nurtured in the church, they will affect the moral structure of the rest of humanity.”   (Richard Lovelace, Renewal as a Way of Life, 97)

 

“When we call sin “not sin” we burn the bridge back to God because we can’t repent of something we don’t think is wrong.”  (Steve Brown;  Key Life Romans Tape 2 Side 2)

 

(Ps 32:1-5) This is a classic description of the purifying of the heart through repentant faith.  (Richard Lovelace, Renewal as a Way of Life, 140)

 

We see, then, the importance of repentance.  Without it there can be no salvation.  A Christian character that is not built upon it, though the greatest pains may have been taken in its formation, and years may have been employed in its construction, will not stand before the storms of the last day.  It will certainly fall; and the higher it is, the greater will be its fall.  Paul places “repentance from dead works” as the bottom tier of stones in the foundation of the edifice which every Christian builds for himself to all eternity.  See Heb. 6:1. (B.T. Roberts, Fishers Of Men, 124)

 

The most powerful force among men, is not a nuclear reactor or bomb.  It is not the cumulative genius and willpower of mankind.  The most powerful force among men is a heart that is deeply and sincerely broken in recognition of one’s offending and disappointing a holy, gracious, and righteous God; who then pleads for mercy, grace, forgiveness and restoration in recognition that God alone can heal the breach created by one’s sinful actions.  It is the force unleashed by Almighty God in response to this prayer that can do so much more than move mountains. It actually changes the destiny of all of mankind.  It actually changes the stars (AKA: Knight’s Tale).   — Pastor Keith

 

“In America we make carnal recruits and ignore repentance.”  —Chuck Colson

 

“But what an evidence does this afford of the unspeakable goodness of God!  If even their very imperfect repentance—their turning from their evil ways, though alas it fell short of turning truly to the Lord—was, nevertheless, regarded by the Lord, how open must His ear even be to the poor, afflicted soul that turns truly to Himself!   We have an instance of God’s extreme readiness to be reconciled to us on our repentance in the merciful manner in which He dealt with Ahab.   We are told concerning that wicked monarch that “there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord.”   Yet when Elijah was sent to denounce the most dreadful judgments on his house, the wretched king, stunned with alarm and remorse, “rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.”  There is not the slightest evidence, but the contrary, that this was a vital change of heart.  But there was in it true regret; a sincere owning of God’s power, and hand, and righteousness; a justification, in so far, of the justice of God’s threatening; and a public testimony to the supremacy and government of God.  And though not accompanied by a renewal of nature and a repentance unto life, it was pleasing in the sight of God in so far as it went.  “And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me?  Because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil upon his house” (1 Kings 21:25-29).  (Hugh Martin; Jonah, 273-274)

 

“One part of repentance is to set the will against sinful behavior.  But in spiritual renewal, your eyes are opened to deeper forms of “flesh” in the heart from which sinful behavior springs—root attitudes and values that serve as forms of works-righteousness and self-will.  All Christians maintain ways to keep mastery of their own lives through residual schemes of self-salvation, ways of continuing to seek to earn our acceptance.  To do this, we fix our hearts on created things such as work, love, possessions, romance, acclaim, and so on . .. . Revivals always require a relinquishment of idols (Jgs 10:10-16; Ex 33:1-6).  As this deeper work of repentance proceeds, the Christian begins to hunger more for the love and presence of God.”  — Tim Keller

 

“Christians fight spiritual warfare by repentance, faith and obedience.” (David Powlison, Power Encounters: Reclaiming Spiritual Warfare, 36)

 

Beware lest you delay repentance so long that your heart become hardened to that point where your conscience ceases to function and the voice of God is unheard in your soul.    (Robert Roberts, Repentance, 240)

 

Repentance that renews precious fellowship with our incomparably wonderful God ultimately furthers our joy.  Just as we cannot enter into the repentance without sorrow for our guilt, we cannot emerge from true repentance without joy for our release from shame.  (Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace, 88)

 

To raise a crop of wheat, the fallow ground must be broken up, no matter with what kind of a team and a plow it is done.  With whatever church a sinner may unite, he must truly repent in the sight of God before he can find forgiveness and thus take the first step in the way of salvation.

But how few churches insist upon repentance as a condition of obtaining pardon for sins!  Yet the duty and necessity of repentance is taught in the Holy Scriptures with all plainness.  It seems strange that it could be overlooked by anyone who reads the Bible.

Repentance was the burden of the preaching of our Lord.  “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17).  With great variety of statement and illustration He continued to preach in the same strain.  “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Lk 5:32; Mt 9:13).  If this was His mission, is it not strange that men who neglect or purposely omit to preach repentance will style themselves his ministers?  He taught, as plainly as words can teach, that men must repent in order to escape perdition.  “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Lk 13:3).  What can be more explicit?

After His resurrection He enjoined His followers to preach repentance as a condition of forgiveness the world over.  “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Lk 24:45-47).  (B.T. Roberts, Fishers Of Men, 122)

 

“Growth in holiness cannot continue where repenting from the heart has stopped.”  (J. I. Packer,  Rediscovering Holiness, 139)

 

A proper view of God’s person is a powerful motive to true repentance.  (Robert Roberts, Repentance, 159)

 

The wages of sin is death. Repent before payday.

 

Good news, you’re a sinner!  Sin is the best news there is. . . because with sin, there’s a way out. . . you can’t repent of confusion or psychological flaws inflicted by your parents—you’re stuck with them.  But you can repent of sin.  Sin and repentance are the only grounds for hope and joy, the grounds for reconciled, joyful relationships. (John Alexander;  The Other Side)

 

Sin God can deal with.  That is what the cross is all about.  It is stiff-necked, hard-hearted, unrepentant religious, pious, do-gooders who are lost and without hope.

 

When a man is humbled by the law, and brought to the knowledge of himself, then follows true repentance (for true repentance begins at the fear and judgment of God), and he sees himself to be so great a sinner that he can find no means how he may be delivered from his sin by his own strength, endeavor and works.   (Martin Luther, Galatians, 94)

 

That same grace of God which triumphed over David’s sins and led to the establishment of God’s house remains God’s principal attribute available to human beings.  Available through repentance and reaching out to draw and sustain the weak, God himself always takes the lead in lifting up the fallen.  (Roddy Braun, Word Biblical Commentary: 1 Chr, 218)

“Leviticus 26 particularly describes an escalating intensity or seriousness of difficulties, an ever-worsening series of events that will come on a disobedient people.  Each calamity is designed to bring them to repentance; but if they still will not repent, then worse will come. In both passages the final blow is exile from the Land of Promise.  But in Lv 26:40-45 and Dt 30:1-10, God promises that when they are cast out of the land, if they will then take to heart what has befallen them and repent, that God will listen to their prayer and restore them to the land.”  (Expositor’s, Vol. 4, 87)

 

“The real difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is not their attitude toward sin…the difference is their attitude toward their good deeds.  The Pharisee repents of sin, but the Christian repents of his or her ‘righteousness’ as well, seeing it not only as insufficient, but sinful itself, since it was done in order to save ourselves without Christ.”  (Tim Keller, The Content of the Gospel, 27)

 

He admits his mistake and prays to God to forgive his sin.  David was asking for restoration to fellowship with God.  Was he also requesting release from all punishment?  Probably not.  The flow of the narrative and comparison with Nm 14:19-23 suggest that what was sought was mitigation of punishment, escape from the crushing weight of total annihilation which his sin had created.  If so, somber realism is manifested here.  Christians sometimes bandy about the notion of forgiveness as if it were an easy way of getting off the hook.  In the NT a profound sense of gut relief and of submission to a sovereign God belongs with forgiveness (see, for instance, Eph 2:1-4).  There is no such thing as cheap grace.  In the OT the grace of God is often displayed after an experience of judgment, in the mitigation of punishment and the renewal of fellowship and blessing.  It is salutary for the Christian to be reminded that sinning tends to unleash natural consequences of suffering that cannot be held in check.  To recall the instances given above, repentance cannot mend the consequences of drunken driving nor necessarily of marital infidelity.  (Leslie Allen, Mastering the OT, 1, 2 Chr, 141-42)

 

D-  There can be no restoration, reconciliation, renewal and reform without proper atonement: Thus the need for Jesus. (Rom 3:25; Heb 2:17; 1 Jn 2:2; 4:10)

 

This site, Jerusalem, is the only holy place; no other, whatever its antiquity or sanction, can be allowed a claim.  Here is a note which could be directed against dissident groups such as the Samaritans, who could claim greater antiquity for places such as Shechem and Bethel over against the temple at Jerusalem, which belonged only to the time of David and Solomon.  Polemic or not, the claim for Jerusalem is being made with the authority of a divine revelation and the word of David.  (Peter R. Ackroyd, 1 & 2 Chr, Ezra, Neh, 77)

 

I find almost invariably when people come to me in a state of spiritual depression, that they are depressed because they do not know these things as they should.  They say: ‘I am such a miserable sinner, you do not know what I have been or what I have done’.  Why do they say that to me?  They do so because they have never understood what He meant when He said: ‘I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance’.  The very thing they are saying in self-condemnation is the very thing that gives them the right to come to Him and to be certain that He will receive them.  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure, 156)

 

Any failure of actual righteousness is always a failure to live in accordance with our imputed righteousness.   We make something besides Jesus our real hope and life.  So believing the gospel means to repent, not just of our sins, but of the particular (self) righteousness(es) underlying our behavior.  That is the secret of change.   (Martin Luther’s Theses from Galatians Commentary -by Tim Keller)

 

We owed God an infinite debt that we were utterly unable to repay, “could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow” (Rock of Ages).  Even if we, following some sin of ours, pledged to give God a perfect love and even if we succeeded in giving it, we would only be giving him what he already had coming.  It would do nothing to erase the debt incurred by sin.  Therefore, God gave us what was his–his only Son Jesus.  Jesus offered up a sacrifice that cost him everything, though it cost us nothing.  (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 234)

 

Surely it is seen in our apprehension that the consequences of wrongdoing need not be merely punitive, but can be transformed into good through God’s everlasting redemptive mercy, the fullness of which is manifested in the cross of Christ.  Who can read the prayer of David, let me fall into the hand of the LORD, and not remember the trust of the sinless One, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit” (Lk 23:46).  (Abingdon Press, The Interpreter’s Bible Vol. 3, 416)

 

The law cannot condemn a believer, for Christ hath fulfilled it for him; divine justice cannot condemn him, for that Christ hath satisfied; his sins cannot condemn him, for they in the blood of Christ are pardoned; and his own conscience, upon righteous grounds, cannot condemn him, because Christ, that is greater than his conscience, hath acquitted him. (Thomas Brooks; Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, 143)

 

E-  Look to Jesus who was tempted as we are but without sin.  He is our righteousness and our hope. (1 Cor 1:30; 2 Cor 1:10; 5:21; 1 Tm 1:1; Heb 4:15; 12:1-2)

 

Repentance is a continued act of turning, a repentance never to be repented of, a turning never to turn again to folly.  A true penitent hath ever something within him to turn from; he can never get near enough to God; no, not so near him as once he was; and therefore he is still turning and turning that he may get nearer and nearer to him, that is his chiefest good and his only happiness, optimum maximum, the best and the greatest.  They are every day a-crying out, “O wretched men that we are, who shall deliver us from this body of death!” (Rom 7:24).  They are still sensible of sin, and still conflicting with sin, and still sorrowing for sin, and still loathing of themselves for sin.  Repentance is no transient act, but a continued act of the soul.  (Thomas Brooks; Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, 61)

 

It is ever the Holy Spirit’s work to turn our eyes away from self: to Jesus: but Satan’s work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us regard ourselves instead of Christ.  He insinuates, “Your sins are too great for pardon; you have no faith; you do not repent enough; you will never be able to continue to the end; you have not the joy of his children; you have such a wavering hold of Jesus.”  All theses are thoughts about self, and we shall never find comfort or assurance by looking within.  But, the Holy Spirit turns our eyes entirely away from self: he tells us that we are nothing, but that “Christ is all in all.”  Remember, therefore, it is not your hold of Christ that save you—it is Christ; it is not your joy in Christ that saves you—it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, though that be the instrument—it is Christ’s blood and merits; therefore, look not so much to your hand with which you art grasping Christ, as to Christ; look not to your hope, but to Jesus, the source of your hope; look not to your faith, but to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.  We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul.  If we would at once overcome Satan and have peace with God, it must be by “Looking unto Jesus.”   Keep your eye simply on him; let his death, his sufferings, his merits, his glories, his intercession, be fresh upon your mind; when you wake in the morning look to him; when you lie down at night look to him.  Do not let your hopes or fears come between you and Jesus; follow hard after him, and he will never fail you.  (C. H. Spurgeon as quoted by Alister Begg, Pathway to Freedom, 228-229)

 

“The more we encounter the holy God in our worship, the more we will recognize our utter sinfulness and be driven to repentance.  This, too, is an essential part of our praise.”    (Marva Dawn; Reaching Out without Dumbing Down , 90)

 

We need to realize that while God’s acceptance of each Christian believer is perfect from the start, our repentance always needs to be extended further as long as we are in this world.  Repentance means turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God, and as our knowledge grows at these three points so our practice of repentance has to be enlarged.  (J. I. Packer; Keep In Step With the Spirit, 104)

 

It is not the hookers and thieves who find it most difficult to repent: it is you who are so secure in your piety and pretense that you have no need of conversion.  They may have disobeyed God’s call, their professions have debased them, but they have shown sorrow and repentance.  But more than any of that, these are the people who appreciate His goodness: they are parading into the kingdom before you: for they have what you lack—a deep gratitude for God’s love and deep wonder at His mercy.  (Brenan Manning; Ragamuffin Gospel, 103)

 

Worship point:  I double dog dare you to attempt to live with the candor, bare-naked honesty and openness to your own sin that David was able to exhibit in his life.  For when you are able to see yourself as you really are, you will discover the true extent of your depravity and thus begin to truly appreciate the extent of God’s grace toward you.  Then worship will come quite easily.

 

If you don’t see the absolute holiness of God, the magnitude of your debt, the categorical necessity of God’s just punishment of your sin, and therefore the utter hopelessness of your condition, then the knowledge of your pardon and deliverance will not be amazing and electrifying!  — Tim Keller

 

Are you happy about yourself?  Are you happy about the state of the Church?  Is all well?  Can we go jogging along?  Meetings, services, activities—wonderful!  Is it?  Where is the knowledge of God?  Is he in the midst?  Is he in the life?  What is our relationship to him?   Face that question, and it will lead to this true godly sorrow and repentance, which will manifest itself in a practical manner.  May God have mercy upon us, open our eyes to the situation, and give us honest minds, and truth in our inward parts.  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones; Revival, 160)

 

Spiritual Challenge:  As you read God’s Word, as you go through life, as you evaluate your relationship with God and with others; attempt to be brutally honest with yourself and your self-evaluation.  Attempt to see your failure to be what God intended for you to be as a contributing factor in conflicts, heartaches, and problems in your life.  Then begin to feel empowered that since you have the power to make life miserable, God can also empower you to make life abundant.  But, you must first die to your agenda and your values.  Then, trust Jesus and let Christ live in you.

                                                                               

Self is a great let to divine things; therefore the prophets and apostles were usually carried out of themselves, when they had the clearest, choicest, highest, and most glorious visions.  Self-seeking blinds the soul that it cannot see a beauty in Christ, nor an excellency in holiness; it distempers the palate, that a man cannot taste sweetness in the word of God, nor in the ways of God, nor in the society of the people of God.  It shuts the hand against all the soul-enriching offers of Christ; it hardens the heart against all the knocks and entreaties of Christ; it makes the soul as an empty vine, and as a barren wilderness: “Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit to himself” (Hos 10:1).  There is nothing that speaks to a man to be more empty and void of God, Christ, and grace, than self-seeking. (Thomas Brooks; Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, 189)

 

A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself.  In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again each stumble–because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out.  (C. S. Lewis; Mere Christianity, bk. II, 64)

 

Be in the Word–Psalms 119:9, 11

“How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word…I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

Be in Prayer–Luke 22:40

“…pray that you will not fall into temptation.”

Be Transparent–James 5:16

“Confess your sins to each other.”

Be Steadfast–Psalms 51:10

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

Be Firm–1 Corinthians 16:13

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith.”

Be Sure to Resist the Enemy–James 4:7

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Be Swift to Run–1 Corinthians 10:12-13

“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you do not fall!  No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

Be Accountable–Galatians 6:1

“Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.”

Be Dressed for Battle–Ephesians 6:10-18

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes…”

Be Cautious about Friends–1 Corinthians 15:33

“Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’”

 

Careful attention to our actions should be followed by regular, serious reflection on them.  This will lead us to repentance, confession and forgiveness.  But it will also help us to reinforce and strengthen our resolutions, and learn to resist and reject temptations that have previously defeated us.  Even though it was not a Christian who first suggested it, it is good advice to review and examine all the activities of a day before we go to sleep at night.  This will give us comfort for what we have done right and correction for what we have done wrong.  It will also turn the shipwrecks of one day into markers directing our voyage the next day.  This could even be called the art of godly living.  This practice would contribute greatly to our growth in holiness. (Henry Scougal and Robert Leighton; God’s Abundant Life, 67)

 

“In this book you will find more than a dozen of these fast day messages described by Evan along with calls to corporate repentance issued by government bodies and church leaders.  Early Americans, despite their faults, knew that God hated sin and punished it in the unrepentance, including unrepentant believers and churches.  Because they feared God and His ability to punish, they sought to lead their people in quick and thorough repentance.

They were alert to signs of God’s manifest displeasure among them.  Natural calamities, which some of us treat with a shrug of a shoulder, were dutifully examined, prayed over and improved by godly men of old.  Even the unexpected death of a pastor, a youth, a government official, a farmer or a housewife had power to provoke them to inquire if God had a grievance against His people.

Their attitude of brokenness and contrition before God made them sensitive to what He was saying to them, just as the arrogancy and self-sufficiency of today’s church make it virtually immune to the voice of God and the promptings of His Spirit.  If they passed into dry seasons spiritually, they took this as a message from God and sought His face in renewed repentance and dedication.”  (Roberts; Sanctify the Congregation, xii)

 

“Men know their course is evil and such as God condemns.  They know that this and that and the other practices which they indulge in are sinful.  They dare not justify them, but they still their consciences with the thought that they intend to repent later.  They reckon upon no great difficulty in this, assuming the repenting is theirs, under their control, and all will be well.   They do not seem to realize that these purposes to repent in the future abundantly harden and make them bold to continue in sin against all counsel and reproof.  But alas, repentance is not so easy a work.  The heart that is now so much in love with sin and so full of enmity against holiness will not be easily changed.  A deceitful heart will find other excuses when the present ones are answered.  The old man will struggle hard before it is subdued.  Perhaps they do not know that  repentance is a grace of God’s giving.  The heart of stone is too hard for any created power to break.   Repentance is a gift that only God can give and fortunately when He gives it He does so freely.  Because men can only repent when God enables, Paul said to Timothy, “God peradventure will given them repentance” (2 Tm 2:25).  Many that presume upon having repentance at leisure find themselves disappointed.  Either a sudden death arrests them or a hard heart and a sleepy conscience seizes upon them.  It is a very bold adventure to reject God’s gracious offers, presuming upon future time or grace.”  (Robert Roberts, Sanctify the Congregation, 131)

 

 

 

Quotes to Note:

If the sparrow does not fall without the Divine permission, how much less does the obedient son or daughter suffer grief or pass through troublesome times or go down to death without the sanction of the present and watchful Lord.  (Joseph S. Exell, The Biblical Illustrator, 1 Chronicles, 76)

We have such smooth, almost secularized ways of talking people into the kingdom of God that we can no longer find men and women willing to seek God through the crisis of encounter.  When we bring them into our churches, they have no idea of what it means to love and worship God because, in the route through which we have brought them, there has been no personal encounter, no personal crisis, no need of repentance—only a Bible verse with a promise of forgiveness.  (A. W. Tozer; Whatever Happened to Worship?, 118)

 

Guilt makes us seek Christ, but gratitude should make us serve him.  Guilt should lead to confession, but without a response of love as the motive of renewed obedience, true repentance never matures.  (Bryan Chapell; Holiness by Grace, 192)

 

As a true shepherd of his flock, he did not run away and let the people bear alone the consequence of God’s anger on sin.  Rather, he took full responsibility for what he had done and asked God “Let your hand fall upon me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people” (v. 17).  It’s as if he were saying, “Strike the shepherd, and let the sheep go free.”  (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 230)

 

The whole question of the relationship between particular suffering and particular sin cannot be gone into here (though we shall find it again in Chr).  Jesus’ words in Jn 9:3 (as indeed the Book of Job) warn us against erecting the experience of David into a principle that is true in every circumstance.  Yet, perhaps it is right to point to the chastening or educative dimension of suffering (Rom 5:3ff.), since there seems to be something of this in God’s dealings with David in Chr.  Christians may expect God to fit them for his service in various ways, which may include an element of discipline.  Where hardship is in fact productive in terms of character we should not baulk at the thought of God’s chastening hand.  (J. G. McConville, The Daily Study Bible Series, 1 & 2 Chr, 72-73)

 

When David saw that the angel of death, with sword drawn, had reached Jerusalem, he fell to his face and claimed full responsibility.  David pleaded with God to spare the people, for he had sinned; he had acted foolishly.  It was noble of David to say so and assume all responsibility.  But the fact is, the entire nation had acted foolishly, and David was but the personification of that.  We see in all this that sin pays terrible wages.  The devil can make sin appear so inviting, so attractive, but then, after he has led us to buy into it, he leaves us all alone to bear the consequences.  (John R. Mittelstaedt, The People’s Bible: Samuel, 326)

 

In much the same way, Jesus assures us that the terrible last days will be shortened “for the sake of (God’s elect)” (Mt 24:22).  We know that God will permit days of unparalleled distress to overtake the world as a consequence of sin.  Just when it seems as if evil has reached its crescendo and there is no hope left, God will tell his destroying angels, “Enough!” and ring the curtain down on history.  He will do this for the sake of his people, his church, the temple in which he lives by his Spirit (Eph 2:22).  (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 229-30)

 

David’s actions in this passage were exemplary for the Chronicler’s post-exilic readers.  They were to respond appropriately to prophetic instruction, acknowledge their guilt, prepare for proper worship, and invoke God’s help.  Despite David’s failure in this passage, in the end he served as a model of righteousness.  (Richard L. Pratt, 1 & 2 Chr, A Mentor Commentary, 175)

 

 

David serves as a model for every backslider. There is always a way back to God.  — Leslie Allen

 

 

 Christ:

The Way Back to Glory