We have been looking at the mistakes of David, and have found that God dealt more severely with the first than with the second mistake, because the first arose from carelessness about Scripture, the second from a misunderstanding of the mind of God. It is a more serious thing to neglect the written word, than to mistake the dispensation. There was no Scripture forbidding David to build the house; there was Scripture which commanded the. Levites to bear the Ark.
We have now arrived at the period of David’s greatest mistake, more than a mistake—a grievous sin—the matter of Uriah the Hittite. This is his worst day; but we have not got the details here-not that God hides them, for we have them in the book of 2nd Samuel; but the Spirit is doing another business in this book. From the 21St chapter to the end of the book forms the fourth scene in the life of David. Did you ever observe a ruling desire in the mind of Christ? You will say, It was healing the sick. That is most true; but His prominent characteristic was, Zeal for the house of God. He began with it. “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” What we see in Jesus, in the gospel narrative, we find here in David—the servant walking in his Master’s steps, or rather giving us a prophetic notice of what his Master would be. We have seen David’s zeal for the house; to him the throne was valuable, chiefly, as subservient to the glory of God. We find a regret for the want of this zeal expressed by Paul to Timothy:— “For I have no man like-minded, who will naturally care for your state.” Timothy alone exhibited it. Is there not much of this amongst us—want of care for the house of God! But David had this zeal, and, let me say it, it was characteristic of the servant. He began his reign with zeal for the house of God, and made it his business to bring back the Ark. He made a mistake, you say. Yes, that he did; but still his mind was to bring back the Ark of God. And when his mistakes were rectified, it became the business of his life to prepare for a house for God. How little of such a mind have we! Ah! we enclose ourselves with walls, mark well their bulwarks, and tell the towers thereof, but where is that natural care for God’s house of which Paul speaks to Timothy. Timothy naturally cared for these things. David made the care of God’s house his business; he was a servant, and his business was to see that his Master was glorified.
Here (chapter 21.) we find Satan at his old work again, which he began in Eden instilling pride into Eve, and now he stirs up David to number Israel. This was God’s prerogative; numbering is a sign of possession; a man numbers his cattle. David’s numbering Israel was a mark of appropriating them to himself. This was God’s inheritance, and He alone should number Israel. God numbers the stars; He telleth them all by their names. Even Joab disliked the thing, but his judgment was over-ruled, and he went forth to number Israel. Now, you find the Lord can keep His distance from David. (Verse 7.) Do you know what it is to have God to keep at a distance from you? There is such a thing as God retiring from communion with His people. He can have no communion with the flesh. If therefore, we walk in the flesh we have not communion with Him; the moment we touch the flesh, we are out of communion with God. Of course I do not speak of salvation, I speak of communion, and there is none between light and darkness. David discovers his sin, and confesses it and God sends Gad to reply. This reminds me of the addresses to the Seven Churches, in Revelation, being sent by an angel to John, and so to the churches. Was the Gospel preached to Paul by an angel? No, indeed. But as God was retiring from the corrupted churches, He sent His messages by an angel. Have you ever had a message from an angel? Has God ever been constrained to send you a message in a roundabout way. Ah! but is it not blessed to have the word direct from God—to retire to the closet, and there listen to His own voice? Here God sends His message, and He does not, as is usual, call David His servant. He gives him his choice of three things as punishment. Observe how beautifully the renewed mind speaks in David. It was not against his neighbor he had sinned, it was against God, and yet he would rather commit his cause to the God he had offended, than to man whom he had not injured. It is a great thing to be able to trust God in the day of rebukes and chastening!
We have another instance of the same thing in Zikiag. The destruction of Ziklag was the fruit of David’s sin. David gazed at it in flames, and turned round to encourage himself in God. Jacob is another instance. While the angel wrestled with him, his faith revived. If we knew the Scriptures, we could never be in a perplexity. We should meet plenty to sadden, nothing to perplex if the Word of God dwelt in us richly in all wisdom. God sent His own sword in the angel’s hand. (Verse 15.) The beginning of all blessing is in the heart of God. God’s bosom is the birthplace and the dwelling-place of grace. If you do not trace blessing to that source, you are not high enough; if you trace evil there, you have not soared too high. “Every good and perfect gift cometh down from above;” but “let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God.” God looked on the destroying angel, and said, “It is enough, stay now thy hand.” David looked on him, and instead of seeing him still advancing in the work of destruction, he sees him pause, sword in hand, the sword extended over Jerusalem. David and the elders were clothed in sackcloth, and David said unto God, “Is it not Yes, this is ever the language of the repentant soul. “It was all my own doing.” Like the Syrophoenecian woman, let the Lord say what He will of her, she answers, “Truth, Lord.” I do not say to thee, Lord, that I am not a dog, but this I tell thee, Lord, the dogs sometimes eat of the crumbs that fall from their master’s table! This is the language of the repentant soul. Yet, God is at a great distance; He interposes with the angel and God, between Himself and David. It must be so. The moment you are in the flesh, the Lord removes to a distance. What communion hath light with darkness? You have done with God in the Spirit when you are living in the flesh. It does not touch your salvation, but it does touch communion.
What a picture it is! The king and the princes in sackcloth, and the angel with the drawn sword hovering above (verse 18). Then the angel commissioned Gad to say to David to go to Oman’s threshing-floor, and set up an altar; and of course David was glad to obey. Ornan bows down before him and offers to give him the threshing-floor and everything about it freely. “No,” says David, “I will buy it at its full price. I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt-offerings without cost.” We all know what a moment of softness is, a moment when the heart is more impressible than at ordinary times, more capable of good impressions. There are times of public calamity, that make men gracious. “How gracious thou art when pangs come upon thee!” I have seen people kneel in the street in a violent storm. This is natural. It is neither to be condemned, nor trusted. It may all pass away. How sensitive people were during the cholera! No one knew when his own turn might come. And was not the plague in the land? Might not Oman be the next victim? At such a moment, of what value was his property? Ah! did we realize the truth that this world is the city of destruction, what a light hold we should take of things here! Could we be so careful, and bargain so jealously, did we remember that Oman may however, have truly desired to give all, but David will pay for all. He erects an altar and calls on God, and God answers him by fire from heaven. And then God desires the angel to sheath the sword. Not till then, though the desire originated in His own bosom. Do you believe that the altar which God had appointed has had the power to sheath the sword of the angel! In the Gospel the news is brought us that Christ has answered the sword of judgment; but the victim, the blood, and the altar were all appointed for us before the foundation of the world! So God loved the world!
David now finds God looking at the altar, and no longer at the sin. So He does for us. He looks at Christ and not at us, or rather He looks first at Christ, and then at us. And faith follows and puts the blood before the eye of God! Now we find David absolutely afraid to stir one step from the altar. The tabernacle and the altar were at Gibeon, but David says, “This is the house of the Lord God.” (Chapter 22:1.) Here God had answered him; here he would abide. Beautiful picture of the soul clinging to Christ! The altar had satisfied the throne. David knew it and was satisfied, and this was as it should be. The conscience of the sinner must be obedient. You say, my hand and foot must, be obedient. Surely, but must not my conscience also? God has provided a rest for my conscience, and it is my duty to accept it. David did so, and would not stir from the altar. He exults in it. “This is the house of God.” And where is the house of God found? Where the salvation of God is celebrated in the Lord’s Supper. This is the Gospel in the house of God, the remembrance of His death on the resurrection day. Salvation is the ground of worship, as the Lord said to the woman of Samaria, “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews.” That is the true ground of worship. Nor can I worship in the house of God, till I know what the salvation of God is. The house is to be built where mercy rejoiced over judgment. This is all David needs, and the remainder of his life is spent in, preparing for the house. He did not put one stone upon another; he was content to be nothing. In its way it was almost finer than Paul’s service to see the zeal of God’s house eating him up; and so his story ends, he lays up more than the house required of his own proper bounty. This is like Jesus. He was the Servant while here. He will return as the Son. He was the eternal Son of the bosom; the Son as conceived of the Virgin, and declared to be the Son of God, with power, by the resurrection; but as regards man, He was the Servant. When He comes again, it will be as Son and Heir to inherit all things. “Lord, remember David and all his afflictions; how he aware unto the Lord and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob; surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, nor slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.”