1 Chronicles 21:16

_AND DAVID LIFTED UP HIS EYES, AND SAW THE ANGEL OF THE LORD STAND BETWEEN THE EARTH AND THE HEAVEN, HAVING A DRAWN SWORD IN HIS HAND STRETCHED OUT OVER JERUSALEM. THEN DAVID AND THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL, WHO WERE CLOTHED IN SACKCLOTH, FELL UPON THEIR FACES._ David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel ... stand between the earth and the heaven. This vision was exhibited to David, that he might have time to offer up prayers for the city, which was going to have the infliction of the plague. So that the hovering of the angel was to show that there was room to pray for mercy, just as God was going to deal out the punishment. It was not as yet fallen on the land, nor yet had done any execution. 'When God's wrath is to be executed, the earthly and visible ministers of His judgments, and the unseen armies of heaven, are evermore leagued together. The natural eye sees only those; the spiritual ey...

Here a picture of awful grandeur takes the place of the bare statement of the earlier historian 2 Samuel 24:17. And here, as elsewhere, the author probably extracts from the ancient documents such circumstances as harmonize with his general plan. As the sanctity of the temple was among the points whereon he was most anxious to lay stress, he gives in full all the miraculous circumstances attending this first designation of what became the temple site (marginal reference “k”) as a place “holy to the Lord.” DAVID AND THE ELDERS ... CLOTHED IN SACKCLOTH, FELL UPON THEIR FACES - Facts additional to the narrative of Samuel; But facts natural in themselves, and in harmony with that narrative. Similarly, the narrative in 1 Chronicles 21

EXPOSITION This very important chapter in David's history is the parallel of 2 Samuel 24:1, which contains some details not found here, _e.g._ the route taken by those who went to number Israel (2 Samuel 24:5), and omits others. This chapter furnishes one of the clearer proofs (in respect of what it supplies, _not _found in Samuel) that its indebtedness is not to that book, but to a work open as well to the compiler of Chronicles as to the writer of Samuel. Its contents fall into five sections. 1. David's command to number the people, with Joab's remonstrances (2 Samuel 24:1). 2. The means taken to rouse David to a sense of his sin, and

See Gill "1Ch 21:1"....

May the Lord instruct us while we read. Perhaps We shall understand it better if we begin in the 21 st chapter at the 26 th verse. 1 Chronicles 21:26. _And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering. And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof._ «And David built there» that is upon the threshing-floor of Ornan. The place of sacrifice was the place of salvation. The angel was smiting Jerusalem, but as soon as the sacrifice was offered the angel sheathed his sword. 1 Chronicles 21:28. At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the thresh

ANGEL (_ See Scofield) - (Hebrews 1:4). _...

10. THE NUMBERING OF THE PEOPLE AND THE PUNISHMENT CHAPTER 21 _ 1. David's failure in numbering the people (1 Chronicles 21:1)_ 2. David's confession and the message of God (1 Chronicles 21:8) 3. David's answer and the punishment (1 Chronicles 21:13) 4. The altar in the threshing floor of Ornan (1 Chronicles 21:18) On the alleged discrepancy between the statement in 2 Samuel 24:1 “And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and He moved (lite

1 CHRONICLES 21:1 TO 1 CHRONICLES 22:1 THE NUMBERING OF THE HOSTS; THE PUNISHMENT (see notes on 2 Samuel 24:1). There are many variations from the corresponding passage in 2 S., and it is uncertain whether the Chronicler used any other source or not. 1 Chronicles 21:1. And Satan stood up: in 2 Samuel 24:1 the temptation comes from Yahweh; the Chronicler altered this as unfitting in view of the developed doctrine of God which had supervened. In the earlier literature the term Satan means adversary ...

_lift up_ The old form of the past changed in modern editions to _lifted up_; cp. Genesis 22:4, etc. _saw the angel_ The full description of the vision is peculiar to Chron.; cp. 2 Samuel 24:17. _and the elders_of Israel, who were _clothed in sackcloth_ The words supplied in A.V. are unnecessary, and are omitted in R.V. The wearing of sackcloth was doubtless accompanied with fasting; cp. Jonah 3:5....

LESSON TEN 21-22 A MILITARY CENSUS AND A PLAGUE 13. DAVID'S MILITARY CENSUS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES (Chapter 21) INTRODUCTION The final serious mistake David made was this military census. God did not withhold judgment. Israel suffered. David repented and begged for God's mercy. Preparing for the building of the Temple and charging Solomon with the responsibility of carrying out the plans occupied king David's last days. TEXT 1 Chronicles 21:1. And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. 2. And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them. 3. And Joab said, Jehovah make his people a hundred times as many as they are: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants; Why doth my lord require this thing