08 February 2010

God killed 70,000 because David did a census that God (or Satan) told him to do

This is not an easy one to explain, but I'll give it a try.

It all starts with God telling David to do a census, you know like the one the U.S. Constitution requires us to do every ten years.

And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah. 2 Samuel 24:1

Or was it Satan that asked David to do the census, as it says in 1 Chronicles 21.1?
Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. 
Oh well, maybe it was both. They often work together. In any case, David sent Joab out to take the census, and after 9 months and 20 days, Joab came back with the results: there were 800,000 sword-yielding men in Israel and 500,000 in Judah.
So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men. 2 Samuel 24.9
Or was it was 1,100,000 and 470,000 men in Israel and Judah, as it says in 1 Chronicles 21:5?
Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword. 
Whichever it may have been, either is comparable to the number of active duty soldiers in the U.S. military today. Not bad for small tribal kingdom in 1000 BCE!

After the census, David decided that he had done something wrong, which is weird since he had only taken a census that God told him to take.
David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done. 2 Samuel 24.10
And God was angry, too, at least that's what the prophet Gad told him. Gad said God offered him three choices:

1. Seven years of famine (or three years if you believe the story in 1 Chronicles 21),

2. Three months of losing battles,

3. Or Three days of pestilence.
When David was up in the morning, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad ... saying ... Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. ... Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days' pestilence in thy land? 2 Samuel 24.11-13
David couldn't decide, so God decided for him. God chose the three days of pestilence, thereby killing 70,000 men, which would mean at least a couple hundred thousand people (since only men count to God).
So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men. 2 Samuel 24.15
But God was still pissed off, even after he finished killing a couple hundred thousand people in the pestilence. So he sent an angel to destroy the city of Jerusalem. But before the angel destroyed the city, God "repented him of the evil" that he intended to do and told him to stop.
When the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. 2 Samuel 24.16
When David saw the angel that was still killing people, he said, "I've sinned, but what have these people done?" A good question, that God, of course, completely ignores.
David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? 2 Samuel 24.17  
Finally, Gad tells David to buy some land, make an altar, and kill some animals to make God quit killing people. So David buys some land for 50 shekels of silver (or 600 shekels of gold if you believe the story in 1 Chronicles 21), sets up an altar, and kills some animals for God.

And God finally stopped killing people.
Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite ... So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel. 2 Samuel 24.18-25
God's next killing: Solomon carries out the deathbed wish of David by having Joab and Shimei murdered

17 comments:

Matthew Blanchette said...

When your own chosen king, who's probably as violent as you, thinks you're going too far with the bloodlust... you know you've overreached, as a God.

Also, Steve; what the hell happened to the Brick Testament? There hasn't been any updates on that site since last year, at the latest...

Steve Wells said...

I'm not sure what's up with the Brick Testament. I suggested that he start on the Book of Mormon, since that has so many fun stories in it. But I doubt that he will.

Maybe he's gone on to other things. I'm hoping that I'll do that too someday, if I live long enough!

skanksta said...

Steve, I never want you to do other things !
Real shame about TBT...

Autumn said...

God is just. Therefore, whatever he does is just?

Matthew Blanchette said...

Steve, how are you going to illustrate God's killings once you get to stories that aren't covered by The Brick Testament?

Steve Wells said...

Well, I don't think that will be much of a problem, matt, since there are Brick Testament stories for almost all of them. I think that's part of the reason why new stories haven't been added lately -- most of the fun ones have already been done.

Matt S said...

I think the solution seems to go get some lego and make it yourself/selves.

Unknown said...

"This worked out well. Killing 200,000 Israelites but not harming David will teach him not to take a census when I tell him to take a census."

LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL !!!!!!!!!!!!
I can't stop laughing here hahahahhahah !!!!

Unknown said...

This board shows a misunderstanding of Scripture. It was NOT David's census that caused the 70,000 deaths. It was Israel's. You will note that all of those who died were from Israel, and not from Judah. Why? Because way back in Exodus 30:12, God told the Israelites that any time a census was taken, an offering had to be made to God. This is the 3rd census that Israel took after leaving Egypt, and not one offering has been made. Note the wording in Exodus, Each man shall give an offering for himself... that there be no plague among them. Note the punishment from the census David took. A plague. But it wasn't because David took a census. He was simply the instrument that God used. The plague came because God's people refused to do things God's way.

Steve Wells said...

Gosh, thanks for explaining that Kate!

God killed 70,000 men (and probably another couple hundred thousand women and children) because David had a census (as God "moved" him to do) without killing an animal for him first. God wanted his ration of blood, guts, and gore or he would kill hundreds of thousands of people in a plague.

And you worship this imaginary monster, Kate?

Unknown said...

And as we've seen SO MANY TIMES, "God's way" is SO compassionate and SO fair. Kate, you would have made a FANTASTIC Nazi.

The Pilot said...

You seem to be caught up in the idea that leaving this earth (death) is a bad thing.

Luke Cage151 said...

Lots of hypocritical ignorant Satanists running their mouths here. God is good and just and every single one of you is a liar and coward. One loser wants to call God a monster for judging Israel when they knew and chose to disobey him, but you know that this atheist idiot is perfectly fine with unborn babies being murdered out of convenience. At least you Satanists will be able to mock God right before you're deservingly thrown into the Lake of Fire.

Unknown said...

Luke Cage151
Calling people names is a sin for one and you're not being very loving or civil so you need to repent. And wtf are you claiming that these people are dishonest, cowardly, ignorant, hypocritical satanists who are pro choice?! >:( You missed the point and you think people deserve eternal torture. You and Yahweh are monsters.

Unknown said...

In all the War that David and the kings of Israel fought against their enemies God only fought the War and killed all the enemies of David through angels and by His mighty power . In this case David made a mistake by numbering his soldiers unconsciously falling into the sin of thinking that the strength of the number of able soldiers were the reason for his victory . As a sinful or proud thought is from the Devil, God who wanted discipline had to give the plague and kill several thousands to teach David a costly lesson that it is not by the strength of his huge number of soldiers that David had been winning the war so far .God who is the Creator of all Life and the actual King took the life of Millions of his creation to mould a country called Israel and eventually bring the Saviour of the World Lord Jesus Christ to be born in that chosen Nation and bring salvation to countless human beings in the past 2000 years !
Isn't it amazing Steve that there are more than 30 prophecies about the suffering of Lord Jesus Christ on the cross foretold in the Old Testament 1500,1000,700 years before the birth of Lord Jesus Christ which were fulfilled to the dot 1500,1000,700 years later in the sufferings of Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross!
It is also amazing that Sathpatha Brahmanam an ancient Sanskrit Vedic literature of 800 bc says prophetically a sloka ' Prajapathi Yagneh' which means Prajapathi the Vedic God of Creation should become a sacrifice to save Mankind ! Since no other God in the World ever became a sacrifice it is crystal clear that Lord Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the World who became a sacrifice to save Mankind !
Since the probability of these 30+ prophecies and many more prophecies about the birth and death and suffering of Lord Jesus Christ is one in several million and the probability of all the prophecies being fulfilled would be unimaginable , I request Steve Wells and all unbelievers and skeptics and complainers and Muslims and atheists and others to thank Lord Jesus Christ for creating them and giving them a beautiful life with countless beautiful things in life and confess right now their unbelief and sins to Him and ask forgiveness through His precious blood ! Go Act quickly to get your name written in the Book of Life and don't let the devil deceive you by putting suspicious and rebellious thoughts against your Creator Lord Jesus Christ !
Remember the devil is trying to prove that the Bible is not the Word of God but the hundreds of prophecies in the Bible which were fulfilled exactly 1500 years or many years later establishes beyond any doubt that the Bible is the Word of God and is 100% truth and by this we can rejoice that we are all going to get eternal life as the Saviour of the World Lord Jesus Christ has promised in the Bible in many places!

Unknown said...

Ravindra Kumar, well said. I, as you, would hope all unbelievers will become believers, ask God's fogiveness, and know Jesus is their Saviour. I am afraid the lake of fire will be enormous.

Unknown said...

To Steve and all others, I can tell you this. As a person I am immoral to the core. Apart from the grace of Lord Jesus Christ I'm worse than a Satan. If it were not for Christ I would have been dead in sin and ended up in Hell. You guys have no idea how God is JUST. Why should you and I live long enough? What good you and I have done to live? Even if we were struck dead right now GOD stands JUST. You and I cannot even comprehend His Holiness. He stands alone and the only self-sufficient being in and out of the universe. Also in the modern era Christians shunned from calling sin as sin. You guys would end up in Hell without Christ. Each of you can't perceive how much sin you have committed against a JUST and HOLY GOD. May His spirit open your eyes to repent and believe in LORD JESUS CHRIST. God bless!