Scripture Daily

Context No. 1945 of 4322 · 2 Samuel

Context · Reflection

2 Samuel 24:10-14: in context

10David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people. David said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, the LORD, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.” 11When David rose up in the morning, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, 12“Go and speak to David, ‘The LORD says, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’” 13So Gad came to David, and told him, saying, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” 14David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let us fall now into the LORD’s hand, for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into man’s hand.”

After David sinfully numbers the people, his conscience smites him, and he confesses: I have sinned greatly; I have done very foolishly; put away the iniquity of your servant. God, through the prophet Gad, offers David a choice of three judgments: seven years of famine, three months of fleeing before his enemies, or three days of plague. And David answers: I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.

David's choice, in the moment he must face the consequences of his sin, reveals something he had learned about God: let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercies are great. Given a choice of judgments, David chose the one that would place him directly in God's hands rather than in the hands of men, and he gave his reason: because God's mercies are great. He trusted that even under God's discipline, even bearing the consequences of his sin, he was safer in the hands of a merciful God than at the mercy of people. God, he knew, though he must judge, is merciful, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness; and to fall into his hands, even in judgment, is to fall into the hands of mercy. There is a deep trust here worth learning. When we must face consequences, when discipline or judgment comes, we can be tempted to dread God's hand, to see him as harsh and severe, and to prefer almost anything to falling under his judgment. David saw it differently: better to be in God's hands than in man's, for God's mercies are great. Even God's discipline is the discipline of a merciful Father, tempered by a mercy that human hands do not have. This does not make the consequences of sin painless; David's choice still brought real suffering. But it means that even in judgment, we are dealing with a merciful God, and that to be in his hands, even under his discipline, is better than to be at the mercy of the merciless. Though he causes grief, Scripture says, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. When we must face the consequences of our failures, we can, like David, choose to fall into the hands of God rather than dread them, trusting that his mercies are great even in his discipline, and that we are safer under the correcting hand of a merciful Father than anywhere else. Let us fall into the hand of the LORD, David said, for his mercies are great; and even under judgment, the mercy of God is our refuge.

When I must face the consequences of my sin or failure, do I dread God's hand as harsh and severe, or can I trust, as David did, that his mercies are great even in his discipline, and choose to fall into the hands of a merciful God rather than fear them, knowing I am safer under the correcting hand of a merciful Father than anywhere else?

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