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run from wrong choices

1 Chronicles 21:1-17

1 Chronicles 21:1 Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to count the people of Israel.
1 Chronicles 21:2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count Israel from Beer-sheba to Dan and bring a report to me so I can know their number.”
1 Chronicles 21:3 Joab replied, “May Yahveh multiply the number of his people a hundred times over! My lord the king, aren’t they all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”
1 Chronicles 21:4 Yet the king’s order prevailed over Joab. So, Joab left and traveled throughout Israel and then returned to Jerusalem.
1 Chronicles 21:5 Joab gave the total troop registration to David. In all Israel, there were one million one hundred thousand armed men, and in Judah itself, four hundred seventy thousand armed men.
1 Chronicles 21:6 He did not include Levi and Benjamin in the count because the king’s command was repulsive to Joab.
1 Chronicles 21:7 This command was also evil in God’s sight, so he afflicted Israel.
1 Chronicles 21:8 David said to God, “I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. Now, please take away your servant’s guilt, because I’ve been very foolish.”
1 Chronicles 21:9 Then Yahveh instructed Gad, David’s seer,
1 Chronicles 21:10 “Go and say to David, ‘This is what Yahveh says: I am offering you three choices. Choose one of them for yourself, and I will do it to you.'”
1 Chronicles 21:11 So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what Yahveh says: ‘Take your choice:
1 Chronicles 21:12 three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes with the sword of your enemy overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the Lord — a plague on the land, the angel of Yahveh bringing destruction to the whole territory of Israel.’ Now decide what answer to return to the one who sent me.”
1 Chronicles 21:13 David answered Gad, “I’m in anguish. Please, let me fall into Yahveh’s hands because his mercies are very great, but don’t let me fall into human hands.”
1 Chronicles 21:14 So Yahveh sent a plague in Israel, and seventy thousand Israelite men died.
1 Chronicles 21:15 Then God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but when the angel was about to destroy the city, Yahveh looked, relented concerning the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough, withdraw your hand now!” The angel of Yahveh was then standing on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
1 Chronicles 21:16 When David looked up and saw the angel of Yahveh standing between the land and the sky, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem, David, and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.
1 Chronicles 21:17 David said to God, “Wasn’t I the one who gave the order to count the people? I am the one who has sinned and acted very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Lord my God, please let your hand be against me and against my father’s family, but don’t let the plague be against your people.”

run from wrong choices

The first wrong choice David made was to listen to the voice of Satan. His second wrong choice was to ignore the voice of Joab. David knew that Joab was right – that taking the census was wrong – but he decided to do what he wanted anyway. The result was that thousands paid for David’s presumption with their lives. God gave David a choice between three possible punishments. David chose to fall into the hands of God, because he knew God would be merciful. We always pay a price when we know something is wrong and yet choose to do it anyway.

LORD, give us enough sense to run from wrong choices.