GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
1 CHRONICLES 21:16-17
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16 David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. 17 And David said to God, “Wasn’t I the one who gave the command to count the people? I am the one who has sinned and done great evil. But these sheep! What have they done? O LORD my God, please let your hand be against me and against my father’s house. But do not let the plague be on your people.”
Here in the middle of David’s confession and the end of the three-day plague on the people, we will take a moment to examine three details that deserve some attention.
First, David does not avoid his responsibility for his sin.
The righteous man does not avoid or deny his guilt. Ezra stood and confessed: “He we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence” (Ezra 9:15). When God confronted Job, the patriarch humbly admitted, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand; things too wonderful for me to know” (Job 42:3). When David’s sin with Bathsheba was exposed, David said, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:13). It is never wise to deny a sin, but when a leader denies public wrongdoing, there might be a few misguided souls who quickly try to defend him, but most of the people will see him as a liar and a coward, and especially as a man who refuses to take responsibility. He will be compared to a swindler who always begs for money but never pays his debts, and who repays evil for good. “Evil will never leave that man’s house” (Proverbs 17:13). In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees were like that, always accusing Jesus of things, but when their own hypocrisy and error was shown to them, they didn’t change. They just got angrier and angrier, until they got angry enough to kill Jesus (Mark 14:1).
Second, David describes the nation of Israel as sheep.
References in the Bible to sheep come in three or four forms. First: actual sheep, This is the more common reference in the books of Moses and in the former prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles). In Moses and the former prophets, I count 93 out of 98 references to sheep (not counting lambs, goats, or “flocks”) as references to actual sheep. The other five are like this one in our text, where David compares God’s people to sheep.
Then, in the rest of the Old Testament, the scales tip the other way. There are 31 references to sheep as God’s people in the Psalms and the prophets (such as Isaiah 53:6, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray”), and just 16 references to actual sheep (“The land by the sea will be a place for shepherds and sheep pens,” Zephaniah 2:6). There are also three place names like “the Sheep Gate” and Job’s reference to his sheep dogs (Job 30:1). In the New Testament, there are only five times when “sheep” means the animal (John 2:14; Revelation 18:13), and one place name (John 5:2). The other 37 “sheep” in the New Testament are all references to God’s people.
Sheep need to be herded and cared for, or else they wander off and simply become food for predators. Such are the “sheep without a shepherd.” But when they are herded, they provide wool and milk for those who care for them. Sheep go where their shepherd leads them, and so if the shepherd takes them into danger, he is the one who is at fault. This is what David means when he says, “These sheep! What have they done?” Of course, every human being is a sinner; all are accountable for their personal sins (Romans 3:19). But when the leader, whether King, President, Pope, father or husband, leads his people astray, then God’s judgment is: “I will hold them (the shepherds) accountable for my flock” (Ezekiel 34:10).
Third, how do we know when there is an important piece of symbolism in the Bible, and when we might be reading something into the text that was not in the mind of the Holy Spirit as he inspired the writing of the text?
To begin with, we must remember that the term “word” when we are speaking about the Word of God does not only mean the spoken word directly from God’s mouth or the mouth of his messengers.
(a) Of course, it does include those things (Mark 16:15).
(b) But is is also the written word (“you diligently study the Scriptures,” John 5:39),
(c) and it includes symbols that remind people of God’s word and promises, such as the snake Moses lifted up in the desert (John 3:13-14). Therefore, the artwork, windows, certain banners, crosses, and so on, proclaim the Word of God as well.
(d) And there is also the truth of the law and gospel as it is pondered in the heart.
But what about something that seems to be a symbol in the Scripture to one person, but not to another? Are the three days of plague followed by the voice of God ending the destruction a reminder or pre-figuring of the three days Christ’s dead body was in the tomb, ended all at once by his glorious resurrection from the dead? The points of comparison are the three days of plague followed by a complete reversal and end to the punishment. However, the difficulty here is that although I have been led at least to think about this, nowhere in the Scriptures is that comparison made. There is a comparison of Christ in the tomb with the account of Jonah in the belly of the whale, and that was made at least twice by Jesus himself (Matthew 12:40; 16:4). Therefore in my judgment, I would be cautious and hesitant to assert that my impression of this text is absolutely correct, but at the same time if some excellent Christian believer– such as my dad, or my sister, or my brother– is comforted to think of Jesus and Easter when reading or pondering this account (this falls under “d” above), then the Holy Spirit is at work and I should not take that away from them, as long as such a comparison does not conflict with Scripture.
We must certainly confess with all our hearts that the words of David at the end of our passage here were the meaning of the prayer of Christ as he prayed “Father, forgive them” on the cross: “Do not let the plague be on your people.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 1 Chronicles 21:16-17 After three days…