David’s Sinful Census & Angels Acting On Earth

MHFM: In 1 Chronicles 21 we find another example of how angels are intimately involved in events on Earth. God was very displeased with King David for having ordered a census of the people. It was a sin of pride. David repented, but God gave him a choice of three punishments.

1 Chronicles 21:10-13- “‘Thus says the Lord, three things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’ So Gad came to David and said to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, ‘Choose what you will: either three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the Lord, pestilence on the land, with the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.’ Then David said to Gad, ‘I am in great distress. Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

David chose his punishment, and 70,000 men of Israel fell. We also read that God sent an angel that would have destroyed Jerusalem. However, God stopped the angel from destroying Jerusalem because David repented and sacrificed to the Lord in obedience. This reminds us that angels are active in events on Earth. This is true of good and bad angels.

1 Chronicles 21:14-27- “So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel fell.  And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw, and he relented from the calamity. And he said to the angel who was working destruction, ‘It is enough; now stay your hand.’ And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. And David said to God, ‘Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father’s house. But do not let the plague be on your people.’ Now the angel of the Lord had commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite… And David built there an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings and called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering. Then the Lord commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.”