God Who Is Slow to Anger
2Samuel 24:1-25
We can say that 1/2 Samuel is the biography of King David. Most of the historical books in the Bible open with “the news of king’s death.” Joshua begins with “After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord” (Joshua 1:1), Judges with “After the death of Joshua” (Judges 1:1), 2Samuel with “After the death of Saul” (2Samuel 1:1), and 2Kings with “After Ahab’s death” (2Kings 1:1). In the introduction of 1Samuel as well, the death of priest Eli signals the end of the old generation and the opening of a new generation. And in the first part of 1Kings, the exit of King David overlaps with the emerging of King Solomon. The story in Chapter 24 and the last chapter of 2Samuel is the closing episode of David’s life recorded in the Bible. But this story is not so “honorable” or “glorious” for the leaving king. The old king committed a foolish sin and was punished by God. Nevertheless, this episode is as meaningful as the stories that shepherd boy David was anointed by Samuel, young David fought with and defeated Goliath, and at last, David was raised to king over the Kingdom of Israel. It is because, as always, God was revealed through David. In my sermon on Chapter 30 of 1Samuel, I said that David’s life was like “a clear mirror reflecting God.” In today’s story, God shows David three options of punishment and tells him to choose one. They are “three years of famine in his land,” “three months of fleeing from his enemies,” “and “three days of plague in his land.” To this offer, David replies, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of man.” Even when punishment was unavoidable for his transgression, David wanted to fall in the hands of God whose anger was burning, and not in the hands of man. Why? It was because he had something that he believed in his heart. It was “God whose mercy is great.” This belief must have been the most secure foundation that enabled David to live David’s life. In Psalm 30:5, David the psalmist sings, “For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” Through today’s sermon, I would like to think about God revealed and praised as such by David.
According to Verse 1, “Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel.” It was not mentioned clearly why God got angry against the Israelites. The word “again” suggests that there was a recurring issue that God had with his people. In several places in the Bible, God is praised for “being slow to anger but abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6, Psalm 86:15, Psalm 145:8). Nevertheless, we often encounter “the wrath of God.” God’s wrath is provoked by “people’s sin.” There is no other reason. What is repeated again and again in the Bible is people’s sin and the wrath of God. As much as people’s sin is stubborn, we cannot avoid the wraith of God. In Psalm 51:3, David confesses, “I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.” He also says in Verse 5, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” David did not excuse himself, saying, “I made a mistake just because of too much drink.” According to his confession, surprisingly, he was sinful at birth, even while he was in his mother’s womb. And his sin never left him but was always before him throughout his lifetime. Another surprising fact is that the same David, sinful as that much, also lived before God throughout his lifetime. Once my Bible teacher said to me, “Sin is counterevidence showing how great man is.” God is almighty, and He can do whatever he wants. Thus, “theoretically,” there cannot be “sin” or “sinner” against God. This is surely the case even for human kings with limited power. Herod the Great killed his most beloved wife Mariamne and two sons from her only because they could be a threat to his throne. Also when he heard from the Magi that the King of the Jews had been born, Herod gave orders to kill all the baby boys two years old and under in and near Bethlehem. In this way, there cannot be “sin” or “sinner” surviving the wrath of absolute power. But man before God is very exceptional. Man commits sin against God’s will. By doing so, he provokes God’s wrath. Not once or twice by mistake, he does frequently and persistently. Nevertheless, he survives the wrath of God. The fact that this is possible shows how great and how noble man is. That man can be a sinner to God is the counterevidence showing the greatness of the “privilege” that we are enjoying in God.
It is “the gospel” revealed in the Bible that there is a way for man to be a sinner and, at the same time, to survive the wrath of God. Let me read Verse 1 of today’s text. “Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ‘Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.’” This says that God was angry against Israel, and He incited David so that David might do something bad to Israel. Today’s text does not say how the Israelites triggered God’s anger. It shows only David’s sin. It was that David carried out a census of Israel and Judah. In Verse 10, David, after he had counted the fighting men, was conscience-stricken, and prayed to God, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now O Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.” According to Verse 1, however, David conducted this census because God incited him to do so. Why did God make David do such a foolish and sinful thing? It was probably for disclosing David’s “hidden sin” and the Israelites’ “hidden sin.” David ordered Joab, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.” Although Joab and the army commanders were not pleased with king’s command, David pressed it hard. According to Joab’s report in Verse 9, there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword in Israel, and five hundred thousand in Judah. This report suggests that the purpose of this census was to count the number of the fighting men. David was a “warrior.” In 1Chronicles 28:3, God said to David, who wanted to build a temple for God, “You are not to build a house for my Name, because you are a warrior and have shed blood.” David, as a warrior, spent many days of his life in the battlefields and shed a lot of blood. Through many fights, however, he experienced God’s being with him so vividly. In 2Samuel 22, which also described David’s last days, Verse 1 says, “The Lord delivered David from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” And David praises the Lord as such: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior - from violent people you save me. I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and have been saved from my enemies” (2Samuel 22:2-4). According to David’s praise, only the Lord was his salvation, his power, and his victory. But now when God defeated all his enemies and gave him peace, David was counting the number of fighting men who were able to handle a sword. And this might also be the heart of the Israelites. Their eyes saw only “David their king,” and did not see “Lord their God.” They were happy enough with peace and prosperity under the reign of King David. They enjoyed “God’s Kingdom without God.” And they forgot Lord God. I believe this is the sin of Israel that provoked the wrath of God.
It was in the wilderness that God met his people Israel for the first time. In Jeremiah 2:2-3, God remembers the old days: “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them.” The people of Israel loved God in the wilderness. It was “the first love.” In the barren land without food and drink, in the wilderness infested with ferocious beasts and enemies, the Israelites had only the Lord God for their lives. Although they were disciplined many ways for their weakness and unbelieving, they stuck to God like a sheep following its shepherd. Day and night, they looked up God and entrusted themselves in God’s caring and guidance. They didn’t have anything but God. They knew God and relied on Him, and no one else. But now living in the fertile land, the priests do not ask, “Where is the Lord?” the rulers do not know God, the leaders rebel against God, and the prophets prophesy by Baal, following worthless idols (Jeremiah 2:7-8). God remembers the love in the wilderness as “the devotion of your youth,” and “the love of a bride to the bridegroom.” God is missing the old days, and wants his people to go back to the first love.
When Peter met Jesus for the first time, he was catching fish in the Sea of Galilee. To him who had not get fish at all through the night, Jesus said, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” When Peter obeyed this word, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. Then, Peter fell at Jesus’ knees and begged, “Go away from me, Lord! I am a sinful man.” But Jesus did not leave Peter and, instead, he called Peter as his disciple and let him follow the Lord. Over the lapse of time, however, Peter’s thought had been changed little by little. Now he began to think that he was following Jesus, not out of “the Lord’s saving and calling,” but out of “his own faithfulness,” and he also thought that Jesus was in need of his being together, his guidance, and his protection. So, he blocked Jesus’ way to Jerusalem for suffering, and even drew out a sword to fight when Jesus was being arrested. Behind Peter’s fidelity, however, was his “self-righteousness” and “self-love.” After all, he denied Jesus three times. In front of people, he said, “I don’t know him.” Risen Jesus visited Peter again when he was catching fish in the Sea of Galilee. It was where Jesus had met Peter for the first time long ago. Jesus asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” Jesus did not call him “Peter” but “Simon, son of John.” When he met Jesus for the first time, he was Simon and he, as a sinner, fell at Jesus’ knees. Jesus called Simon as “Disciple Peter” and saved him. In this way, the two began “the first love.” Jesus remembered the love, and missing the old days, he wanted Peter to go back to the first love.
In Revelation Chapter 2-3 are recorded the letters that Risen Jesus was sending to the seven churches in Asia. The recipient of the first letter is the Ephesian church. There was one issue that Jesus had with the church. Jesus said to her: “I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place” (Revelation 2:4-5). Jesus’ warning is quite serious. It was because the Ephesian church had forsaken their “first love” to the Lord. In fact, the Ephesian church was “perfect” in every way. Jesus said to them that he knew their “deeds, hard work, and perseverance,” that they hadn’t tolerated wicked men, that they had tested false apostles and found them false, and that they had endured hardship for Jesus’ name (2:2-3). Nevertheless, all these merits couldn’t cover their fault of having forsaken the first love. What does Jesus mean by “the love you had at first”? There was one thing that St. Paul asked earnestly the saints in the Ephesian churches to remember: “Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:10-13). This was the first love they had with Jesus when they were called while they were hopeless Gentiles in the world without God. Jesus and St. Paul wanted them to remember this love.
Our sin is always there, and so is the wrath of God. David’s foolish deed in his last days shows that man’s sinful nature is quite stubborn and never goes away, and on top of that, it easily grows worse. Even in the letter to Timothy in his late years, St. Paul confessed, “I am the worst of sinners” (1Timothy 1:16). We may think that our sin and God’s wrath cannot stand together. Either we need to build up our own righteousness to cover our sins, or we have to run away from the face of Holy God and forget him forever. But, surprisingly, neither is the solution. Sinful man, as he is, can love Holy God and live before Him in peace and joy. It is because God is slow to anger and His mercy is great. In fact, we can fathom God’s merciful love to us and also can love God only when we are found to be helpless and hopeless sinners, and only when we have to rely on God’s mercy for our life and happiness. We love God only as much as we are found sinful. Thus, so special is the first love when we, as entirely corrupted sinners, met the Savior for the first time. At that time, God’s mercy alone was our righteousness, our life, our peace, and our power. Verse 25 of today’s text says, “David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.” Now we, with our intractable sins and weaknesses, come to Jesus on the cross. There, we see that we are helpless and hopeless sinners, and we hear Jesus’ everlasting merciful voice that forgives our sins, and calls us as his disciples with his glorious promises. His mercy never ends and is even growing greater and greater because our sin never ends. And this is the way how God loves us, and how we stay in his love. So even with our foolish sins, and even with the wrath of God, let us be confident in God’s mercy and go back to the first love that we had with God in Jesus Christ when we were nothing!