Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said

Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast, how you, we are looking at the end of the, another week end of school for most people. So congrats to all of the kiddos out there and buckle up to all the parents out there because it's summer break. That's right. I. It's gonna be good. Just laying out on that one. You cleaned up that gap thing. Thought I thought you were gonna say things. Yeah, no, I, waiting for you to say stuff. You're a parent too. I thought you might chime in and I am a parent. You are parent. I'm excited to have my kids home, so I'm not mad about that. Yeah, I know. The time is short and my time with them will eventually be over and I'll be missing all these summer vacations with them, even though it's a bit harder to go to work. I'll admit that. Yep. When I have to drive away and everyone's at home and they're gonna go off and do things, and Kristen's oh, we're gonna go play at the, we're gonna to the park, or we're gonna go to this place or that place today. And I thought, oh, splash pad. You like the splash pad? Sorry. Have I do love I'd like to be with them at least. Not Splash Pad myself. I don't know. If the, I guess it depends on the weather and shoving little kids outta the way to get to the sprinklers. My turn kid. But you won't have to for the first week at least, you're gonna be out off at least for the next week, right? Yeah. We have some friends coming from outta town from California. Okay. So at least for half of the time we'll be doing all sorts of things with them. Cool. And I'm not entirely sure what we're gonna be doing just yet. We're trying to still figure out some of that. So for the first half of the week, we'll have time to, I don't know, get stuff done that we don't feel like we have time to do right now. I get the car in the shop. So if if that goes well, we might be able to drive a little bit. We'll see how that goes. So yeah it's it, it's all planned, at least in my mind. It's all the pieces are there. So I'm not sure if there's gonna be anything that I might come back and I might be more tired. That's a possibility. Yeah. I'm not gonna be rested. We'll see. Have you have these people been out to visit you previously? Have they been here before? No. These people are Okay. So it's they're friends. In that I, I've known them since, probably since I was 13 give or take. They're so Calvin and Brenda Kelly are. Are a family that took me and my brother in, and they took us back and forth to church for several Sundays. Took us out to lunch with them several times. These are one of the families that I really owe a lot of my Christianity to because they just instructed and informed it so deeply. And so I got back in touch with Brenda not too long ago just to check in on 'em, say, Hey, how you guys doing? It's been years. And she's Hey, I'd love to come see you guys. We're like, that'd be awesome. We'd love that. Which is why I took some of the time off in the first place. 'cause I thought, oh, that'd be really cool to see that happen. And one thing led to another and there's complications and I don't know if we can make it anymore. And now it looks like they're gonna be able to make it calvin was one of my leaders back in, I guess it must've been middle school, junior high. We had this thing in the charismatic church, the Assemblies of God called Royal Rangers. Have you ever heard of this thing? I've, I have. Yeah. So it's the equivalent to Boy Scouts. They have badges and things like that. They have their equivalent Eagle Scout. Anyway, he was one of my leaders and Brenda was one of my, just one, one of those people that. She's a teacher, was a teacher. Anyway, she's retired now, but had the impact on my life and many other people's lives that just stays with you. So I'm really excited to, to host them and excited to spend time with them and have my kids meet them too, because they're so impactful to my life. That's great, man. That's awesome. That is that'll be a good time. I was asking that question. 'cause you've got the world as your oyster. Then you could take 'em out to Fort Worth. You could take them. Downtown be like, look, this is the X on the ground where Kennedy was shot, and yeah, here's the grassy knoll. And yeah, it depends on the weather, all that stuff. Yeah, I remember. Yeah, if the weather is a common, these are Californians. That's true. So if you take them out in the Texas humid heat, which is here, they might die. Yeah. And. Even though I've acclimated, I still don't like it. Yeah. I'd rather not have it. Then take him to the splash pad and you and I might, you and Calvin can shove all the kids outta the way to get the best features. Calvin's a foodie, so I'm gonna need to find places that are Oh, okay. He's a foodie. He loves a good meal and so I, I can only think of barbecue. Barbecue's gotta be barbecue. Especially if Calvin's whipping out the the credit card to pay for that mail. Yeah, that's, we'll see. We'll see. Anyways. Let's jump into our daily Bible reading for the day. We are in two Samuel 24 and one Chronicles 21 through 22, and then Psalm 30. So all that to say, by the way, next week as you're listening and you're gonna wear the Dulcet towns of sounds of Pastor Rod, he's gonna be outta town. So dulcet towns are outta sound, dulce towns and outta sound. Yep. He's gonna be away from the office. So we're excited for him to get that rest. Second Samuel 24, we have David's census is what the ESV has called this because that's what happens in here. But we've got a problem and let's just tackle it right off the bat because second Samuel 24 1 says, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. Okay? So we can agree on that across accounts, right? But then it says he, which would be the object there, which would be the Lord incited David. Now to incite means to provoke or to cause someone to do something against them saying, go and number Israel and Judah. Now if we jump over to our other reading for today, starting in one chronicles. 21. 21. Yeah, we're gonna find something else. It's gonna say then Satan stood against Israel and incited David did number Israel. Now. We talked about this last year. I think we, we talk about it every time we come across this passage because it's worth note and it's noteworthy. And so I just wanna double down on, on what we've covered before. But that is the, these two things appear to contradict. Themselves. God is not Satan, right? Let's all agree on that. God and Satan not the same person. I feel like I can agree with this. Awesome. That's good. So what do we do here? I don't think this needs to cause much consternation if we've read the Book of Job, which in our chronological reading we've already read the book of Job. So if you go to Job and Satan appears before God and says, Hey. God have you considered job? Or God says to Satan, have you considered job? And Satan says, does he fear God for no reason? And God says why don't you go and make his life miserable? That's my version, at least the PSV, the PJ standard version. And Satan goes and does just that. You could ask the question, who afflicts job? Is it God or is it Satan? And the answer would be. Yes. And that's what we have here. Who incited David to number the people of Israel. Is it God or is it Satan? And the answer is yes. It appears that God allowed Satan to do this in David's life out of a, an extension of his hand of discipline on the nation of Israel as a whole. What's troubling to me is we don't know why. We don't know why God's angry with Israel at this point other than the text says that he was, that he's angry against Israel. And maybe it's a similar situation to what we read not long ago with the crimes of Saul against the Gibeonites. God is not a God with a short memory. He can remember when when offenses need to be righted and made right. And so perhaps it's something that's even. In their past that he's now angry again over and and he's causing David to do this, which then leads to his hand of discipline on them. But Pierre, any, anything else to say on the variation between two Samuel 24 and one Chronicles 21? No, just to point out again, that scripture doesn't have a problem that, that we do, we will feel the tension of these accounts and say, man, I wonder how you put these pieces together when Second Samuel and First Chronicles are just asserting this they're not apologizing for it. They're not trying to offer some kind of. Some rationale to say, this is how this works together. It's man's choice. It's a real choice. He's got responsibility, but God has perfect sovereignty. And this is what I love and sometimes find frustrating about scripture, is that it just, this is what it is. This is how it is. This is the way life works. And so I think one of the lessons for us is that often, and it's not bad to ask the questions, but sometimes the questions can be so confounding for us and so difficult and such a brain twister that for some people, and I'm not overstating this at all, I don't think they can have a crisis of faith. And say, how can God do this? Scripture says here, this is in second Samuel 24. This is the anger of the Lord. He was incited against David and yet in first Chronicles 22 2021. It says Satan. I think our job as Christians is to humbly receive both pieces of information and say, okay God does all things without sin because he's perfectly righteous and perfectly just, and scripture itself is infallible. It's telling us the truth of these matters. So we have to assume then the way that God is working is that he is utilizing the devil and a sinless way to accomplish his sinless works and his desires. How that works? I don't know. And we'd have to confess humbly, there's a lot of things that God does that we don't know how he does those things. This is part of his point with Job, as you were just saying, pastor pj, when Job was accusing God, God said, but Job, just take a few minutes here. Take a seat. Take a seat, son. Let me ask you a couple questions. You tell me how this works and I'll tell you how this works. And of course, job is left dumbfounded saying, I'm gonna put my hand over mouth because it, I don't. I'm speaking outta my place here. And I think that's the ultimate posture we have to take. Scripture's telling us the truth. We have to take it at face value, but how we put the pieces together, ultimately that's left up to God. Yeah. And in, in this account, it's interesting because David knew that what he was doing was not right. And you say how do you know that? Because Joab even knew that what David was doing was not right. Because when David goes and task job with counting the troops in both two Samuel 24 and first Chronicles 21, we read the job protests. He says, why do you want me to do this? May the Lord grant the king multiple hundreds, as many as we have right now but why are you causing me to go to number the troops? He knew that this was not something that was right. In fact, in the first Chronicles account in 21 3, it says, why should it be the cause of guilt for Israel? And joab knew it was wrong. Clearly David would've known it was wrong, and yet he moves forward and Joab does it in obedience here to the king. Can you talk about what's wrong about taking a census? Because I think a lot of people would be confused about why counting people would be considered sin. It's, it comes down to our trust and our confidence, right? As, as we've read in the psalm, some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. You could substitute chariots and horses for. The numbers of troops that we have. And so the reason why God didn't want David to take in account of the number of fighting men is he wanted David to always be mindful of the fact that God was the one that was winning the victories. God was the one that was fighting the battles. And yes, that was through the troops that David had, but David's trust was not in his numbers as it was. The trust that the Philistine kings or the Ammonite kings or the Assyrian Kings, David's trust was a trust in God, that God was the one that was fighting the battles and that was the decisive factor, not how many thousands of people that he had. Which on that note, pastor Rod you have often brought up the discrepancies in numbers. And so we have another discrepancy in numbers here in second Samuel 24 and first Chronicles 21 as far as the total numbers in the census. And so in second Samuel 24, we amount to about one point. 3 million roughly there in one Chronicles 21, we amount to 1.1 million and then it says, and 470,000. Who drew the sword? Any thoughts on how we resolve these discrepancies between these two numbers that are given here with this same census? Yeah. And the short answer is I don't think we have a good answer to it. Yeah. A few options have been presented, but I don't even know if they're worth sharing. Yeah. Honestly, as I studied this and I, I did some mild digging. I don't always get to do a ton in the morning, but my. My results were unsatisfying to say the least. At the end of the day, I'm gonna have to say, and this is how I counsel my own heart, 'cause I'm a thinker. I like to fancy myself as someone who thinks about things and tries to crack the nut. I'm gonna have to say to myself, okay, if I have multiple numbers here, it's possible that multiple tabulations are being done. There's more than one way to skin the cat as a saint goes. And so I'm gonna say, okay, maybe one is using one type of accounting method and one is using another. Or option two, there's a textual issue here. There's a, there's a. Recording issue. And that doesn't in any way cause us to lose faith in the manuscripts because ultimately the original manuscripts are what we're gonna say are infallible and in errand the copies of the manuscripts are where we can have some issues here. Thankfully, this is not an area where we. Our faith is resting upon the numbers. And I look at it like that. That's gonna be my posture. My hope God's gonna take care of this. I may not know how the numbers are being pieced together, but either A, there are multiple ways of accounting for the same numbers, or B, there's a textual issue. Either way, I'm okay with that. I. Yeah, and there's, we're probably dealing, remember with probably I, rough and dirty somewhere between four to 500 years between the writing of First and Second Samuel and the writing of First and Second Chronicles. Remember Chronicles being a post exilic book. And so there's quite a bit of time that's passed between the actual. Happening of this event and when the chronicler is recording it. And so it's amazing when you think about that, that there is so much parallels to begin with, that so much of the information it has been recorded accurately. And that's a testimony to the veracity of scripture and the inspiration of scripture that, that it's the spirit that's guiding them and carrying them along and doing this. We can look at some of these things like that. And to your point, not have our faith be shaken. Yeah. God has preserved it quite well. And the people that preserved it, you have to think about it, these guys who are trying to carry resources into their captivity. Yeah. These guys who are trying to, they're trying to preserve the scriptures even as they're being attacked by foreign peoples. And they're suffering the land being slaughtered and all these things. So I think it's enormously important that we do see, to your point, that God has preserved his peoples. His people's records through the books. Yeah. Yeah. As we finish up chapter 24 in one Chronicles 21 David is, this is a, some growth in David, I think, because David doesn't wait for Nathan to come and confront him. He doesn't try to cover up his sin or hide it. He immediately feels conviction and he goes to the Lord and confesses and that is not like what he did with Bathsheba. And so there's some growth, there's some sanctification it seems like here with David, but God is still gonna punish. And so God gives David these choices. David says, Lord, let me fall into your hands for you are merciful. Don't let me fall into the hands of. Of men. And so a plague comes and wipes out 70,000 of the people of Israel. So this is no small plague. This is quite an impact. And you gotta think about their families and how devastating it would be for their families to lose their fathers, their husbands, their sons in this plague. That was a result of David taking this census. The final scene then it is is even more poignant as the angel is there to come against the city of Jerusalem to destroy it. And the Lord at that point, relents and says, it's enough. Stay your hand. The Lord was by the threshing floor of Aruna, the Jebe site and David had spoken with the Lord and said, look, I have sinned. I've done wickedly, but the people that you've entrusted to my care, they have and so please let your hand be against me and not against them. And so David is really commendable in the way that he responds to his sin. But we also have to feel the weight of the fact that there is consequence for his sin. And 70,000 people lose their life because of David's. Taking his eyes off of God and putting it on his hope and men, and you say, but God ordained that it should happen. God incited him to do that. And yeah that's one of the really difficult, hard, sticky things about how that works. And we've talked about this before. God is a hundred percent sovereign. We are a hundred percent responsible for our actions. And here's another example of where those two things work out together. David was gonna bear the consequences. The people were gonna bear the con consequences for David's sin, even though God is the one who incited or allowed Satan to incite David to do the thing in the first place. Yeah. And again, just to reiterate here, that the. The census itself was not a sin, it was the way that David approached it. And because he's king, we believe in this concept of a federal head. And we see this concept played out in the New Testament. So it's important to see this in the same way that someone can suffer because of their leader's sin. Someone can benefit because of their leader's righteousness. So in the same way that because of David's sin that people suffered, we benefit because of Jesus' victory. We receive his mercy, his grace, we receive his righteousness. We receive the blessings that come because we're grafted into Christ. We are in Christ, as the scripture says. That's our union with Christ, which changes the way that we are seen in God's eyes. So similarly here, you see the inverse or the converse. I. David's sin leading to sin falling out upon the people. So guilt is also upon them because of their leader sin. You also see this with Adam when Adam sins all of the human race sins, and they're found as sinners in him. This is Romans chapter five, but again, we can't take issue with this because this is the very same process that gives us the blessings that we have in Jesus. Yeah, the rest of chapter 24 David is gonna construct an altar there at the threshing floor of Aruna at the J site. The, there's a variation there in one Chronicles 21 Aruna iss name there is listed as Orin or Oron. And same person, just different moniker, different name. And this is gonna be significant because of what happens in one Chronicles 22, because after David ECTs the altar here in one Chronicles 22, it's gonna be decided that this is gonna be the very spot where the temple is going to be built. And so that's where the Temple Mount is today. It traces all the way back to the threshing for floor of Una, the Jebe site, which traces all the way back, even before that time, to the very place called Mount Mariah, which is where where Abraham was willing to offer up Isaac before the Lord. In fact, that is what we believe is the place in locale of where the temple was originally constructed, is above the very rock. That Isaac was laying upon to be sacrificed to the Lord. Now, if you go to Israel today, it's the dome of the rock. It's this Islamic shrine that's there. And they would say that this is the rock, not where Isaac was offered, but where Ishmael was offered. And that's part of the variance between us and the Islamic faith one among many variants there. But. That's what we're dealing with there. We're dealing with the Temple Mount, and this is where it comes into being as far as the place where the centrality of Israel's worship is gonna be from this time until its destruction. First under Nebuchadnezzar, but then the temple is gonna be rebuilt, and then ultimately the destruction in 70 a d And since then, we haven't had a temple anymore there on the Temple Mount. Psalm chapter 30 is gonna get into the dedication psalm for this temple that David is in one Chronicles 22 charging Solomon to build. David knows that he's not gonna be the one second Samuel chapter seven address, that he's not gonna be the one to build the house for God. But God promised David that one of his sons would, and so David commissions Solomon to be the one to do that. And so in so doing, he is going to prepare a lot of the materials and provide a lot of that to say, Solomon, here's, I'm giving you everything that you need to do this, and Psalm. 30. He not only provided the materials to David, but also a song to be sung at the dedication of the temple. And so that's what we find recorded for us in Psalm 30. So even though David wasn't there, this was written to go on ahead of him, so to speak to be sung there at the dedication of the the temple. And that's what we find there in Psalm chapter 30. Lemme pray and then we'll be done with this episode. God, we thank you for your word. In its truthfulness, it's reliability. As we so often pray, even when we see things where we have to say, okay, we don't know what the numbers discrepancy is there, we can trust that you do. And that this is not something that shakes our faith. That we see a common thread, a common story from beginning to end of our hope and our need for Jesus Christ. And so we are so grateful for scripture and how it points us to Jesus time and time again. Give us a fruitful time in your word today. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Keep reading your Bibles. I don't know what that was, dude. Talk about sultry voices. Keep reading your Bibles. Keep reading your Bibles. Keep reading your Bibles. Tuning again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. See ya. Bye.

thanks for listening to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about ourChurch@compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a review to rate to share this podcast on whatever platform you happen to be listening on, and we will catch you against tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said