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Probably there will always remain a measure of mystery about this act of numbering the nation. We shall always be more or less uncertain as to the precise elements of wrong which God saw in it, and which brought down so terrible a condemnation and penalty. There are, however, some features of the whole transaction which are certain and which are instructive. We see -

I. THAT THE SOURCES WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO ONE HUMAN ACTION ARE MANIFOLD.

1. We see by the narrative in 2 Samuel 24. I that God at least permitted it to occur. "He moved David... to say, Go, number," etc.

2. We see (ver. 1) that Satan incited David to the act.

3. The king's own feeling and judgment had most of all to do with it; this was the source of the evil. David persisted in it against better counsel (vers. 3, 4).

4. It may be fairly contended that the condition of the people helped to account for it. We may infer from 2 Samuel 24:1 that God was displeased with Israel, and that his displeasure accounted for the absence of the Divine intervention which would otherwise have held back the king from his folly. Our acts are seldom, if ever, so simple as they seem; usually, if not always, more sources contribute to them than are seen upon the surface. They spring from hidden habits which have long been rooting and growing in the heart; they are the consequence of our own volition at the moment; they are the result of the agency of others who surround and influence us; they are affected by unseen forces which play upon us from below and also from above. We are sure of this, yet we are equally sure -

II. THAT WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACTIONS WE COMMIT. "God was displeased with this thing" (ver. 7). He saw in it that which was sinful and wrong, worthy of Divine condemnation, calling for Divine retribution. Moreover, David owned to himself and confessed to God his personal guiltiness: "I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing," etc. (ver. 8). No analysis of the forces which are at work upon and within us can affect the question of responsibility.

1. God "will not hold us guiltless" if we break his laws, if we wrong our neighbours, if we injure ourselves.

2. Nor shall be able to acquit ourselves. It will be long before sin will so harden us that we shall not suffer keenly from the reproaches of our own conscience, and then it will not be long before that fire within is rekindled by the hand of God, and its terrible flame will burn up all sophistries of the soul.

3. Nor will our fellow-men exonerate us; they will condemn us freely, and we must suffer the sting of their censure.

III. THAT THE RECTITUDE OR WRONGNESS OF AN ACTION DEPENDS MAINLY ON THE MOTIVE by which it is inspired. The act of numbering the people was not intrinsically wrong (see Exodus 30:12, 13). When the census was taken in order to ascertain what was due to the service of Jehovah or of the state, it was positively good and commendable. But on this occasion, when it was done, as we must presume, in a vain-glorious spirit, in order that the king might boast of the increasing number of his subjects, or else in a faithless spirit, that the king might know on what he could rely - forgetting that his confidence was not in the arm of flesh, but in the living God - then it became sinful, condemnable, disastrous. Almost everything is in the motive of our deeds. The fairest actions in the sight of man may be hollow or utterly corrupt in the sight of him who looketh on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). The simplest and smallest actions may be great and noble in the estimate of him who measures with heavenly scales each human thought and deed.

IV. THAT THE GOOD OR EVIL OF A HUMAN ACTION IS NOT DETERMINED BY THE CHARACTER OF THE AGENT OR HIS JUDGES. Usually the good man does the good thing, but not invariably. Usually the man of lower excellence takes the wrong view when he differs from the man of greater worth; but not necessarily. Evidently a Joab may be right when a David is wrong. It was antecedently likely, in a high degree, that if these two men differed in any point, David would take the true and Joab the false view. But here it was otherwise (vers. 3, 4). On this occasion the better man might have learned from his spiritual inferior. We do well to expect good deeds from good men, and, when they seem to be wrong, to suspend our judgment until we have searched everything through. But we must not trust blindly to the reputed worthies of our day, or we may he following a good man when he is in error; or we may he simply putting ourselves into the hands and walking in the steps of scribes and Pharisees. With the help of God's Word and his Spirit we are to "judge of ourselves what is right' (Luke 12:57). - C.

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KJV: And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

WEB: Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.