Census in the Bible – Why was David punished?

One of the most polemic stories in the Bible is David’s punishment after he decided to run a census among the Israelites. It’s specially strange because Yahuah himself influenced him to number the men, so it makes a lot of people scratch their heads in bewilderment.

The interpretations from many wise Bible studies focus on David's pride and all bring interesting reflections, but here I will invite us all to use additional Biblical passages that also show Yahuah commanding his people to be numbered and it might give us additional insights.

David’s census tale tells us that Yahuah 'moved' David to number his people, because Yahuah was angry with the Israelites (again). Joab was then given the task to number Judah and Israel, however he was puzzled as to the reason and questioned his king - still, David told Joab to go on with the census – and so Joab did.

Again the anger of Yahuah was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Now go throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people.” And Joab said to the king, “Now may Yahuah your Elohim add to the people a hundred times more than there are, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king desire this thing?” Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. Therefore Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel. (2 Samuel 24:1-4)

When the census was done, David realized he had sinned and prayed to Yahuah that his iniquity is taken away, meaning he was asking to be accountable and cleaned by punishment. The next day the Prophet Gad shows up (I can only imagine the cold in the spine people would feel whenever the prophets showed up) to inform him that Yahuah gave him three punishment choices: a) three years of famine, three months of battle or three days of plague. David asks his punishment to come directly from the Father rather than from the hands of other men, for he trusted on Yahuah's mercy. And Yahuah plagued his people with pestilence, killing thousands. But Yahuah is indeed merciful and He didn’t go all the way and told His angel ‘this is enough’.

Some questions came to my mind when I read this passage for the first time: ‘If Yahuah was angry with his people, why not simply punish them instead of creating an urge in David's mind?’ or ‘Why punish the people instead of David himself?’ and most importantly, ‘Why is numbering people such a big sin?’

The scriptures themselves bring the most reliable answers to our Biblical questions. Reading the book of Exodus, we see that Yahuah instructed his people to be numbered, but the 'trick' was to ask each one to pay a ransom for their soul. In Exodus 30, Moses is clearly instructed to ask for a 'census tax', in order to avoid being plagued after being numbered.

“When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, then every man shall give a ransom for himself to Yahuah, when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them. This is what everyone among those who are numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel is twenty gerahs). The half-shekel shall be an offering to Yahuah. Everyone included among those who are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering to Yahuah. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when you give an offering to Yahuah, to make atonement for yourselves. (Exodus 30:12-15)

It follows that the act of being numbered as the ‘army of Yahuah’ or to be called his people requires a ransom to be paid. This value is symbolic and the same for all, either poor and rich, for we are all equal to the Father. The sum also symbolizes the ransom paid at the stake by Yahusha.

The logic is also the same in the book of Numbers, which is mostly instructions from the Father on how to number each tribe of Israel and to give tasks on how to run the Tabernacle. After all males were numbered, Moses was carefully instructed to number the tribe of Levy, so each Levites would substitute the firstborn males of the tribes, who belonged to Yahuah. When it was confirmed that there were more firstborns in the 11 tribes of Israel than male Levites, Yahuah instructed each 'extra' Israelite firstborn to pay five shekels.

Now the question is: why did Yahuah need the Israelites to be numbered? do you think He didn't know the number? honey, Yahuah knows the number of hairs in your head! He obviously knew exactly how many people He had, for He makes each one of us! The act of numbering was not only to help Moses organize the tribes and the Tabernacle with the Ark of the Covenant, but most importantly to move the people to commit (or to make a registration) to Yahuah through the payment of a ransom - be it war service, religious service or money for the Tabernacle. The ransom was the memorial of our need to pay for our sins, not only with animal sacrifices, but also with a personal commitment.

David's sin was not counting his people, but from the previous census in the Bible, we can assume that David sinned when he simply decided to count the people without the proper request of a ransom for atonement.

Now going back to another question from David's census, why punish Israel when David was the one who sinned?

Again the anger of Yahuah was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.””(2 Samuel 30:1)

Why was Yahuah angry at Israel? did He influence David to sin so that He could discipline His people? Absolutely! the reason for his anger is not explicit in this passage and for that reason, it suffices to know that the Father was angry and created a situation to teach them (and us!!) a valuable lesson. The episode is also described in 1 Chronicles 21.1, citing the interference on David's decision as something coming from 'Satan'. However, the word satan in Hebrew means adversary and it's not a name. Therefore, 'satan' could potentially refer not only to the leader of the fallen angels (who is also a servant of Yahuah), but also Yahuah playing the role of an adversary to Israel, in order to punish their continuous rebellion.

That would explain the punishment on Israel when David was the one who sinned. But as a leader, watching his people being plagued hurt just as much, so this episode was also to discipline the king of Israel. It's also clear from the passage in 2 Samuel that David knew exactly why he was being punished for he was very knowledgeable of the Torah.

By not respecting the census requirement, David was merely following his pride to count the size of his army for his own satisfaction, therefore ignoring that as a servant of Yahuah, he had no need to worry about numbers. Yahuah was testing his faith and obedience and like many of us, he failed and was disciplined.

As for us, Yahusha paid our ransom and by grace (not because we deserve - for we don't) we are now numbered as Yahuah’s people and we can say ‘I accept Yahusha’s sacrifice for my sins’. How wonderful for us to be the lambs of such a loving Shepherd! Everything in the Old Testament has a deep meaning and reason to be there and it all circles back to Yahusha.

'By means of him we have the release by ransom through the blood of that one, yes, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his undeserved kindness'. (Ephesians 1:7)

Shalom!