1 Chronicles 21:7 This command was evil in the sight of God, and he struck Israel.
At the beginning of this chapter, it says "a satan" rose up against Israel. The word "satan" in Hebrew means adversary or accuser. So someone or some people rose up to possibly taunt David into thinking their group was larger than Israel, that they were outnumbered. They planted a seed of doubt in David's mind. So basically a 'mine is better than yours' issue. David wanted to prove himself, and got a count of his people to show off how many he had brought together. But this angered God. In Exodus 30, only God could call for a census. There was no reason for another man to know how many people God had. There was no need to show off in such a way. These people belonged to the Lord, not David.
God gave David a chance to choose between three consequences. David chose to "Fall into the hand of God" instead of three months of fleeing from neighboring groups or three years of famine. David would be punished, but he would have to choose the punishment. He had an idea based on each of the punishments what the outcome could be, and he had to decide which was the best option. He chose the option of the plague because it would not shield he nor his family to God's wrath. He could have chosen famine, knowing that he and his would be fine because of all his riches. Even the three months, as his family could have stayed hidden. He knew it was better to depend on God's mercy than neighboring people. He knew he did wrong and deserved punishment, so he chose to allow the plague of the angel of God to come into the land and destroy what they wanted.
David did atone and God showed mercy. God gave David a way out. God always gives us a way out from his wrath through repentance. We should still try to NOT invoke God's wrath. He doesn't send plagues like he did in the Bible. I have found myself in his wrath, and having things not turn out like I had hoped, or things continuing to get worse in certain situations caused me to really see that I had indeed angered God, I deserved what I was getting, and I needed to seek forgiveness. Our God is a loving God, and he wants us to be happy. We need to seek his love first, before seeking to fulfill our desires.
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