1 Chronicles 21-22:1

What’s Happening?

After a series of military victories, David makes a grave error (1 Chronicles 21:1–2). He orders a census of Israel’s army but does not pay the atonement tax God required. That tax was not a random fee — it consecrated Israel’s troops as God’s army, set apart for God’s purposes (Exodus 30:11-16). Without the tax, David was claiming God’s troops for himself, ready to serve his unconsecrated purposes instead of God’s.

Long ago, God warned Israel’s leaders that if the census tax is neglected, a plague would fall on the unconsecrated people (Exodus 30:12). And that’s exactly what happens to David’s troops. God sends judgment to check the rise of an army that would wreak havoc for David’s glory rather than God’s peace. The census number is given as over a million, showing David’s military power outpacing his obedience to God (1 Chronicles 21:5). His treasury should have capped his troops, since every man required one-half shekel of atonement. But instead, David’s ambition outgrew his worship.

When God offers David three options of judgment—famine, defeat, or plague—David chooses the plague, throwing himself and Israel into God’s hands because he trusts God to be merciful (1 Chronicles 21:9-13). His choice proves wise. Seventy thousand men die, but then God relents. Before David even prays, God prevents further disaster and halts the angel at a nearby threshing floor (1 Chronicles 21:15). Seeing God’s mercy gives David courage to repent.

When David sees the angel, he steps forward, owning his sin and begging God to spare the people (1 Chronicles 21:16-17). God commands him to build an altar on the very spot where mercy had already appeared (1 Chronicles 21:18). David refuses to accept the land for free, paying full price for the threshing floor and the animals so that his offering will cost him something (1 Chronicles 21:22–24). When he offers sacrifice, God confirms the mercy he has already given by sending fire from heaven to consume it (1 Chronicles 21:25–26). The angel sheaths his sword, the plague ends, and David declares that this threshing floor will be the site of God’s temple — the permanent meeting place of mercy and sacrifice (1 Chronicles 22:1).

Where is the Gospel?

The Angel of Death only appears twice in Scripture: at Passover and here (Exodus 12:23). In both cases, the offering is a God-prescribed act that brings his people into the mercy he had already provided. At Passover, the lamb’s blood marked Israel as sharing in God’s deliverance from Egypt — a deliverance he had promised all along (Exodus 3:8-10). At David’s altar, the sacrifice marked Israel as sharing in the mercy God had already shown by halting the plague (1 Chronicles 21:15).

At the cross, this pattern comes to its fullness. Humanity, like David, has used God’s people and world for its own unconsecrated purposes, wreaking violence and havoc. But Jesus buys us for himself. His life is the true atonement price, the ransom that consecrates us for God’s kingdom (Matthew 20:28). This mercy was God’s own initiative toward his people before they ever repented. The apostle Paul says that God showed His love to us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). On the cross of Jesus, our plague of sin was put to death. We are now bought and consecrated as God’s own people for God’s holy purposes (Ephesians 2:10). Where David’s unpaid army brought plague, Jesus’ purchased people bring peace (2 Corinthians 5:17-20). We no longer spread unchecked violence in service of our own kingdoms — we spread the holiness, justice, and peace of his kingdom.

Like the threshing floor became the site of God’s temple, the cross of Jesus is the place where mercy and sacrifice meet forever. By Jesus’ offering, we are consecrated as his people, set apart to serve his purposes, and freed from the plague of death.

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to see the God whose mercy always comes first. And may you see Jesus as the one who pays the atonement price to consecrate you for his kingdom, turning your life from spreading havoc to spreading his peace.