The Punisher

“Thus says the Lord: ‘Choose for yourself, either three years of famine, or three months to be defeated by your foes with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or else for three days the sword of the Lord – the plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel’…” (1 Chronicles 21:11-12)

Gad, David’s seer, brought God’s word of punishment to David for his sin of acquiring a census. David must have considered all the 3 options given to him, so he could choose the punishment that he deemed as the lightest.

1st option: 3 years of famine. A great agricultural disaster will come upon the land. People will go hungry. The land will be in an economical crisis when the produce of the land is crippled. Poverty will drive people to desperation. Crime rate will increase, and this will cause a rise of social problems.

2nd option: 3 months of military defeat. Israel will face 3 months of solid onslaught from its enemies. And in every battle, Israel will face defeat. Countless lives of valiant men will be lost. Families will become destitute with the loss of their husbands and sons. A family line may be totally cut off with a sudden death of its males. Israel’s military might will suddenly be as vulnerable as a chick without its mother hen. David’s pride as a legendary man of war will be badly damaged.

3rd option: 3 days of plague in the land. A disaster will be brought upon Jerusalem by “the sword of the Lord.” 72 hours of intense destruction will be carried out swiftly by “the angel of the Lord.” People will die tragically and indiscriminately by the hand of an unstoppable, unexplainable, divine power.

Of the 3 options given to David, he chose the 3rd option. But why did he choose that option? Wouldn’t it be the most terrifying and painful thing to accept punishment from an immortal, all-powerful God? Surely His anger will be impossible to bear. Wouldn’t it be easier to accept punishment that would be dished out from the hands of mortal men? Surely David still had his head screwed on his shoulder while making this informed decision!

But David knew what he was doing. He said “Please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are very great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man”(1 Chronicles 21:13).

Of course, David made the most logical choice when he chose what he deemed to be the easiest punishment to endure. Such great faith that David had in the Lord, that he believed in the mercies of God, even in the pronouncement of certain judgment! David knew that even in His wrath, there is a side of God who “is ever merciful” (Psalms 37:26). He entrusted his own life and the welfare of his nation to the mercies of God, rather than to the hands of man.

Imagine if you had done something terribly wrong, and you were actually offered a choice to choose your own punishment. Who would you choose as your punisher?