We have been looking at the book of Ezra for the last couple of weeks. I will just read the first seven verses of Ezra 2. Then we are going to look at the Bible as a whole.
Ezra 2:1-7 says:
Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city; Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mizpar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel: The children of Parosh, two thousand an hundred seventy and two. The children of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy and two. The children of Arah, seven hundred seventy and five. The children of Pahathmoab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred and twelve. The children of Elam, a thousand two hundred fifty and four.
I will stop here.
The book of Ezra and the book of Nehemiah, as I said last week, are places where critics of the Bible like to go. The skeptics and those who do not trust the Word of God, the Bible, find fault wherever they can; but these two particular books have many apparent contradictions, many apparent discrepancies.
These individuals really do not follow what God says, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.” They do not dig into the Bible like they should, because there are no real contradictions in the Bible. There are no mistakes, no errors. There are no scribal errors, which is what theologians like to say.
When they find a contradiction, especially if it is related to numbers, they chalk it up to a scribal error. After all, the Bible was written from generation to generation. That is, scribes had to write down that perfect Word of God down through the centuries. Certainly, every now and then, there must have been a little slip of the pen. These slips began to multiply the longer they got from the original autographs, from the original words that God gave the prophets, until, of course, we have mistakes in the Bible, but not very many.
If anyone accepts these kinds of statements from the theologians, they have just lost the trustworthiness of the Bible. They have no Word of God. They have nothing to lean upon.
Have you ever heard the saying “the edge of the wedge”? Maybe there is a little, tiny crack into a piece of wood that you try to get the edge of your wedge into; because once you can get the edge of the wedge in, then you can come with your sledgehammer and you can hit the wedge as hard as you can and the wood will break apart.
This is what the skeptics always try to do with the Bible. They try to get a little admittance that there could be something in error, something wrong somewhere, and they do not care where. Somewhere within the sixty-six books of the Bible, if we can find people who will admit to this, then we got them. Then they will not be able to trust anything.
This is really what this leads to. Look what this attitude has done to the churches and congregations. They have really brought much trouble upon themselves with these kinds of doctrines or teachings with their textual criticisms and saying things like there is the possibility of scribal error.
Let us look at Psalm 12. This Psalm tells us all that we need to know. We read in Psalm 12:6-7:
The words of JEHOVAH are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O JEHOVAH, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
It is impossible. Men try. They certainly do try, and Satan is behind all of these efforts to attack the Word of God, to assault the faithfulness, the truth of it. For example, what is behind all of the new Bible versions we have? Really, what is ultimately behind it? Yes, there is man’s desire to make money, to get a profit, and Satan uses the sinful, lustful desires of man to accomplish his purpose. The publisher just wants to make some money, but Satan just wants to confuse everyone. He wants to get people to think that there is not a trustworthy and reliable truth.
Has he not accomplished this to a great degree? If you go to a church and you go to a Bible study—I hope that you are not doing this now because the church age is over—but in times past when the church age was going on, did you ever go to a Bible study where they said people sat around and read from their particular Bibles? If you did, you heard at least a half dozen different translations or versions, such as the NIV, the NASB, or “Good News for Modern Man.”
You hear all of these different versions as you are trying to follow along in your Bible and you are left wondering if everyone is reading the same Word of God. Were you reading the same trustworthy Word of God?
You see, this begins to plant doubt. This was Satan’s goal. This was his purpose and he has been very successful. The truth is that we do not need any additional translations. We have the best. The King James Version of the Bible is the best, even though we do find mistakes in the English translation from time to time. The good news is, however, that we can always go to the underlying Greek or Hebrew, which has no mistakes. The original Greek and Hebrew have no errors.
Again, the King James Version is the best, but just to use this as an example, turn to Matthew 28. In the King James Version, we read in Matthew 28:1:
In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week…
When we go to the original Greek, to the underlying Greek text, which is the text that we can trust, we find that the word “sabbath” is actually a plural word in the Greek and that the word that was translated “week” is the same identical plural word that should have been translated as “sabbaths.”
So it should be read as:
In the end of the sabbaths, as it began to dawn toward the first of the sabbaths…
This is the correct reading and we can trust this because there are no mistakes in the underlying Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic. There are no errors of any kind. We can have a great security, comfort, and trust that God has kept His Word. Despite untold numbers of assaults, God has preserved His Word down through the centuries. There is no error.
What do we do then when we read of apparent contradictions? By the way, just to give an example, in Ezra 2:2 where it speaks of those who came with Zerubbabel, if you count all of the names including Zerubbabel, there are eleven people. Then if you go to Nehemiah 7:7 and count all of the names including Zerubbabel, there are twelve people listed.
This is only the beginning. This is only the beginning of the differences between these two chapters. For instance, Ezra 2:5 says:
The children of Arah, seven hundred seventy and five.
Nehemiah 7:10 says:
The children of Arah, six hundred fifty and two.
Another example is with the children of Pahathmoab. Ezra 2:6 says:
The children of Pahathmoab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred and twelve.
Nehemiah 7:11 says:
The children of Pahathmoab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand and eight hundred and eighteen.
There are forty-two people groups in Ezra 2 and only twenty-two of them match exactly with what we read in the book of Nehemiah.
So this is numerous. This is like the cream of the crop for critics of the Bible. This is where they go because this makes it so simple and so obvious and so easy for them to claim that the Word of God is not to be trusted.
What they do not realize is that God has done this for very important reasons. The number one reason is that this is a test for mankind. This is His reason for giving all the apparent contradictions in the Bible. Are you going to trust the Bible?
Remember that He says, “Trust in JEHOVAH with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Trust God. Trust the Word of God. You know that this is true. You know that the Bible is the Word of God. Trust it despite what intellectuals say and despite what even Christian intellectuals say and despite what theologians say. Trust God. Trust His Word. Dig into it and study it. What always happens when we do resolve an apparent contradiction is that we will see that the Word of God is more precise and more accurate and more perfect than we had ever imagined. We will give some examples of this today.
Let me show you that God also has by design given this list in Nehemiah. Here is something that is really amazing. We read in Ezra 2:7:
The children of Elam, a thousand two hundred fifty and four.
Now look at Ezra 2:31:
The children of the other Elam, a thousand two hundred fifty and four.
In this verse, the word “other” is here. So there were two Elams. Actually, Elam could be referring to an individual or it could be referring to an area. There was a province of Elam.
So here we have two Elams and it just so happens that the exiles coming out of Babylon were 1,254 according to each one of them, even though there were two separate ones. This is one thing that is consistent with Nehemiah. He also says, “the children of Elam,” as well as, “the children of the other Elam,” in Nehemiah 7 and he gives “a thousand two hundred fifty and four” in both cases. Why?
I think that this also would help us to understand that God does want us to break down numbers. Certainly, 1,254 is an important number in the way that He associates it with Elam.
I think that this tells us, without any question, that this is contrived. It is contrived and designed by God. Remember that when God gives lists, He can count people who actually are there and who go in or He can count someone who is in the loins of someone who goes in. Levi was in the loins of Abraham when Melchizedek met him. God does many different things with lists, and so we should be put on notice that we have to be very careful as to how to understand this.
Let me show you something that He does also in Ezra with a list. Go to Ezra 7:1. It says:
Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,
Then it continues on because this is his genealogy and it goes all the way down to Aaron the chief priest. I did not check everyone out. I need to do this, but many of these individuals were chief priests. Ezra is number 17.
In this chapter, Ezra is going up from Babylon to Jerusalem. Again, we found in Ezra 1 when the exiles came out of Babylon and were commanded by Cyrus to go up to Jerusalem that the rapture was in view. Here Ezra is also given a command to go establish the Law, and he is the 17th in the line of Aaron. He goes up to Jerusalem, and the number 17 has to do with Heaven. This is contrived.
Look at 1 Chronicles 6:3-4:
And the children of Amram; Aaron, and Moses, and Miriam. The sons also of Aaron; Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
Then from Aaron:
Eleazar begat Phinehas, Phinehas begat Abishua,
And then another genealogy follows very closely to Ezra 7; however, there are more people all the way down to 1 Chronicles 6:14:
And Azariah begat Seraiah…
What did we read in Ezra 7? We read in Ezra 7:1:
…Ezra the son of Seraiah…
Again, 1 Chronicles 6:14-15:
And Azariah begat Seraiah, and Seraiah begat Jehozadak, And Jehozadak went into captivity, when JEHOVAH carried away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.
The name Jehozadak has a different spelling but this is the same individual whom Joshua the high priest was the son of, “Joshua the son of Josedech.” So Jehozadak/Josedech went into captivity and had a son Joshua and Ezra would have certainly had to have been after Joshua the high priest.
So even here, God does not go all the way down to Ezra. But Jehozadak who went into captivity was the 23rd chief priest from Aaron. Twenty-three points to judgment, and then he goes into captivity. Ezra is the 17th priest named in Ezra 7 and he goes up to Jerusalem.
We could say that God is manipulating this, but we have to be careful with this word. Let us say that this is by God’s design. He is not saying anything wrong or anything like that. He even does this with the genealogy of the Lord Jesus in the New Testament. If you remember and if you have ever heard Mr. Camping’s study on this, there were 42 generations unto Christ, and it is interesting how the Lord actually did this.
He does this to teach us certain things. One thing is that Ezra in Ezra 7 is a picture, again, of the rapture. Here, Jehozadak/Josedech goes into captivity after 23 chief priests from Aaron, and the number 23 has to do with judgment, just like the number of kings of Israel before they were destroyed by the Assyrians. How many kings were there? There were 23. How many kings were there of Judah before they were destroyed by the Babylonians? Again, there were 23.
Is this not incredible to have these two lines of kings, where one reigned over one hundred plus years longer than the other, after they both began with three kings over all Israel. There was Saul, then David, and then Solomon. The kingdom was divided. Then Israel and Judah each had twenty kings and then they were destroyed. Israel in the north was destroyed by the Assyrians at king number 23. Judah went a little longer, and then they were destroyed by the Babylonians at their 23rd king. This is exactly what Jehozadak/Josedech who was a chief priest is picturing, as he was the 23rd high priest and then he went into captivity.
This is not easy. It is not easy to look at some of these verses, and yet we are not concerned. I will not say that every church does this, but many of them do. The churches are the ones who try to make sure that they do not want to say anything that might lead people not to believe, that might lead people to not trust the Bible. This is because in the churches everything is based on keeping the people and pleasing the people, and yet God’s people do not have this concern whatsoever. We do not have this concern.
I know that I could look at every apparent contradiction in the Bible and it is not going to impact the belief of a true child of God in any way. Even if we could not resolve them, even if we could not come to a right understanding, this would not happen, because God is in control and He will make sure that His people are kept fast. They know that His Word is true and faithful and certain.
Let us look at an example of what we are going to find in Ezra 2 and in Nehemiah 7. Let us go to 2 Samuel 24. I think that this is an historical event that some of us are familiar with. There are apparent discrepancies between this account and 1 Chronicles 21. We will see that all of the apparent discrepancies here will be straightened out and we will understand them. Once we do understand how God did this, we will see that this applies to everything else.
In 2 Samuel 24:1-4, we read:
And again the anger of JEHOVAH was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah. For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people. And Joab said unto the king, Now JEHOVAH thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing? Notwithstanding the king’s word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.
They traveled far and wide, and then we read in 2 Samuel 24:8-9:
So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
Now turn to 1 Chronicles 21:1:
And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
This is the first apparent contradiction. In 2 Samuel 24, it was the Lord Jehovah who moved David to number Israel, but here it says that it was Satan. This is pretty easily solved because God uses Satan to accomplish His purposes. A good example of this is the judgment on the churches and congregations. He loosed Satan to bring judgment on the churches. Satan is doing this, but he is accomplishing God’s purpose in doing so. This is exactly how we understand what is going on here.
The other thing in 1 Chronicles 21 is verse 5. Look at 1 Chronicles 21:5:
And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword…
How many? This was 1,100,000. How many of Israel were numbered in 2 Samuel 24? There were 800,000. So there is a difference of 300,000.
It continues:
…and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
So this is 470,000 men of Judah. In 2 Samuel 24, how many were of Judah? There were 500,000 men of Judah. The difference is 30,000. Even in the difference, we see a significant number. In 300,000 and 30,000, we see the number 3 and multiples of 10, and so God’s purpose is in view.
He is testing here like He tests us all throughout the Bible. Do you trust Him? Do you trust His Word? He is giving very apparent contradictions.
The men whom God used to write the Bible were as smart as anyone in our day. Even today when men write books, they send them to editors and checkers. Yes, sometimes a mistake or two gets through; but this is the Word of God, the Bible.
Do we not think that this went through an extremely thorough process, much more thorough than men could do? And then do we believe that so-called mistakes like this made it through? The scribes were very familiar with these accounts, and yet these differences made it through. This was because they were not mistakes.
What this really points out is our carelessness, our lackadaisical way of coming to the Bible, our laziness, our slothfulness, our sluggishness, our ignorance, our tendency to look at the Bible superficially and want the information immediately, rather than digging in. This is what God indicates. The Bible is full of hidden treasure, and for hidden treasure you have to dig and you have to study and compare Scripture with Scripture, “here a little, and there a little.”
God describes a very difficult process to come to truth. Most people want instant pudding and they want it quick. For those, they can take their quick meaning and just come to the conclusion that there is a mistake in the Bible when, actually, there is no mistake.
How can we understand this then? What the Lord normally does is He gives a key word in a verse that helps us to find out what He is talking about.
So what is the key word in 1 Chronicles 21? Let us just look at Judah. It says of Judah in 1 Chronicles 21:5:
…and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
As we just look at Judah in 2 Samuel 24:9, we read:
…and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
What is the difference? The difference in 1 Chronicles 21:5 is that these were men who “drew sword”:
…four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
But 2 Samuel 24:9 just says:
…five hundred thousand men.
Here it does not say that they “drew sword,” but this is very important. Why is this important? What does it mean that these men “drew sword”? This is the next question that we would ask. What does this mean?
Let us go to Judges 8 and we will read in the account of Gideon something that relates and helps us to see what God is saying. In Judges 8, Gideon has been victorious and he has a son. We read in Judges 8:20:
And he said unto Jether his firstborn…
This is Gideon who is speaking to his son. He says:
…Up, and slay them. But the youth drew not his sword: for he feared, because he was yet a youth.
He was a youth. He was a young man. Actually, we are given a limit of how old he could have been, but we do not know this yet. Let us say that he was a teenager. Maybe he was 17, 18, or 19 years old. He had a sword, but he did not want to draw it. He was afraid because he was a young man.
His fear is not unfounded. If you remember, David fought against Goliath. In 1 Samuel 17:33, we read of David:
And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.
But David convinces Saul and Saul gives David his armor. We read in 1 Samuel 17:38-39:
And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.
David was uncomfortable with the sword because he had never used it. He was a youth, which basically tells us his age. Again, he must have been a teenager. We are not exactly sure of his age here, but he was most likely 17, 18, or 19 years old.
Why all of this anxiety about youths and their swords? Let us go to Numbers 1:2-3:
Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families…
This is significant because in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21, they are numbering. Here it has to do with the sum, “Take ye the sum”; that is, they numbered Israel.
Numbers 1:2-3 continues:
…after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls; From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.
This is repeated many times in Numbers 1. For example, after each of the tribes is named, it says in Numbers 1:18:
And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month, and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls.
This was a repetition. After each one of the tribes was numbered, the men who were “from twenty years old and upward” were able to go forth to war. When they went forth to war, they had to draw their swords. They had to draw their swords or they would not have been able to do battle.
So anyone under age twenty could not draw the sword. They were not to be numbered for war and they, in a sense, could not draw the sword.
Look also at Numbers 14:28-31:
Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith JEHOVAH, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.
Again, God here, as we know, is judging Israel. When the spies returned from spying out the land of Canaan, they gave an “evil report,” and so God determined that they would wander in the wilderness one year for each day that they spied the land out. For forty years, they wandered in the wilderness. During this period of time, all who were numbered, except for two individuals, died in the wilderness.
So we are wondering regarding this expression, “drew sword,” that maybe there is something more that we can learn; and we can. If we turn to 1 Chronicles 27, I think that we will get a very good answer to why there is a difference of 30,000 regarding Judah from one account to the other. This is very specific and it tells us how exact God was when He wrote the Bible. In 1 Chronicles 27:23-24, we read:
But David took not the number of them from twenty years old and under: because JEHOVAH had said he would increase Israel like to the stars of the heavens. Joab the son of Zeruiah…
Who is Zeruiah? Zeruiah was David’s sister. Did you ever wonder why David had so many problems with Joab and yet he did not just give him the boot? Joab was his relative. Zeruiah was David’s sister.
So it was not all that simple; and here Joab, who was a constant source of trouble to David, did it again when God gave him the assignment to number Israel. Of course, at first, he seemed very holy and he seemed as if he was pointing out to David, “Why would you want to do this?” We have always thought that this was David’s sin. David admitted to sinning; so, certainly, there was some pride involved. Maybe more than this, David’s sin was assigning the task to someone like Joab.
But here in 1 Chronicles 27:24, we read:
Joab the son of Zeruiah began to number, but he finished not, because there fell wrath for it against Israel; neither was the number put in the account of the chronicles of king David.
Joab started to number the people. Well, we read in 2 Samuel 24 that this went on for “nine months and twenty days,” which was quite a long period of time. If God was displeased just with the numbering itself, why wait nine months and twenty days?
So we see that Israel in the north had quite a lot in their army, 1,100,000. David was of the tribe of Judah and so would Joab have been since his mother was David’s sister Zeruiah. Judah had much, much less. The highest number was 500,000, which was about half of what Israel had. Some of the tensions that would later develop between the north and the south were evident.
So, perhaps, as Joab was numbering and he was seeing how much bigger the army of the north was, he was tempted to begin numbering some of the younger men of Judah. Actually, this is what he did. He did number those from twenty years old and under, like the sixteen-year-olds who could have been nice, big strapping young men or nice, strong eighteen-year-olds.
This is similar to the way in which we are set up today. Our government does not draft fifteen-year-olds because we have laws against this. We do not have a draft right now, but let us say that we did and we drafted twenty-one-year-olds or older. We would not draft those under this age or it would be illegal.
So God set up a Law of this being for those twenty-years old and above. If they numbered under the age of twenty, then it was a transgression of His Law.
Look at Exodus 30:11-12. It says:
And JEHOVAH spake unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto JEHOVAH, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.
We need to be very meticulous when we are trying to do things God’s way. They found this out when they were attempting to move the Ark of God. They were attempting to move it when the oxen stumbled and “Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark.” God struck Uzza dead and then they learned that the Law of God had said that it was the Levites who were the ones to move the Ark. The next time, they learned and did this right.
God also had a very exact way for a numbering. They could not just number anyone as we do with a census, which is okay because God does not have any Law against this. If they failed to do things His way, He had said that there would be a plague, and what happened to Israel?
Well, God gave David a choice. He gave David a choice. God sent a prophet to David who told David in 2 Samuel 24, “Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days’ pestilence [plague] in thy land?” It says in the account in 1 Chronicles 21, “Either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD.” Everything else was the same, but the length of the famine was different, which we will look at.
We know that God is so perfect and exact. He told us in 1 Chronicles 27 that Joab was the one who numbered. David did not take the number of those who were under the age of twenty, and he did not put this in the account in 1 Chronicles. Which of the two numbers for Judah was less? It was the number in 1 Chronicles. 2 Samuel 24 said 500,000 for Judah. 1 Chronicles said 470,000. There were 30,000 less whom David did not include. He said, “No, I am not going to accept this number.”
Returning to Exodus, Exodus 30:12-14 says:
…when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them. This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of JEHOVAH. Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto JEHOVAH.
This has to do with a ransom for their soul as we read in the next verse, Exodus 30:15:
The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto JEHOVAH, to make an atonement for your souls.
The Lord ties in the numbering of Israel to the atoning work of Christ, and it must be very exact and precise according to His Word. If you fail to do this, which Joab did because he took the number of them under the age of twenty, the plague would come. This is what came on Israel; and from Dan to Beersheba, 70,000 Israelites died in this plague.
Can we now see these things? The reason that we are looking at these things is to harmonize two passages. This is what God tells us to do. We are to make sure that everything fits together. Is there a mistake when in 2 Samuel 24, the Lord says that there were 500,000 men of Judah and then in 1 Chronicles 21 that the men of Judah who drew swords were 470,000? All those who drew swords were twenty years old and over.
So there is no mistake, is there? Absolutely not! There is no mistake. The Bible is very much exact and perfect.
Let us go back to 2 Samuel 24. Since I mentioned the famine, we will look at this next. In 2 Samuel 24, Gad comes to David and says in 2 Samuel 24:11-13:
For when David was up in the morning, the word of JEHOVAH came unto the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, Go and say unto David, Thus saith JEHOVAH, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
But we read in 1 Chronicles 21:11-12:
So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith JEHOVAH, Choose thee either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of JEHOVAH, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of JEHOVAH destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.
Again, as we look at both verses, they are very similar. They are very similar, but there is a difference. The difference is the length of time for the famine, and so then we try to understand the famine.
In Ezra 2:1, we read where it spoke of the Jews who came out of the province of Babylon. They had been taken captive and were returning again. In Nehemiah 7, everything is worded exactly as Ezra except for one thing, which will help us later to understand the number differences between Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7.
But here, the same prophet Gad is speaking to David. On the one hand he is saying, “Shall seven years of famine come to you?” On the other hand he is saying, “Shall three years of famine come to you?” How can this be understood?
One thing we know is that there had to have been additional conversations. God did not write everything down that was said between individuals. He gives us that which He wants us to know as the Word of God.
So Gad was speaking to his friend David, a faithful king, and laying out what God had said. What is the answer? The answer, as we study the life of David, is that we search to see if there was a previous famine. Was their an earlier famine during David’s reign? If there was an earlier famine during David’s reign, then Gad is basically saying, “You already had a famine and now the Lord is going to add three more years. If you choose this famine, then the total length of time that you would have had a famine during your reign would be seven years.” If David had an earlier famine, it would explain this, would it not? This would make both statements true. “Shall you have a famine of three years?” Yes, God said this. Then the total length of the combined famines would be seven years.
Both statements are true. This is what we must always realize when we read the Bible. This is true and that is true. The 470,000 figure for Judah was true and the 500,000 figure of Judah was true. Both were true. How do we figure it out?
This is harmony and this is what we must do. This is what we do with doctrine and this is what we do with numbers. This is our task as believers. Of course, we would never understand without the Lord helping us, but we have to just begin on the footing that God’s Word is perfect and that everything is true if we find it in the original Hebrew and Greek.
So now the only question is how is it true? In what way can this be so? It is the same thing with Ezra and it is the same thing with Nehemiah. It is the same with everything in the Bible.
Let us turn to 2 Samuel 21:1. We read there:
Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of JEHOVAH. And JEHOVAH answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.
There was a three-year famine, year after year, and then Gad was coming to him and saying, “Shall three years more famine come?”
Okay, I know what you are thinking. That would only be six years of famine when Gad said, “Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land?” But there is a solution to this.
In 1 Kings 18, we read of the historical story of the famine in the days of Ahab when Elijah was prophet. We read in 1 Kings 18:1:
And it came to pass after many days, that the word of JEHOVAH came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.
He does. The rain comes and the famine ends, and it was “in the third year.” But what does God say in the New Testament? How long was this famine? This famine was three years and six months. It says this in the book of James. In Luke 4 when Jesus was reading out of the Book, He said this. It was for three years and six months, but God said here that it was “in the third year.”
So this is what would have to have happened. There was a prior famine in the days of David. It says three years but it could have been longer. It could have been three years and several months. We are not told this, but this is what had to be. Now a second famine is coming during David’s reign, a famine of three years; but since there was a prior famine of three years and a few months, it would be the sum total that the Word of God says it was. Since this sum total is the Word of God, this would be the exact length of time that the famine would have been in the days of David. It would have equaled seven years.
This has to be what the Lord is telling us. He was saying through Gad, “You had a famine. Now if you choose this option, it will finally total seven years.”
There is just one last thing from looking at these passages. Go back to 2 Samuel 24. I do not want to start off with this next week, so I would like to mention this now. In 2 Samuel 24:9, it says of Israel:
…and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword…
In comparing this to 1 Chronicles 21:5, it says of Israel:
…all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand [1,100,000] men that drew sword…
So we do not have the same problem as we had with Judah. All of these men were of age. They were twenty years old or above.
What is the difference then? The difference is that “valiant men” were mentioned. In 2 Samuel 24:9, it says:
…eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword…
1 Chronicles 21:5 says:
…a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand [1,100,000] men that drew sword…
But it does not say that they were “valiant men.” This means that the 300,000 additional men who were numbered here in 1 Chronicles were not valiant. God did not say this, even though 800,000 of them were. He could not describe this whole total as being “valiant men,” as He could in 2 Samuel 24.
When we search the Bible for this word “valiant,” we find that it was translated several different ways. It was translated as “army” quite a few times. In only one instance, it was translated as “war,” as in “meet for the war”; this was helpful.
So when we see how many times that this was translated as “army,” what would you think of? There are 800,000 army men, “valiant men,” but then you have 300,000 that are not army men.
It is like when you see a war movie and you see the new recruits coming in and there are also the veterans who have been there for awhile, those new recruits have yet to be tested. They have not seen battle. They are of age. They were drafted. They are there now and they soon will see battle, but they have never been in battle; and so this is the difference.
The 800,000 men are valiant. They have been tested soldiers. But the total number of twenty and above was 1,100,000. 300,000 of these have not seen battle as yet. This would be how we would explain this.
This was just an example to show us what we are going to have to do when we come to Ezra and when we come to Nehemiah and when we do these comparisons with the numbers. There are many interesting things that the Lord has laid out in these chapters.
Let us stop here.