Certainly this is a worldwide plague! We have daily if not hourly updates on what is happening everywhere. But who is responsible for this? Is it Satan and his servants or is it God rendering judgment? Can Satan independently bring such illnesses over all the world? The answer is no. God may use or allow Satan to bring judgment to the world, but Satan is not allowed totally independent control of God’s world.
1 Chronicles 21:1-4 And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to take a census of Israel. And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go number Israel from Beer-sheba to Dan. And bring the number of them to me so that I may know. And Joab answered, May Jehovah add to His people a hundred times, but my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why then does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel? But the king's word prevailed against Joab. And Joab departed and went up and down all Israel, and came again to Jerusalem.
Even Joab knew that God has prohibited Israel from counting the fighting men. How did God respond?
1 Chronicles 21:6-17 But Levi and Benjamin he did not count among them; for the king's word was evil to Joab. And it was evil in the eyes of God as to this thing. And He struck Israel. And David said to God, I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. But now, I beseech You, remove the iniquity of Your servant for I have done very foolishly.
And Jehovah spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and speak to David, saying, So says Jehovah: I offer you three things. Choose one of them so that I may do it to you. And Gad came to David and said to him, So says Jehovah, Choose for yourself: either three years of famine, or three months to be swept away before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtake you, or else three days of the sword of Jehovah, even the plague in the land, and the angel of Jehovah destroying throughout all the border of Israel. And now say what word I shall bring again to Him who sent me.
And David said to Gad, I am in great distress. Let me fall now into the hand of Jehovah, for His mercies are very great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man. And Jehovah sent a plague on Israel. And there fell seventy thousand men of Israel. And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. And as he was destroying, Jehovah looked. And He repented of the evil and said to the angel who destroyed, Enough! Stay your hand now!
And the angel of Jehovah stood by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of Jehovah standing between the earth and the heavens, and his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
And David said to God, Did not I command to number the people? I am the one who has sinned and done evil indeed. But these sheep, what have they done? I pray You, let Your hand be on me, O Jehovah my God, and on my father's house, but not on Your people, that they should be plagued.
Clearly, Satan tempted David and just like he tempted Eve, David did not consult with God but was deceived. David was a man after God’s own heart. God had delivered him from Saul’s relentless attempts to kill him. David had been victorious over his enemies. David wrote many of the Psalms of his praises and requests. Yet, he disobeyed God and 70,000 men died.
Next time we will read about the reasons God would bring judgment to bear on His people through plagues and illnesses.