I have sinned; I, the shepherd, have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? let your hand fall on me and my family

2 Samuel 24:1-25

Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”

So the king said to Joab and the army commanders[a] with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”

But Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”

After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

Joab reported the number of the fighting men to the king: In Israel there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand.

David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”

Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer: “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”

David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land?

So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd, have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”

So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels[e] of silver for them. David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.

Why?

The evil mind came into the heart of David, he was proud of his kingdom so he tried to take a census of Israel and Judah. 

Joab was smart and asked David not to do it, but he could not stop the command of the king, David.

There punishment David chose the one is harmless to him. After many people died from the plague, David regrated, but it was too late.

David is a shepherd of his people, and his people have not done wrong, it was David who did wrong.

Everyone is selfish and likes to treat me better than others.

The Lord allowed satan to attack David like he attacked Joab, to test the heart of David.

All of the people belong to the Lord, David took a census of Israel and Judah. It is a proud mind, Take a census of Israel always ordered by the Lord when they got out of Egypt.

How?

Be humble and love others around me. I am a servant of the Lord without the kindness and mercy of the Lord coming upon me, I am nothing.