The Narrow Path Ministries

From 2 Sam 24:

v. 1: "Again the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”

v. 2: "So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Now go throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people.”

v. 10: "And David’s heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”

After this. God gave David's three choices for punishment.

Verse 1 says that God "moved" David to take the census. In other words, it seems as if God wants David to do this. David does what the God wants him to do, but then confesses because he has sinned greatly in taking the census.

So my question is this: Did God want David to take the census? If so, how could it be said that David sinned by taking the census? If God did not want him to take it, why does the passage say that God was behind David's decision to take the census? And if God was behind it, how does this square with idea that God does not tempt a person to do evil?

TK

It seems clear that God did not want this census.

Some think the pronoun "he" in v.1 refers to Satan (see 1 Chronicles 21:1). My Lexham English Bible has a note to that effect.

Aha-- you are correct!

I always forget about Chronicles. Silly me.

Thanks,

TK

Comparing the account in Samuel with the one in Chronicles is hardly the route to removal of problems with this passage. If anything, the juxtaposition of the two passages raises more enigmas.

Samuel's account, by itself, seems problematic
The Chronicler's account, by itself, would be pretty non-problematic
The two together raise multiple questions

I think Satan is always interested in producing violence (the main motive for taking a census is either to fight or to tax). He probably routinely desired to try to get David to fail in this way. But, for whatever reason, God shielded David from such temptations for a long time. But then something changed and God granted Satan's desire to tempt David to fail in this way. David still had a choice to make. He could resist the temptation (and it would have become a passed test and helped him grow as God's child) or he could have given into the temptation (and it would have been more like God giving Satan room to work in David's life as a punishment for his wandering heart). He chose the latter.

If anything like the above is true, I can see how the 2 different biblical books could describe the events in the ways that they did. Samuel focused on God's sovereign role (He was in the position of Job... not knowing the prologue to the book named after him). In the broadest perspective, nothing happens without God's ultimate approval or allowance. The chronicler, on the other hand, was either privy to (by inspiration) or concluded (by reason) that Satan played a significant role in this event. Directly, Satan was the one who incited David to do it. Indirectly, God allowed Satan to do this in his sovereignty.

God is big enough to accept ultimate responsibility for allowing tests/temptations and even punishments into our lives. Near the end of the book of Job, he didn't alert Job to Satan role in the first chapters. He only spoke of his own sovereignty. Likewise, God did not see it necessary to breathe out 2 Sam 24:1 differently.

This is just my speculative answer... I'm sure there are other, perhaps brighter, ways of dealing with these texts.

I agree with Matt about the Satan/God difference between these two accounts. Additional problems between Chronicles and Samuel, in this story, include the differences in census numbers, in the price paid for the threshing floor and in the name of the seller. I am not of the opinion that these difficulties are insoluble—only that they exist as problems to solve.