Day 76: 2 Samuel 24:1–10

The Lord’s anger burned against Israel again, and it stirred up David against them to say: “Go, count the people of Israel and Judah” (v. 1).

Second Samuel 24 gives us an opportunity to do some research into an easily misunderstood event in David’s history. Satan always seeks to make us believe that God is unfair or unkind. In this task, the adversary particularly likes to use a few difficult-to-understand events recorded in Scripture.

Chapter 24 may be confusing and unsettling to us if we don’t keep one thought in mind: we do not know every fact about every event in Scripture. We don’t always have the explanations for certain events and acts of God. He is sovereign. He owes us no explanation. He purposes to teach us to walk by faith and not by sight. When Scripture records an event or judgment of God that seems cruel or unfair, we need to do two things:

1. Acknowledge that His ways are higher than ours. We do not have all the information or understanding. We have no idea the depth of evil God may have seen in human hearts that necessitated such serious judgment.

2. Acknowledge what we do know about God. Anytime you are overwhelmed by what you do not know or understand about God, consider what you do know about Him. Your heart and mind will be quieted, and you will be able to walk in faith.

In 2 Samuel 24, we get a chance to practice using this method:

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 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” (2 Sam. 24:1–2).

But the counting of the fighting men was barely completed when David realized he had made a serious mistake. He was conscience-stricken about his actions and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing” (v. 10).

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’ ” (v. 12).

God’s three options were all dreadful: three years of famine, three months of defeat in war, or three days of plague. David chose to fall into God’s hand rather than those of men. In the ensuing three days of plague, seventy thousand Israelites died.

As you can see, this gives us the perfect opportunity to employ the method of Bible study I suggested—to measure what you don’t know or understand by what you do! I see at least two occurrences that Satan could twist to cause doubt or dismay in the reader: (1) God’s role in David’s sin, and (2) punishment that appears to exceed the crime.

Let’s consider the first point. The first verse of chapter 24 says, “[God] incited David against them, saying, ‘Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.’” A brief look at this one verse may cause us to wonder why God would ask David to do something and then kill seventy thousand people as a result.

Just as God included four Gospels to tell the story of the incarnate Christ, He recorded many of the occurrences of David’s reign in the books of 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. We can better understand passages or events by comparing these “parallel” accounts.

First Chronicles 21:1 sheds a little light on what happened to David. “Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel” (1 Chron. 21:1).

So who did it? Who enticed David to sin—God or Satan? As we confront something we do not know, consider what we do know. How could the following Scriptures shed light on our understanding of 2 Samuel 24:1 and 1 Chronicles 21:1?

“When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed” (James 1:13–14).

“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Cor. 10:13).

From these two passages we know that God does not tempt us. He may allow us to be tempted to test, prove, or help us to grow; but He is definitely not the tempter. In our temptation He always makes a way of escape.

So how do we explain the activity of God in David’s sin? His role must have been somewhat like His part in the suffering of Job. God did not tempt Job; God gave Satan permission to test Job. In the same way we can be assured that God did not tempt David to sin and then judge him harshly for it. God has no sin; therefore He is incapable of enticing one to sin. He did, however, allow David to be tempted because He saw something in David’s heart that needed to be exposed.