God’s Word Is Perfect; Our Pride Without Him Is Sinful

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.’ (1 Chronicles 21:1); ‘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.”’ (2 Samuel 24:1)

Today’s Word-Of-The-Day comes from a question raised by someone who was confused by these two verses, in which they seem to contradict each other and Christian doctrine when it comes to God’s character.  We are taught God cannot sin as He is Holy or without error; He is perfect and never makes mistakes.  But we have in our Bibles an obvious conflict; was it Satan who ‘incited’ David to sin as stated in 1 Chronicles 21:1, or was it God ‘inciting’ the sin as stated in 2 Samuel 24:1?  Most modern English translations have these same words as the New International Version (which I use and where the Scriptures of the ‘WOTD’ almost always come from).

We’ll get two lessons today for the price of admission – a BOGO!  (If you paid to receive today’s WOTD, don’t forget to get a receipt and your change.) 

Both verses refer to the same incident of the sin of pride David had; he did not necessarily sin in counting the people if he had the proper condition to do it.  He did not do it to glorify God but did it to self-boast – ‘look, I lead a 1.3-million-man militia!’.  It was temptation by Satan, as referred to in 1 Chronicles 21:1, which led to this sinful action.

In 2 Samuel 24:1, the anger of God against Israel was due to their lack of Faithfulness to God through their mediocre obedience to David; David was God’s appointed leader and many of them jumped over to Absalom when he tried to take over Israel.  Despite the blessings they received, the Israelites kept trying to go against what God had for them.  ‘Incited’ is not in every translation, some have ‘moved’ in their translations and in one, the Young’s Literary Translation, the phrase ‘an adversary moveth’ is used.  It is more accurate, then, to have the verse read as:

‘Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he <allowed an adverse movement in> David against them, saying, “<I’ll allow you to have the free will to> go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”’

God would not provoke or cause sin upon David, but in His anger against Israel He would allow David to act upon His sinful temptation of pride and count the military-abled men. 

In turn, after the census David had remorse and repented, but God gave him 3 choices – 3 years of famine against the people, 3 days of plague against the people, or 3 months of David fleeing from his enemies.  David allowed God to decide, with the caveat that the fate of Israel not be given over to men.  So God chose the 3 days of plague, which 70,000 Israelites died from.  The consequences of David’s sin were worse on David than if God afflicted David directly; David had to watch 70,000 of the people he loved and cared for as his subjects – his people – die.  The consequence of the Israelites’ sin of disobedience was to be struck with a plague.  In essence, the Lord took care of correcting both David and the Israelites in one action.

We can take two lessons from this; first is do not allow your pride to overrule God’s plan.  Had David checked his ‘feeling’ to perform the census with God first, taking his thought of doing the count to God, he may have been allowed to do so with God’s blessing and perhaps a clearer mandate, like ‘count all the people, not just the men’, or God would have removed that temptation altogether.  When we act on impulse, we often put ourselves in a worse position than where we started. 

We want that new car with all the bells and whistles, though we have a working car with no issues that’s paid off.  Ignoring to seek the council of God and instead seeking the council of the dealership’s salesmen, we end up with a payment more than what we wanted to make and a car that after the luster wear off, we really don’t like, but we now have to keep as the equity’s upside down (which is why I avoid buying new cars – though it seems inevitable).  David had the same ‘buyer’s remorse’, but his consequence to his sin cost the lives of 70,000 of his people and that guilt upon his head.

The second lesson is to know the Bible itself is never in conflict with itself, nor is it ever going to be stating God as promoting sin.  When there are ‘conflicts’ or such a promotion, remember that due to the limitations of the English language and the limitations of the human translator(s), conflicts such as that of 1 Corinthians 21:1 and 2 Samuel 24:1 may inadvertently occur, at least in some translations.  I use a study tool called ‘Blue Letter Bible’, an online website that, for the ‘desktop’ version, has the ability to compare all the various translations including the Latin ‘Vulgate’ translation, as well as the original Greek and Hebrews texts (if you really need to dig deep).  One can also read Commentaries such as Matthew Henry’s, who attempts to explain the meaning of the Bible, verse by verse.

Today’s modern translations, for the most part, get the message across properly.  However, when there appears to be a conflict or misunderstanding in what you are reading, don’t hesitate to either dig deeper, compare it to other translations, or ask an Elder or the Pastor of any Christ-centered, Bible-focused church to help with your understanding.  We are here to help you, and certainly allowing me the opportunity to answer the question gave me today’s WOTD!