“Two Sides Of The Tale”

Monday, January 01, 2018

There are two passages that some people say don't go well together.  In 2 Samuel 24:1, God incited David to take a census, but in 1 Chronicles 21:1, Satan incited David to take the census.  How can this be?  Some people say that either God Himself morphed into Satan or the author of Chronicles calls God "satan" because God's anger acts as an adversary to David or people say this is just a biblical error and don't know why it's there.  At first, I thought these were two separate events, but no, these two verses describe one event.  What do you say, and how would you explain this?

Sincerely,
Head Count

Dear Head Count,

Those two verses describe two sides of the same coin.  2 Sam 24:1 says that God was upset with Israel, and 1 Chr 21:1 says that Satan fought against Israel.  Both are true.  God was upset with how Israel was behaving, so He took His protection away and allowed Satan to fight against Israel by tempting David.  God often does this.  We are protected as long as we turn to Him and place our faith in Him, but when we wander into ungodly living – all bets are off.  The great lion, the devil, hunts for wayward sheep that have strayed from the Great Shepherd (1 Pet 5:8).

Share