GOD OR SATAN? THE FALSE CONTRADICTION IN DAVID’S CENSUS
“2 Samuel 24:1, 1 Chronicles 21:1, and the Sovereignty of God”
By Akin Ojumu
Recently, I received an email from someone who had visited the African Plume blog and YouTube channel.
The person wrote:
“Nice to come across your YouTube channel (and blog before this). Let me know if you subscribe to TULIP (Calvinism). Also, let me know how you view 2 Sam. 24:1 and 1 Chron. 21:1.”
This commentary answers his second question. And it is a good question. Because these two passages have sent more than a few people racing breathlessly toward the nearest microphone screaming:
CONTRADICTION! CONTRADICTION!!
Samuel says God incited David. Chronicles says Satan incited David. Case closed. Bible demolished. Christianity finished. Everybody go home. Except there is one small problem. There is no contradiction.
What we have instead is something considerably more demanding than the bumper-sticker theology required to shout “Gotcha!”
We have biblical providence.
THE TWO TEXTS.
2 Samuel 24:1
“Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’”
1 Chronicles 21:1
“Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.”
So, who incited David? Was it God or Satan?
The answer is not complicated unless your doctrine of providence cannot survive two causes operating in the same event.
God was the sovereign and judicial cause. Satan was the immediate and instrumental cause. David was the willing and morally responsible human agent.
Three actors. Three intentions. One event. That is not contradiction. That is providence.
SAMUEL TELLS YOU WHY.
Do not rush past the opening words of:
2 Samuel 24:1
“Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel…”
That sentence controls the episode.
Something was already wrong in Israel. God was angry. Judgment was coming. The census did not suddenly make God angry. God’s anger against Israel is the starting point of the narrative.
Samuel therefore gives us the divine perspective:
God sovereignly brings judgment upon Israel through David’s sinful action.
Chronicles pulls back another layer of the curtain and tells us who supplied the immediate temptation:
Satan.
Samuel gives us the sovereign cause. Chronicles gives us the secondary agent.
There is no need to pit one against the other unless you have already decided that God cannot sovereignly govern events involving evil without personally committing evil.
But Scripture destroys that assumption repeatedly.
ASK JOB.
Job is perhaps the easiest place to see it.
God says to Satan: “Behold, all that he has is in your hand.”
Satan leaves God’s presence and begins his work.
Possessions disappear. Children die. Calamity descends. Job’s body is eventually afflicted.
Satan is plainly the immediate attacker.
Yet Job says: “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away.”
And what does the inspired narrator say?
“In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”
Apparently, Job did not attend the modern seminar where we are told that acknowledging divine sovereignty over calamity amounts to slandering God.
It gets even stronger.
God later says to Satan: “You incited me against him to destroy him without reason.”
Read that again.
Satan afflicted Job. Yet God speaks of Himself as acting against Job through Satan’s agency.
Scripture does not panic. Scripture does not apologize. Scripture does not call an emergency theological committee meeting.
It simply affirms both truths.
God is sovereign. Satan is active. Their intentions are not the same.
THEN COMES THE CROSS.
If this principle bothers you in 2 Samuel 24, the Cross will bother you even more.
Acts 2:23 says Jesus was:
Acts 2:23
“…delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.”
And then Peter turns around and says: “…you crucified and killed.”
Who did it? Was it God or wicked men?
Again:
Yes. But not in the same way.
Acts 4:27–28 says Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and Israel gathered against Christ to do: “whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”
Read those words slowly.
They did what God had predestined. And they were still guilty.
God ordained the event. They committed the evil.
God intended redemption. They intended murder.
Same event. Different intentions. Different moral responsibilities.
If your theology cannot accommodate that, your problem is not 2 Samuel 24.
Your problem is Acts 2. Acts 4. Genesis 50. Job 1. Job 2. And ultimately Calvary itself.
DAVID WAS NOT A PUPPET.
But Scripture does not allow David to hide behind either God or Satan.
After the census, David says: “I have sinned greatly in what I have done.”
Notice what he does not say.
“God made me do it.”
No.
“Satan made me do it.”
No.
“I was merely following the cosmic script.”
No.
He says:
“I have sinned.”
That is biblical compatibilism in narrative form.
God is sovereign. Satan is malicious. David is responsible.
All three truths stand. None cancels the others.
BUT JAMES SAYS GOD DOES NOT TEMPT.
Correct.
James 1:13
“God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”
And nothing in 2 Samuel 24 contradicts James.
God does not entice people toward evil because He delights in evil. God has no wicked motive. God has no sinful desire. God is not morally corrupt.
Satan tempts because Satan loves evil. David sins because David acts from sinful desire. God governs the event for righteous judgment. The intentions are radically different.
This is exactly what Joseph explains in Genesis 50:20:
Genesis 50:20
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”
Not: “You meant evil, but God stood helplessly on the sidelines trying to salvage the situation.”
Not: “You meant evil, and God later found a way to turn your unexpected mess into something useful.”
No.
You meant it. God meant it. Same event. Two intentions. Human evil. Divine righteousness.
The brothers were guilty. God was sovereign. Nobody had to rescue God’s reputation by pretending He had nothing to do with the event.
SO WHO INCITED DAVID?
Here is the answer in plain English.
God ordained the testing. Satan supplied the temptation. David supplied the sin.
Samuel emphasizes divine sovereignty and judgment. Chronicles identifies the immediate satanic agent. David confesses his own guilt.
That is the whole picture.
The passages do not contradict each other. They interpret each other. And together they teach something far more profound than the shallow “one verse says God, the other says Satan” objection allows.
God is sovereign even over Satan. God is sovereign even over human wickedness. God can ordain that an evil act occur without possessing the evil intention of the creature who performs it.
Satan remains Satan. David remains guilty. God remains holy. And God’s purpose still stands.
THE REAL CONTRADICTION IS IN THE OBJECTION.
The contradiction exists only if you begin with the assumption that an event cannot simultaneously have a sovereign cause and a secondary cause.
But nobody lives that way.
A king sends an army. The general orders an attack. The soldier fires the arrow.
Who caused the battle?
The answer may legitimately be all three, at different levels.
Yet suddenly, when Scripture speaks with the same causal depth, people act as though language itself has collapsed.
It has not.
The problem is not the Bible. The problem is a theology too thin to understand the Bible.
2 Samuel 24:1 does not deny Satan’s agency. 1 Chronicles 21:1 does not deny God’s sovereignty. David’s confession does not deny either one. All three truths fit together perfectly.
So, no, this is not one of those legendary “Bible contradictions.” It is only a contradiction to those who think divine sovereignty means God must personally commit every evil He governs, or that creaturely responsibility requires God to surrender control of His universe.
Scripture teaches neither.
The God of the Bible does not sit in heaven wringing His hands while Satan and men derail His plans. Nor does He become evil because He sovereignly governs evil men.
He rules. Satan schemes. Men sin. God judges. God redeems. And His purpose stands.
Samuel says God incited David. Chronicles says Satan incited David. David says, “I have sinned.”
Three statements. One event. No contradiction. Just a sovereign God who is far bigger than the theology of those shouting:
“CONTRADICTION!”
It's a delight to see that you understand that: Ultimate Wisdom and power is sovereign above evil without committing evil . James(Yakob) 1v13-17 is what really gives me strength and clarity in this matter which agrees with 1John 1v5.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote: So, no, this is not one of those legendary “Bible contradictions.” . In the inquiry i emailed you, i believe it's clear that i didn't say this is a contradiction but simply wanted to know "how you view 2Sam 24v1 and 1Chron 21v1".
You wrote: "God can ordain that an evil act occur without", partaking in evil.
I have a slightly different view: i'm convinced that, what God "predestined" or "ordained" is not the evil but rather other realities such as Freewill, etc., without which Love (or marriage) cannot be truly experienced (Deut 30v15-16, Freewill opens up possibility for opposition/evil or the creation of such things, which Wisdom also uses for His glory too which is predestined - i.e., His glory/purpose is predestined along with His Nature: Grace/Sacrificial Love and Freewill for His created spirits) . I don't know why you ignored the TULIP (Calvinism) question.
I guess the TULIP (Calvinism) issue will require some time for you to respond and That's Okay because i understand that some of these things can be complex and we have time constraints as humans.
ReplyDeleteHebrews 9v19-21, THE SCROLL and Tabernacle were sprinkled with God's Sacrificial Love, not just the people alone . What's the point i'm trying to make? Scripture is Trustworthy, however, it uses Deficient Human Language and expressions, therefore the need regarding being well-grounded in the Whole Counsel of God (Acts 20v27), which can take time especially because of things we have been taught wrongly by Pastors who misunderstood or misuse Scripture.
Scripture attempts to communicate phenomena that's beyond human language (2Cor 9v15, "indescribable gift" . Mark 4v30).
Romans 10v3 says that the Jews were "ignorant of God's righteousness", yet Scripture at-large says: not so (e.g., Romans 3v21).
Are you aware that Scripture teaches that God's Sacrificial Love was poured-out before anything was created? When was the satanic spirit defeated? at the cross? or as Revelation says: future, yet to come?
Are you aware of verses saying that: God came down from heaven to see what's happening on earth -- as though God is not omniscient/omnipresent.
John 14v23, We will COME and make Our home with such a person -- as though God is not omnipresent, in comparison to the better language/expression in Romans 10v6-8, Acts 17v27-28 (spoken to pagans).
1Tim 1v9 says that the Law was made as a deterrence against those who wish to take advantage of Grace in a wrong way, but is that the only reason why the ways of God have been revealed? Clearly, the righteous who desire to know the ways of God are blessed by the Law (Hebrews 10v16).