David's Census

When you talk about David's sin in the bible,

the sin that comes to everyones mind first..

would obviously be the sin with Bathsheba,

and the murder of Uriah her husband.

An interesting sin that comes up in

2 Samuel/1 Chronicles is the census that David takes

of Israel. I say interesting because all

David does is he takes a census of the

Kingdom of Israel. Why then was taking

a census considered a sin?

Again the anger of the Lord was

aroused against Israel, and He moved

David against them to say "Go,

number Israel and Judah."

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."

And Joab said to the King

"Now may the Lord your God

add to the people a hundred times

more then they are, and may the eyes

of my lord the King see it. But

why does my lord the King desire this thing?"

Nevertheless the King's word prevailed

against Joab and against the captains of the

army. Therefore Joab and the captains

of the army went out from the presence

of the king to count the people of Israel.

2 Samuel 24:1-4

You may be asking yourself,

"Hey, wait a minute..didn't it just say the Lord

moved David to take the Census?"

I could see how that could be confusing,

but in Chronicles it says Satan moved David

to do the census. Of course like in the story of Job

It was God who allowed Satan to "move against" Job.

So technically it was God who allowed it to happen,

because Satan can't do jack without God letting

him. You can't leave out the first verse in 2 Samuel

24 where it states "The anger of the Lord was against Israel"

And truth-fully there was plenty of reason for God to be angry

with Israel, it's not like God was being unjust in allowing

satan to tempt David into doing the Census.

Now Satan stood up against Israel,

and moved David to number Israel.

So david said to Joab and to the leaders of the people,

"Go, number Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and bring

the number of them to me that I may know it."

And Joab answered, "May the LORD make His people

a hundred times more then they are.

BUT my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants?

Why then does my lord require this thing?

Why should he be a cause of guilt in Israel?"

Nevertheless the King's word prevailed against Joab.

Therefore Joab departed and went throughout all Israel

1 Chronicles 21:1-4

Chronicles as you can see gives a little more detail

to Joab's reply to the king. Joab wasn't particularly

a righteous person, he was pretty selfish

actually, and for him to question the reasons

for taking the census was pretty strange, if you think about it.

Joab was essentially saying;

"Why number the people? don't they all belong to the Lord?

The Lord fights our battles, it doesn't matter how many

men we have. Why sin against all of Israel

with your lack of faith?"

For you see, the only reason to do a census back then

was to know how many fighting men you had,

So then David could know how big his army was and

hence he could decide, in his mind, If he could win

in a certain battle or not depending on how many men he had.

FOR THIS REASON the census was a sin, because David

wasn't trusting in God, David was struggling with a lack of Faith..

The reason the 1 Chronicles 21 and 2 Samuel 24 verses

(which both explain David's taking of a census)

are somewhat confusing is because it doesn't

exactly explain why the census was considered a sin...

it just says

And God was displeased with this thing; therefore

He struck Israel. So David said to God,

"I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing;

but now, I pray, take away the iniquity of Your servant,

for I have done very foolishly."

1 Chronicles 21:7/2 Samuel 24:10

We know however that God is Righteous, He is just,

and he wouldn't punish without reason.

Really all you need to do is look at the reasons

for taking a census back then, as it was a popular thing

to do for the kingdoms in those times. They wanted to know

how many men they had so they can either brag about it

and feel all proud and mighty, which obviously would also

be a sin for David, or they wanted to do a census to count

all their men who could fight so they could determine

if they could hold up in a fight against the enemy.

Either way there was a lack of trust, a lack of faith

in God. Which is why David realized what he had done

was a sin because he didn't put his trust in God.

Doing a census in itself isn't a sin BUT the reasons

behind it could be.