2 Samuel 24:1-2 and 1 Chronicles 21:1-2

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I was reading a forum and someone made a comment about the verses of 2 Samuel 24:1-2 and 1 Chronicles 21:1-2 that one account says God ordered David to take a census of Israel and the other says it was Satan. Could someone provide an explanation for this?

Thanks in advance.
 
2 Samuel 24:1 And the anger of the Lord was again kindled against Israel, and stirred up David among them, saying: Go, number Israel and Juda.

1 Chronicles 21:1And Satan rose up against Israel: and moved David to number Israel.

Just by my personal observation, I would say that God permitted Satan to move David to number Israel. But let me look into it. I am interested in find out what some of the saints have to say about it.

Here is what Haydock says,
Ver. 1. Stirred up, &c. This stirring up, was not the doing of God, but of satan; as it is expressly declared, 1 Chronicles xxi. 1. (Challoner) — David was moved by vanity, &c., thus to displease God. — Among. Hebrew, “against;” as the king could have done nothing more prejudicial to his people, 70,000 of whom perished on this occasion, ver. 15. (Haydock) — We might also translate, “The anger of the Lord continued against Israel: for David, for their misfortune, was moved to say, Go,” &c., as this would obviate the harshness of the expression. (Calmet) — However, as it is the same in the Septuagint, &c., and as similar words do not prove that God is the author of sin, we may explain this in the same sense, allowing that he suffered the evil to take place, knowing how to draw good out of it. (St. Augustine, &c.) (Haydock) — Some take this Satan to be an evil counsellor. (Calmet) — The devil may be styled “the fury of God?” as he is his creature, though rebellious. (Worthington)
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Actually, this fits in very nicely with the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas. He, like most Catholic theologians, held that God does not have emotions, becausse He is impassable. In other words, He doesn’t change. To have emotions is to change. God simply is. He is “I Am.” That’s His identity - to simply be. Were He to have emotions, then sometimes He would be “I Am sad,” or “I Am angry,” or “I Am happy.” Yet He is not; He is simply “I Am.”

St. Thomas says that Scriptural statements like “God was angry” are a sort of metaphor, and specifically he says that when Scripture says God is angry, it is a metaphor for Him enacting punishment.

Here, it says in one place that God’s anger stirs up David, and elsewhere that Satan does. Reading this according to St. Thomas, this would mean that God’s punishment was to stir up David - something which He may well have done through Satan, or through permitting Satan to stir David up.

Peace and God bless
 
Hi Dylan,

The two authors start from a fact : David called for a census and the census was followed by misfortune.

One explains it starting from the idea that God is responsible for everything that he lets happen.

The other attributes the evil to the Evil One as directly responsible for all evil.

If you remember the Book of Job, both points of view are reconciled. God tells Satan to try his servant Job.

Verbum
 
The two occasions in the Bible that remind of this is in Luke 22:31 where Jesus says concerning Peter, 31"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat," and the other is the one that Verbum just mentioned in Job. The way I see it is that God has permitted Satan to do his thing with David. I wish that I had the Ancient Christian Commentary on Samuel and Chronicles to see if the Fathers pointed this out, I have done some searching of the Fathers concerning this and I have not found anything yet.
 
DylanO said:
I was reading a forum and someone made a comment about the verses of 2 Samuel 24:1-2 and 1 Chronicles 21:1-2 that one account says God ordered David to take a census of Israel and the other says it was Satan. Could someone provide an explanation for this?

Thanks in advance.
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This non-Catholic (I am sure this is how the Catholic Church would see it too) explanation seems reasonable: “Who Tempted David to Sin?”

comereason.org/bibl_cntr/con070.asp
 
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