If we assume the one who incites David to take a census is Satan, we still have other issues to deal with in this chapter, and we may not come to a fully satisfactory conclusion regarding why the census represents a major act of disobedience on David's part.
Let's begin our text from 2 Samuel 24 and compare it with 1 Chronicles 21. "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) "Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel." (1 Chronicles 21:1)
The problem with accepting that the anger of the Lord is burning against Israel during David's time is twofold. First, we are not told why He is angry. It wouldn't be the first time He's been angry with general wickedness/lawlessness and idolatry in the nation (the final decades of the era of the judges is a good example of that) but there's no indication that these things were happening during the reign of David. David was a good king, politically and militarily. We could even say he set a good spiritual example for the nation, because even though he made some pretty big mistakes he also repented of them and stopped participating in them; plus, at no point did he ever dabble in idolatry as far as we know. If there has been any general turning away from the law or turning away from the Lord in Israel during David's reign, we don't know anything about it. As we study the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah we will find that when kings faithful to the Lord are on the throne, the majority of the population remains faithful to the Lord. When idolatrous kings sit on the throne, more idolatry takes place among the citizens. This leads us to believe that while David who loves the Lord is on the throne, the majority of the people are still following the Lord's precepts.
The second reason we have trouble accepting that the "he" of verse 1 refers to the Lord is that, even if He actually was angry with Israel during David's reign, the Lord does not incite anyone to sin. We are going to learn later in Chapter 24 that the Lord considers David's numbering of the fighting men to be a sin and, as James the brother of Jesus clearly states, the Lord never tempts anyone to do wrong. "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." (James 1:13-15)
I feel the best explanation of 2 Samuel 24, when studied in conjunction with 1 Chronicles 21 and James 1:13-15, is that Satan tempted David to count the number of fighting men and David gave in to this temptation because counting the fighting men is something he wanted to do. We have no trouble believing that, as the author of 1 Chronicles says, "Satan rose up against Israel," for Satan has always been against Israel. Satan never wanted Israel to be a nation in the first place and has attempted to wipe the nation of Israel out ever since its inception. Satan never wanted the Redeemer, who is of the nation of Israel, to be born or to preach the word of God or to die on the cross or to rise from the grave, and he did everything possible to keep that from happening. So of course he wanted to tempt David and the citizens of Israel into sin in hopes that the judgment of the Lord would fall upon them. We won't have time in today's study to discuss the possible reasons why this census was a sin but will get to that as we continue moving through Chapter 24 over the next several days.
"So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, 'Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.'" (2 Samuel 24:2) The phrase "from Dan to Beersheba" is used a number of times in the Bible as a way of saying "from one end to the other". Dan lay at the northern boundary and Beersheba lay at the southern boundary. In other words, David wants every man of military age in Israel, who is physically and mentally able to serve in the army, to be counted.
Joab doesn't usually come across as an especially spiritually-minded man but he feels uneasy about David's orders. Joab does usually come across as a man who questions authority and who is willing to disobey the king's orders when it suits him, so we're not surprised when he's bold enough to voice his doubts about the wisdom of performing a census. "But Joab replied to the king, 'May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord want to do such a thing?'" (2 Samuel 24:3) It wasn't long ago that David was singing the Lord's praises for having protected him and the nation of Israel from all their enemies up to this point. Joab, as the general of the army, knows exactly how many military victories the Lord has given Israel up to this point and even though he may not know exactly how many men of military age there are in the nation right now, he isn't worried about whether there are enough men. The Lord has given victories even when Israel's army was vastly outnumbered. It doesn't matter how many men there are; it matters whether the Lord fights on the side of Israel. So Joab says something like, "The Lord has blessed the army of Israel and may He continue to bless it and may you live long enough to see the population of Israel---and the number of Israel's fighting men---grow by leaps and bounds! Why should you want or need to take a census? The Lord has provided and protected us thus far; He will continue to provide and protect."
"The king's word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel." (2 Samuel 24:4) Joab isn't the only man who voiced a protest against David's idea. The text indicates that the other army commanders objected as well. But David didn't take any of their words to heart and ordered them to leave his presence and get on with the census. He will be sorry for this by the time we arrive at verse 10. Join us tomorrow as David expresses sorrow over his decision and as a prophet comes to present him with his choice of three disciplinary outcomes to his mistake.
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