A census is…punishment? 2 Samuel 24, Part 1

We are nearing the end of David’s life.  The final chapter in 2 Samuel, Chapter 24, is just so perfect for the last story in David’s life.  It’s perfect because it is confusing and filled with turmoil, much of which is David’s fault, but then it concludes with a beautiful description of David’s heart.

I love that this week’s concluding story in 2 Samuel 24 is messy and beautiful.  I love that because, not only was David a beautiful mess, we are all beautiful messes too. We are all made in God’s image, deeply loved by God.  And yet we all have our struggles, don’t we?  That tension of the beautiful mess has been evident in David’s life.  He is a man after God’s own heart, and still he makes some terribly selfish choices. 

We will see that again in 2 Samuel 24. Let’s begin with verse 1,

“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.’” 

What is frustrating about this passage is the information that we don’t know.  There was a situation that made God upset, but we don’t know what that situation was.  Some scholars speculate that it might have been when many of the people of Israel turned their back on David, pledging their loyalty to his son Absalom, when Absalom rebelled against David (2 Samuel 16–20).  

But we do not need to discover which precise situation God is responding to.  Instead we need to focus on the fact that something happened, and God incites David to take a census because the Lord’s anger burned against the people.  In other words, the census is a punishment.  A census is punishment?  A census is just counting people.  How is that a punishment for bad behavior?  It’s not. 

Quite frankly, this story is starting off in a strange, confusing way.  Let me make it more strange.  The parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 21 says this, “Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.”

There’s a big difference, right?  Did God incite David to take a census?  Or did Satan?  We don’t know.  What I suspect happened here is that the person who wrote 2 Samuel wrote first. Then the person who wrote Chronicles came along, and wanted to fix what they viewed as troubling parts of the account of David’s life.  It is troubling to think that God incited David to do something wicked as punishment against the people, which is what we just read in 2 Samuel 24, verse 1.  So the author of 1 Chronicles could be thinking, “I don’t like how the author of 2 Samuel depicts God, so I am going to correct what surely must be a mistake. It must have been Satan that incited David to do this terrible thing.” 

In my opinion the change from God to Satan exchanges one problem for another. I don’t see how that helps.  I do not like the idea that God would incite David to do something awful.  And I’m cluing you in…something awful is coming.  I also do not like the idea that Satan could influence David to do something awful.  But I have to admit that I prefer the Chronicler’s approach. Satan does bad things.  Not God.  Yet there are just some things we will not understand.  I know that’s not very satisfying, but I believe it to be true.

That said, I have to ask again, how is taking a census a bad thing?  Our government takes a national census every ten years.  Who cares?

We need to keep reading, looking for more info.  In 2 Samuel 24, verse 2, we learn that this is not a nation-wide census of all people.  Instead David asks his military commanders to take a census of how many fighting men are available in the nation.  This is a military action.  David is determining how large his military could be.

But remember verse 1.  God incites David to take a census because God is upset with Israel.  How is taking a census of the fighting men a bad thing?  If you’re confused by this, I don’t blame you.   We need to keep reading, looking for more answers.

In verse 3, Joab, David’s longtime military commander speaks up.  We have heard numerous stories about Joab through this blog series on the life of David.  On the one hand, Joab is sometimes a devious guy (even committing murder more than once…here and here and here); on the other hand, Joab has stuck by David for the long haul. Joab has also demonstrated that he is quite willing to confront David.  Joab confronts David again in 2 Samuel 24, verse 3.  Joab clearly disagrees with David’s idea to take a census to determine how many fighting men are available in the nation.  Why does Joab think this is a bad idea?  The narrator doesn’t tell us.  (Though note the parallel account in 1 Chronicles 21:3.) 

How will David respond to Joab’s question?  Maybe David’s answer will help us figure out what the big deal is with the census.  Look at verse 4. Do you see David’s answer to Joab’s question, “Why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”  What does David say in response to Joab?

In verse 4 David says nothing.  Or at least the narrator of the story doesn’t tell us if David responds.  Instead in verses 4–9, Joab and the army commanders perform the census.  We read in verse 9 that there are 800,000 in Israel, the tribes to the north, and 500,000 in Judah to the south.  David should be feeling really good about the results of the census. 

Those 1.3 million represent a massive army.  Even by modern standards, if a nation can assemble a 1.3 million person army, they are a fighting force to be reckoned with. As of September 2023, the US Department of Defense listed 1.29 million active-duty troops and 767,000 national guard/reserves.  Only China and India have more. 

So David’s census, showing that his Kingdom can muster a 1.3 million strong army, is a rousing success.  With those numbers, David can rest in peace, as he hands the nation over to his son.  The Kingdom of Israel is secure. 

Except David is not feeling peaceful at all. As we’ll discover in the next post, David is really broken up by this news.

Photo by Alex Bracken on Unsplash