Samuel 24: 1-9 Say God Told David To Number The Men?
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Passage 2 Samuel 24:1 opens with the anger of God towards Israel. The nation was very rebellious at the time. Why does 2 Samuel 24:1-9 say God told David to number the men? God allowed Satan to order David to go and take a count of Israel’s and Judah’s men. The devil was permitted to do what he does, tempt men to sin. God does not tempt a person to sin. Numbering the men wasn’t a requirement but out of curiosity to satisfy the pride in David’s heart. Yes, God was angry with Israel, so He waited until David sinned before acting against the people. Ruling upon nations frequently originates through the arrogance of its rulers (Proverbs 16:18). There is nothing wrong with the act of numbering the people. Even Moses was instructed to do this on…show more content… Joab humbly doubted David’s choice. Joab, the commander, appears to have understood the motive. The numbering of people created pointless work and drained the people. Joab eventually was overridden. David was the king so his choice would overcome. David desired to look upon his great army of men. Refusing to notice Joab’s cautioning, he commanded the census to be taken. Joab became tangled in the sin because of David’s folly. They traveled to many places within nine months and twenty days, until they came to Jerusalem. Joab gave the amount of men to the king, Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand…show more content… There could be several possible answers. The numbers given for the men of Israel differ by 300,000, while the numbers for the men of Judah differ by 30,000. A possible solution could be based on a closer analysis of the text. 1 Chronicles 21:5 says that “All Israel had one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword”. Then 2 Samuel says, “And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword”. It could be that the writer of 2 Samuel was specifying the number of “seasoned veterans” men, while the writer of 1 Chronicles was numbering any man who drew the sword, not just the valiant ones. Another possible reason is because of God's gracious care to Levi, they were devoted to God; and to Benjamin, because they was such a so small tribe. God foreknew that the Levi and Benjamin tribe would remain faithful to the house of David in the division of the tribes, and therefore He would not have them diminished. There is another possibility that will be reasonable after examination. Reading 1 Chronicles 27 notice that there are 12 divisions of 24,000 men each, giving a total of 288,000 men. It is possible that the Chronicler counts these men while the author of 2 Samuel 24 does not. Notice that the 800,000 men in 2 Samuel 24 were included in a census, as David wanted to know how many men there were for