Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

We finished our 11th book of the Bible today and we're 40% of the way through our reading

plan. Can you believe it? It feels like just yesterday we were in the wilderness and

here we are today buying a threshing floor in the promised land. This is one of my favorite

days in all of scripture. I know I say that a lot but I really love this one and I can't

wait to tell you why. In the two accounts of David's census today you probably noticed

an interesting discrepancy. Second Samuel says God insided David to take the census and

first Chronicle says Satan insided David to take the census. And this is why it's important

to read both accounts so we can compare and contrast. So which is it? Don't resist this

tension. It's there for a reason. This may actually be the perfect scriptural example

of how evil works within God's plan. Just like the Job story, here we have an enemy of

God and his people who wants to perpetrate evil against them and God allows it. By God

allowing it, it still falls under his sovereignty and it's still used for our good and his purposes.

In general, taking a census isn't bad. God commanded it several times as we've read

about at length, but this time David is doing it of his own volition, not at God's command.

Joab knows it's a bad idea, which is why he tries to dissuade David. But even though David

has taken Joab's counsel before, he doesn't listen this time. He does what he wants. And

immediately he feels conviction. He probably knew all along this wasn't God's plan and

especially when he met resistance from Joab, but he pressed through. A lot of commentators

think the problem with taking a census is that focusing on the numbers means the focus

is off of God. A census was a routine part of planning for war because nations put

confidence in the size of their military. And Israel had just been under attack by their

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