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 incited David to take the census. And First Chronicle says Satan incited 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 with Job's 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 is 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

...