We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

How do you respond to 2 Samuel 24:1 and 1 Chronicles 21:1?
One text says the Lord incited David to count the warriors of Israel and Judah. The other text says that Satan incited David to count the warriors of Israel. (The Lord had forbidden this, as it displayed a confidence in military strength rather than in Yahweh’s power).
Compatibilists frequently cite this as an example of how Satan always carries out God’s plan. God’s plan, they insist, is always good, though Satan is evil in carrying it out. The “paradox”—or (I believe) contradiction—that this viewpoint creates is unnecessary. These texts do not imply that Satan always carries out God’s plan, only that he sometimes does so. In this case, God planned on judging Israel and so he allowed Satan to bring it about. For editorial reasons, the author of 1 Chronicles attributes the act to Satan while the author of 1 Samuel attributes it to God who allowed Satan to do what he wanted to do.
As a parallel example, we should consider the way God sometimes uses the sinful, violent tendencies of one nation to punish another nation. As punishment on Israel, for example, the Lord allowed a wicked Assyrian nation to have its way with Israel (Isa. 10). Yet, God then punished Assyria for being the kind of nation that could be used by God in this way. Sometimes–but not always–the wicked intentions of an evil nation (or an evil being) convene with God’s purposes.
Category: Q&A
Tags: Q&A, Responding to Calvinism
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will, Responding to Objections
Verse: 1 Chronicles 21, 2 Samuel 24
Related Reading

What is the significance of Isaiah 38:1–5?
God tells Hezekiah “you shall die: you shall not recover” (vs. 1). Hezekiah pleads with God and God decides to “add fifteen years” to his life. As we noted concerning 2 Kings 20:1–5, if God foreknew that he wasn’t going to end Hezekiah’s life, his declaration that he intended to do so and his decision…

What is the significance of Jonah 1:2; 3:2, 4–10; 4:2?
God “changed his mind” (3:10) about the destruction he planned to carry out on Nineveh. If all events in history are eternally settled and known by God as such, his word to Jonah that he planned to destroy Nineveh in forty days was insincere as was his inspired testimony that he in fact changed his…

How do you respond to Isaiah 53:9?
Speaking of the suffering servant Isaiah says, “[T]hey made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich…” As with most evangelical exegetes, I believe that Isaiah 53 constitutes a beautiful and stunning prophetic look at the person of Jesus Christ. The most impressive feature of this prophecy is that the suffering servant…

What is the significance of Jeremiah 42:9-16?
Through Jeremiah the Lord tells Israel “If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you” (vs. 10). Then, a few verses later, he says, “However, if you say,…

How can you believe Matthew’s report about the Jewish cover up of the resurrection?
Question: In Matthew it’s reported that Jewish authorities tried to cover up the resurrection of Jesus by saying the disciples stole the body while the guards were sleeping. I don’t buy it. How would Matthew know about this story, since it was a secret conversation the authorities had with the guards? And how could they…

What is the significance of Acts 15:7?
At the Jerusalem council, “Peter stood up and said to them, ‘My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles should hear the message of the good news…’” The tense of the verb that locates God’s “choice” in “the…