Who incited David to take a census?

Question

According to 2 Samuel 24:1 (NRSV)

Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, "Go, count the people of Israel and Judah."

But according to 1 Chronicles 21:1 (NRSV)

Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to count the people of Israel.

How can we make sense out of this? And what's wrong with taking a census anyway?

Answer 1

And what's wrong with taking a census anyway?

I don't believe we are told anywhere that taking a census is wrong, but in Exodus 30, God makes certain commands concerning them:

¹² “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. ¹³ Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord.  _ESV

And likewise in Numbers 1:

⁴⁹ “Only the tribe of Levi you shall not list, and you shall not take a census of them among the people of Israel. ⁵⁰ But appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, and over all its furnishings, and over all that belongs to it. They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall take care of it and shall camp around the tabernacle. ⁵¹ When the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down, and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. And if any outsider comes near, he shall be put to death. ⁵² The people of Israel shall pitch their tents by their companies, each man in his own camp and each man by his own standard. ⁵³ But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the people of Israel. And the Levites shall keep guard over the tabernacle of the testimony.”  _ESV

It seems reasonable to suppose that David neglected to follow some or all of these commands with his census.

How can we make sense out of this?

The idea that Satan is an independent agent (independent of God that is) is related to the ideas of Dualism and is not well supported in Biblical Texts, and especially alien to the Old Testament.

Satan's incitement of David is one and the same as God's incitement because Satan is under God's complete control and is therefore in a sense an agent of God (albeit an agent of disaster, destruction and judgement rather than directly an agent of grace). A similar logic is found in Job 2 after God has permitted Satan to afflict Job, He takes direct responsibility himself:

³ And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.”  _ESV

Answer 2

Jack Douglas already does a good job of handling the possibility of concurrent causes, so I won't repeat his ideas on the first question. However, I think more can be said in answer to your second question.

What's wrong with taking a census?

We see in 1 Chronicles 21:3 that what's wrong is not a matter of procedure. The act of taking a census is one that Joab considers evil even before execution: "May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord's subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?" Joab is not reminding David, "This is all well and good, but don't forget to collect the half-shekel." Rather he is attempting to dissuade the king from the enterprise at all.

The reason the census is wrong is because it is rooted in unbelief.

In Deuteronomy 7 God had promised that He would drive out the nations in the land. He even explains that the nations are bigger and stronger, but that they should not fear them and instead remember what God had done to Egypt. To believe in this promise is to say with the psalmist (ironically David), "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God." If God has already promised to drive out the armies, Joab's question is natural: "Why does my lord want to do this?"

Even more pertinent, though, is the text later in 1 Chronicles 27:23-24. The narrator explains: "David did not take the number of the men twenty years old or less, because the Lord had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars in the sky. Joab son of Zeruiah began to count the men but did not finish. Wrath came on Israel on account of this numbering, and the number was not entered in the book of the annals of King David." In other words, to undertake such a counting was to show unbelief towards the covenant that God had established with Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.