Satan and the Wrath of God
The scriptures contain two different accounts of David counting his fighting men. They are almost the same, except for the cause of the incident.
The wrath of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah” (2 Sam 24:1).
Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel (1 Chron 21:1).
Samuel records that the wrath of God incited David. The chronicler says that Satan incited him. This points to an important reality.
When people rebel against God and come under his wrath and lose their spiritual protection, Satan takes the opportunity provided and attacks the rebellious people.
God’s wrath and Satan travel together. More correctly, Satan goes wherever God’s wrath goes and picks a few scraps to feed on.
This means that many events described as the wrath of God are actually he work of Satan.
2 comments:
One of the issues here is that there is a human writer involved in the process, so there are, presumably, incorrect interpretations- especially of intent- in the bible. For instance, I seriously doubt God sent a bear to maul little children for jeering at a bald prophet.
August, I agree this was not God, but I trust the writer in this case. I believe Elijah got it wrong. He miss-used the authority that God had given him. By cursing the boys, he released the powers of evil to stir up the bear and maul then. This is a warning to prophetic people to be careful about their intent, and not miss-use their authority.
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