2 Samuel 5:1-25

Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. ² Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the Lord said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel. ³ So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord: and they anointed David king over Israel. ⁴ David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. ⁵ In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months: and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah. ⁶ And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither. ⁷ Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David. ⁸ And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind that are hated of David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house. ⁹ So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward. ¹⁰ And David went on, and grew great, and the Lord God of hosts was with him. ¹¹ And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons: and they built David an house. ¹² And David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel’s sake. ¹³ And David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he was come from Hebron: and there were yet sons and daughters born to David. ¹⁴ And these be the names of those that were born unto him in Jerusalem; Shammuah, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, ¹⁵ Ibhar also, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia, ¹⁶ And Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphalet. ¹⁷ But when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the hold. ¹⁸ The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. ¹⁹ And David enquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the Lord said unto David, Go up: for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand. ²⁰ And David came to Baalperazim, and David smote them there, and said, The Lord hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baalperazim. ²¹ And there they left their images, and David and his men burned them. ²² And the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. ²³ And when David enquired of the Lord, he said, Thou shalt not go up; but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. ²⁴ And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the Lord go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines. ²⁵ And David did so, as the Lord had commanded him; and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gazer.

All of 1 and 2 Samuel have been building to this point where the Lord would establish His chosen king over His people. Through all that David had been through in shepherding his father’s sheep, fighting for Israel against Goliath and the Philistines in Saul’s army, being on the run from Saul while dwelling in caves and the wilderness, and ruling over Judah from Hebron while the household of Saul took its final stand with Abner and Ish-bosheth; the Lord used it all to prepare David to shepherd His people. God wasn’t just concerned with making David king, but His desire was to make David a certain kind of king. We learn that, in our lives, the Lord will have His will and way in the circumstances, but the Lord works in and through all that we go through to transform our character and conform us to the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-29). Chapter 5 is really a collage of sorts. It is a mixture of events and circumstances that mark David’s early rule as king over all of Israel. It begins with the elders of Israel coming and acknowledging him as their king and progresses to show his victory over the Jebusites in Jerusalem. It then moves to show how the Lord made David’s name great, mentions more of his sin regarding his wives and the sons born to them, and then describes two victories over the Philistines that led to their removal from Israel. David’s actions in chapter 5 model for us as king over Israel what it is to live under the rule of the One that he foreshadowed, the Lord Jesus Christ. From this chapter, we can learn three things that you and I are called to do as we serve our King. We will look at the first of those this week and the second two next week. The first thing we will learn from David’s rule over all of Israel is that we are to believe God’s promise. What does that look like? Today we will look at two principles that you and I are to live by that demonstrate that we truly believe the promises of God revealed in His Word.

First, we wait patiently for His will. In verses 1-3, the elders of Israel are said to have come to David at Hebron in order to acknowledge him as king over all of Israel. This came as a result of the events of 2 Samuel 2-4. Remember that Abner had first taken matters into his own hands to anoint Ish-bosheth over all of Israel outside of Judah and there was a prolonged conflict between the remaining household of Saul and the household of David. Before he was murdered by Joab, Abner had turned against Ish-bosheth for Ish-bosheth’s accusations against him, come and made peace with David, and then went about to try and convince all of the elders of Israel that were loyal to Saul’s household to switch sides and acknowledge David as the king of Israel. In addition, David had demonstrated his character to all of Israel by disciplining Joab for killing Abner, executing Rechab and Baanah for killing Ish-bosheth, and giving both Abner and Ish-bosheth honorable burials. These actions showed that David had a character that sought the good of the people, even those that would be considered his enemies, and served to convince the people that he was the man that God had chosen as their king because he was truly the man the Lord had promised through Samuel, a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:13-14). Notice upon what basis the elders came to David on. First, they acknowledged David on the basis of kinship saying “Behold, we are they bone and thy flesh.” They affirmed him as a fellow Israelite and as one from among them. Second, they acknowledged David on the basis of experience. They saw him as a type of “savior” saying, “in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel.” He had a demonstrated track record as he faithfully fought for them and did them good. Lastly, they acknowledged David on the basis of promise saying, “and the Lord said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel.” They knew that it was God’s will for David to be king. Think about those three things and then think about the Lord Jesus. Like David, He identified with God’s people and became one of us. He also demonstrated His love for us in dying for us (Romans 5:8). He came and fulfilled the Word of the Lord concerning His Messiah and fulfilled all of God’s promises to us (2 Corinthians 1:20). He is truly “the great Shepherd of the sheep” (Hebrews 13:20). Israel had to recognize these things in David and you and I must recognize them in our King, the Lord Jesus. By coming to David, Israel acknowledged that they knew David to be their legitimate king. They also demonstrated some level of repentance in acknowledging that they had been in rebellion to God’s Word by not coming to David before that time. Despite it all, the kingdom was united under David’s rule around a mutual commitment to God’s Word and promises. True unity is still achieved the same way today among God’s people. Despite the period of waiting, the Lord fulfilled His Word to David. If you and I believe His promises, we will wait patiently on Him. David was anointed three times as king before assuming the throne over all Israel. He was anointed by Samuel in 1 Samuel 16, anointed by Judah in 2 Samuel 2, and anointed over all Israel in 2 Samuel 5. You and I must seek to be faithful and obedient to the Lord in all that we do while we wait on Him to bring to pass what His Word has promised. One day you and I will reign with Christ, but now we wait patiently for that day.

Next, you and I are called to act faithfully according to His will. Having now acknowledged and anointed David as king, Israel went about to follow their new king into fulfilling the Lord’s will. Jerusalem and the Jebusites have appeared in the story of David once before. Way back when David slew Goliath, we read in 1 Samuel 17:54 that David took Goliath’s head down to Jerusalem. Jerusalem, during the entire time, had been controlled by the Jebusites. By taking Goliath’s head down to Jerusalem, David would have shown a proof of Israel’s great victory that day over the Philistines and used it as a sign to the Jebusites that soon they would meet their defeat and be removed from the city that belonged to God’s people. That time finally came when David became king. His first action as king over all of Israel that we read about is marching on Jerusalem. Besides being a city that should have belonged to Israel, why would David be so concerned with Jerusalem? The answer is implied throughout the Old Testament. God had promised His people years before a city that His name would dwell in (Deuteronomy 12:10-11). That meant that there would be a city that God would choose for centralized worship as a capital for Israel. A figure from Genesis 14:18-20 named Melchizedek is prominent in understanding this. He was the King of Salem (Jerusalem) and he was a priest-king that the Israelite patriarch Abraham paid tithes to. David understood the Lord’s purposes, that this man Melchizedek would serve as a type for himself and later a descendant of David, the Messiah (Psalm 110:1-4). The city of God’s choosing for His people was thus the city in the promised land that Melchizedek had formerly ruled and served in as king and priest, Jerusalem. The issue was that the Benjamites had failed to remove the Jebusites from Jerusalem as the Lord commanded (Genesis 15:18-21; Deuteronomy 7:2; Judges 1:21). David’s first action as king was to do just that. When he approached the city, the Jebusites met him and Israel’s army with taunting saying essentially that Israel couldn’t even beat the Jebusite’s blind and lame if they were marched out to battle. Their arrogance was their downfall. The Jebusites were a barbaric, brutal, and wicked people. God used David simultaneously to conquer the city He desired for the worship of Himself and to bring judgment upon a wicked people who mocked Him and His people. Once he conquered the city, David fortified it and it would become his capital city (v. 9). It is from that city that God would strengthen David in his rule and make his name great (v. 10). While the Lord has not called us to capture and conquer a physical city, He has called us to take His gospel into a hostile world that lives in opposition to Him. We wage warfare, not with physical weapons, but with the truth by “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Our goal is not to conquer cities, but to see the Lord’s Word conquer and transform hearts and lives (2 Corinthians 5:17). The key to it all for David and us is found in verse 10 of 2 Samuel 5 that says, “and the Lord God of hosts was with him.” The Lord promises to be with us as well (Matthew 28:18-20; Hebrews 13:5) as we carry out His will in this world.

We serve a greater King than that of David. Like David, the Lord Jesus identified with us by taking on human flesh (Hebrews 2:10), demonstrated His love and care for us by dying for us (Romans 5:8), and fulfilling God’s Word to and for us (2 Corinthians 1:20). Let us bow to Him as our King, wait patiently for Him to accomplish His will, and act faithfully according to His will. Our Lord rules, not from an earthly Jerusalem, but from eternal One, a place that all of His people will one day dwell with Him in (Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21:1-2). Our King rules and reigns in heaven and is bringing all things now under His feet (1 Corinthians 15:24-28). You and I have been given the task of taking His Word into this world and calling them to trust in Him and worship Him. To serve our King we must believe His promise, wait patiently for His will, and act faithfully according to His will.