David Established as King over Israel
2 Samuel 5:1-25, Key Verse 5:12
“Then David knew that the LORD had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.”
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David Established as King over Israel
2 Samuel 5:1-25, Key Verse 5:12
“Then David knew that the LORD had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.”
In your life, would you say that you have or have not yet “arrived”? Do you know what I mean? We use this word “arrived” to indicate that a person has achieved the level of success or stability or settled life that many people seem to see as the goal of all their efforts. We might call it “The American Dream.” The reality of this life is that for many people, they never get there; or at least never feel that they have truly “arrived”. But in fact, that’s not the most important thing. In today’s passage, it appears that David has definitely arrived. David becomes king of all Israel, conquers Jerusalem, and has multiple victories over the Philistines. Indeed, a big part of God’s promise to David has come true. But the important thing is not the success itself, but how David maintains God’s purpose for his life and uses God’s blessings in the right way. Let’s pray that by meditating on this passage we may decide to make the right use of what God has given us today.
I. David becomes king of all Israel (1-5)
In the first four chapters of 2 Samuel, we’ve seen the bitter, bloody, extended war between the house of David and the house of Saul after Saul’s death. David, following God’s direction, went to Hebron where he was anointed king of the tribe of Judah. But at the same time, Abner put Ish-Bosheth on the throne in Benjamin. We saw, in the first confrontation between Joab and Abner, the senseless death of 24 young men and the tragic killing of Joab’s brother Asahel, after which Joab’s heart was set on revenge. We then saw Abner work to bring the tribes of Israel over to David, only to be murdered by Joab. Finally, last week we saw two mercenaries murder Ish-Bosheth in his own home and bring his head to David to try get some benefit from him. And all this is not even mentioning the thousands of ordinary people whose lives were destroyed by this war.
How horrible, really. It’s enough to make one want to withdraw from worldly business altogether. But God did not turn his back on sinful humanity. Through everything, God was guiding the flow of history in order to fulfill his promise of salvation, and an important part of that was making David king of all Israel. So, in today’s passage, we see that, by God’s working, all the tribes of Israel were now ready to make David their king. Let’s read verses 1 and 2. “All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “We are your own flesh and blood. In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns. And the Lord said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.’” In these verses we see the people give three reasons why it’s right for David to be king. Some of these reasons also remind us why God chose David to be king.
Their first reason is, “We are your own flesh and blood.” David, of course, is an Israelite like them, and here the people show that they remember that the twelve tribes of Israel really were one family, descended from the sons of Jacob, and so it’s right for them to be united. Of course, everyone wants to be led by someone who they consider one of their own people, to represent their own interests. But this phrase “our own flesh and blood” also has a gospel meaning, pointing us to our true king Jesus. Jesus was in heaven with the Father, far above all of us creatures of flesh, but he became one of us, taking on flesh and blood, so that he could be a king who fully identifies with all our needs and sorrows and joys. Thank God that Jesus became our own flesh and blood.
The second reason the people gave why David should be their king was his service record. Verse 2a says, “In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns.” Of course, no one should be given an important leadership role without showing some evidence that they are up to the job. In those times, military leadership experience was considered the most important qualification for rule, and David had extensive experience in that area, leading Israel on multiple successful campaigns. Perhaps even more importantly, David’s years of service proved his devotion and loyalty to the people of Israel. David becoming king was ultimately God’s grace to him; but still, David applied his own effort to show himself worthy of that calling. That’s true for us also, as Jesus said in Luke 16:10: “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”
The third and final argument for David’s being made king is in verse 2b. “And the Lord said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.’” The people recognized God’s calling on David. As we saw, God anointed David to be king of Israel through Samuel while he was still a boy. The word of God was over his life from the beginning. None of the prophecies we read in Samuel had these exact words “you will shepherd my people,” but it’s of course possible that this was a prophecy given of David at some point. It’s interesting that the people quoted a prophecy with the word “shepherd” in it, because it shows what they themselves hoped for in a king. Especially after Saul’s decline into self-centered madness later in his reign, the people realized they really needed a king who would have the character of a shepherd.
Indeed, that was the very reason God chose David. When he was still a kid, David’s father Jesse put him to work as a shepherd for their sheep, and this way David learned how to care for others and be responsible. By learning the attitude of a shepherd who is concerned for the good of the sheep, David became a model of the kind of heart that God himself has for his people. As we’ve said, David was an imperfect but important preview of Jesus, our eternal good shepherd.
And so it was done. Verse 3 says, “When all the elders of Israel had come to King David at Hebron, the king made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel.” Notice that not only was David anointed king, but there was also a covenant involved. A covenant is a binding agreement between two parties. It says “the king made a covenant with them,” indicating that this covenant was David’s initiative. This shows that David didn’t just passively receive the position of king, but he made his own pledge committing himself to serve his people faithfully. What a good sign! It has taken a long time, but now we can see that God has molded David to become the right person to lead the people of God’s favor.
In verses 4 and 5, we see a short summary of David’s whole reign. Starting at age 30, David was a king for 40 years total, including the seven years he was king in Hebron before he became king of all Israel. The number 40 has significance in the Bible in indicating a full span or the full amount. Jesus was fully tested by God over a period of 40 days. Moses led Israel in the desert for 40 years. After David’s years of training and suffering, God indicated his blessing on David by giving him a full reign of 40 years.
We thank God for his faithfulness to fulfill his will for David’s life in spite of so many struggles and difficulties. God shows this same faithfulness today in the lives of us who trust Jesus. God’s leading on the life of a person who trusts him never fails.
II. David’s capital is established (6-16)
In the next section, we see one of the most important acts of David’s kingship, which was to attack and capture Jerusalem and make it Israel’s capital. We may be surprised to hear that Jerusalem, situated right between the territory of Judah and Benjamin, is still not possessed by the people of Israel, so many years after Joshua’s army conquered the land of Canaan for Israel. Jerusalem was still owned by the Canaanite people known as the Jebusites.
The reason Jerusalem wasn’t captured until now was that it was very well fortified, being a walled city on a hill, the famous Mount Zion. But if David could capture it, then Israel would have a big advantage to possess this strongly fortified, centrally located city. As we know, there was also God’s purpose for Jerusalem. It was an ancient city. In Abraham’s time, it was known simply as “Salem”, and in Genesis 14, after Abraham’s victory over the four kings, it was the king of Salem, Melchizedek, who came out to bless Abraham in the name of the Most High God. So this was a city long associated with the presence of God, and we know God has a plan to make it a place of his own holy presence with the temple, and finally for Christ himself to die on a cross there to truly open our way to be with him.
For all that to happen, however, Israel first had to capture the city, and that was going to be no easy task. As David and his army marched up to the city, the Jebusites were so confident that they even taunted David, saying in verse 6, “You will not get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off.” Their point was that the city was very easy to defend due to its position and its fortifications, and so virtually impossible to conquer.
How did David face this seemingly impossible challenge? Well, he did have a strategy; but more importantly, he had an attitude of possibility that could cast the situation in a whole new light. Look at verse 8. “On that day David had said, ‘Anyone who conquers the Jebusites will have to use the water shaft to reach those “lame and blind” who are David’s enemies.’” David knew it didn’t make sense to attack by the direct route, trying to go over the wall, so he told his men to use the water shaft to get into the city. More importantly, he instilled a positive attitude in his men by taking the insult of the Jebusites and turning it around, even using some humor. The Jebusites said, “the blind and the lame can defend this city,” so David turns around and tells his men, “Did you hear that? This city is defended by blind and lame people!” That makes it sound a little bit less difficult to attack, doesn’t it? Sometimes, when something seems too difficult, we just need a different way to think about it.
We don’t get a lot of detail about the battle, but the result was that David, with the Lord’s help, was successful in capturing Jerusalem. When we have living faith, it gives us an attitude of possibility, because we know that anything is possible with God. We don’t have to accept the prevailing judgment about how difficult or even impossible something is. With God, that obstacle that looks so overwhelming might turn out to be “lame and blind” after all.
Once David conquered Jerusalem, he took up residence there and began to build up the area around the city, so it could support a larger population. Verse 10 says, “And he became more and more powerful, because the Lord God Almighty was with him.” If someone’s heart attitude is pleasing to God, God is pleased to give them various kinds of power or influence, which they can use, not to dominate others, but to build up and bless others. In my own life, I always wanted to be professor, not because of power or money (there isn’t a lot of that), but because science was interesting and I felt scientific achievements were some of the most important kind of achievements. But when I became a professor and began to stand up in front of classrooms full of students, I realized that actually, God had given me a lot of power—power to influence how young people think. And I was convicted that I had better use that power wisely. But that’s what my Bible teachers knew from the beginning when they prayed for me to become not just a professor but a professor shepherd. In fact, we all have more power than we realize. It’s important for us to realize what influence God has given us and be mindful of how we use it.
David became powerful enough that even people of other nations began to notice. Verse 11 says, “Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs and carpenters and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David.” That’s a pretty nice perk, right? Getting a palace built for you? Not bad! Of course, I’m sure Hiram king of Tyre had his own motive for doing this. Tyre was one of the richest port cities on the Mediterranean, engaging in sea trade and with an abundant supply of timber from the large cedars of Lebanon trees. So King Hiram gave this congratulation gift of a cedar palace to David because he wanted to make a good relationship with him for defense and to open the door for some sweet trade deals in the future. In this world, power and money seem to always be intertwined, usually in ways that allow the rich to enrich themselves further.
Now David is king of all Israel and he now has a proper capital city and a palace. He must be feeling highly legitimate right about now. Of course, that moment of great worldly success can be a moment of great spiritual danger, and we can be tempted to fall into pride. But that didn’t happen to David. Why not? Because David lived before God, as he always had. Our key verse is verse 12 because the most important thing is that David understood all these blessings weren’t for himself. Let’s read verse 12. “Then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.” Though King Hiram’s building a palace for David surely had a worldly motivation, to David it was a sign that it was not himself who had given himself all these things, but it was God who put him in this place for God’s purpose. The key verse shows us that David understood clearly that all these blessings were not for David’s own sake, but for whose sake? For the sake of his people Israel. David knew he was not king because he deserved than much more glory than other people, but purely because he was the right person whom God had prepared to serve his people because of how much he loved all of them. This was how David could maintain God’s blessing through his life and not be spiritually ruined by success.
This doesn’t mean, of course, that David was now perfect and isn’t ever going to sin again. In fact, we see one of David’s very serious weaknesses right in this passage. Verse 14 says that after leaving Hebron, David took even more concubines and wives. We’ve talked in previous messages about how this was not God’s will. As a result of this, David has many more children, 11 listed here, so many that he could not really shepherd them individually while also carrying out his kingly duties. David’s lustful sins will give him much grief later and bring trouble to Israel. But David didn’t lose the main point or fall away from grace after becoming successful, because he kept living before God and remembering God’s purpose for everything that happened.
III. The Lord helps David defeat the Philistines (17-25)
We’ll cover this last section of the chapter briefly. As we’ve seen, when David became king of all Israel and grew more powerful, other nations began to notice. But it wasn’t only friendly nations that noticed. Of course, the Philistines noticed! David had lived among the Philistines for a long time and had been on good terms with them. He served Achish king of Gath so faithfully that Achish had trusted him completely. But now David was back among his own people with a very high position, and without a doubt the Philistines now saw David as a big threat. They knew what a skilled commander David was. So verse 17 says they went up in full force to search for David. They wanted to crush him right away before he became even more powerful.
So David has to lead the army of Israel against the Philistines in the valley of Rephaim. As he had done many times before, David inquired of the Lord for direction in the battle, starting with whether to even fight the battle at all. In verse 19, David asks the Lord, “Shall I go and attack the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hands?” The Lord answers him, “Go, for I will surely deliver the Philistines into your hands.” With this word, David went to Baal Perizim, defeated the Philistine army, and gave God the glory, saying the Lord broke out against his enemies like water breaks out when it bursts through a barrier (20).
From verse 22 a second battle in the valley is described. In this one, when David inquires of the Lord, the Lord even gives him a sign for when to attack the Philistine army. Verse 24 says, “As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the poplar trees, move quickly, because that will mean the Lord has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army.” What could a sound of marching in the tops of the trees be? It must be the Lord sending some kind of angelic warriors to help David, as it says, it means the Lord has gone out in front of David. I heard that last week the Lord went in front of Rebecca to provide a scholarship for her that she did not apply for. This is a sign that God has a great purpose for her ministry on the Wheaton campus. When David continued to seek the Lord in what he did, the Lord could provide supernatural help and the Lord could be the true leader of the army of God’s people, as he should be. David again had success and struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer.
So it definitely looks like David has now “arrived”. He became king of all Israel, he conquered his capital city, he got a palace, and he had success in fighting against the Philistines. I’m sure many of us, especially the young disciples, are looking forward to a time in their own lives when they achieve many of the goals they have planned and arrive at some kind of success after many years of striving. But as we know, for many people, success is not good for them. It can make people become complacent, or more selfish, or puffed up with self-importance. David didn’t make that mistake because God had trained him and David saw his life before God and God’s purpose for him. David committed himself to use the power he had been given to serve God’s people.
Now, it’s not the case that 100% of God’s promises to David have been fulfilled; there is more to come that’s even more significant spiritually. God’s hope for a person is always bigger than just outward success. In fact, the fulness of God’s promise to us is not something we can receive in this life. So we are careful not to think that our true reward is something in this world. None of us has yet “arrived” in heaven, so we still have work to do.
David knew this. What was more valuable to David than all the earthly power he held? You can see it in the Psalms. It was his relationship with God. He said, “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” (Ps 84:10) We should have the same attitude. It's like what Jesus said to his disciples when they were very excited about some success they had in driving out demons. Jesus cautioned them, “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Lk 10:20) May God help us be faithful to use the influence he gave us to serve his people. And let’s pray that our true joy may not be in outward success but in God’s word of promise.
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