2 Samuel 5:1-16--David Anointed King of Israel

2 Samuel 5:1-16
English Standard Version

David Anointed King of Israel
5 Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “Behold, we are your bone and flesh. 2 In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And the LORD said to you, ‘You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel.’” 3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at 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 At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.

6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, “You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off”—thinking, “David cannot come in here.” 7 Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. 8 And David said on that day, “Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack ‘the lame and the blind,’ who are hated by David's soul.” Therefore it is said, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.” 9 And David lived in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built the city all around from the Millo inward. 10 And David became greater and greater, for the LORD, the God of hosts, was with him.

11 And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, also carpenters and masons who built David a house. 12 And David knew that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.

13 And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to David. 14 And these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, 15 Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, 16 Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.

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We have finally gotten to the point we have been waiting for since 1 Samuel 16:1-13 when Samuel anointed David as king.  The people of Judah have recognized David as king.  Ish-bosheth has been murdered by captains from his own army, and David has put them to death to show everyone that he had nothing to do with the assassination.  This is the second time that someone tried to bring David "good news" that the king was dead and that they had something to do with it (the first time was an Amalekite lying about killing Saul), and David's reaction was the same in both cases--no one should lay a hand on the LORD's anointed.  The LORD establishes kings, and it is the LORD's responsibility to remove kings, but we do not "play God" in either trying to make kings or remove them.  This would be a good lesson for us in the world today still even though many of us no longer have monarchies, we do have leaders over us which the LORD puts in place, even if they are ungodly, and the LORD wants us to submit to their authority whenever their authority is not in direct conflict with His authority (see Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2).

Back to the text for today though, after Ish-bosheth's death, maybe even after quite a bit of time passes, all the tribes of Israel come to David to submit to his authority, and to request for David to be their shepherd, and to anoint him as their king.  David then changed the seat of power where he had been ruling from which was in Hebron in Judah to now being in Jerusalem in the land of the tribe of Benjamin.  The text tells us all this happened when David was 30 years old, and he reigned as king, first over only the tribe of Judah and then over all Twelve Tribes of Israel for 40 years (7 years and 6 months over just the tribe of Judah and then 33 years and 6 months over the united kingdom of Israel).  The obvious questions that come to our mind are "Who will succeed him?"  "Will that person be a good king?"  "Will the people follow David and his successor?"  The rest of the book of 2 Samuel will answer most of those questions for you, but some of them will need to be answered by reading 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles.

The Jebusites who remained around Jerusalem since the time of the Conquest and were never completely defeated, did not want David to come there to be king (probably for fear that he would make war with them and defeat them).  They told him that that even their blind and lame people could resist him (they were proud of how strong they thought they were within their stronghold which was on top of a high mountain, and they imagined their defenses to be impenetrable, so they were proud and cocky.)  David did come and did take the stronghold of Zion, and he made it into Jerusalem which is now forever more called "The City of David" (however there will be biblical references to Bethlehem being "the city of David" as that is where David was born and where he was from.  Is it appropriate to call either city, "The City of David" depending on the context of whether you are talking about the place in which David's throne was established (and that the LORD would make an everlasting covenant with David called the Davidic Covenant that we'll study here shorty) or if you are talking about the place where David's family came from in Judah.  David built the city of Jerusalem from the walls inward, and the LORD continued to bless David and his kingdom more and more, because the LORD was with him.

Even foreign kings (very wicked kings at that) like Hiram, king of Tyre, started to recognize David's power and strength, and they began sending gifts to him as a symbol that they did not wish to be enemies with him (for they knew to make war with David was to make war with the LORD Himself and that was a losing battle).  That is not to say that there won't be nations foolish enough to try to face David in battle, but David's battles will mostly be against the strongholds of the peoples of the Land that were supposed to be destroyed or removed during the times of Moses and Joshua (and definitely during the time of the Judges, but the people were unfaithful at that time).

All this sounds good until we get to the last paragraph, as it's going to reveal something about the heart of David and show us a weakness that he (and many kings like him) would have.  In fact the LORD warned about this very thing in the book of Deuteronomy when Moses warned the people about asking for anyone to be their king other than the LORD.  David now starts to take many wives and concubines for himself, and that is a problem.  Marriage was only ever meant to be between one man and one woman.  This weakness that David has will apparently not be "checked" by the priests or prophets or anyone else until David has fallen into grave sin later in the book.  Along with the many wives and concubines David takes come many sons:  Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, bhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.  This then begs the question as before, which of these (if any) will be the one to take the throne after David?  David already had sons born to him before living in Jerusalem as well.  We'll see that the LORD's choice has nothing to do with who is the firstborn, or the tallest, or strongest, or most handsome or any of those other things that people usually think about (the LORD told Samuel not to consider any of those things when looking at David's brothers before they called for David from the fields).  No, the LORD has a much more important story going on here where He will chose imperfect men that will help advance the story until one day the Messiah that was promised all the way back in Genesis 3 would appear.  It is nearly that time of year right now when we celebrate the birth of Jesus (it is December 19th, 2022 as I write this), and one of His titles is Son of David.  What does that mean?  To understand that, we'll need to know a lot more about David and his family, especially the Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7 and 1 Chronicles 17 (we might get there right around Christmas at this pace, but if not, look at those covenant and the prophecies associated with it as part of "the Christmas Story," for the entirety of Scripture from Genesis through Revelation is all about the words and works of the Son of God whom we know as Jesus, the Christ.