David Becomes King over the House of Judah
1After this, David inquired of Yahweh, saying, “Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?” Yahweh said to him, “Go up.” David said, “Where shall I go up?” He said, “To Hebron.” 2So David went up there with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. 3David brought up his men who were with him, every man with his household. They lived in the cities of Hebron. 4The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. They told David, “The men of Jabesh Gilead were those who buried Saul.” 5David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead, and said to them, “Blessed are you by Yahweh, that you have shown this kindness to your lord, even to Saul, and have buried him. 6Now may Yahweh show loving kindness and truth to you. I also will reward you for this kindness, because you have done this thing. 7Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be valiant; for Saul your lord is dead, and also the house of Judah have anointed me king over them.” 8Now Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul’s army, had taken Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim; 9and he made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel. 10Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. 11The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.
Believers who know God’s character well give themselves wholeheartedly even to small things. God blesses those who give thanks for the grace they have received and do their very best, and he makes their lives glorious. Most people are unwilling to do anything unless it puts them in the spotlight or wins them praise. But God is watching over all his people, so when he sees someone serving faithfully without turning down even the smallest task, he will entrust them with wisdom and material means and help them do greater things.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus told a parable. Before a master set out on a journey to receive a kingdom, he called ten of his servants. He gave each of them a mina with no conditions attached and told them to do business with it until he returned. All the servants had to do now was start trading with what they had been given. With no rule that they must not lose the capital or that they must earn so many times over, each could trade according to their own talents. They would have to study the market and find work they were able to do. If they found work that suited the talents they had been given, work they enjoyed and could keep at to the end, they would be able to see it through until their master came.
In the same way, you should not simply copy what others do but discover your own talents. If you find what you love and do well and give yourself to it, you can work with far greater joy, and God, seeing it, will give you wisdom and understanding and help you.
When the master returned with his kingdom, one servant presented him with ten minas earned. Another presented five, and the master praised them highly and rewarded them with authority over ten cities and five cities. But one servant alone handed back the single mina the master had given him, untouched. He explained that he had kept it laid away in a handkerchief because he knew his master was an exacting man. Proud of himself, he said he had wrapped it up and kept it safe so as not to lose what had been entrusted to him, and to his surprise the master flew into a rage.
Scripture does not record what was in that servant’s heart, of course, but from the bold way he handed back the original sum, he seems not to have realized what he had done wrong. The master had not given his servants money so that they could return it to him. From the king’s point of view nothing was lost, since he got his mina back. Yet the servant failed to grasp his master’s deeper purpose and judged by his own lights, and in doing so he sinned by despising the king. The master was not interested in which servant made the most profit or who lost money; he wanted to see who had obeyed him. Even if a servant lost the whole mina in trade, as long as he had been faithful to his master’s word, he would not be rebuked.
The servants who obeyed the king were praised, and the one who defied him was cursed. It was not only those who earned the most who were commended; it was the obedient who were honored. Because the Bible shows the servants who earned ten minas and five winning his approval, you might think we must turn a profit, but that is not what the master meant.
After Jesus accomplished salvation, he commanded his people to share the grace they had received so that souls might be saved. When he returns with royal power, he said, he will call by name those who preached the gospel in obedience to his word. To preach the gospel is to obey the word of Christ. Salvation does not come about because we preached; it is the Holy Spirit who works through our evangelism. All we need to do, then, is believe and preach the gospel.
As a servant might lose his mina in trade, so you may preach the gospel with an obedient heart and still not see a single soul saved. Even then, God sees your devotion and says you have made a profit. In his eyes, then, obedience itself is the profit. But if we know the word and still do not obey by preaching the gospel, we will be severely rebuked on the day Jesus Christ comes as the almighty King. Jesus commanded us to preach the gospel in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth until he comes again with royal power. As he said, he will surely return as King and give eternal life to those who have obeyed.
As each servant received a mina, we have received a mina called the gospel. Now we must wrestle with how we will spread the gospel with this one mina. As the servants studied the market, we need only work to share the gospel while paying attention to the spiritual state of the person in front of us.
Since Jesus did not say we must earn so many times over, we need only do our best to preach the gospel according to our own talents. We may be persecuted as we work to share it, but he will not hold the faithful accountable for the results. If, however, like the servant who handed back his mina untouched, we are content with our own salvation and never share the gospel with others, Jesus Christ may sharply rebuke us as lazy.
Jesus values the process more than the result, and for that reason we must show him a faith that wrestles and sacrifices to spread the truth. The Holy Spirit can supply whatever we lack in body and spirit, so faith means obeying the word first.
2 Samuel 2:1
1After this, David inquired of Yahweh, saying, “Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?” Yahweh said to him, “Go up.” David said, “Where shall I go up?” He said, “To Hebron.”
When David prayed this prayer, King Saul was dead, yet David did not act on his own. To learn where he should go, he asked Yahweh whether he should go up into Judah, and Yahweh answered that he should go up to Hebron. David had once defied God’s word and left Judah of his own accord; that he now prays like this tells us that suffering had matured him to the point of placing the decisions of his life in God’s hands. In this we see that the suffering God sends is grace.
There is one thing David should not have forgotten: in 1 Samuel 22:5, God commanded David through the prophet Gad to go to the land of Judah. Just as God called Abraham back to the land of Canaan after he ignored God’s will and went down to Egypt, God was telling David, anointed as king, to return to the land of Judah whatever hardships awaited him there. But his fear of King Saul kept him from staying in Judah.
When God told him to rescue Keilah, which the Philistines had raided, the fear came out, as 1 Samuel 23:3 records: if they were afraid even here in Judah, how much more if they went to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines? God’s plan has not changed from the beginning until now. God always led David with a good plan. But because David did not obey God’s will, he suffered the disgrace of having his wives and his people carried off by the Philistines.
Unwilling to let go of the conviction that their own judgment is right, people decide as they please, but they only end up wasting time and coming back to where they started. If we will not acknowledge that God is the master of our lives, we have no choice but to take the long way around and ask God for help again. Even with King Saul standing in Judah as an obstacle too great to overcome, had David trusted and obeyed God, he would have become king of the house of Judah much sooner.
People always think that what they see, know, and feel is all there is. So with a view no wider than the eye of a needle, they disobey as if they understood the whole. They insist that God’s word may be right but this time their own idea seems better, and in their pride they suppose the road they want may be quicker than the one God has prepared.
God always tells us that obedience comes first, but people hold up the world’s yardstick and disobey, determined to do things their own way. We cannot know the future, so when we obey the word first, we come to see clearly why God told us to do this or to take this road. With King Saul pursuing him with trained soldiers, David must have been afraid that going to Judah could cost him his life. But had he obeyed when God told him to go to Judah, God would certainly have given him a way of escape, and David would have seen more clearly the plan God had prepared. Because he did not obey the word, he had to face more trouble and even suffered the disgrace of having his family taken by the Philistines.
God clearly had a reason for telling him to go to the land of Judah. But when David disobeyed, God could not reveal his plan, and David had to wander for a long time in a foreign land. The same holds for us, which is why I hope you will remember that obedience comes first.
When David went up to Hebron with his wives Ahinoam and Abigail and all his people, the house of Judah welcomed him gladly and anointed him king. David, who had been hunted like a criminal, had at last become king of Judah. Long before, when he was a shepherd boy tending his father’s sheep, Samuel had come and told him the unbelievable news that he was the one God had chosen. Then, in front of his father and brothers, Samuel anointed him king.
God had chosen David, but the boy did not have the wisdom to rule a kingdom and was not yet ready to be set on the throne; he needed hard training. God’s plan was to make David king and to unite Israel and Judah through him, and for that he needed David to have the utmost wisdom and experience. Not understanding this deep purpose of God, David ran for his life and could not see why he had to endure such suffering. The reason was his merely human way of thinking: if God had called him to be king, he should be living at ease in the palace.
But God’s choosing is not as simple as human thinking, because when he chooses a person, he calls them with the task he will entrust to them already in view. The young David could not fathom that deep purpose and complained, but God does not stop the training, because he sees the David who will one day stand grown. Through suffering, David matured and gained the strength and wisdom to rule Israel and Judah, and it was to this David that God once again gave the command to go up to Hebron.
Having learned in his own life that God protected him at every turn, David did not doubt God even after he became king. He cared for the people with love, never stopped praying that he might govern well, and lived as a faithful servant who repented even of small sins.
2 Samuel 2:4
4The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. They told David, “The men of Jabesh Gilead were those who buried Saul.”
The men of Judah told David that the men of Jabesh Gilead had buried King Saul. When they heard that King Saul had been killed by the Philistines and his body fastened to a city wall, they risked their lives to recover it. On hearing this, David sent messengers to Jabesh Gilead, praised them for the trouble they had taken to recover Saul’s body, and rewarded them generously. Once again, David’s noble character shines.
Most people would rather have rebuked anyone who recovered the body of King Saul, the man who had tormented them. But David, grieved that the body of the king God had anointed hung on an enemy wall, rewarded the men of Gilead who brought it home. They had not taken Saul’s body down to win a reward. In the past, when the Ammonites attacked, Saul had come to their rescue, and they went into enemy territory at the risk of their lives to repay that kindness. People like them, who do not forget the grace they have received but repay it, always choose what is good, which means they cannot help but win praise. Grateful people always think and act well, and as a result they find God watching over their safety.
David was a man of mature faith who commended the men of Gilead for knowing how to repay kindness, even though the body they recovered was his enemy’s. Such upright faith, which God could not help but love in David, is the very faith we should have.
Looking at the men of Jabesh Gilead and the young Amalekite, I came to think this: every person has both a will to do good and a will to do evil. Which one they choose determines whether they are rewarded or judged; in this way their future is decided. Since God has set life and death, blessing and curse, before us, we ourselves must make that choice by faith at every moment. God always gives the same word and the same grace, but the choice people make determines whether they will have peace or misery. We must answer for the results of our choices ourselves, so we must always be careful. Only with a higher kind of knowledge and good wisdom can we make the right decisions. If we always live more generously and selflessly in the Lord, we will be greatly loved by God and by people.
Christ is the head of the church, and we are its members. The gospel is not a competition with others, and the reward is not a matter of more or less, so if you give yourself to the task entrusted to you, you can be commended. God is looking for those who serve him with a sincere heart. His praise rests on one condition alone: obedience to the word of God.
Like the man who failed to grasp his master’s will and kept his mina just as it was, if we do not understand God’s will, we will not share the grace we have received, and for that we will be sharply rebuked. If we lack the wisdom to judge for ourselves, we should at least look at the faith of those who have gone before us and follow it. For to cling to our own ideas and keep the mina untouched is to bring disaster on ourselves and to disregard the master’s word.
Like David, who received great grace from God, we have received great grace from Jesus Christ. Like David and the men of Gilead, we must not forget that grace but share it for Christ’s sake. In these last days, if we meditate on the word, pray, and wrestle with what we are to do, the Holy Spirit will help us. David took to heart the men of Gilead, who could not forget Saul’s kindness. Saul betrayed those who had been loyal to him, but David became their support and their shelter. By showing the generosity that blessed those who repay kindness, David naturally won the hearts of the people.
Jesus, too, called us who had lived for the world, forgave our sin, and showed us how precious we are. He gave his own life for us, who had been slaves of Satan, setting an example so that many more would see that love and return to God.
Proverbs 24:17-18
17Don’t rejoice when your enemy falls. Don’t let your heart be glad when he is overthrown; 18lest Yahweh see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.
When an enemy who has tormented you falls into trouble, to rejoice at the sight is folly that comes from not knowing God’s character. Whoever rejoices at an enemy’s suffering is wicked and foolish, blind to how much God hates sin, and may instead bring God’s wrath on themselves. A good person who knows God understands that the pain the enemy now suffers comes from that enemy’s own sin; knowing this, rather than rejoicing, they will take pains to live more uprightly. Forget that anyone can end up in the seat of sin, and pride can creep in.
Like a soldier who had finished his training, David approached everything with confidence, and before God he showed himself all the more humble and mature. Instead of thinking that God had judged Saul to protect him, he thought that King Saul had died because his sin had reached its full measure. God had only used Saul as a tool to train him, so Saul’s death was nothing for him to rejoice over. God knew that David had had several chances to kill Saul and had not taken revenge, because God did not want it. Since God knows people’s true hearts like this, he made David a good king who could rule a united kingdom.
God knows the true hearts of all his people. A good heart cannot be hidden, and neither can an evil one; the way a person handles a problem therefore reveals their character. Someone with self-mastery does not simply put their feelings on display but considers what God’s will is and acts well. Only when we have the ability to control and restrain ourselves in joy and in sorrow can we, like David, make good choices at every moment.
Even if someone has tormented you, know that they too are a soul whom Christ bore the cross to save, and I hope you will hand over to God even your desire for revenge. Leave all your sense of injustice and anger with God and go on your way, and just as David one day heard of Saul’s death, God will make you hear news of those who tormented you. This is the kind of wise believer Proverbs 25:13 describes: a faithful messenger is to those who send him like ice-cold water on the day of harvest, refreshing the heart of his master. David was likely a child who refreshed God’s heart. Patient, humble, and faithful according to God’s will, David would have been a child as refreshing as ice-cold water on the day of harvest.
What kind of child are you to God? Are you a child to whom he can entrust his work without worry? Or are you a frustrating child who insists on your own way in every task he gives? You must be a child who pleads with God, as Isaiah did, to send you. Let us live good lives, always ready in heart, as people God can send anywhere, at any time, without a moment’s worry.
Even while he suffered, David feared how God would see him. Though he was on the run with many people, he worked to show them a right faith they could respect, and he guarded his words and actions. The David who ruled a united kingdom was not made overnight. To earn the trust of God and people, he disciplined himself and brought himself into submission, and that is why he could satisfy God from the throne.
You, too, like David, are among those God has called, and that calling means you must train yourselves in faith until good words and good deeds come naturally. Then, on the day Jesus Christ comes as the almighty King, you will hear him call you a faithful servant. Whenever and wherever you meet the Lord, may you hear him say that he loves you and be commended as one of his treasured people.