Questions for Thought
- What was it about David that made him a man after God’s own heart?
- What made David’s faith in God so strong?
- Do we sometimes try to make our opinions God’s opinions instead of letting God’s thoughts be our thoughts?
Last time, we ended with God being unhappy with King Saul and preparing to take the kingdom of Israel from him and give it to David the son of Jesse. You will remember how the prophet and judge Samuel continued to mourn for Saul and in 1 Samuel 16:1, God asked him how long he was going to mourn over him since God had rejected him from being king. In this verse, God told Samuel to go to Jesse because God had chosen one of his sons as the next king.
When Samuel arrived in Bethlehem, the home of David, the elders of the city were concerned. They asked if he came peaceably and he said he did. He told them to sanctify themselves or make themselves ready to go with him to a sacrifice. When they got to the place for the sacrifice, Samuel saw Eliab, one of Jesse’s sons and he thought to himself this must be the one God had chosen due to appearance and height. God told him this was not the one and furthermore, the Lord does not see as a man sees. In 1 Samuel 16:7, God said man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
The sons of Jesse continued to pass before Samuel, but none of them were chosen by God. Samuel asked Jesse if all of his children were there and Jesse said the youngest one was keeping the sheep. Samuel told Jesse to send for him and sure enough, when he arrived, he too was a beautiful person on the outside and while not stated here in the scripture, we will learn as we study this section, that he was a beautiful person on the inside too. God told Samuel to anoint him. He did and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him from that day.
While the Spirit of the Lord came upon David, it left Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. Saul’s servants recommended he have them find him a man who could play the harp so when the evil spirit came upon him, the harp player could play upon the harp and make things better. Saul told them to find him such a man. Strangely enough, one of the servants knew about David’s ability. He described David as a cunning player, a mighty valiant man, a man of war, prudent in matters, and a comely person whom the Lord was with (1 Samuel 16:18). Saul sent to Jesse and told him to send him David his son who was with the sheep. When David arrived, Saul loved him and made him his armor bearer. When the evil spirit came upon Saul, David played and the evil spirit left. Little did Saul know he was to be replaced by this man David.
Israel was still battling the Philistines and the Philistines had a giant on their side named Goliath. He was a tall man of six cubits and a span according to the King James Version of the Bible which in our measure would be close to nine and a half feet. None of the men of Israel were brave enough to go to battle with Goliath. While three of David’s brothers were serving in Saul’s army and David was still tending his father’s sheep, Jesse sent David to see his brothers and to take them some food. David saw what Goliath was doing to Israel in causing much fear and he questioned who this uncircumcised Philistine was that he should defy the armies of the living God. Word got back to Saul about this young man and Saul called for him. David told Saul he would go and fight Goliath. At first Saul told David he was too young and Goliath was a man of war from his youth. David told Saul not to be concerned because he had previously killed a lion and a bear when they had come after the flock for which he was caring and just as the Lord had delivered him from the lion and the bear, He would deliver him out of the hand of this Philistine.
Saul agreed to let David go after Goliath. He had David put on his own armor, but David took it off and said he could not wear it. Instead, David took his staff in his hand and he put five smooth stones from the brook into his shepherd’s bag. When Goliath saw him coming, he made fun of David and asked if David thought Goliath was a dog. He then cursed David by his gods. David told Goliath while he was coming at David with a spear and shield, David was coming to him in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom Goliath had defiled. David said the Lord would deliver Goliath that very day into his hand and David would smite him and take his head from his body. In addition, David said he would give the bodies of the Philistines to the birds and wild beasts so all the earth would know there was a God in Israel.
As the Philistine army approached David, he ran toward them while taking a stone out of his bag and placing it in his sling. He slung the stone and it hit Goliath right in the forehead. He fell upon his face to the ground and David took Goliath’s own sword and killed him with it and cut off his head. When the Philistines saw what had happened to Goliath, they fled and Israel chased after them. David took the head back to Saul where Saul’s son, Jonathan, immediately loved David to the point he gave him his own robe, sword, bow, and girdle. David continued in Saul’s army but trouble brewed.
When David came in from battle, women of the city came out to meet King Saul and they sang and danced. But in their singing, they noted Saul had killed his thousands and David his ten-thousands. Of course, King Saul became jealous. The next time the evil spirit came upon him and David played the harp, Saul threw a javelin at David intending to kill him. David escaped the javelin twice and Saul then was afraid of David since he knew the Lord was with him. Several more times, Saul tried to kill David. On some occasions, Jonathan warned David of what Saul was planning. There were times when David could have killed Saul, but he refused to lift a hand against God’s anointed. Finally, Saul and his sons were killed while in battle with the Philistines. Once Saul was hit by the enemy, he asked his own armor bearer to slay him, but he refused so according to 1 Samuel 31:4, Saul fell upon his own sword and died. David cried over Saul and Jonathan even after all the evil Saul had done to David.
In 2 Samuel 2, David was anointed as king over Judah, but Abner, the captain of Saul’s host, made Ishbosheth, a son of Saul, king over Israel. Ishbosheth reigned two years as king over Israel and then he and David battled and in 2 Samuel 5, David was anointed to reign over Israel too, thus becoming the second king over the united nation of Israel.
The rest of 2 Samuel is filled with accounts of events under the reign of David. I will report on the most talked about happenings in this blog but remember it is always best to read the full account in the Bible. We read in 2 Samuel 5:10 that David became great and the Lord God of hosts was with him. In Hebrews 11:32, David is listed with the many heroes of faith as one who did the mighty works with God’s power.
But David’s life, as we will see, was not perfect. He, as a human, had many flaws and sometimes he outright disobeyed the laws of God which resulted in troubles for himself. Back in Deuteronomy 17:17, one of the commands God gave his people was concerned with the king the people would set over themselves. God said the king shall not multiply wives to himself so that his heart be turned away from God. In 2 Samuel 5:13 we read that David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem in direct conflict with what God had said. Later we will see how having children from many wives encouraged sins and conflict among those children.
Next in 2 Samuel, we find David has decided it is time to bring the Ark of God to the city of Jerusalem. If you remember, back in 1 Samuel 4, the Philistines had taken the ark and when the priest Eli heard about it, he fell off his seat backward and died. In 1 Samuel 6 we learned how the Philistines had suffered because of the ark and in Chapter 7, they had returned it to Israel by putting it on a cart hooked to a team of cows and sending them toward Bethshemesh. The men of Bethshemesh sent word to the men of Kirjathjearim to come and get the Ark and they did and it had remained with them until this account in 2 Samuel 6. We can learn more about David deciding to bring the ark to Jerusalem in 1 Chronicles 13. Here we learn David had consulted with the many captains in Israel concerning the plan to bring the Ark back and they were in agreement. In verse 4 of Chapter 13 all the people agreed it needed to be done. So here we are in 2 Samuel 6 with David bringing the Ark back home.
Here we have another time where David messed up. Go back to Deuteronomy 17:18-19 where God gave another command for the kings of His people. Here God said the king would write him a copy of the law of God which the Levite priest kept and he was to read that law all the days of his life so he could learn to fear the Lord God and keep the words of the law and do them. If David had followed this command, then he would have known from Exodus 25:14 the Ark was to be carried upon poles. It seems neither David nor any of the people involved knew how the ark was to be transported, so they put it on a cart and had oxen pulling it. The oxen stumbled and shook the cart and Uzzah put his hand out to steady the Ark. When he touched it, he died. David was not happy about what had happened but there was nothing he could do until as recorded in 1 Chronicles 15:15 he decided to transport the Ark as commanded by God to Moses.
Once David had recovered and transported correctly the Ark of the Covenant, he wanted to build a house for it. At first, Nathan, the prophet told him to go ahead and do what was in his heart for the Lord was with him, but that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan telling him to tell David he was not build a house for the Lord. In 2 Samuel 7:4-17, God told Nathan to tell David once he had died, God Himself would set up David’s seed in whom God would establish His kingdom. While David may have thought God was referring to his son Solomon, we know this was a prophecy concerning our Savior, Jesus Christ who is named as the son of David in Matthew 1:1.
Nathan told David God had said David was not to build Him a house so instead, as recorded in 1 Chronicles 22:5, David prepared an abundance of materials to be used in building the house of the Lord. In verse 6 we read he gave his son Solomon orders he was to build the house for the Lord since God would not allow David to do so. We will read more about this building when we look at the life of Solomon.
David’s next sin for which he may be most remembered happened when David stayed at Jerusalem while his men of war went to battle. It was in the evening when David had gone out on his roof and in looking around he saw Bathsheba taking a bath. David found her very beautiful to look upon and decided he would have sex with her. He most likely did not expect her to get pregnant, but she did and then David needed a cover up. Her husband Uriah was one of those who had gone to the battle so David called him up from battle and told him to go home. Uriah would not go home because his fellow soldiers were still in battle and he seemed to feel an obligation toward them. He said it would not be right for him to lie with his wife and them still in danger. So David again called Uriah to him and tried again by getting him drunk to get him to go to his wife. Uriah still did not go to her so David sent him back to battle with orders to Joab to put Uriah in the hottest of the battle and let him die. Just as ordered by David, Joab put Uriah in the worst of the battle and he died. Once David had received the word and the period of mourning was over for Uriah, David sent for Bathsheba and she became his wife. According to 2 Samuel 11:27, God was not pleased.
God sent Nathan, the prophet, to David with a message. Nathan told David about a poor man who had one little ewe lamb and a rich man who had many flocks and herds. A traveler came to the rich man’s house and instead of taking one of his own lambs, he ordered the poor man to give up his lamb to be killed. David was very angry and said the man who had done this deed must die and he must restore the lamb fourfold. Nathan then said to David, “Thou are the man.” Then Nathan proceeded to tell David how God had made him king of Israel and had delivered him out of Saul’s hand. He had given him so much and if David had thought that not enough, the Lord would have given him more, but David had despised the commandment of the Lord and done evil in his sight by taking a man’s wife and having the man killed. Nathan told David God was going to raise up evil against him, take his wives and give them to others right before his own eyes, and the sword would never depart from his house.
Wow! What condemnation God put upon David. David had two choices. He could repent and accept his punishment and live better, or he could ignore God and perish. David, as a man after God’s own heart, truly repented of his sin. In 2 Samuel 12:13, David said, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan told him God had put away his sin and he would not die for it, but the child Bathsheba had would have would die. At least four (32, 51 86, 122) of the Psalms written by David are thought to have been written concerning this period of his life. In Psalm 51, David acknowledged his sin and said it was ever before him. He said he had sinned against God and done evil in His sight. We need to take this for a lesson and teach others how important it is to admit when we have sinned and how important it is to seek God’s forgiveness.
While God forgave David for the sins, He did not let the child live. David grieved for the child during the seven days he was sick and on the seventh day when the child died, David got up, cleaned up, and went about his business worshiping God. His servants were confused but David told them while the child was alive, he did not know if God might spare him but now that God had chosen not to spare the child, David could not bring him back again, but eventually he would go be with him when he died. After the death of this child, Bathsheba and David had another son, Solomon and according to 2 Samuel 12:24, the Lord loved him.
Another son of David, Absalom, came into the account in 2 Samuel 13. Remember earlier I said David had many wives and this led to sins in his household. Well, Absalom had a sister Tamar with whom one of their half brothers, Amnon, fell in love. Amnon pretended to be sick and persuaded King David to send Tamar to fix him some food. When Tamar fixed the food, Amnon sent everyone out of the room and forced Tamar to have sex. She begged him not to do this and told him she was sure their father would let them marry. He would not listen to her and had his way with her and then he hated her more than he had loved her. He sent her away and Absalom found out about it. David also found out about it, but he did not do anything about it. So a couple of years later when Absalom was having a sheep sheering, he begged King David to attend and to allow all of his other sons to attend too. David did not go, but he did let his sons go. Absalom had told his servants to watch and when Amnon was merry with wine and Absalom called out, “Smite Amnon,” they were to kill him. The servants did as Absalom said the other half-brothers fled. Word got back to David that Absalom had killed all of the brothers and David tore his clothes and and laid on the earth until another messenger arrived who told him it was only Amnon who was dead.
Absalom fled and according to 2 Samuel 13:39, David longed to go to him but he did not go to Absalom. David’s military commander, Joab, could see how badly David wanted to see Absalom, so he worked out a plan to make it happen. Joab had a woman pretend to be a mourner who was mourning over her husband and two sons. She went to David and when he asked her what was wrong, she told him she was a widow whose two sons had fought with each other and one had killed the other. Her whole family had risen against the one who killed the other one and had told her she had to deliver him to die. She did not want to allow the only heir left to be destroyed. David told her to go home and he would give her case consideration. But she continued in her request and finally David assured her nothing would happen to the live son. Then she proceeded to tell the king how the story really pertained to his son Absalom whom she and the people felt should be brought home. Eventually David realized it was Joab behind the whole scheme and he told Joab to go ahead and bring Absalom back.
Joab did bring Absalom back, but David refused to have him in his presence. Absalom was full of deceit and he worked up a plan to again be able to see David. After two years of not being able to see King David, Absalom tried to get Joab to come talk to him. Joab refused so Absalom had his servants set Joab’s barley field on fire. Joab then went to Absalom to ask why he had done such a thing. Absalom told Joab what he wanted and Joab went to King David and persuaded him to allow Absalom to come home. Once back home, Absalom’s deceit began. He started making friends with all the people. When they would come to see the king, Absalom met them and told them there was no one appointed to hear their case but if he were the judge of the land, things would change. In this way, he stole the hearts of the people. He sent spies throughout the land telling the Israelites when they heard the sound of the trumpet they were to say Absalom reigned in the Hebron. A messenger told David what was going on and David fled from Absalom. In fulfillment of one of the promises God made to David when he had sex with Bathsheba, Absalom took David’s concubines and had sex with them in the sight of all Israel as recorded in 2 Samuel 16:22. War between David and Absalom resulted in a battle fought during which Absalom riding upon a mule got his head caught in a boughs of a great oak tree. David’s men killed him while he was hanging in the tree. When David learned of the death, he cried and said he wished it had been him who died. The people were very upset that David appeared to be loving his enemies and hating his friends. Eventually, David was restored as the king over the whole of Israel.
When David was old, one of his sons and brother to Absalom, Adonijah, planned to be the next king. Nathan, the prophet, asked Solomon’s mother, Bathsheba if she knew what was going on. He told her to go to King David and ask him if he did not tell her Solomon was to be the next king and to ask him why Adonijah was reigning. Nathan said he would be right behind her to confirm her words. When Bathsheba went to King David and bowed he asked her what she wanted. She told him he had promised her Solomon would reign after him but now Adonijah was on the throne. She told him all the eyes of Israel were upon him and he needed to tell them who the next king would be. Nathan came in behind her and repeated the information about Adoniah and asked David if that was the plan. David declared Solomon was to reign. He had his men put Solomon upon David’s mule and parade him while Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet were to anoint him as the next king. Thus Solomon, the son of Bathsheba was made the third king of Israel. We will look at his reign next time.
Christian Women's Responsibility in Sharing God's Word 