Tuesday, January 15, 2013

CVI - II Samuel 4 and 5


In quick review:  Abner, the "Leader Behind the Scenes" of Saul's and Ishbosheth's loyalist, made a treaty of peace with David.  Joab, who hated Abner for killing his brother Asahel, was very upset about this treaty and killed Abner.  When David found out about this he was upset with Joab, and actually placed a curse on him and his family.  This brings us to chapter 4.

Chapter 4 - Ishbosheth Murdered

Saul had many children from a number of wives and concubines.  This chapter mentions two more sons, Baanah and Rekab.  These two were born to Rimmon of the house of Benjamin.  They had been busy leading small bands of Saul's loyalist soldiers that went about trying to secure Ishbosheth's and Abner's kingdom through the elimination of the opposition pockets throughout Israel.  (To interject, verse 4 at this time mentions Mephibosheth.  Mephibosheth is the son of Jonathan, Saul's son and David's life-long best friend.  Mephibosheth was lame due to an accident at a very young age.  Important to note at this time that Mephibosheth had king David's loyalty and protection because he was Jonathan's son.)  Rekab and Baanah sensed that all they had been working for was slipping away due to Abner's death and the fact that Ishbosheth was a weak leader.  Their solution to salvage something out of David's growth in strength was to establish themselves as loyal followers of David, and hopefully gain enough favor in David's eyes to be appointed authoritative positions in David's military.  They thought that the best way to accomplish this was to assassinate Ishbosheth, which they did.  Then they took the head of Ishbosheth to David, claiming they had eliminated David's enemy.  But David was not fooled.  Hed had both of these violent men killed in an attempt to unite Israel and try to eliminate violence of Israelite against Israelite.

Chapter 5  -  David becomes king of Israel

Up to this point, David had been anointed king of the tribe of Judah.  Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, had been the reigning king over the other eleven tribes of Israel.  Ishbosheth and Abner were both dead now.  This chapter begins with all of the tribes of Israel sending their leaders to David in Hebron to ask him to be king of all of Israel.  All the tribes were present, making it unanimous.  So David, after reigning in Hebron for seven and a half years, would now reign as king of all Israel for another
thirty three years.  Vss 6-13 tell of David marching on Jerusalem and conquering it from the Jebusites who had been occupying it for decades.  {God had promised this land to the Israelites, the descendents of Abraham.  Israel then, as now, is entitled by GOD Himself to live in this land and call it their home.  Noone can take for themselves what God has given to someone else.}  David conquered this city, built a king's palace and a headquarters, named it the "City of David", and moved
his entire family there.  Jerusalem was now the official capitol city of Israel.  {After the Israelites reclaimed the Promised Land in 1948, I do not understand why they established Tel-Aviv as their capitol instead of Jerusalem.  If anybody knows, please share.}

The remaining verses of this chapter deals again with the troublesome Philistines.  As mentioned earlier, the Philistines had established themselves militarily in this entire region east of the mediterranean.  They were not about to give up any of their land to the hated Israelites.  The Philistines had no trouble with Saul and his military interrupting their strength.  Saul's army was no match for the powerful Philistines.  But David was not Saul.  David's reputation had spread throughout the region.  He was a military leader to be feared, and getting stronger by the day.  So the early verses of this chapter tells us that the Philistines decided to act quickly against David, knowing that the longer they waited, the more time David had to grow in military strength.  David fought two major battles against the Philistines and won both of them.  Note that David didn't attacked until he got permission from God.  {This man was destined to be a great leader.  Joshua had been an extremely powerful military leader for Israel, but David will have become the "standard".}

Next post:  David brings home the Ark of the Covenent

1 comment:

  1. Did they name Tel Aviv the capital city right after they reclaimed Israel?

    ReplyDelete