Reading: 2 Samuel 1-3, Psalm 87

Today we launch into the reign of David as king. If you grew up going to church and Sunday School, you will have heard many of the stories about David that appeared in 1 Samuel. It is less likely that you will know the stories from this part of the book. It’s not that it is all bad. In fact, David starts off really well, and under his kingship and that of his son Solomon Israel will be the most powerful it has ever been, dominating much of what we today think of as the middle east. But David’s flaws, which we have gotten hints of before, will grow in importance as he himself does, until he reaps the consequences of his disobedience to the covenant laws in one of the most tragic and disastrous stories in Scriptures: the story of David’s children Amnon, Tamar, and Absalom.

But that is a ways off yet. Today we get to see how David rises to the throne. First off, he has to find out that Saul has died. A random Amalekite brings him the news, claiming to have killed Saul himself. We know from the end of 1 Samuel that Saul fell on his sword, so the story this guy tells is suspect, but he is playing up his own role in passing power to David, and brings David Saul’s crown and armlet, symbols of authority and kingship. David is not pleased. We know that David has extreme respect for the anointed one of the God of Israel, respect in such a degree that despite Saul’s attempts on his own life he would not harm him. Unfortunately for the Amalekite, he did not know this. David executes him for daring to strike Saul down. The Amalekite dies for his embellished story. Then David publicly laments for Saul, and for Jonathan his friend. He declares this lament be taught to all the people and makes it a kind of memorial. He also expresses gratitude to the people of Jabesh-Gilead, who took and buried the bodies of Saul and his sons. God then directs him to head to Hebron, where he is made king of Judah, the southern part of Israel.

But the house of Saul was not entirely wiped out at Mount Gilboa. He had another son, Ish-bosheth, and Abner also escaped the battle alive. Abner, ever loyal to the house of his cousin Saul, gets Ish-bosheth set up as king in the northern part of the country. This naturally leads to conflict, and the armies of Abner and Joab, David’s general, meet at Gibeon. At first it appears they try to limit the conflict by having a kind of representative combat, but none of the champions survive to claim victory, so open battle breaks out. Abner’s force has the worst of it, and he is pursued by Asahel, Joab’s brother. Despite attempting to spare Asahel, first by talking to him and then by hitting him with the back of his spear instead of the point, Abner kills him in his escape. He then manages to talk Joab into ceasing the pursuit.

Unfortunately for Abner, the son of Saul seems to have inherited his father’s paranoia. He accuses Abner of sleeping with one of Saul’s concubines. This doesn’t make so much sense to us today, but at the time taking on the dead king’s concubine was a way to claim the throne- Ish-bosheth is accusing Abner of plotting to overthrow him. Abner is understandable upset by this, as he is the one who set Ish-bosheth on the throne in the first place, and has just done battle in his defense. Abner decides it is time to go follow David instead.

Now we come to a most unfortunate scene involving David’s first wife Michal, the daughter of Saul. Though it is easily skipped over in reading, we have just been told a significant fact about David’s time in Hebron: he is accumulating more wives. He has six sons by six different women, one of them the daughter of a foreign king. David is continuing to stray from the Deuteronomy 17 covenant laws for the king in having many wives, and is now taking foreign wives, which is expressly forbidden. This wife gathering will not go well for David. But what about Michal? David’s condition for Abner coming over to his side is to return her to him. Aside from the fact that her current husband apparently loves her very much, this is another violation of the covenant law in Deuteronomy 24. Bringing Michal back into his house after she has married someone else is not allowed. Taking Michal back is politically wise, as it gives David a firmer claim to Saul’s throne, but it is a clear violation of the law. David has no need of another wife- he has at least six already, and has six possible heirs. But this is what he does, leading to the sad scene of Paltiel pursuing her until he is forced home by Abner.

So Abner joins David, and brings the loyalty of the elders of the northern tribes with him. This is really the end of the short civil war between David and Ish-bosheth, though we won’t see it officially end quite yet. First we have to close the story of Abner. We read how Abner killed Asahel, though he did his best to spare him. Now Joab, Asahel’s brother, will have revenge. Note that he does not make it a clean fight, either. Joab pulls Abner into a private conversation, then stabs him to death. Asahel died in battle, which in typical ancient near eastern practice should not have made Abner guilty of his death in a legal sense, but Joab acts as an avenger of a murder here. David is not pleased by this, and he mourns Abner publicly, just as he did Saul and Jonathan, and he curses Joab and his family. But he does not seek justice against him for what he has done.

The story of David is about to reach it’s peak. His enemies are defeated, and tomorrow we will see his kingdom rocket to international status. For the entire reign of Saul the kingdom of Israel was beleaguered on all sides by it’s enemies. During the reign of David Israel will be victorious on all sides. We are seeing the seeds of some bad times to come for David, but right now he is on an upward wave.