52 – DAVID’S EARLY YEARS AS KING, PART ONE II Samuel 2-8, 22;
I Chronicles 3-15, Psalm 18 April 7
David must surely have mixed emotions as he considers the future. He would be relieved
to be free of Saul’s constant threats, but the mantle of responsibility is now his. He will
rule over Judah alone until civil conflict is resolved seven years later when he is accepted
by all the people and his kingship over all Israel is set. The most significant move David
will make as king of Israel is the capture and occupation of Jerusalem, known even until
this day as the City of David. To that city he will return the sacred Ark of God, and make
the initial plans for the building of a permanent temple. The account of these initial years
begins with David seeking God’s guidance – one of the many traits that make David such
a special leader for God’s people. LOOK OUT FOR A STUDY OF PSALM 18 and a
long discussion of THE STORY OF UZZAH AND THE ARK and its implications for
HOLDING TO GOD’S WORD. (two days of reading)
2 Samuel 2 – David was anointed king over Judah. Now he had been anointed king by
Samuel before, when he was a teenager back in 1 Samuel 16. That was more of a
ceremony of affirmation. This time, the people anointed him. Years ago, a close friend of
mine taught a great lesson for leaders on the need to be chosen twice – once when you are
put into the ministry and again later by your people (in fact, a leader may need to be
“chosen” several times over the years). This is true for leadership on all levels – if you
don’t have the backing of the people, you won’t be able to lead for long.
2 Samuel 2:4-7 David expressed kindness to the men who buried Saul. He never failed to
thank people for their acts of kindness – an unusual character trait in a king.
2 Samuel 2-4
Civil war broke out as Saul’s son, Ish-bosheth was anointed king over the rest of Israel
and Abner, Saul’s general (and cousin) fought against Joab and David’s men. This
section is bloody and gruesome, filled with intrigue and revenge. David felt sad about all
the blood shed. His response gave the people confidence because they had faith that
David was not guilty of murder and they saw his integrity. (see 3:36). People are always
grateful for leaders who lead with integrity and kindness.
2 Samuel 5, 1 Chron 11-12
David was finally anointed as king over all Israel and many brave warriors volunteered to
be in David’s army. He and his men attacked Jerusalem and took it from the Jebusites.
God blessed David and he became more and more powerful. The water shafts that are
mentioned in this passage are still visible – John and I saw them ourselves a few years
ago!
1 Chron 13, 2 Samuel 6
David and his advisors decided to bring the ark to Jerusalem. As further evidence that
Saul had not inquired of the Lord, the ark had been left in someone’s home ever since
Samuel’s day. It is interesting to note that for this decision, David wanted the will of the
people to rule, so he conferred with his top advisors first and then he spoke with the
whole assembly of Israel before taking the ark from its place of rest. Once they all were
in agreement, he then decided to do it. No wonder he was a popular leader. (I have to
boast about my husband here, because I feel that he has always done this with the really
big decisions as well, such as whether or not to go for the court case, whether or not to
build the building, and whether or not to have the parents integrated youth ministry.)
With the people’s blessing, David and his men moved the ark back to the tabernacle area.
David had great motives – he wanted to honour and glorify God, and he wanted the
people to be encouraged. Look at the festivities and the celebration going on. Wow! I
don’t know if we can picture how awesome of an occasion it was. (However, when we
had the conference at the end of 2004 to open to celebrate the opening of our new church
building, it was pretty amazing!)
Read this account in both books, all of 1 Chron 13 and 2 Samuel 6:1-11, to get the full
picture. The story had been very upbeat up until this incident; then tragedy struck –
Uzzah was struck dead for touching the ark. If you were the king, bringing the ark to
Jerusalem for the first time, who would you have picked to guide and guard the ark on its
journey? Probably a physically strong leader of some kind, perhaps from the military.
Knowing David, probably a spiritually mature person, as well. We have no reason to
think that Uzzah was anything other than just that. Uzzah was just doing his job – he was
there to guide and guard the ark, the oxen stumbled, and therefore the cart the oxen was
pulling upon which the ark was resting, tipped a bit and faithful Uzzah reached out his
hand to steady the ark just in case it should fall off the cart! This was not an unreasonable
thing for him to do! It was what any of us would have done if we were asked to guard the
ark! He didn’t have a bad motive for doing it. He surely felt respectful of God and of the
ark. So why did God have to kill him? Not just killed, but the bible says that “The Lord’s
anger burned against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he had put his hand on the
ark.” So WHY OH WHY did God’s anger have to burn against him to the point that God
had to zap him?????????????
Now look at David’s reaction. He was probably asking the same kind of questions, and
he didn’t know the answers. So he felt emotional. “David was angry because the Lord’s
wrath had broken out against Uzzah.” “David was afraid of God that day.” Isn’t it true
that we get angry and afraid when we don’t understand something, or don’t understand
God? I can relate to David! David then left the ark in the home of Obed-Edom, who,
according to 1 Chron 15 and 16, was a highly regarded Levite. Of course, probably to
prove that there was nothing inherently scary about the ark itself, God blessed Mr.
Obed’s household abundantly. Consider what David COULD have done: many leaders
would have been embarrassed to go to Jerusalem without the ark after making such a big
deal about it, so they would have either brought it anyway, risking other men’s lives
along the way but feeling like they had to for the sake of the “big picture” or else they
would have got back to Jerusalem and blamed the fact that they didn’t have the ark on
something else to make themselves not look bad. However, David didn’t do that. He
waited. That is a good thing for us to do sometimes. We don’t have to do everything
NOW. Sometimes God wants us to wait. Sometimes God wants us to seek his will more,
to read the bible more, to ask more advice….David did all of those and we will see the
fruit of it, along with finding out the answers to all our questions above, when we get to 1
Chron 15, but you’ll have to wait <smile>.
1 Chronicles 14
Change scenes to the Philistines and war – the Philistines attacked, and David was
insecure. He had just experience a minor setback involving the ark. He had definitely felt
angry toward God, but he didn’t have an attitude. In fact, he wasn’t about to go to battle
without consulting God to make sure God was behind it. And God said, “Go for it!” So
David and his troops won two battles and a major victory against their arch enemies, and
“David’s fame spread throughout every land, and the Lord made all the nations fear him.”
(1 Chron 14:17).
After Saul’s death and the victory over their long time enemies, is it any wonder that the
king would pray a prayer such as the one recorded both in PSALM 18 and 2 SAMUEL
22:1-51? Read this song of praise and celebration of God’s strength for a great prayer
time. It begins with David pouring out his heart in praise and adoration, showing his total
reliance on God. We get one of our songs from here: “I will call upon the Lord, who is
worthy of my praise, so shall I be saved from my enemies. I know the Lord liveth, and
blessed be the Rock and let the God of my salvation be exalted!” (2 Samuel 22:4, 47;
Psalm 18:3, 46).
2 Samuel 22:5-7 We can feel this way when things are looking bad – illness, job
situation, family problems, or perhaps when we feel like we can’t defeat Satan in a matter
in which we are trying to repent.
22:8-16 shows the power of God and the emotion he has for fighting on our behalf!
Wow! Do you believe that God loves and cares about you this much??!!
22:17-20 and then again in 33-44 These verses illustrate how PERSONALLY David
viewed his relationship with God. Count how many times David uses the pronouns “me”,
“my” and “I” in these passages.
22:21-28 In this group of verses, David focuses on personal purity and humility. He
knows that he isn’t sinless, but he has been trying to live a life of integrity and have a
righteous life before God and he can feel confident that God loves him. Read verses 26
and 27 out loud – sobering!!
22:29-46 When your eyes are on how HUGE God is, you can’t help but feel confidence!
Fear and weakness are banished! (at least for that day <smile>). When you are focused
on the word of God, and its perfection, you are more likely to avoid sin and experience
God’s victories. This is not an egotistical boast from David; this song is an example of
boasting in the Lord and what HE can do in our lives! Habakkuk would echo David’s
words hundreds of years later when he closed his book with, “The Sovereign Lord is my
strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.”
(Habakkuk 3:19).
22:47-51 David ends by praising God and vowing to tell of God among the nations.
When you love someone this much and are this grateful, of course you’ll tell people. We
don’t keep such good news quiet!!
Awesome!! Makes me feel like singing!!
Now it is time to get back to 1 Chron 15/2 Samuel 6:12 and figure out what happened
with that ark situation!!
1 Chron 15
David prepared some buildings for the ark in Jerusalem, then assembled everyone
together to discuss another attempt to bring it to Jerusalem. He gathered the priests and
the Levites and gave them instructions concerning the ark. Then he told them something
very important“It was because you, the Levites, didn’t bring it up the first time that the Lord our God
broke out in anger against us. WE DID NOT INQUIRE OF HIM ABOUT HOW TO DO
IT IN THE PROSCRIBED WAY.”
Ah-ha!!! You see, in his enthusiasm to bring the ark to Jerusalem, David forget to ask
God HOW bring the ark to Jerusalem, and did it according to his own judgment. He
thought that putting the ark on a cart pulled by oxen guided by two strong men sounded
like a good plan. However, the Law of Moses has numerous passages commanding that
only the Levites, and only those from the clan of Kohath, be involved in transporting of
the ark. Here are the verses in which God commanded the Kohathite clan of the Levites
to carry the ark on long poles which should rest on their shoulders: Ex 25:10-16; Num
1:47-54; 3:27-32; 4:1-15; 4:17-20; 7:6-9. Here are the verses which show by example that
the leaders of the day knew that the Kohathites were to carry the ark on poles: Josh 3:24:15; 8:30-33; 1 Sam 6:13-7:1; 2 Chron 5:2.
So David had finally figured out went wrong! He had forgotten to inquire of the Lord. He
forgot to go back and check the bible! After sorting out what the Law of Moses said
about the Kohathites, he straightened things out and in 1 Chron 15:15 we read, “And the
Levites carried the ark of God with poles on their shoulders, as Moses had commanded in
accordance with the word of the Lord.” The insight for us surely has to be: NO
MATTER HOW ENTHUSIASTIC, SINCERE, OR PURELY MOTIVATED WE ARE,
WHEN WE WANT TO PLEASE GOD, WE HAVE TO DO IT HIS WAY, NOT OURS.
Therefore, when we read specific commands in the bible, that’s not the time the time to
have our own opinion. As the saying goes, “God said it, and that settles it.”
David, ever the godly leader, acknowledged the mistake publicly and took responsibility
for changing the process.
1 Chron 15:16-28, 2 Samuel 6:12-15 Now that they have been obedient and knew that
God would bless their efforts, they were free to celebrate and bring the ark back with joy.
David had the Levites find out who were the best at singing (amen, to all of our awesome
church choirs and music ministries!!), and they sacrificed rams and cattle as they made
their way to Jerusalem, with David dancing “with all his might.” God loves this kind of
celebration in his name. (Reminds me a little of our 15th anniversary service five years
ago, and the 20th anniversary service we have planned for today and every Sunday this
month!! You’ll be able to read more about this in hotnews end April.)
karenlouis@seachurches.org