2 Samuel 5: 1 – 25
A child of God is never outnumbered
5 Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and spoke, saying, “Indeed we are your bone and your flesh. 2 Also, in time past, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them in; and the LORD said to you, ‘You shall shepherd My people Israel, and be ruler over Israel.’ ” 3 Therefore all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the LORD. And they anointed David king over Israel. 4 David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. 5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah. 6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, “You shall not come in here; but the blind and the lame will repel you,” thinking, “David cannot come in here.” 7 Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion (that is, the City of David).8 Now David said on that day, “Whoever climbs up by way of the water shaft and defeats the Jebusites (the lame and the blind, who are hated by David’s soul), he shall be chief and captain.” Therefore, they say, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.” 9 Then David dwelt in the stronghold, and called it the City of David. And David built all around from the Millo and inward. 10 So David went on and became great, and the LORD God of hosts was with him. 11 Then Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters and masons. And they built David a house. 12 So David knew that the LORD had established him as king over Israel, and that He had exalted His kingdom for the sake of His people Israel. 13 And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron. Also, more sons and daughters were born to David. 14 Now these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, 15 Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, 16 Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet. 17 Now when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. And David heard of it and went down to the stronghold. 18 The Philistines also went and deployed themselves in the Valley of Rephaim. 19 So David inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?” And the LORD said to David, “Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand.” 20 So David went to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there; and he said, “The LORD has broken through my enemies before me, like a breakthrough of water.” Therefore, he called the name of that place Baal Perazim. 21 And they left their images there, and David and his men carried them away. 22 Then the Philistines went up once again and deployed themselves in the Valley of Rephaim. 23 Therefore David inquired of the LORD, and He said, “You shall not go up; circle around behind them and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees. 24 And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly. For then the LORD will go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines.” 25 And David did so, as the LORD commanded him; and he drove back the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer.
The child of God who is in the will of God is never outnumbered. Invisible armies surround the Christian who is in the will of God. The apostle Paul reminds us, in the book of Romans chapter 8:31-37, “31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come”
This truth caused the unstoppable missionary/explorer David Livingstone to declare, “I am invincible in the will of God.” One night in 1856, Livingstone was surrounded by hostile and infuriated tribes in the wilds of Africa. Tempted to sneak away in the middle of the night, he instead wrote in his journal:
‘January 14, 1856. Evening. Felt much turmoil of spirit in prospect of having all my plans for the welfare of this great region and this teeming population knocked on the head by savages to-morrow. But I read that Jesus said: “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” It is the word of a gentleman of the most strict and sacred honor, so there’s an end of it! I will not cross furtively to-night as I intended. Should such a man as I flee? Nay, verily, I shall take observations for latitude and longitude to-night, though they may be the last. I feel quite calm now, thank God!’
Facing the danger, the next day, God protected Livingstone and he was able to continue his journey. Do we doubt that God intervened on his behalf? Do we doubt that God’s providence can help and protect us during our trials and difficulties, though all we can see are the hosts of problems before our eyes?
Faith has eyes to see and ears to hear what natural senses cannot comprehend.
How do you look at your problems? Do you look at your faith through your problems, or your problems through your faith? When we look at our faith through our problems, our vision becomes distorted and our faith becomes shaky. However, when we look at our problems through our faith, they come into clear focus. The promises of God become the lens through which I see the problem. I can look at my problems without faith, or I can look at them through my faith in the Word of God and the God of the Word.
When you cannot see the invisible we can use the help of those who can.
When our vision gets distorted, we need the help of those who can still see clearly. Sometimes, during problems, heartaches, setbacks, frustrations, we can lose perspective. I am thankful for brothers in Christ who have helped me see when I could not see clearly; I am also thankful today for friends whose faith helps me when I struggle to see things as they really are at times.
God will probably never allow us to see, in this life, His angelic armies like chariots of fire around our lives, but He has given us a Book of promises such as this amazing one in the book of Psalms 34: 7, “The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.”.
Back in chapter 2.1 David was anointed as king over Judah, and it now ends with David being anointed as king over all Israel. In all that went on in between Yahweh had been preserving David for this moment. The important thing was that it was achieved without causing disharmony and bitterness. The whole of Israel was as one in wanting him as king.
5 Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and spoke, saying, “Indeed we are your bone and your flesh.
All the tribes then came to David at Hebron with their elders as their representatives. Their first emphasis was on the fact that he was a true-born Israelite (Deuteronomy 17.15).
2 Also, in time past, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them in; and the LORD said to you, ‘You shall shepherd My people Israel, and be ruler over Israel.’”
The next thing that they had brought to mind was how, when he was younger, and Saul had been king, he had successfully led them out against the Philistines. Thus, he had demonstrated that he had the wherewithal to be a successful war-leader. But most important of all was that he had been sealed by Yahweh.
We are told here that Yahweh God had said to him, “You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel.”
3 Therefore all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the LORD. And they anointed David king over Israel. 4 David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. 5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.
We are then given the statistics of David and his reign. He was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for forty years. The forty years is then divided up into seven and a half years over Judah in Hebron and thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah in Jerusalem.
David’s age when he began to reign (‘thirty years old’) is the same age at which the priests and Levites were fully matured enough to take up full service with regard to the Tabernacle (Numbers 4.3, 23). Interestingly it is the same age as that at which our Lord Jesus Christ Himself commenced His ministry (Luke 3.23).
Note how it is stressed that the main reason for David’s venture against Jerusalem was because it was inhabited by ‘the inhabitants of the land’, in other words the Canaanites. His initial purpose was thus to purify the land in accordance with Yahweh’s commands which had forbidden making a covenant with them.
A secondary purpose, however, was almost certainly because, now that David was king of both Israel and Judah it was important that he establish a capital city that would be acceptable to both. Hebron, his present capital, was central for Judah, but was very much a city of Judah, and that fact alone could have caused dissension among the other tribes once David’s ‘honeymoon’ period was over. But equally no prominent city among the northern tribes would have been remotely acceptable to Judah. It was indicative of his tact and wisdom that he therefore eyed up Jerusalem, which was on the borders of Judah and Benjamin with a view to making it his capital city. It had several things in its favor:
• 1). It was a cosmopolitan city, including both a Judean section and a Benjaminite section, while its main fortress had always been inhabited by a people who were not identified with any tribe. It had thus never been specifically identified with one tribe.
• 2). It was on the borders of both Judah and Benjamin.
• 3). It was central and yet was in a good defensible position.
• 4). It had ancient validation in that in the ancient and sacred past Abraham, the father of Israel, had paid tithes to its king, who had been a priest of the Most High God (El Elyon).
• 5) It had spiritual significance. Abraham in obedience to Yahweh took Isaac there to offer him up as a sacrifice. In addition, David after killing Goliath took his head and buried it at the same location of Abraham’s sacrifice.
Furthermore, knowing David’s hatred of anything or anyone responsible for bringing Yahweh’s Name into disrepute by defying the living God (1 Samuel 17.26) it must be seen as quite probable that the presence of such an independent Jebusite city had been gnawing at his heart for some time. Here was a city which defied Yahweh, and did so boastfully and openly, and yet sat proudly in the middle of his kingdom. He would feel that he could not allow it to remain so. So, as we have seen this was certainly very much in mind as well.
6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, “You shall not come in here; but the blind and the lame will repel you,” thinking, “David cannot come in here.”
David was to find, as others had before him, that it was one thing to talk of capturing the fortress city, and quite another actually to do it. This was so much so that the Jebusites were able to mock his attempts, declaring that he would never achieve his aim because even the lame and the blind could defend it. But they had reckoned without David’s astuteness, for David realized what its weak spot was (it was the weak spot of most fortified cities). Like all cities it required an abundant water supply, and to obtain it a shaft had been dug which went down, either to an underground river which flowed under the city, or more probably to a tunnel which led to an underground water supply outside the walls. Thus, he ordered his forces to discover the tunnel, find the shaft, and enter the city in that way, promising a reward for whoever did so. The soldiers on accomplishing the feat would probably emerge from the shaft into an underground cavern from which well-worn steps would lead up into the city. If it was done at the right time they could congregate there in the darkness and no one would know of their
7 Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion (that is, the City of David).
How wrong the Jebusites prediction proved to be. For ‘nevertheless’ David ‘took the stronghold of Zion’ and renamed it ‘the City of David’.
8 Now David said on that day, “Whoever climbs up by way of the water shaft and defeats the Jebusites (the lame and the blind, who are hated by David’s soul), he shall be chief and captain.” Therefore, they say, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.”
The derision of the Jebusites angered David, who no doubt saw it as a defiance of the armies of the living God with the result that he devised a plan for bringing the city into submission. Let those who would overcome the city enter it by the ‘water-tunnels’ making their way along the underground river or tunnel and up the water shaft. Then they could smite from within the defenders, whom David derisively calls ‘the lame and the blind’ in imitation of the original jibe. If the Jebusites thought that the lame and the blind could hold out against David’s forces, let their own defenders prove it.
9 Then David dwelt in the stronghold and called it the City of David. And David built all around from the Millo and inward.
Having taken the city David took up residence in it, along with many of his men, together with many priests and Levites, making it his stronghold, and proceeded to fortify it further. The Millo was probably the system of terraces, consisting of retaining walls with levelled filling which David further strengthened and fortified. He then built further fortifications within. No doubt he also in some way made it impossible for any in the future to do what his men had done.
10 So David went on and became great, and the LORD God of hosts was with him.
From the moment of his anointing David’s greatness began to grow and expand. He ‘grew greater and greater’. And the explanation was simple. It was because Yahweh of hosts was with him.
11 Then Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters and masons. And they built David a house.
David grew so great that even Hiram, the king of Tyre, made every effort to please him and show his friendship towards him. He sent his representatives to David’s court and supplied cedar trees and carpenters and masons, quite possibly at his own cost, so that they could build David a magnificent palace.
I have seen this amazing grace and blessing greatly poured forth with various Calvary fellowships. After our Holy God had inspired a home fellowship to be developed in a local area it grew along with almost all other fellowship into a church. The growth of these fellowship put good problems at the church leader’s and that was what they should do to hold all those people the Lord was sending their way. Just like we see here in this passage with the good and generous giving of the king of Tyre to David, I have heard time after time people giving land or buildings to those new church’s.
12 So David knew that the LORD had established him as king over Israel, and that He had exalted His kingdom for the sake of His people Israel.
From this very fact of things being done for him, David recognized even more that Yahweh was behind all the outpouring of gifts and He had established him as king over Israel, and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of His people Israel. David’s growing greatness manifested the superiority and power of Yahweh.
13 And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron. Also more sons and daughters were born to David.
A further indication of Yahweh’s hand on David was the fact that he was so fruitful and had so many sons and daughters. This was on top of the sons who had previously been born to him in Hebron (3.2-5).
14 Now these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, 15 Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, 16 Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.
The names of the children born to him in Jerusalem are now given. These are additional to the six sons born in Hebron. Their quantity indicated that Yahweh was pleased with him.
17 Now when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. And David heard of it and went down to the stronghold. 18 The Philistines also went and deployed themselves in the Valley of Rephaim.
It was inevitable that once the news reached the Philistines that David had been anointed as king over all Israel, they would seek to intervene. It had been one thing when he had been king over Judah as their servant manager, thus dividing up and weakening their main enemy. It was quite another when he had risen to become king over all Israel without their agreement. The danger was that he might begin to get ideas above his new position. So, thinking that they would soon show this young upstart a thing or two, the five lords of the Philistines gathered their standing armies together, and combining their forces, advanced to the Valley of Rephaim which was not far from Jerusalem. Their expectancy was probably that he would hurriedly negotiate and acknowledge their supremacy, falling into line with their requirements.
The news reached David’s ears and he in turn went down to ‘the stronghold’, to some recognized strong point with which he and his men were familiar near the valley of Rephaim. The valley of Rephaim was not far from Jerusalem.
19 So David inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?” And the LORD said to David, “Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand.”
David enquired of Yahweh (through the Urim and Thummim) as to what to do next. Should he negotiate, or should he go forward? Yahweh’s reply was that he should go forward, as He Himself would deliver the Philistines into his hands, and the result was that the Philistines were routed and fled, leaving behind their idols, which they had brought with them in order to ensure victory.
20 So David went to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there; and he said, “The LORD has broken through my enemies before me, like a breakthrough of water.” Therefore he called the name of that place Baal Perazim.
So, David brought his men to Baal-perazim (named after the event), and there they smote the Philistines, and as the Philistines fled before him he triumphantly declared, either that they were like a dam which had been breached by floods so that its waters flowed away, or that they were fleeing like water gushing out of a breach in a dam. And that was why the place was called ‘Baal-perazim’ (‘the Lord (YHWH) of breakings forth’).
21 And they left their images there, and David and his men carried them away.
The flight of the Philistines, who were utterly routed, was so precipitous that they left behind the images of their gods which they had brought with them to ensure victory. Possibly it had also been their intention to force them on David and require that the Israelites worship them. Finding them deserted on the field of battle was a sign of Yahweh’s overall Lordship, and David took them away in order to burn them (which 1 Chronicles 14.12 tells us that they did do). Unlike the Ark of YHWH (1 Samuel chapters 5-6) the images of the gods of the Philistines could not protect themselves.
22 Then the Philistines went up once again and deployed themselves in the Valley of Rephaim.
However, the Philistines were not done with yet. Gathering a much larger force they later again advanced on Rephaim. Possibly they chose Rephaim again because they felt it necessary to vindicate their gods by gaining the victory in the very place where they had previously deserted them. But once again with the help of The God of Israel they were routed, and this time David, who this time had been more prepared, continued the chase and decimated the Philistine armies.
23 Therefore David inquired of the LORD, and He said, “You shall not go up; circle around behind them and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees. 24 And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly. For then the LORD will go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines.”
No doubt watching from the stronghold David again enquired of Yahweh. He recognized that this time the problem would be even greater, for the Philistines had come in even greater force. And this time Yahweh told him to circle behind them and attack them from near the mulberry trees, which would provide cover until the last moment and enable them to take the Philistines by surprise from an unexpected angle. Then when they heard the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees (no doubt caused by an unusual wind which probably was the chariot of Almighty God) they were to attack instantly, for then they would know that Yahweh had gone out before them in order to smite the Philistine host.
25 And David did so, as the LORD commanded him; and he drove back the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer.
David did precisely as he was told, and the result was that he smote the Philistines ‘from Geba to Gezer’. Geba was in the land of Benjamin, as was a part of Jerusalem, but it was further to the north. However, the unusual angle from which David and his men came at the Philistines may have driven them north towards Geba, before they fled towards Gezer. They would, after all, not know the territory all that well.
I would say that the truth that we can take away from today’s passage is the importance of fully obeying our Holy God. He Is so Merciful and Gracious to us that He has gives us great blessings for following the regulations that He knows will help us steer our lives in a fallen world.
