Tag Archives: David

Bible Interpretation, Books of the Bible, Sunday School

Commentary on Psalms 51 and 139 (Psalms of David)

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Psalm 51 is traditionally thought to be David’s lamentations for his sins against Bathsheba and Uriah. As the psalm begins, David asks for God’s forgiveness. Why God? Because even though David sinned against Bathsheba, Uriah, and others, it is God whom he has grieved the most. When we sin, we sin first and foremost against God.

David acknowledges that God is a righteous judge and he also affirms that he has inherited a sinful nature. From his very conception he was sinful, thus affirming the doctrine of original sin, where the sinful nature of Adam and Eve has been passed down to all of their descendants.

David continues, in the psalm, to plead for God to purify him. This purification is not trivial, as Donald Williams and Lloyd Ogilvie, in Psalms 1–72, The Preacher’s Commentary Series explain.

The verb for ‘purge’ is intensive here, meaning ‘un-sin’ me, purify me from uncleanness. The word is commonly used in describing the cleansing of a leper’s house. Hyssop is also used to sprinkle blood in the rite of purification (Lev. 14:52). Similarly, hyssop was the agent used in spreading the blood of the Passover lamb on the lintels and doorposts of the Hebrew households in Egypt before the plague of death (Ex. 12:22). Underlying the purging of verse 7, then, is the concept of sacrificial blood. As we pray for purification, the leprosy of sin is removed.

David begs God to take away his guilt and to turn His face from David’s sins. David is concerned that God will take away His Spirit from David, just as He did with Saul. If only God will renew David in His eyes, David promises to evangelize and teach non-believers the ways of God.

David knows that his crimes merit the death penalty, according to the Law. If God will show him mercy, David will sing of His righteousness and publicly praise Him. David also knows that God wants a truly repentant and broken heart from David. David’s sacrifices mean nothing to God otherwise. Once David is restored, he asks that the nation of Israel also be restored so that she can once again give God the sacrifices He deserves. Allen Ross, in The Bible Knowledge Commentary (Old Testament:), summarizes Psalm 51:

The message of this psalm is that the vilest offender among God’s people can appeal to God for forgiveness, for moral restoration, and for the resumption of a joyful life of fellowship and service, if he comes with a broken spirit and bases his appeal on God’s compassion and grace.

Psalm 139 is a psalm of personal thanksgiving by David. In particular, David meditates on God’s omniscience and omnipresence. These two divine attributes lead David to understand God’s intimacy with His creation.

In verses 1-6, David affirms that God knows his every thought and his every action. In fact, God knows what David will say even before he says it. There is nothing about David that God does not know.

Is there anywhere David can go to avoid the all-seeing gaze of God? Is there any place he can travel to avoid intimacy with God? The answer given in verses 7-12 is “no.” Whether David is in heaven (the world above the surface of the earth) or hell (the world below the surface of the earth), God is there. Even if David flees to ends of the earth, God is there. Whether David is in darkness or light, God is with him. There is literally no place David can be where God is not holding David in His hand.

How does God know so much about David? Not only is He omniscient, but He created David in the womb. The embryonic David, in his mother’s womb, was skillfully woven together by God’s hand. He was involved with every detail of David’s growth in his mother’s womb. Going beyond the womb, every one of David’s days on earth were written ahead of time by God. There is nothing in David’s life that catches God by surprise.

In verses 17-18, David expresses wonder at God’s thoughts, and then abruptly, in verses 19-22, spells out his hatred for those opposing God. All those who speak against God, who take His name in vain, David hates with a “perfect hatred.” Donald Williams and Lloyd Ogilvie describe David’s hatred:

David’s strong reaction is not against ‘sinners.’ He is not a self-righteous judge who will not stain himself with this world. His reaction is against those who revile God’s name, who are His enemies (v. 20). It is those who hate God and rise up against Him that incur his wrath. And why is this so? Because the God who is so exquisitely described in verses 1–18 deserves our praise and worship. To withhold this is to deserve both human and divine wrath.

Finally, David invites God to test his own heart and mind to see if David is wicked in any way. He is willing to submit himself to God’s scrutiny. Williams and Ogilvie beautifully summarize the intimacy with each of us that God desires:

He formed us in the womb. He knows our frame. He sees our embryo. He fashions our days. He knows our thoughts. He hears our words. He knows when we sit down and when we stand up. He protects us. His hand is upon us. He who inhabits all things is near to us. We cannot escape His presence. In the light He sees us. In the dark He sees us. We are the continual object of His thoughts. He searches us. He changes us. Here is true intimacy, and if we can allow God to become intimate with us, we can establish a growing intimacy with each other. Secure in His presence and His love, we can risk opening up. We can even risk rejection, because we are held in His hand (v. 10).

Bible Interpretation, Books of the Bible, Sunday School

Commentary on Psalms 23, 27 (Psalms of David)

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The Book of Psalms is a collection of five sets of books that were combined into a single biblical book. The psalms are primarily praises and prayers for temple worship or personal devotion.

The 150 psalms were composed over a period of about 1000 years, starting in the time of Moses (1400 BC) and stretching all the way to the Babylonian exile (586 BC). It seems that the Israelites were collecting and organizing individual psalms from the beginning of their organization as a nation.

Many of the psalms are anonymous, although all but 34 have superscripts that indicate authorship.  Of all the Psalms, at least 73 are attributed to David. Other authors are Asaph (Ps 50; 73– 83), the sons of Korah (42– 49; 84– 85; 87– 88), Moses (90), Solomon (127), Heman (88) and Ethan (89).

Psalm 23 may be the most famous of all the psalms, given that it is regularly quoted by non-Christians and non-Jews alike. Although it is brief, it has comforted millions of people for thousands of years.

Psalm 23 can be broken into two parts: God’s provision (verses 1-3) and God’s protection (verses 4-6). In verse 1, David compares God to a shepherd, a very common metaphor for God used both in the Old and New Testaments. Donald Williams and Lloyd Ogilvie explain, in Psalms 1–72, The Preacher’s Commentary Series:

In Psalm 80:1 God is addressed: ‘Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock’ (see Gen. 49:24; Ezek. 34:11ff.). Israel’s kings are also called shepherds. After denouncing the unfaithful shepherds of His people, God promises, ‘I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking’ (Jer. 23:4; cf. Ezek. 34:2). And Jesus identifies Himself as the ‘good shepherd,’ the Messianic King (John 10:11). His goodness is in His giving His life for the sheep.

A shepherd provides everything a sheep needs, and that is exactly how David sees God. A sheep needs rest, as do human beings, and God provides that rest when He makes us “lie down in green pastures.”

Sheep, like humans, also need food and drink, and God provides that as well when He leads us “beside quiet waters.” Our souls likewise need restoration, not just our bodies, and God provides that restoration. Once our souls are restored and transformed, God “guides [us] in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” Our restored souls do the work of God’s kingdom as representatives of the King of kings. Every good and loving deed we do is for God, our loving shepherd.

Williams and Ogilvie expand on Jesus’ role as our shepherd:

As our good shepherd, Jesus provides us with rest, food, and water. When we come to Him we enter His ‘Sabbath rest’ or salvation (Heb. 4:1–11). He feeds us with Himself because He is the bread which has come down from heaven. As Jesus tells the multitudes, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst’ (John 6:35). Then Jesus gives us His Spirit to quench our thirst. Again He promises, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’ (John 7:37–38). John comments, ‘But this He spoke concerning the Spirit’ (John 7:39).

David also recognizes that God protects. In verse 4 we see that even though we are threatened with pain, suffering, and even death in this world, God is always with us. The destiny of a child of God is sealed, so there is no reason to fear. The rod and staff of a shepherd are used to protect a sheep from danger, and God will likewise protect His sheep.

Verse 5 then shifts the metaphor from shepherd to host. God celebrates David’s life with a banquet of food and drink, and in front of David’s very enemies. David is also anointed with oil, a sign of God’s blessing.

In verse 6, David affirms that God’s love and blessing on his life will continue throughout his life. Not only that, but David will live in God’s presence (His house) forever.

We now move to Psalm 27, another psalm of David. Verses 1-3 describe why David has no fear when his enemies attack him. David, during his life, was faced with attacks from King Saul, the Philistines, the Ammonites, the Amalekites, and even his own son. Each time, his life was in peril, so how could he possibly survive the repeated stress? Verse 1 answers the question.

God is David’s light, salvation, and stronghold. Salvation, in this sense, denotes being saved from physical death, although Christians may rightly apply the term to eternal salvation. Light refers to God’s holiness, but also to His bestowal of understanding on David. David is able to see his circumstances through God’s eyes, and not merely his own.

Williams and Ogilvie remind us of the importance of our reliance on God:

Faith or fear—these are our ultimate options. Either we can know the living God as our ‘light,’ ‘salvation,’ and ‘strength,’ or we are condemned to anguish as we move toward our final hour. The atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell put it, ‘The older I get, the more nervous I become.’ In contrast, two weeks before his death, Pope John XXIII said, ‘My bags are packed. I’m ready to go.’

In verses 4-6, David reveals what is most important to him: 1) to dwell in the house of the LORD, 2) to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD, and 3) to seek him in his temple. At the time David likely wrote this psalm, there was a tabernacle set up in Jerusalem which housed the Ark of the Covenant, the place where God promised to meet Israel on earth. Of course, the tabernacle was only meant to be a representation of God’s real home in heaven. In either case, David’s single biggest desire is to be where God is. David knows that if he is where God is, then David will be kept safe and will triumph over his enemies.

In verses 7-12, David shifts to a direct conversation with God. He is obviously in trouble and he is frustrated that God is not immediately saving him from his trouble. David wonders why it seems like God is not answering him, why it seems like God is hiding his face from David, why it seems like God is angry with Him, why it seems like God is rejecting him.

David reminds God that he desires to be led by God and that he desires to know the ways of God. It would not be right for God to turn David over to his enemies, when they are unjustly attacking David. David deserves God’s provision because he loves God, whereas his enemies are false witnesses.

In verses 13-14, though, David reminds himself and his readers that even though God does not appear to be helping him right at that moment, he is confident that He will. He will see God’s blessings while he is still alive, but he must wait for God.

Bible Interpretation, Sunday School

Commentary on 1 Chronicles 28-29 (Death of David)

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1 and 2 Chronicles were originally a single work that was separated into two books when it was translated into the Greek Septuagint. The Chronicles was written to the Jewish people after they returned from Babylonian exile in the 6th century BC.  Jewish tradition holds that Ezra was the author of Chronicles, but scholars are divided on the issue.

The book starts with genealogies stretching from Adam to the twelve sons of Jacob, to David, all the way to the exiles of Judah. It then records the accomplishments of King David and King Solomon, and lastly records the deeds of the kings of Judah after Solomon’s death. The book ends with Judah’s capture by the Babylonians and her subsequent exile, but the last couple paragraphs of 2 Chronicles skip ahead 70 years to the decree of Cyrus the Persian to allow the Jews to return to their homeland, and there the book ends. The most likely date for the book’s creation was some time after 400 BC, 150 years or so after the return from exile.

The author of the Chronicles used some non-biblical sources to compose his sweeping history, but it seems clear that he also had the following biblical books in front of him when he wrote Chronicles: the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Lamentations.

The purposes of the author are at least three-fold. First, the exilic community needed to be reminded of its national origins, going all the way back to the dawn of mankind. Second, the Israelites needed to be reminded of their national unity under the great kings David and Solomon. Third, the Israelites needed to be reminded of the primacy of the Torah, received by Moses, and along with the Torah, the importance of proper temple worship mediated by the Levite priests.

Chapters 28-29 of 1 Chronicles record three important events: 1) David’s instructions to Solomon to build the temple, 2) Solomon’s anointing as king, and 3) David’s death. Verses 1-11 in chapter 28 get us started.

David, an old man now, summons all of the leadership of Israel to hear his final commands. We are immediately reminded of both Moses and Joshua speaking before their deaths to the leaders of Israel. David first explains that he wanted to build the temple for God, but God would not allow him because David was a warrior and had shed blood. Instead of David, God chose Solomon to build His house. Of all of David’s sons, Solomon would be the next king and he would have the honor of building the temple.

David then charges the leaders of Israel to “follow all the commands of the LORD your God, that you may possess this good land and pass it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever.” He turns to Solomon and instructs him to “acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind.” There are consequences for Solomon’s actions toward God. “If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.”

God will bless Solomon and Israel if they obey his commands (especially building the temple), but He will curse them if they do not follow His commands. This has been the consistent message from God to the people of Israel ever since they left the slavery of Egypt, and it is still His consistent message to us today.

Note also that David warns Solomon, “The LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts.” God is omniscient, or all-knowing. Neither Solomon nor anyone else can hide what they are thinking from God, as he sees everything with perfect clarity.

In verse 11, David gives Solomon detailed plans on how to build the temple, plans that are described more fully in verses 12-19. David tells the assembled crowd that these plans were inspired by God, so that there is no doubt that they should be followed to the letter. The temple is to be a continuation of the tabernacle, and so we see many parallels between David’s plans and the plans given to Moses in the Book of Exodus.

In chapter 29, verses 1-9, David announces the treasure he has donated to the temple building campaign and implores the leaders of Israel to likewise donate, so that Solomon has everything he needs to finish the divinely appointed construction project. The leadership responded with an outpouring of generosity and all Israel rejoiced.

In verses 10-13, David spontaneously praises God with a beautiful prayer. In this prayer he refers to God’s timelessness, omnipotence, beauty and majesty, sovereignty, and generosity. David thanks God, essentially, for being God! David realizes that literally nothing good is given to him or Israel without it coming from God. Of special note is that verse 11 was appropriated by the early Christian church as a doxology appended to the Lord’s Prayer: “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory.”

David’s prayer continues in verses 14-19. He acknowledges that everything donated to build the temple comes from God in the first place. David knows that God can see the sincerity that accompanied the donations of the people of Israel. Their motives were pure. David then asks that God “keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you.” Regarding Solomon, David asks God to “give my son Solomon the wholehearted devotion to keep your commands, requirements and decrees and to do everything to build the palatial structure for which I have provided.”

The next day David hosts a tremendous festival for the Lord, including sacrifices, eating and drinking, and the coronation of Solomon. It is likely that David and Solomon were co-regents for a time, until David eventually died. This was a common move by kings who wanted to ensure that their chosen successors were firmly established before the king’s death. Solomon’s rule begins with rich blessings from God and the full allegiance of the leaders of Israel.

Finally, in verses 26-30, the death of the greatest king of Israel, David, is reported. The writer informs us that David “ruled over Israel forty years—seven in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. He died at a good old age, having enjoyed long life, wealth and honor.”

J. A. Thompson, in 1, 2 Chronicles: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture (The New American Commentary) concludes:

The Chronicler presents not one but two great kings as the ideal for Israel. The one was David, the warrior-king, who subdued the enemies of the people of God and established a secure domain. He was now passing, and the other, Solomon, was taking his place. Solomon was a man of peace who would build up the prosperity of the nation. These two things together—victory over enemies and a reign of peace—are both essential. For Christian readers these two ideals are fulfilled in the one man, Jesus Christ. He conquers all his foes but at the same time establishes a reign of peace for his own people. In this the tandem of David and Solomon are a type of Christ.

Archaeology

Is There Extrabiblical Evidence for the Existence of David?

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Skeptical scholars have long argued that David’s existence is doubtful because there was no archaeological evidence of his rule or his alleged dynasty. From roughly 850 BC onward, there have been many discoveries confirming the kings of Israel and Judah listed in the Bible, but pre-850 BC evidence has been almost nonexistent.

However, in 1993 and 1994, fragments of an Aramaic monument were discovered in Tel Dan, Israel that changed everything. Walt Kaiser and Duane Garrett provide details of this finding in the NIV Archaeological Study Bible: An Illustrated Walk Through Biblical History and Culture:

Although only a fraction of the original inscription was recovered, the preserved portion alludes to eight Biblical kings. Based on the names recorded in the document, it can be dated to around 841 B.C. Even though his name is missing, it appears that Hazael, king of Aram from approximately 842– 800 B.C., commissioned the stela (or stele) to commemorate his defeat of Joram and Ahaziah at Ramoth Gilead (2Ki 8: 28– 29). . . . Hazael is mentioned in the records of Shalmaneser III, king of Assyria from approximately 858– 824 B.C., and his name is inscribed on objects taken as booty by the Assyrians.

The initial lines of the inscription mention ‘my father,’ possibly a reference to Ben-Hadad II, Hazael’s predecessor. The names of Joram and Ahab can be restored in the phrase ‘[I killed Jo] ram son of [Ahab] king of Israel,’ where the brackets indicate [gaps] in the original text. Joram was king of Israel from approximately 852 to 841 B.C., while Ahab ruled from approximately 874 to 853 B.C. This is followed by the statement ‘and [I] killed [Ahaz]iahu son of [Jehoram kin]g of the House of David.’

Why is this so important? Kaiser and Garrett continue:

The most remarkable aspect of the Tel Dan Stele is the phrase ‘House of David,’ providing extrabiblical evidence for the existence of David. This is important because some recent scholars have denied the existence of the united kingdom under David and Solomon, treating David as a character more of legend than of reality. This inscription demonstrates that ancient kings recognized the Davidic dynasty over Jerusalem and by implication validates the historicity of David himself. Some scholars have tried to avoid this implication by arguing for an alternative translation for ‘House of David,’ claiming that the words refer to some place or to a god rather than to King David. Few are persuaded by these protests, and the inscription is widely recognized to be an extrabiblical witness to the dynasty of David.

K. A. Kitchen, in his book On the Reliability of the Old Testament, mentions two other pieces of evidence. Once the Tel Dan stela was discovered,

As often happens, one discovery can lead to others. Equally convincingly, Lemaire was subsequently able to show that bt-[d]wd is to be read in line 31 of the famous stela of Mesha king of Moab, dating to about the same period. This links the “House of David” (= Judah) with an occupation of part of southern Moab (around Horonen), corresponding to Israel’s penetration in the north under Omri and his dynasty. So we have David mentioned twice in retrospect, some six generations after his death.

Kitchen writes,

Nor is this all, it seems. After his victory over Rehoboam and Jeroboam in 926/925, Shoshenq I of Egypt had engraved at Karnak a long list of Palestinian place-names. Some of these are now destroyed, and thus lost to us; many can be readily identified with known places in Israel, Judah, the Negev, and a few in western Transjordan. But quite a few have remained obscure. Among these, in a group of names clearly located by association in the Negev/south Judah area, is ‘the heights of Dwt.‘

Kitchen argues that Dwt should be translated as “David,” which means that “this would give us a place-name that commemorated David in the Negev barely fifty years after his death, within living memory of the man.”

Bible Interpretation, Sunday School

Commentary on 2 Samuel 13-18 (Absalom’s Rebellion)

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Chapter 13 begins with an ominous declaration: Amnon loves Tamar. Amnon is David’s firstborn son and heir to David’s throne. His mother is Ahinoam. Tamar is the daughter of David and Maacah. Maacah and David also have a son named Absalom, so Absalom and Tamar are brother and sister. Tamar is Amnon’s half-sister.

Amnon wants to have sexual relations with Tamar, but she is still a virgin and yet to be married. In addition, the Law specifically prohibits sex/marriage between half brothers and sisters. Amnon, however, doesn’t care about the Law and wants Tamar anyway.

Jonadab, Amnon’s cousin, suggests a plan for Amnon to be alone with Tamar. He is to pretend he is sick and request that Tamar come to his house to prepare food for him. When Tamar prepares bread for him, he orders everyone else out of the house. When she is alone with Tamar in his bedroom, he asks her to have sex with him.

Tamar, as a woman who knows the Law, refuses his advances. She knows that sex between brother and sister is forbidden, and she also knows that if she loses her virginity to Amnon, she will likely never marry. Her only option is to tell Amnon that he should petition King David to allow them to marry. Amnon is not interested in marriage, so he rapes her.

Once the deed is done, he kicks her out of his house and refuses, again, to marry her. In fact, verse 15 says that he hates her after they had sex more than he loved her before they had sex. We know, for sure, that Amnon simply lusted after her. There was no love involved.

Tamar tears her ornamented robe, which marked as her one of the virgin daughters of the king. There is no hiding what was done, as Tamar publicly mourns the loss of her virginity. Her full brother Absalom finds out what happened and takes her into his home. No man will want to marry her now. Absalom hates Amnon for what he has done, but he never tells him. David also finds out what happened and he is furious, but he does nothing about it.

Dale Ralph Davis, in 2 Samuel: Out of Every Adversity (Focus on the Bible Commentaries), faults David for his inaction:

It should have led to a righteous result. His anger should have led to justice. Amnon should have been punished and Tamar exonerated. Instead Amnon is not held accountable, Tamar receives no redress, and Absalom is handed a plausible excuse for revenge. David heard. He was very angry. And he did nothing.

Two years later, Absalom hosts a party at a place called Baal Hazor centered on the shearing of his sheep. He requests that David join him for the festivities, but David declines. Since David will not come, Absalom requests that Amnon come in his place, since the firstborn could represent his father. David agrees.

In verse 28, Absalom instructs his men to kill Amnon once he’s drunk, and this is exactly what they do. After two years of plotting revenge, Absalom acts and kills his half-brother, the heir to the throne.

Absalom flees to his maternal grandfather’s home in Geshur. He stays there for three years until David finally summons him to come back to Jerusalem. When he returns to Jerusalem, David refuses to see him for 2 more years. At the prompting of his trusted general Joab, David allows Absalom to come before him and they are reconciled. It had been 5 years since the murder of Amnon.

Not content with his circumstances, and perhaps still angry at his father for not punishing Amnon himself, Absalom begins to build a political following in Israel. He acquires a chariot with horses (the transportation favored by Canaanite royalty) and an entourage of 50 soldiers that would run ahead of the chariot. These are the trappings of royalty and power which support the image he wants to convey to the people of Israel.

Robert Bergen, in 1, 2 Samuel: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture (The New American Commentary), also notes:

The biblical narratives stretching from Exodus through this point in 2 Samuel are surprisingly negative in their portrayal of horses and chariots. The texts consistently depict only enemies of the Lord and his covenant people as having them. The Egyptians (cf. Exod 14:9–15:21; Deut 11:4; Josh 24:6), northern Canaanites (Josh 11:4–9; Judg 4:15; 5:19–22), and Arameans (8:4; 10:18) all used them unsuccessfully in battle against Israel. Thus, when Absalom linked them with himself, he was joining his ambitions with symbols of hostility against the Lord and Israel, and with ultimate failure.

Absalom also intercepts numerous Israelites at the gate of Jerusalem who are seeking judicial rulings from David. He lies to them, saying that David is not fulfilling his role as judge in Israel. Absalom suggests that he is perfectly willing to serve in this capacity. He also flatters the supplicants by always agreeing that their case is just.

After 4 years of Absalom’s campaigning at the gate, he is ready to make his move. He asks David for permission to travel to Hebron to make a sacrifice to God for allowing him to come back to Jerusalem from exile. David agrees to his request. Why did Absalom really want to go to Hebron? Robert Bergen explains:

At Hebron Absalom found himself twenty miles away from his father and protected by strong walls. From this relatively safe base of operations Absalom moved quickly to usurp David’s throne. He prepared for the public phase of his plot by sending secret messengers throughout the tribes of Israel (v. 10) to make a coordinated proclamation throughout the land. Once in place, they were to await ‘the sound of trumpets’ and then announce simultaneously that ‘Absalom is king in Hebron.’ Implicit in this proclamation was a call to arms for those who supported Absalom in his efforts.

Absalom also brings along 200 men from David’s administration to Hebron, letting them think they are guests at his sacrifice. This was a brilliant move by Absalom, depriving his father of 200 of his friends and advisors during the impending crisis. They would be forced to help Absalom or be killed. While in Hebron, Absalom also sends for one of David’s top advisors, Ahithophel. Recall that Ahithophel is the grandfather of Bathsheba, the woman who David seduced. It is quite possible that Ahithophel still harbors a hatred for David for what he did to Bathsheba and Uriah.

If there was any question whether Absalom would succeed in his coup, David receives a messenger in Jerusalem who gives him the horrible news: “The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom.”

Since there is not enough time to comment on all the events of chapters 15-17, here is a brief synopsis. David flees Jerusalem with his family, officials, and a small army of soldiers. He leaves behind 10 concubines to tend to operation of the royal palace while he is gone. He also leaves behind spies to inform him of Absalom’s plans.

Absalom moves into David’s palace and has sexual relations with the 10 concubines on the roof of the palace to publicly declare himself as king of Israel. After consulting two advisors, Ahithophel and Hushai (a spy for David), he gathers a large military force and leads them to kill David and defeat his army, who have crossed over to the east side of the Jordan River. David’s spies warn him of Absalom’s plans.

At the beginning of chapter 18, David divides his army into 3 groups, each commanded by one of his generals. The plan is to fight Absalom in the surrounding forests, where David’s forces will have a military advantage. David wants to go to battle, but his generals convince to stay behind. Before they leave, David commands the soldiers to be gentle with Absalom if they capture him. David, evidently, wants to be reconciled with him again.

In verses 6-8, we learn that David’s army defeats Absalom’s army. Some 20,000 soldiers die. Absalom’s fate is described in verses 9-15. As he is riding his mule, he gets stuck in low-hanging tree branches and is left hanging from the tree, still alive. Some of David’s soldiers spot him and tell Joab, David’s top general.

Joab asks the soldiers why they didn’t kill Absalom and they cite David’s instructions to be gentle with him. Joab takes matters into his own hands and he kills Absalom himself by plunging three javelins into him.  Thus ends the rebellion of David’s son Absalom.

What can we learn from this whole sordid affair? First, God’s prophetic words always come true. The prophet Nathan warned David that blood would not leave his house, and that a family member would sleep with his wives, thus rebelling against David. All of this came to pass with Absalom.

Second, the sins of parents are passed on to their children. Just as David illicitly slept with Bathsheba, Amnon had illicit relations with Tamar. Just as David has Uriah murdered, Absalom had Amnon murdered.

Third, note that Absalom never consulted God or his prophets. He only sought advice from men, none of whom had a word from God. This behavior mirrored that of the kings of the Canaanite nations. What a contrast with David! Robert Bergan draws out the contrast:

At every crux in his life, David sought the word of the Lord, either through an Aaronic priest (1 Sam 23:1–6; 2 Sam 5:19, 23) or a prophet (7:3–17). Absalom’s pursuit of and compliance with human counsel brought about the hasty end of his regime. David’s pursuit of and obedience to divine revelation brought him only success and dynastic blessings. By providing contrasting narrative portraits of these two Davidic kings, the author writes a prescription for the success of all future leaders in Israel: seek the word of the Lord through its authorized mediators and obey it.

Fourth, Absalom’s death carries theological significance. Bergen writes:

The words used by the soldier to report Absalom’s condition are of great theological and thematic significance: ‘Absalom was hanging [Hb., tālûy] in an oak tree.’ The word translated ‘hanging’ here is used only once in the Torah (Deut 21:23) to declare that ‘anyone who is hung [tālûy] on a tree is under God’s curse.’ Absalom had rebelled against divine law by rebelling against his father (cf. Exod 20:12; Deut 5:16; 21:18–21) and sleeping with members of David’s harem (Lev 20:11). Absalom had the massive armies of Israel fighting to protect him, and he was personally equipped with a fast means of escape not afforded other soldiers—a mule. Nevertheless, in spite of these seemingly insurmountable advantages, Absalom could not escape God’s judgment. The Lord had declared in the Torah that one who dishonored his father was cursed (Deut 27:16) and likewise that one who slept with his father’s wife was cursed (Deut 27:20)—Absalom, of course, had done both. Although no army had been able to catch Absalom and punish him, God himself had sent a curse against him that simultaneously caught and punished the rebel. The fearful judgments of the Torah had proven credible: the Lord had upheld his law.

Bible Interpretation, Sunday School

Commentary on 2 Samuel 11-12 (David and Bathsheba)

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In previous chapters, Israel has been at war with the Ammonites, but they have not yet completely defeated them. As chapter 11 begins, David sends the army to finish off the Ammonites once and for all. They have retreated to a city named Rabbah, so David’s forces are besieging Rabbah.

David, however, does not travel to the front lines and instead stays home during the siege. One evening, as David walks around the roof of his palace, he sees a beautiful woman bathing on another roof. He sends word for her to come to the palace, and then he has sex with her. She quickly learns that she is pregnant and tells David.

So who is this woman? Before David even sends for her, he learns that she is Bathsheba, “the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Robert Bergen, in 1, 2 Samuel: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture (The New American Commentary), explains that “she was the daughter of one of David’s best fighters, the granddaughter of his most trusted counselor, and the wife of one of his inner circle of honored soldiers.” David is thus choosing to commit adultery and betray some of his most loyal followers.

Since Bathsheba is pregnant, the only way to hide the secret is for David to entice Uriah to sleep with Bathsheba immediately so that when the child is born everyone will think it belongs to Uriah. Since Uriah is off fighting the Ammonites, David summons him back to Jerusalem and encourages him to go to back to his house to rest and rejuvenate. Surely he will have intimate relations with his wife when he goes home.

Instead, Uriah sleeps at the palace with the servants. So David gives him alcohol and gets him intoxicated, assuming that his drunken stupor will cause him to go to his house and sleep with his wife. Again, Uriah refuses to go home.

Why does Uriah refuse to go home? Robert Bergen writes:

Uriah’s refusal to have sexual contact with his wife at this time was clearly an expression of his devotion to the Lord: all sanctioned military activity was a form of service to the Lord, and it required the Lord’s blessing for success. In order to maximize the probability of receiving that blessing in military endeavors, David seems to have required soldiers carrying out military assignments to keep themselves in a state of ritual purity, which necessarily meant refraining from all sexual contact (cf. 1 Sam 21:5; Exod 19:15). If Uriah had had sexual relations with Bathsheba, he would have rendered himself temporarily unfit for military service (cf. Lev 15:18) and thus unfit for service to the Lord.

Since Uriah refuses to sleep with Bathsheba, David concocts a new plan to murder Uriah, which will allow David to legally take Bathsheba into his household as her kinsman-redeemer. David sends a message, carried by Uriah, to his general, Joab. Joab is to mount a risky assault close to the walls of Rabbah, and make sure Uriah is part of the assault. When the soldiers come under attack, Joab is to withdraw the other soldiers so that Uriah is left alone and defenseless, to be killed by the enemy.

Joab does what David commands, but he loses several other soldiers in the assault, in addition to Uriah. The Ammonite archers of Rabbah slay the soldiers because they were so close to the city walls. Keep in mind that this assault was completely unnecessary as they had Rabbah surrounded. Given enough time, the city would have surrendered without this useless attack on the city wall.

So David has now committed adultery and murder. His commands to Joab are directly responsible for the death of Uriah, but indirectly responsible for the deaths of the other soldiers in the risky assault.

Upon hearing of Uriah’s death, Bathsheba mourns. After her mourning is over, she moves into the palace with David. How did David not arouse suspicion when he moved Bathsheba into the palace, married her, and then impregnated her? Robert Bergen offers a plausible explanation:

As perhaps in the case of Abigail, David may have been acting as a royal, surrogate kinsman-redeemer (Hb. gōʾēl). David might have claimed he was taking the gōʾēl responsibility on himself since Uriah was a foreigner who had no near kinsman living in Israel. As such, David would have assumed the lifelong responsibility of caring for the needs of Uriah’s widow and was obligated to father a child in order to raise up an offspring to preserve the family line of the deceased (cf. Gen 38:8; Deut 25:5–6; Ruth 4:5). Such a pretext would have made David’s actions toward Bathsheba following Uriah’s death seem truly noble and would have accounted nicely for the birth of the son.

Even though David may have fooled everyone else, he did not fool God. Chapter 11 ends on an ominous note for David: “But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.”

At the opening of chapter 12, the confrontation between God and David takes place through the prophet Nathan. Rather than accuse David of his sin, Nathan instead tells a story to incite David to accuse himself. Nathan tells the story of a rich man (he owns a large number of sheep and cattle) who steals the beloved lamb of a poor man (who owns no livestock except the lamb) in order to feed a traveler who has arrived at the rich man’s home.

Upon hearing the story, David exclaims, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” To which Nathan responds, “You are the man!”

Nathan then reveals the word of God that he received about David’s evil deeds. God reminds David that He gave him the throne of Israel, that He gave David everything that Saul had possessed, and that He was going to bless David even further. But David murdered Uriah and stole his wife from him.

The consequences that would follow are that David’s own household would suffer tremendously. His wives and concubines would be taken by a family member and this family member would publicly sleep with them. There would be public rebellion against the reign of David from within his own household. Robert Bergen elaborates:

Uriah had died because of David’s sin, but God decreed that death would enter David’s life as well: ‘the sword will never depart from your house’ (v. 10). This dark judgment presages fatal violence within David’s family and can be seen as the literary motivation for chaps. 13–19 as well as 1 Kings 1–2. All told, four of David’s sons would experience premature death—an unnamed son (cf. 12:18), Amnon (cf. 13:29), Absalom (cf. 18:14–15), and Adonijah (cf. 1 Kgs 2:25). Traditional Jewish and Christian interpretation of this passage has correlated the death of the four sons to be the ‘fourfold’ of v. 6. To remove all doubt about why this would occur, Yahweh restated the fundamental cause: ‘You despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’

In verse 13, David, unlike Saul, when confronted with his sin simply states, “I have sinned against the Lord.” There are no excuses, no elaborate rationalizations, only heartfelt repentance. Note that even though David sinned against Uriah, his primary offense is sinning against God. By breaking God’s commands in the Torah, David despised God Himself.

The penalty for adultery and murder, as prescribed by the Torah, is capital punishment. Would the Lord take David’s life? Nathan reassures David that his life would be spared, but the life of his son would be taken instead. God strikes the child with an illness and David prays and fasts that God will change his mind and show mercy to his son. On the child’s seventh day of life, he dies. David, hearing of his son’s death, ceases his fasting, washes himself, puts on a change of clothes and eats a meal. His servants are confused at his actions, so he tells them his rationale:

While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.

While the child was still alive, David prayed for God’s grace and mercy, even though he knew that God had already told him his son would die. Praying for a dead child is pointless as he knows he cannot bring the child back from the dead. David assures his servants that he will see his son again in the afterlife.

David and Bathsheba then conceive another child, and name him Solomon. Solomon is loved by God and given the Hebrew name Jedidiah, which means “loved by the Lord.”

If David is anointed by God, is a man after God’s heart, has been promised a dynasty, then how can we comprehend his heinous sins in chapter 11? Dale Ralph Davis, in 2 Samuel: Out of Every Adversity (Focus on the Bible Commentaries), puts it in perspective:

The unvarnished truth is that life for God’s people can be like that even in the supposed kingdom of God. That kingdom is not safe even in David’s hands. It is only safe when Jesus Christ rules and will rule with justice and righteousness. Yet until Jesus publicly enforces that just regime at his second coming, it will not be unusual for God’s people to suffer even within (what claims to be) the kingdom of God.

Bible Interpretation, Sunday School

Commentary on 2 Samuel 7 (The Davidic Covenant)

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Some time after David has placed the ark in Jerusalem, a palace has been built for him, and he has a period of rest from his enemies, he decides that he should build a temple to house the ark (God’s home on earth). David communicates his plans to Nathan, the prophet, and Nathan affirms his plans. However, that night Nathan hears from God about His plans for David, and they are not at all what Nathan expects!

The verses that follow contain some of the most important words in the entire Old Testament because they capture God’s promises to David. These promises are often referred to as the Davidic Covenant. The New Testament writers believed that the promises made to David in 2 Samuel 7 were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. In order to understand who Jesus thought He was and who His disciples thought he was, it is imperative to understand the Davidic Covenant.

In verses 5-7, God reminds Nathan that He has never requested that a permanent structure be built to house the ark. God has been content to travel with His people, Israel, wherever they have gone.

In verses 8-9, God reminds Nathan that it was God who took David from being a simple shepherd to ruler over Israel. It is God who has given David all of his military victories. The second half of verse 9 begins the Davidic Covenant, the promises God makes to David and his descendants.

First, God promises that He will make David’s “name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth.” Second, God promises that He will give Israel the land He promised them, and give them peace from their enemies.

Third, God will build a house for David, not the other way around. What follows are the key verses of the Davidic Covenant:

“When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men.  But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.”

These promises to David apply both to his son, Solomon, who would build the temple to house the ark, but also to all of David’s descendants. The greatest of David’s descendants would, of course, be Jesus Christ. Let’s look at each of the promises in order.

First, David’s house would not end with his death. God promises to “raise up” David’s offspring to succeed him. In fact, we learn that it is David’s son who will build a house for God. This promise is fulfilled in one sense when David’s son, Solomon, builds the temple between 966 and 959 BC. But in another sense, this promise must apply to another of David’s descendants, because Solomon’s throne is not established forever.

Second, the future descendants of David who rule Israel will be God’s sons. As the father of David’s descendants, He will manifest His love in two ways. First, He will discipline them when they sin by allowing their enemies to inflict harm on them. Second, even though they sin, His love will never be taken away from them. He will always love the descendants of David, regardless of their behavior.

Third, David’s house would endure forever. Time will not change God’s plans to establish the house of David.

How do these promises to David apply to Jesus Christ? According to Robert Bergen in 1, 2 Samuel: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture (The New American Commentary),

The divine declarations proclaimed here through the prophet Nathan are foundational for seven major New Testament teachings about Jesus: that he is (1) the son of David (cf. Matt 1:1; Acts 13:22–23; Rom 1:3; 2 Tim 2:8; Rev 22:16, etc.); (2) one who would rise from the dead (cf. Acts 2:30; 13:23); (3) the builder of the house for God (cf. John 2:19–22; Heb 3:3–4, etc.); (4) the possessor of a throne (cf. Heb 1:8; Rev 3:21, etc.); (5) the possessor of an eternal kingdom (cf. 1 Cor 15:24–25; Eph 5:5; Heb 1:8; 2 Pet 1:11, etc.); (6) the son of God (cf. Mark 1:1; John 20:31; Acts 9:20; Heb 4:14; Rev 2:18, etc.); and (7) the product of an immaculate conception, since he had God as his father (cf. Luke 1:32–35).

In verses 18-29, we read David’s response. He goes into the tent containing the ark and sits down and prays to God. David praises God from verses 18-24 and he petitions God from verses 25-29.

During his praise, David marvels over the fact that God has blessed him thus far, and then is further amazed that God has made this promise to establish his throne forever. David knows that God’s promises to David are a means to accomplish God’s will both for Israel and for all mankind. Remember that God’s original covenant with Abraham, upon which the Davidic Covenant is built, promised to bless the entire world through the descendants of Abraham.

David continues by proclaiming that God is one of a kind, that there is no other god except for Him. Likewise, the people of Israel are one of a kind because God chose them as the nation He would redeem. Their redemption demonstrated to all the people of the earth who God is.

In David’s petition to God, David boldly requests that God keep these promises He has made. David asks that God truly establish his house forever.  Dale Ralph Davis, in 2 Samuel: Out of Every Adversity (Focus on the Bible Commentaries), notes that David provides an example for us:

Here then is still the major task for prayer today: to take God’s promises and pray he will bring them to pass. We must, of course, be certain any promise is a promise that rightly applies to us. Certainly David’s promise does. For this is the promise we ask God to fulfill every time we pray that God’s name will be held sacred throughout the earth (see v. 26; cf. Ezek. 36:20–23), when we ask for God’s kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth. The final King of David’s dynasty has come, yet his kingship must yet be fully, publicly, and universally displayed. But since the promises are reliable (v. 28a: ‘And now, Lord Yahweh, you are the One who is God, and your words will prove true’) the petition is sure to be granted.

We are to pray that God will bring His promises to pass and we can be sure that our prayers will be granted.

Bible Interpretation, Sunday School

Commentary on 2 Samuel 5-6 (David Becomes King over Israel)

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Following the death of Saul in 1 Sam 31 (around 1010 BC), David is anointed king over the tribe of Judah. The other tribes, however, give their fealty to Saul’s remaining son, Ish-Bosheth. This is the situation for 7 years, until Ish-Bosheth is killed by two assassins. It is important to note that David has nothing to do with the assassination and he, in fact, has the assassins executed for their deed.

This brings us to chapter 5 in 2 Samuel. In verses 1-5, the leaders of the northern tribes agree to anoint David king over all Israel, citing both his military career and, more importantly, that God Himself had chosen David to rule Israel. David had ruled over Judah for 7 years and would rule over all Israel for 33 years.

After David becomes king over Israel, he decides to move the capitol to a neutral site between the northern and southern tribes of Israel, to Jerusalem. However, Jerusalem is still occupied by the Jebusites in a seemingly impregnable fortress. David and his commanders figure out how to get into Jerusalem, apparently, by climbing through tunnels that carry water to the interior of the fortress. The over-confident Jebusites are defeated and David renames the fortress the City of David. All of this success comes because God is with David.

David’s power and prestige grow so much that at some point during his reign, the king of Tyre, a distant city on the Mediterranean coast, sends a team of builders to construct a palace for David in Jerusalem! The only reason the king would do this is out of fear and respect for David.

Unfortunately we also learn that David followed the conventions of the day by taking numerous concubines and wives in order to secure treaties with neighboring rulers. Recall that Deut 17:17 forbade kings of Israel from taking many wives, a command that David is clearly disobeying and that will lead to great suffering during his rule.

Finally, in verses 17-25, David scores two major victories against Israel’s long-time enemy, the Philistines. In each case, David first inquires of God what he should do before making a move. God gives David specific instructions to defeat the Philistines and David exactly follows those instructions and meets with overwhelming success.

In the first battle, the Philistines are beaten so quickly that they leave behind their official idols which represented the gods they worshiped. How the tables have turned! It was the Israelites who were beaten badly years before by the Philistines (see 1 Sam 4:11), and who left behind the Ark of the Covenant.

Chapter 6 tells the story of how David brings the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, the new religious and political capitol of Israel. Recall that after the Philistines returned the ark to Israel, it had been kept in a private residence, the house of Abinadab.

David decides to send a large military escort to move the ark, no doubt because he was afraid that the escort would be attacked. Remember that the ark contained the written contract between Israel and the Lord, was a place of divine revelation, and was the Lord’s throne. Robert Bergen, in 1, 2 Samuel, The New American Commentary, writes, “An object of such overwhelming significance would certainly make a valuable prize for the Philistines and was worthy of the massive protective force called up by David.”

Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, guide the ark along the road, as oxen pull the cart on which the ark rests. Tragically, in verses 6-7, Uzzah reaches out and touches the ark to keep it from falling when the oxen stumble. God strikes Uzzah dead because of his “irreverent act.” Why did God kill Uzzah for his seemingly good deed?

Dale Ralph Davis, in 2 Samuel: Out of Every Adversity, Focus on the Bible Commentary, writes:

We must recall that Yahweh had long ago given specific instructions to Moses and the priesthood about how the ark, among other items, was to be transported (see Num. 4:4–6, 15, 17–20; and 7:9). The rules were: no touch, no look, no cart. The priests were to cover the sacred furniture after which they would assign Levites of the Kohathite clan to carry such items (hence, implicitly, no carts). The Kohathites were not to touch or look upon the sacred items ‘lest they die’ (Num. 4:15, 20). Clearly, Yahweh did not want them to die; his kindness was written all over that warning. So it was not as though David and Uzzah and company had had no warning. Yahweh’s blow was scarcely arbitrary.

David, fearing God’s wrath, halts the parade and sends the ark to the house of a man named Obed-Edom for safe keeping until David can figure what went wrong. For three months the ark resides there and blesses the household.

When David hears of the blessing of Obed-Edom’s household, he assumes that the timing is right to move the ark again. Even though the text does not explicitly say, we are to assume that the ark is transported correctly this time.

Take note of David’s role in the moving of the ark. He wears a priestly ephod, he dances and rejoices in front of the ark, he places the ark in a specially made tent, he sacrifices burnt and fellowship offerings before the Lord, he blesses the people of Israel in the name of the Lord, and then he gives bread and cakes to everyone present at the celebration.

David’s actions portray him as both king and priest. Was he overstepping his authority? Dale Ralph Davis explains:

David is not arrogantly infringing on the priests’ office; clearly, he views himself as ‘the humble and serving priest of the true King.’ Nevertheless, we should not miss this glimpse of the king in a priestly role, for we will meet it again in prophecy (Ps. 110:1, 4, and Zech. 6:12–13), and yet again in person, in Jesus, David’s Descendant, our reigning king and interceding priest.

In verses 16, 20-23, we read about the reaction of Michal, Saul’s daughter and David’s wife, to his dancing in front of the ark. She accuses him of “disrobing in the sight of the slave girls” and acting in a manner unfit for a king. David reminds her that he was chosen by God, not her father, and that he was celebrating before the Lord, not before slave girls. Robert Bergen provides further commentary:

David rejected Michal’s slanderous accusations; ‘it was before the LORD’ (v. 21)—not the young women—that David was celebrating. Furthermore, his actions were appropriate for one who had been ‘appointed’ by the Lord as ‘ruler over the LORD’S people Israel.’ David’s celebratory acts earlier in the day expressed the king’s unbridled joy in having been selected by the Lord for such significant service. Besides, assuming he was dressed as a properly outfitted Yahwistic priest, David’s energetic dancing could not have exposed his nakedness and so violated the Torah’s requirements (cf. Exod 20:26) since he was wearing a linen undergarment. In rejecting David, Michal was also rejecting the Lord because it was he who ‘chose’ David in preference to Michal’s ‘father or anyone from his house’ to lead Israel. More probably, Michal’s rejection of David actually was symptomatic of an underlying problem in her relationship with God. . . .

As a result of this incident ‘Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death’ (v. 23). In the Torah a blessing associated with obedience to the Lord is a fruitful womb (cf. Exod 23:26; Deut 7:14; 28:11). To an audience knowledgeable of the Torah, Michal’s unproductive womb would have been interpreted as a curse sent against a disobedient wife—not as evidence of a husband’s neglect of a marital duty. Michal’s lack of faith would mean that the house of Saul would be forever separate from Israel’s eternal royal dynasty.

Bible Interpretation, Sunday School

Commentary on 1 Samuel 30-31 (Death of Saul)

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During the time covered in 1 Samuel 18-29, David built up a small army of 600 men from the outcasts of Israel, while Saul continued to hunt David down in order to kill him. When we finally get to chapters 30-31, David and Saul are both facing armed conflicts, but with separate enemies. The narrator places these conflicts one after another to contrast how different Saul and David, with respect to their relationships with God, truly are.

Chapter 30 opens with David and his army returning to their home base at the village of Ziklag (they had been away for some time). When they arrive, they discover that Israel’s ancient enemies, the Amalekites, have burnt down the village and taken everyone prisoner, including all of the wives and children of David’s army. David and his men are devastated at their loss, to the point that the men blame David and contemplate killing him for what has happened.

David, however, seeks God’s wisdom and asks the priest Abiathar to bring him the priestly ephod. He asks God whether he should pursue the Amalekites and God responds that he should. Note that David seeks God’s decision in the matter as prescribed by the Torah. David is consistently shown as obeying the commands of the Torah in contrast to Saul who seems to know nothing of the Torah.

David and 400 of his men pursue the Amalekites, without knowing exactly where they have gone. However, David happens across an Egyptian servant who was left behind by his Amalekite master because he was ill. He agrees to take David to the Amalekite camp if David will spare his life. The reader is meant to understand that finding the Egyptian is no accident. This is the hand of God ensuring David’s success in his mission.

David’s army finds the Amalekite camp where all the soldiers are intoxicated, celebrating their recent ill-gotten gains. His forces engage the Amalekites, who greatly outnumber him, and win decisively, with only 400 Amalekites escaping when the battle is over. Not only that, but all the women and children taken from Ziklag are rescued, along with all the possessions stolen by the Amalekites during their recent marauding campaign.

In stark contrast to David’s successful campaign, chapter 31 reveals the disaster that is Saul’s battle against the Philistines. Before we see what happens in chapter 31, let’s review chapter 28 briefly. Since Saul has no access to God (Samuel has died and God had rejected Saul’s reign as king years earlier), Saul instead seeks the guidance of a sorceress/medium, an activity which is clearly forbidden by the Torah. The medium summons the deceased Samuel who reminds Saul that God has rejected him and given the kingdom to David. She then ominously warns Saul that the Philistines will kill Saul and his sons the next day.

As we return to chapter 31, we learn that the Philistines have overtaken the Israelite army and pressed hard after Saul and his sons. Three of Saul’s sons are killed in battle, including Jonathan. Dale Ralph Davis, in 1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart, Focus on the Bible Commentary, writes:

Here then is Jonathan’s obituary. He remained a true friend to David and a faithful son of Saul. He surrendered his kingship to David (18:1–4); he sacrificed his life for Saul. In this hopeless fiasco Jonathan was nowhere else but in the place Yahweh had assigned to him—at the side of his father.

Saul is wounded by archers and asks his armor-bearer to kill him so that the Philistines will not have the opportunity to torture him. The armor-bearer refuses to kill him, so Saul commits suicide with his own sword. The armor-bearer then takes his own life. The results of this military defeat are disastrous for Israel. Several Israelite settlements near the Philistines are abandoned in haste because the army and their king has been defeated.

As if this isn’t bad enough, the Philistines remove the valuables from the bodies of Saul and his sons and then fasten their corpses on the wall of a city called Beth Shan. They also spread the word around their cities that Israel has been defeated. This defeat is profound. Here is how Dale Ralph Davis describes it:

Yahweh has been defeated. Saul’s armor is in the adversary’s temple; Yahweh could not protect his king. No question about how the media would construe it. If Yahweh’s king and people were trounced, so was their God. . . . The sadness of our text is due not merely to the fact that Israel is crushed. That is sad. But there is a deeper sadness in that Yahweh is mocked. Every true Israelite mourns over that. Worse than Israel’s defeat is Yahweh’s disgrace.

A daring nighttime mission by the Israelite soldiers of Jabesh Gilead reclaims the bodies of Saul and his sons, and they are cremated, except for their bones, which are buried.

How can we summarize the end of 1 Samuel? Robert Bergen, in 1, 2 Samuel, The New American Commentary, writes:

On the one hand, David was here fulfilling the mandate of the Torah regarding the Amalekites and receiving the resulting blessing of a restored family and the increase of possessions. On the other hand, at the very moment David was enjoying success and blessing, Saul was experiencing the full force of a Torah curse, including the loss of his family and possessions.

Both David and Saul were fighting traditional enemies of Israel in the events recorded in this section, and both men sought divine guidance in their respective undertakings. To the south, David consulted the only form of revelation sanctioned by the Torah before going forth to slaughter the Amalekites, who had temporarily dispossessed David and his men of their families and worldly goods during a lightning raid on Ziklag. To the north Saul sought insight from a medium, a revelatory means expressly forbidden by the Torah, before waging war against the Philistines. As a result of Saul’s sinful actions, the Lord used the Philistines as agents of divine judgment to bring down on Saul’s head the just punishment for his rejection of the Torah (cf. 1 Chr 10:13–14). When this pivotal series of events concludes, Saul and all his credible heirs to the throne are dead; David, on the other hand, is poised to become Israel’s king and to establish a dynasty as all of his heirs are restored to him.

Bible Interpretation, Books of the Bible, Sunday School

Commentary on 1 Samuel 15-16 (God Rejects Saul and Anoints David)

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Between chapters 8 and 15 in 1 Samuel, Israel has received the king she requested in the person of Saul. From the beginning, we know that Saul was not a man “after God’s heart” and although Saul has some military successes against Israel’s enemies, especially the Philistines, his disobedience of God’s commands would eventually cause him to lose his kingship.

Chapter 15 is where this finally occurs. Samuel, the prophet who speaks for God, commands Saul to launch a military campaign against the Amalekites, the long-time enemy of Israel who attacked Israel as she left the slavery of Egypt (see Exodus 17). God had previously promised that the Amalekites would be punished for their wicked actions against Israel. We know that the Amalekites attacked Israel when she was weary from the trek out of Egypt. But even worse, they came up behind the Israelites and massacred the weakest members of Israel who were bringing up the rear of the Israelite caravan. Amalekite aggression against Israel continued for hundreds of years, right up to the present day.

Given that the attack on the Amalekites was to execute divine judgment, Saul was instructed to kill everyone in the battle and to kill all of the livestock. The Israelites were not to get any financial gain from this attack as they were merely the instruments of God’s justice.

Unfortunately Saul disobeys God in two ways: he keeps Agag, the king of Amalek, alive, and he keeps the best livestock from Amalek alive. God grieves over Saul’s blatant disobedience and He instructs Samuel to confront Saul. When Samuel asks Saul why the best livestock were kept alive, Saul blames the soldiers and then adds that the livestock will be used to sacrifice to God, hoping this will get him off the hook.

Samuel then utters profound words to Saul in verse 22:

“Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

Even if Saul was planning on sacrificing the livestock, which is debatable since it appears to be an excuse, God wants obedience first. Sacrifice without obedience is pointless. A person who follows the rituals of worship, but flagrantly disobeys God’s other commands, does not please God. The consequence of Saul’s sin is that God rejects him as king. Saul begs for Samuel to change his mind, but God has made His decision.

In a sad epilogue, Samuel must kill King Agag himself, since Saul failed to do so. Afterwards, he returns to his home, never to see Saul again. From that day on, God’s prophet will never again counsel Saul, as God has turned His back on Saul’s reign over Israel.

Chapter 16 opens with God telling Samuel to stop grieving Saul, as He is ready to select a new king. The king will be a son of Jesse of Bethlehem. In order to prevent Saul from realizing what is going on, Samuel takes a cow with him and tells the elders of Bethlehem that he is there to perform a sacrifice. Samuel also invites Jesse and seven of his sons to the sacrifice.

Before the sacrifice occurs, Samuel has each of Jesse’s sons stand before him to see which one God will anoint as the new king of Israel. Each of Jesse’s seven sons parade in front of Samuel, but God doesn’t choose any of them.

Samuel is surprised that God doesn’t select the oldest son of Jesse, Eliab, because he is both tall and handsome, and seemingly perfect for the role of king. God responds to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

This verse is the very heart of 1 and 2 Samuel and one of the most instructive verses in the entire Bible. Robert Bergen, in 1, 2 Samuel: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture (The New American Commentary), writes, “The Lord alone has the capacity to observe and judge a person’s ‘heart’ (Hb. lēb), that is, one’s thoughts, emotions, and intents. On God’s scales these matters outweigh all other aspects of a human life.”

After having dismissed seven of Jesse’s sons, Samuel asks if he has another son, and Jesse informs him that he does, but that he is the youngest and is tending sheep. They send for him and God tells Samuel that this boy, the youngest of eight sons, is to be anointed the new king of Israel. The boy’s name is David. In verse 13, we learn that the Spirit of the Lord immediately came upon David “in power.”

Verses 14-23 end the chapter with the story of how David comes to be an armor-bearer for King Saul, the very king he would some day replace. God has sent an angel of judgment to Saul because of his disobedience, and this angel torments Saul. Saul’s servants suggest to him that finding someone who can play the harp when Saul is tormented will make him feel better.

Saul agrees and the servants recommend David. One servant describes what he knows of David, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the harp. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the LORD is with him.” Thus David is brought into the royal household and becomes a trusted member of King Saul’s entourage.

Why was this young shepherd-boy chosen by God to be king some day? He wasn’t as tall or as good-looking as his older brothers. We know that God’s choices do not always line up with man’s choices, because God sees the heart and we do not. Think about David’s descendant, Jesus of Nazareth. He was an unlikely candidate as well. Dale Ralph Davis, in 1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart (Focus on the Bible Commentaries) writes:

Perhaps at no time did the living God disclose a more flabbergasting choice than in the case of David’s greater Descendant. The vote was in. The folks at home said, “He’s just one of us” (Mark 6:3). Others complained, “He has too much fun” (Matt. 11:18–19), and still others objected, “He’s not from the right place” (John 7:41–42). But the clincher for many was: “Messiahs don’t suffer” (Matt. 27:42–43). And what clout did this opinion pack? None. “The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner” (Ps. 118:22; see 1 Pet. 2:4). What should we deduce from that? We should realize Yahweh made his choice (Ps. 118:23a), and we should relish it (Ps. 118:23b). There is a delight we should have over Yahweh’s unusual, unguessable ways. It honors him when we revel in his surprises.