2 Samuel 5:1-10
A man was praying to God. He said, “God!?”
God responded, “Yes?”
And the guy said, “Can I ask a question?”
“Go right ahead, ” God said.
“God, what is a million years to you?”
God said, “A million years to me is only a second.”
“Hmmm, ” the man wondered. Then he asked, “God, what
is a million dollars worth to you?”
God said, “A million dollars to me is as a penny.”
So the man said, “God, can I have a penny?”
And God cheerfully said, “Sure!! Just a second.”
Last week we talked about David waiting on the Lord. We
saw him seek the Lord’s guidance on where he should go.
Once he went to Hebron the people came up to him and
anointed him king.
After that there was a bitter civil war between Saul’s
armies and David’s armies. 2 Samuel 3:1 tells us
“There was a long war between the house of Saul
and the house of David. And David grew stronger
and stronger, while the house of Saul became
weaker and weaker.”
The end of chapter 2 and chapters 3 and 4 describe a tale
of murder and deceit in a quest for power. It’s what
happens when people don’t follow God’s plan.
This morning we are going to skip to chapter 5 of Second
Samuel. We will be looking at the first 10 verses.
Here we are going to read about David getting anointed
as king over all Israel.
This is the third time David has been anointed king.
1 Samuel 16 when Samuel anoints him
2 Samuel 2:4 when he is anointed king of Judah
2 Samuel 5:3 he is anointed king of all Israel
2 Samuel 5:1-5
Ish-bosheth has been murdered, so those tribes have no
leader. It’s time for David to take over ruling all of Israel.
The waiting is over. It’s David’s time to be king.
Deuteronomy 17:14-20 describes the qualifications for
choosing a king. When you have time, you may want to
read it.
To summarize there are:
5 qualifications to choose a king
1. Divine Appointment
2. Nationality – not a foreigner
3. Limitations on Power, Women and Wealth
4. Devotion to the Law
5. Humility and Obedience
We know from our study in I Samuel that God had
chosen David to be the king of all Israel because he was
a man after God’s own heart. Also because Saul failed to
be obedient to God’s commands.
In these first 3 verses we see Israel acknowledging David
as their king. Watch the progression of events.
Israel Acknowledges David as King
The people of Israel declare their shared ancestry
with David.
“We are your bone and flesh” v.1
The people of Israel revisit David’s previous
leadership under Saul’s kingship.
“It was you who led out and brought in Israel”
The people remembered the Lord chose David to be
their shepherd and leader.
“The Lord said to you, ‘you shall be shepherd of my
people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel.
The word shepherd is a verb meaning to feed, to tend, to
be a shepherd.
When David was first anointed by Samuel he was a
young shepherd tending his father’s sheep.
David called God his shepherd in Psalm 23.
Jesus calls Himself the good shepherd in John 10.
Listen to how Jesus describes Himself:
The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by
name and leads them out.
He goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they
know his voice.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
I know my own and my own know me.
The point is that the elders recognize David as their king.
Notice how the elders came to David where he was at
Hebron to anoint him king. David didn’t take the
kingship, he waited for God’s perfect timing.
David cut a covenant with them in the presence of the
Lord.
When a covenant was made an animal was normally cut
in half and both parties would walk through the pieces of
the animal to signify, if i break this agreement what
happened to this animal will happen to me.
David is Anointed king of all Israel.
The word anoint meant to smear something on, to rub
with oil.
It was typically done for kings and priests before they
took office. It was a setting apart for sacred purposes.
The Scripture tells us that David was 30 years old when
he began to reign and he reigned for 40 years.
Someone once defined middle age as “a brief
period of time between being too young to do
something and being too old to want to.”
One thing we should remember is that God doesn’t care
about our age, He cares about our obedience.
God called Joash to be king at the tender age of 7 and he
ruled for 40 years.
God allowed Sarah to bear Isaac at the ripe age of 90.
We must get in the practice of hearing God’s voice and
then obeying it immediately.
2 Samuel 5:6-10
David Established Jerusalem as Capital of Israel
Jerusalem was not a city that was controlled by any of
the 12 tribes of Israel. It was partially conquered and
temporarily controlled by the Israelites under Joshua, but
it was now controlled by the Jebusites.
The Jebusites were descendants of Noah’s son Ham
through his son Canaan. God told the Israelites to
exterminate them in
Deuteronomy 7:1-2 “When the Lord your God brings you
into the land that you are entering to take
possession of it, and clears away many nations
before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the
Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the
Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more
numerous and mightier than you, and when the
Lord your God gives them over to you, and you
defeat them, then you must devote them to
complete destruction. You shall make no covenant
with them and show no mercy to them.”
When David arrives in Jerusalem the Jebusites taunt him
by telling him that he has no chance of conquering them.
They tell him that their blind and lame can keep him out.
They felt they were safe because three sides of the city
were guarded by deep valleys.
But David overtook the stronghold of Zion and called
it the city of David.
David used the Jebusites words against them when he
told his army how to attack them. He told them to get up
the water shaft to attack the lame and blind.
Let’s pause for a moment. I don’t want you to think
David has something against the disabled. We know that
for certain because of how he treats the son of Jonathan
who was lame by taking him into his house and treating
him like his own son.
You can read about this in 2 Samuel 9 where David
shows kindness to Mephibosheth.
Now, this water shaft is a little ambiguous, but it could be
that some of the men snuck up the water shaft, that
delivered water from the Gihon spring to the city of
Jerusalem, and took them by surprise.
Whatever happened God allowed David the victory and
he had already promised that Zion would be his dwelling.
Psalm 132:13 “For the Lord has chosen Zion; he
has desired it for his dwelling place;”
Zion originally referred to the hill between the Kidron and
Central valleys. This is where the temple would be built
by Solomon years later.
David lived in the Stronghold. This is just another
name for Jerusalem.
Finally, the Scripture says David became greater and
greater because the Lord was with him.
Church, we must remember that as Christians we have
the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, living
inside us.
Remember John’s words in
I John 4:4 “Little children , you are from God and
have overcome them, for he who is in you is
greater than he who is in the world.”
APPLICATION
Our application this morning is to remember this truth”
When God wants something to happen it will
happen.
The opposite is also true.
If God doesn’t want something to happen, it won’t
happen.
Saul disobeyed God and the consequence was that he
lost the kingdom and the Spirit departed from him.
David obeyed God and kept his commands and God
blessed him and made him greater and greater.
David also had to wait a decade from the time he was
anointed the first time by Samuel before he was allowed
to be king.
God’s timing is the only timing we should be concerned
with.
Obedience to His will should also be a high priority for
each of us.