After Ish-bosheth’s death every tribe comes to Hebron: “we are thy bone and thy flesh.” David is thirty; he has been anointed twice already — once in secret by Samuel, once by Judah — and now a third time, by all Israel. He takes the fortress the Jebusites called impregnable and makes it his capital. Twice the Philistines come up to finish him, and twice he asks God first. David went on, and grew great, and the LORD God of hosts was with him.
A study in 2 Samuel 5 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 8 min read
We Are Thy Bone And Thy Flesh
“Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh… So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the LORD: and they anointed David king over Israel.”
2 Samuel 5:1-3
It has been roughly fifteen years since Samuel poured the oil in Bethlehem — years of caves, of Saul’s spear, of exile among the Philistines, of civil war. David never once forced the timetable; twice he had Saul at his mercy and let him walk away. Now the crown comes to him because the people bring it — “through the providence of God,” as Ellen White puts it — not because he seized it.
“Thus through the providence of God the way had been opened for him to come to the throne. He had no personal ambition to gratify, for he had not sought the honor to which he had been brought.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 701
The Strong Hold Of Zion
“And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither. Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David.”
2 Samuel 5:6-7
Jebus had stood unconquered since before Joshua; its people jeered from the walls that blind men and cripples could hold it against David. He takes it anyway, and it becomes “the city of David” — central, defensible, sitting on the border between Judah and Benjamin so that no tribe is slighted. Abraham had met Melchizedek near here; it will hold the temple, and give its name to the city that runs through the rest of Scripture to the last chapter of Revelation.
The LORD Had Established Him King
“And David went on, and grew great, and the LORD God of hosts was with him… And David perceived that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel’s sake.”
2 Samuel 5:10-12
Two things David sees clearly at the height of his rise. First, the greatness is not self-made — “the LORD God of hosts was with him.” Second, the kingdom is not for him — it was exalted “for his people Israel’s sake.” A king who keeps hold of both of those keeps his footing. The trouble, a few chapters on, begins precisely when he lets go of them one spring evening on a roof.
Shall I Go Up To The Philistines
“And David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the LORD said unto David, Go up: for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand… Thou shalt not go up; but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the LORD go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines.”
2 Samuel 5:19-24
The Philistines come up twice, and both times David asks before he moves. The first answer is “go up”; the second, for an almost identical situation, is “do not — circle around, and wait for the sound in the treetops.” Same enemy, different orders. Ellen White’s comment is the whole point: “If David, like Saul, had chosen his own way, success would not have attended him.” He had watched a king lose everything by acting without asking. He asks.
“If David, like Saul, had chosen his own way, success would not have attended him. But he did as the Lord had commanded, and he ‘smote the host of the Philistines from Gibeon even to Gazer.’”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 704
