Subtleties in the Story: 2 Samuel 5:1-5
God desires to use His followers to call people into relationship with Him. He may not always make His plan clear from the start. He may take His time developing His agenda. Whether we can feel it or not, God does have a plan to use His people.
With Ish-bosheth murdered, almost nobody remained to block David’s claim for leadership of the Hebrew people. Only Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth, remained alive, but Mephibosheth was a cripple and it was unlikely the people would look to him for leadership. David’s path was clear.
The elders of the other eleven tribes came to David instead of having David come to them and proclaim him king over their land. This is a subtle, but significant, detail. The rest of the Hebrew people joined David in his kingdom. Rather than giving David rule over their space, they submitted to David and joined him.
This is a significant point because of the relationship the people had with God. While Saul was king, God was honored publicly. However, there was always a sense that God was not the chief deity honored within the home. Saul’s daughter, and probably Saul’s whole family, worshipped Canaanite gods. Saul named one of his sons after a Canaanite god. Under Saul’s leadership, the kingdom acknowledged God on the surface but didn’t necessarily worship where it counted in the heart and the home. The people gave lip service to God, but they didn’t necessarily walk with relationally God.
David, on the other hand, walked with God in public and in his heart. He was as sinful as the rest of us, but his relationship with God was as sincere within his heart as it was in public. He waited upon the Lord before acting. He followed God’s tenets rather than living up to the expectations of mankind. He spared the life of Saul twice, even though Saul would not have done the same for him. When the time for honor and glory came, David reminded the people his success only came because God made it possible.
When the elders come to join David at Hebron, the implication is they are the ones who need to submit to change. David wouldn’t let them remain as they were; they needed to come under David’s influence. This gives David the precedent he needed to call the people back in line with God. This gives him the precedent of telling the people to cast away their worship of Ba’al and Asherah. This sets up the right for all of David’s descendants to call the people back to genuine worship of God.
David was called by God to lead the people in righteousness. His heart chased after the things of God, albeit imperfectly. After patiently waiting almost twenty years, David stepped into the fulfillment of God’s plan for him. God desires to use His followers to call people into relationship with Him.
