II Samuel 8-9
Dear RTB’ers,
Today we see two sides of David’s life – his military prowess and his compassion. First, his military victories: And the LORD gave victory to David wherever he went. (v. 8:6b, repeated verbatim in 14b) In chapter 8 we see the height of David’s geographic power, to the north, with victories and garrisons in Damascus (II Samuel 8:6) and to the east as far as the Euphrates River, with garrisons in Edom (II Samuel 8:14). We also see David’s recognition of the Lord’s hand in all this and his thankfulness for all that the Lord has done for him: And Joram brought with him articles of silver, of gold, and of bronze. These also King David dedicated to the Lord, together with the silver and gold that he dedicated from all the nations he subdued… (vv. 10b-11) Recall that we read yesterday of David’s desire to build a “house” for the Lord. Today we see him stockpiling precious silver and gold to adorn that later temple that Solomon will build.
Second, David’s compassion, reflected in his treatment of Mephibosheth. And the king said, “Is there not still someone of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God to him?” And David said to him (Mephibosheth), “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.” (vv. 9:3a, 7) Notice that initially David asks to show kindness to the “house of Saul”, then later accents that kindness with reference to his love for Jonathan. We see here that David never had enmity toward Saul – it was Saul’s pursuit of David that had David as Saul’s enemy. We will see in later chapters that David remains faithful to his promise to Mephibosheth, in spite of twists and turns in Mephibosheth’s behavior toward David.
Blessings!