Just when life seems to be settling down, another conflict begins, another foe rears his head.
For some time, David had been consolidating his grip on the kingdom. From his introduction to the nation as their champion in his battle against Goliath, to his military interventions at places like Keilah, he had shown his prowess and care for the people of God. Recently he had shared the spoils of his battles in the south with “all the places where David himself and his men were accustomed to rove,” including the inhabitants of his new home, Hebron (see 1 Sam 30:26-31). Now he sends an embassage to Jabesh Gilead, telling the men, “You are blessed of the Lord, for you have shown this kindness to your lord, to Saul, and have buried him. And now may the Lord show kindness and truth to you. I also will repay you this kindness, because you have done this thing. Now therefore, let your hands be strengthened, and be valiant; for your master Saul is dead, and also the house of Judah has anointed me king over them” (2 Sam 2:5-7). With such diplomacy, David was hoping to unify the whole nation under his rule. But that would be some time in coming. Why? Because “Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul’s army, took Ishbosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim; and he made him king…over all Israel” (vv 8-9). In 1 Samuel 14:50, we learned that Abner was Saul’s cousin. Instead of submitting to the man he knew to be God’s choice for king (see 2 Sam 3:9-10), and after David had been ruling as king for five years, Abner took 40-year-old Ishbosheth and set him up in opposition to God’s king. How this lines up with the words of Paul to believers in his day and in ours, “exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God’” (Acts 14:22). Fight on, saints!