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SERIES J --- THE WARRIOR KING --- LESSON 17

DAVID’S EARLY WARS

WARS WITH THE PHILISTINES AND AMMONITES

From 2 Samuel 5:17-25; 8:1; 10; 11:1; 21:15-22; 1 Chronicles 14:8-17; 18:1; 19; 20:4-8

When the Philistines learned that David had been anointed king of all Israel, they gathered their forces to capture him. But David discovered what they were trying to do and went into the stronghold. In the meanwhile, the Philistines set up camp in the Valley of Rephaim. ‘Shall I go to battle against the Philistines?’ David asked Adonai. ‘Will you help me defeat them?’ ‘Go,’ Adonai answered. ‘I will help you defeat them.’ David went to battle against the Philistines at Baal-perazim and had a great victory over them there. ‘Adonai broke through these enemies like a torrent of water!’ David exclaimed. That was the way Baal-perazim got its name, which meant ‘The Place Broken Through.’ The Philistines fled from the place so quickly that they dropped their idols and left them behind. David gave orders that these idols should be gathered and burned. Once more the Philistines came to the valley of Rephaim and set up camp. David again asked Adonai if he should go after them. This time Adonai said that he should not go. ‘Do not attack them head on,’ Adonai told David. ‘Instead, go around behind them by that grove of balsam trees. When you hear a sound like marching in the tops of the balsam trees, attack, for Adonai will go before you to destroy the Philistines.’ David followed Adonai’s instructions exactly. This time he destroyed the Philistine forces from Geba to the point where one enters Gezer. Following this victory, David’s fame spread through all the surrounding lands, so that the other nations feared him. David had yet another victory over the Philistines. This time he conquered their largest city, Metheg-ammab or Gath. But later the Philistines came against Israel again. This time, in the heat of battle, David became exhausted. A Philistine giant Ishbi-benob, who had a new suit of armour and a spear with a twelve-pound tip, saw what had happened to David and he almost killed him. However, Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to David’s rescue and killed the giant. This close call alarmed David’s men. ‘You can’t come out with us to battle anymore,’ they said. ‘How can we risk having Israel’s hope and light killed in battle?’ In another battle with the Philistines at Gob, Sibbecai from Hushah killed another Philistine giant named Saph. In yet another battle Elhanan killed Goliath’s brother. His spear handle was as large as a weaver’s beam. In one battle at Gath a Philistine giant with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot appeared. When he challenged Israel, David’s nephew Jonathan, son of David’s brother Shimeah, killed him. This was the fourth giant from one clan at Gath and they were all killed either by David or by his men. One of Israel’s bloodiest wars began with an act of friendship. It happened when Nahash, king of the Ammonites, died and his son Hanun became king in his place. ‘Nahash was always very good to me,’ David thought. ‘I will show kindness to his son.’ David sent ambassadors to Hanun with messages of sympathy, but Hanun’s counsellors were suspicious. ‘Watch out!’ they warned the new king. ‘Don’t think that David has sent these men to bring you sympathy. They are spies who will tell David how to conquer the land.’ King Hanun listened to his counsellors and seized David’s ambassadors, chopped off their beards and cut holes in their robes so that their backs were exposed below the waist. Then he sent them back to King David humiliated and ashamed. When David heard about it, he sent word to these men to stay at Jericho until their beards grew and then to come back home to Jerusalem. By this time King Hanun realized how much he had insulted King David and his men. He sent two million dollars in silver to hire troops from Aram of Mesopotamia, Maacah and Zobah. It was enough to hire a vast army with thousands of chariots. This army assembled at Medeba and there the troops of Ammon joined them and prepared for battle. Altogether there were twenty thousand Syrians, one thousand men from Maacah and ten thousand from Tob. David sent Joab and the entire army of Israel to fight this great army of Syrians and Ammonites. Joab put his best soldiers under his personal command to fight the Syrians in the open fields, for they formed a separate battle front from that of the Ammonites. The rest of the army of Israel, under the command of Abishai, went to fight the Ammonites at the gates of Medeba. Joab and Abishai made plans to help each other. ‘If the Syrians become too much for us, you must come and help us,’ Joab told his brother Abishai. ‘If the Ammonites become too much for you, we will come and help you. Now let’s all be brave today and be strong like real men for the sake of our people and the cities of our YHVH. Then let YHVH do what He thinks is best.’ Joab and his forces attacked the Syrians so thoroughly that the Syrians retreated. When the Ammonites saw that, they ran from Abishai’s forces and hid in the city. Joab called off the battle and went back to Jerusalem. When the Syrians realized that they could not defeat Israel alone, they enlisted the help of more troops from the Arameans east of the Euphrates River, under the command of Shophach, general of King Hadadezer’s army. David soon learned of this and gathered his forces to meet them, heading them personally across the Jordan River into battle. The Syrians again retreated, but not before David had destroyed seven thousand charioteers and forty thousand infantry troops, as well as Shophach, commander of the combined army. King Hadadezer’s forces surrendered to David and became his subjects. After that, the Syrians never went to the aid of the Ammonites again. The following spring, the time of year when battles often begin, David sent Joab and his officers against the Ammonites. They laid siege to Rabbah, one of the important Ammonite cities. This time David did not go to battle, but remained behind in Jerusalem.

COMMENTARY

DAVID’S ENEMIES

As king, David led Israel in a series of wars with the bordering countries. These enemies, who had taken great sections of the Promised Land, were pushed back. David’s fame as a victorious commander grew. But the secret of David’s success was simple. He depended on Adonai. From the day of his coronation, David dreamed of completing Joshua’s conquest of Canaan, but he was faced with strong enemies on all sides. The Philistines were already marching on Hebron from the west, determined to remove him from the throne. They had backed David during Saul’s reign, but now they were preparing to do battle with their former ally. David had made himself king of Israel without their consent, an action the Philistine rulers interpreted as revolt against their authority. To the north, the Jebusites were solidly established in Jerusalem, blocking David’s attempts to unite the twelve tribes into a single nation. He was determined to conquer the city and remove the last pocket of Jebusite influence from the centre of Israelite territory. When David did capture Jerusalem and subdue the Philistines, he turned his attention to his enemies in the east. Trade routes that were vital to Israel’s economy ran through the land of Moab. Provoked by their raids on Israelite border towns, David defeated the Moabites and gained access to foreign trade via the [King’s Highway.] Next to feel David’s sword were the Ammonites and their Syrian allies. The conflict developed out of an Ammonite insult to the dignity of David’s throne. Although the king of Ammon called on his northern neighbours for support, their combined forces could not withstand David’s army. In the southeast, the Edomites formed the final threat to Israel’s security. By defeating Edom, David pushed his borders to their farthest limit and ensured their safety from the danger of outside enemies.

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