SERIES J --- THE WARRIOR KING --- LESSON 16

JERUSALEM TAKEN

DAVID MAKES JERUSALEM HIS CAPITAL

From 2 Samuel 5:6-12; 1 Chronicles 11:4-9

After David became king of all Israel, he wanted to find a capital city more suitable for everyone. His first choice was Jebus, which is now called Jerusalem. But the problem was that it was still occupied by the Jebusites, who were the original inhabitants. David gathered his army and marched northward to Jebus to attack the city. But the Jebusites only laughed at him, for the city had strong natural defences. ‘You’ll never get in here!’ they scoffed. ‘Our blind and lame people can defend this city.’ The people thought they were quite safe in their rocky fortress. When this insult reached David, he ordered his troops to attack. ‘Go up through the water tunnel and destroy those ‘lame and blind’ people, for I hate them,’ David ordered. ‘The first man to kill a Jebusite will become the commander of all my armed forces.’ Joab was the first man to kill a Jebusite, so he became the commander of David’s combined forces of Judah and Israel. The saying ‘the lame and the blind cannot get into the house’ came from this incident when the Jebusites scoffed at David and his men by saying they could defend their strong city with only the lame and the blind. David captured the fortress, which was sometimes called Zion and later called the City of David. He began a construction program in the city, from the old section known as Millo northward to the centre of Jerusalem. King Hiram of Tyre sent cedar logs from the forest of Lebanon, along with skilled carpenters and stone masons. With this help, David built a beautiful palace in his new capital city. As time passed David realized more and more that Adonai had chosen him as king of all Israel and had made his kingdom great for the sake of Israel, YHVH’s own people. David continued to become greater and more powerful, for YHVH was with him.

COMMENTARY

DAVID’S CONQUEST OF JERUSALEM

The city of Jerusalem lay between the southern and northern sections of Israel. This fortress city rested on crags so high its people boasted that their lame and blind could defend Jerusalem against any army. But David took the city by storm. Jerusalem was destined to become the political and worship centre of Israel. Although the Israelites had been in Canaan since the days of Joshua, almost four hundred years, they had never been successful in gaining control of Jerusalem. The city remained in the hands of the Jebusites, a Canaanite clan of mixed stock. Their settlement in what was then called Jebus formed a foreign block in the centre of Israelite territory. It divided the tribes in the south from those in the north. When David and his men marched on Jerusalem, they were met by a walled fortified city balanced on the hill of Ophel. The Jebusites, secure behind their defences, taunted him with insults. They boasted that even their blind and lame would be able to withstand his attack. Angered by their jeers, David searched for a weak spot in their defences, but the Jebusites were well-prepared to withstand a siege. They had dug an underground tunnel from inside the city walls to the Gihon Spring in the valley below. By climbing down a vertical shaft and wading through the horizontal tunnel that led to the spring, they were able to reach their water supply without exposing themselves to enemy attack. The tunnel was clever, but the Jebusites did not count on David’s daring. He proposed to take the city by entering through the underground shaft. Joab, David’s nephew, was the first to take up the challenge. He led the men through the tunnel in single file and emerged inside the city walls. Caught by surprise, the Jebusites could not defend themselves. The city fell to David and was renamed the [City of David] in honour of its conqueror.