King David Achieves Victory Over Five Surrounding Nations Series

God has brought David from shepherding sheep as a boy, to shepherding a nation, as king of Israel. He’s spoken to David through the prophet, promising to be with him. David answered with praise, saying, "Who am I that you should do such great things for me?"

But a problem remains, the nation of Israel remains surrounded by enemy kingdoms. To the west are the Philistines. To the south is Edom. To the east you have Ammon, Moab, and the Arameans.

That is a lot of enemy nations to deal with. But God has blessed Israel, and has given the Jews this land to call their own. So now David must fight against these enemy nations that constantly attack and raid their lands. King Saul had often fought with these nations, particularly the Philistines, but did not succeed in defeating them. In fact, Saul eventually died in battle with the Philistines.

In 2nd Samuel chapter eight we see a grand campaign in which David conquers these nations one by one.

This reminds me of what it means to be a new Christian.

Do you remember when you first became a Christian? I do. It was about 11 years ago. I found myself a new person, but in the midst of a wasteland of my own making, there was much destruction surrounding me. There was post-traumatic stress, there were dark memories, there were sins that I still needed to be freed from. There were broken relationships with family members.

It seemed almost post-apocalyptic in nature.

And immediately after I became a Christian the battle began. The war began. It was time to go from battle to battle, repenting of past sins, quitting smoking, finding recovery, reconciling with parents and grandparents, paying off piled up debts, finishing my education, finding work, overcoming lust and lying and stealing and other issues that I faced.

But, with God with me, with the Spirit living within me, with Jesus Christ as my savior, the battles could all be won. And we see David as well, going from victory to hard fought victory.

It says in 2nd Samuel 8: "In the course of time, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them, and he took Metheg Ammah from the control of the Philistines."

That name “metheg ammah” has puzzled biblical scholars. But the believed meaning is “bridge of the mother city” which is a reference to Gath. If you recall Goliath was born in Gath. And Gath was believed to be the main capital city of the Philistines. So in essence, David conquered the capital city of the Philistines. That's total conquest.

Similarly, in our own lives, if we work on an issue in our lives, smoking, drinking, stealing, lying, manipulating, selfishness, masturbation, whatever it might be, it’s not enough to make some progress. Maybe drink a bit less, smoke a bit less, lie a little less. That’s not gonna deal with the problem. You’ve gotta go right to the root of the issue, and destroy it for good. Destroy it to the point that it never happens again. End of story. Total repentance. David took the capital, Gath, and had total victory.

Next David defeats the Moabites, a nation to the east of Israel, on the other side of the dead sea. Ruth, the mother of David’s grandfather was originally a Moabite, but left Moab to become part of an Israelite family. Despite this, Moab made constant war against Israel. And David intended to defeat them.

In verse 2 it says, “David also defeated the Moabites. He made them lie down on the ground and measured them off with a length of cord. Every two lengths of them were put to death, and the third length was allowed to live. So the Moabites became subject to David and brought him tribute.”

This was seen hundreds of years earlier by Balaam, who noted that a great leader would defeat Moab (Numbers 24:17).

There was also a great kingdom, Zobah, who seems to have controlled an area north of Israel during this time in history. David fought and defeated Hadadezer the king of Zobah as well.

It says in verses 3-4: “Moreover, David defeated Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah, when he went to restore his monument at the Euphrates River. David captured a thousand of his chariots, seven thousand charioteers and twenty thousand foot soldiers. He hamstrung all but a hundred of the chariot horses.”

But Zobah had allies, the Arameans of Damascus. And they counter attacked to help protect Zobah. But they too were defeated.

It says in verses 5-6: "When the Arameans of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David struck down twenty-two thousand of them. 6 He put garrisons in the Aramean kingdom of Damascus, and the Arameans became subject to him and brought tribute. The Lord gave David victory wherever he went.”