Peace With Your Enemies

1 Chronicles 18: 1 – 17

Peace with your enemies

18 After this it came to pass that David attacked the Philistines, subdued them, and took Gath and its towns from the hand of the Philistines. 2 Then he defeated Moab, and the Moabites became David’s servants, and brought tribute. 3 And David defeated Hadadezer king of Zobah as far as Hamath, as he went to establish his power by the River Euphrates. 4 David took from him one thousand chariots, seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand-foot soldiers. Also, David hamstrung all the chariot horses, except that he spared enough of them for one hundred chariots. 5 When the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David killed twenty-two thousand of the Syrians. 6 Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus; and the Syrians became David’s servants, and brought tribute. So, the LORD preserved David wherever he went. 7 And David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem. 8 Also from Tibhath and from Chun, cities of Hadadezer, David brought a large amount of bronze, with which Solomon made the bronze Sea, the pillars, and the articles of bronze. 9 Now when Tou king of Hamath heard that David had defeated all the army of Hadadezer king of Zobah, 10 he sent Hadoram his son to King David, to greet him and bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezer and defeated him (for Hadadezer had been at war with Tou); and Hadoram brought with him all kinds of articles of gold, silver, and bronze. 11 King David also dedicated these to the LORD, along with the silver and gold that he had brought from all these nations—from Edom, from Moab, from the people of Ammon, from the Philistines, and from Amalek. 12 Moreover Abishai the son of Zeruiah killed eighteen thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt. 13 He also put garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became David’s servants. And the LORD preserved David wherever he went. 14 So David reigned over all Israel and administered judgment and justice to all his people. 15 Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder; 16 Zadok the son of Ahitub and Abimelech the son of Abiathar were the priests; Shavsha was the scribe; 17 Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and David’s sons were chief ministers at the king’s side.

One of my favorite verse in the bible is Proverbs 16: 7 which says, “When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”

You mean to say that if my ways please God, I will never have an enemy? That is how too many people view this proverb. But the proverb itself assumes that we will have enemies when we are walking with the Lord. Then what does this proverb mean - and how can we know when God has done this on our behalf.

This passage teaches us that when our ways are pleasing to God that God does some wonderful things in our lives. He takes those who are our enemies and makes them to be at peace with us. It does not mean that we don't have enemies, it means that they are at peace with us instead of warring or seeking to destroy us. They may still be our enemy, but they will choose peace rather than to be in open conflict with us.

If we desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, we will suffer persecution as we are taught in the book of 2 Timothy chapter 3. Our Lord Jesus faced enemies that desired and conspired to put Him to death. To say that God promises a carte blanche freedom from having enemies is to say that Jesus did not please the Father - and evidently His ways were not pleasing to God. Nothing could be further from the truth. God does not promise freedom from enemies - He promises that when we do have them - He will choose to even make our enemies to be at peace with us. Therefore, we should choose the wisdom of God's ways and walk in them. There is something desirable and is dependent on how we live. There is an honesty - a joy - a freedom - a peace that will make even our enemies not be concerned in making our lives miserable. When this happens, we can know that God in His grace has worked in our lives.

You will see throughout this chapter examples of how our Great God created peace for his servant David.

What follows comes immediately after the bringing of the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH into Jerusalem, and YHWH’s making of a covenant with David. This brings out that David’s successes, which will now be described, were due to the presence of the living God in Jerusalem, and to the covenant that YHWH had made with the house of David. In accordance with YHWH’s promise, David’s dynasty was being established, and God was subduing all his enemies. This would have been proof by the men of his day of the fact that God was with him.