THE THIRD ANOINTING OF DAVID: KING OVER ALL ISRAEL.
2 Samuel 5:1-5, 2 Samuel 5:9-10.
After the LORD had rejected Saul from being king (cf. 1 Samuel 15:23), the LORD sent Samuel to anoint David (cf. 1 Samuel 16:1). The LORD had sought Him ‘a man after His own heart’ (cf. 1 Samuel 13:14), and found him in ‘David, the son of Jesse’ (cf. Acts 13:22). And the Spirit of the LORD who had ‘departed from Saul’ (cf. 1 Samuel 16:14), came upon David ‘from that day forward’ (cf. 1 Samuel 16:13). This was David’s first anointing, while Saul was still King, and before David had killed Goliath.
After the death of Saul, David asked the LORD whether he should go up into any of the cities of Judah, and the LORD instructed Him to go up into Hebron (cf. 2 Samuel 2:1). There the men of Judah came and anointed David king over the house of Judah (cf. 2 Samuel 2:4). This was David’s second anointing and, with Hebron as his capital city, David reigned over the tribe of Judah for seven and a half years (cf. 2 SAMUEL 5:5a).
After this second anointing, ‘there was long war between the house of Saul, and the house of David.’ David became ‘stronger and stronger,’ whilst the house of Saul became ‘weaker and weaker’ (cf. 2 Samuel 3:1). Until, at last, “All the tribes of Israel” came to David at Hebron with a view to making him king over all Israel (2 SAMUEL 5:1a).
Moses had anticipated that one day Israel would want to set a king over them, and laid down certain strict guidelines (cf. Deuteronomy 17:14-15). The “elders of Israel” (2 SAMUEL 5:3a) seem to have had these in view when they made their approach to David.
The first argument which the representatives of “all the tribes of Israel” brought to David at Hebron was one of kinship: “we are thy bone and thy flesh” (2 SAMUEL 5:1b). This is in keeping with Deuteronomy 17:15b - ‘one from among thy brethren.’ (Incidentally, the LORD used similar language in Deuteronomy 18:18 when he spoke to Moses of the Prophet to come: ‘from among their brethren, like unto thee.’
The second argument was practical: “in time past, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led out and brought in Israel” (2 SAMUEL 5:2a). This is substantiated in 1 Samuel 18:16 – ‘all Israel and Judah loved David because he went out and came in before them.’ It was, in effect, as if David was already king, even while Saul was still alive. After all, David was doing the job that the people had expected a king to perform: ‘to go out before us, and fight our battles’ (cf. 1 Samuel 8:20).
The third argument is the strongest: the king was to be of the LORD’s choosing (cf. Deuteronomy 17:15a). “The LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed (shepherd) my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain (ruler) over them” (2 SAMUEL 5:2b).
Moses had been a shepherd in the wilderness before the LORD called him to lead the people of Israel out of captivity and towards the promised land. David was a shepherd boy before ever he was a giant killer, and ultimately became the first ‘shepherd-king’ of Israel. This was the template which his successors were supposed to follow, but against which they so often failed.
Ultimately, it is the LORD Himself who is the ‘Shepherd of Israel’ (cf. Psalm 80:1; Psalm 78:52). ‘The LORD is my shepherd,’ David had sung (cf. Psalm 23:1). And Jesus is ‘the Good Shepherd’ who ‘giveth His life for the sheep’ (cf. John 10:11).
Jesus told Peter to ‘feed my lambs,’ ‘shepherd my sheep,’ and ‘feed my sheep’ (cf. John 21:15-17). In like manner, Peter exhorted his fellow-elders to (literally) ‘shepherd’ the flock of God which is among you (cf. 1 Peter 5:2).
It is interesting that it does not say here that the elders made a covenant with David, but rather that David made a covenant with the elders (2 SAMUEL 5:3). This is not democracy, but was all done “before the LORD” – which may have involved promises and sacrifices. The response of the elders was to anoint David as king over all Israel. This was David's third anointing.
2 SAMUEL 5:4-5 recounts the length of David’s overall reign. In 2 Samuel 5:6-8 we read of the capture of Jerusalem, a hitherto Jebusite city within Benjamin’s tribal territory. Here King David took up his residence, calling it “the city of David” (2 SAMUEL 5:9), and this rapidly became the capital of all Israel.
“David went on, and grew great,” but only because “the LORD God of hosts was with him” (2 SAMUEL 5:10). The dynasty would continue on, with all its ups and downs, until at last one of David’s line would be “born King” in Bethlehem (cf. Matthew 2:1-2), and named ‘Jesus’ (cf. Matthew 1:25). The New Testament opens with the genealogy of Jesus, and begins, ‘The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, THE SON OF DAVID, the son of Abraham’ (cf. Matthew 1:1).
Jesus is ‘that great shepherd of the sheep.’ Let us read Hebrews 13:20-21.
