_Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake saying, Behold we are thy bone and thy flesh._ DAVID KING OVER ALL ISRAEL It was probably very soon after the death of Ishbosheth that this visit of the tribes of Israel to Hebron occurred. Now, in this request the elders urged th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel._ DIVINE APPOINTMENT AND MAN’S DOING There are both sides of the great division in evangelical theology--Arminianism and Calvinism: man’s doing, and God’s planning. The Lord said that David should lead Israel; and David did lead Israel. And th... [ Continue Reading ]
_And King David made a league with them._ MAKING A LEAGUE For one born into the family, no formal covenant is necessary, in order to bind to his support all who are of the same blood with himself. But when one is taken in from outside, to be closer than a brother, or when a number of persons who ar... [ Continue Reading ]
_In Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years._ JERUSALEM, THE HOLY CITY It was highly desirable that the capital should be accessible to the whole country, and should possess the necessary features that rendered it fit to become the heart and brain of the national life. It must be capable of bei... [ Continue Reading ]
_Except thou take away the blind._ SECURITY NOT SAFETY A graphic picture of the haughty security of the Jebusites and of their consequent weakness is given in Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine. The late Dean wrote: “When David appeared under the walls of Jebus the ‘old inhabitants of the land,’ the la... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whosoever getteth up to the gutter._ THE ASSAULT UPON ZION “Some far-seeing Hittite or Amorite had designed from the inside of the city that a subterraneous passage should be cut through the rock to the spring below, so that in troublous times when the daughters of Zion could no longer venture out... [ Continue Reading ]
_David went on, and grew great, and the Lord God of Hosts was with him._ GREATNESS BY GENTLENESS “Thy gentleness bath made me great.” So wrote David when he rehearsed the history that had culminated in his advancement to the throne of all Israel. He admits, therefore, that he was a “made” man, but... [ Continue Reading ]
_And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David._ THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED 1. Now the tide fairly turned in David’s history, and that, instead of a sad chronicle of hardship and disappointment, the record of his reign becomes one of unmingled success and prosperity. The fact is far from an unusua... [ Continue Reading ]
_When thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself._ THE SPECIAL MEANING OF COMMON THINGS What a different world this would be if we believed that God governed it--that He was in it--that He was at work in it--that His footsteps were still... [ Continue Reading ]
_And David did so._ MARCHING ORDERS Each day read your chapter or passage with the idea that you are receiving your marching orders; that there is some new service to render, some new duty to perform, some new virtue to acquire. Let the attitude of your soul be indicated by Samuel’s words, “Speak,... [ Continue Reading ]