Three days had elapsed since the battle of Gilboa, which had ended the reign and life of Saul. The Philistines now occupied the northern half of Israel and the people had no king and no military deliverer. David, newly returned from Ziklag from one of his forays into Amalekite territory, was still in ignorance of the turn of events. All that he knew was that his friend Achish, the Philistine chieftain of Gath, had gone with his men to join the Philistine forces at war with Saul, and had not yet returned. The relationship between the tribes of Judah and Simeon in the south where David was located, and the northern tribes acknowledging Saul, was so tenuous that those in the south neither knew nor cared what happened in the north. The Philistines were not interested in the barren mountains of the south; their goal was the rich pasture territory of the north and so Judah was relatively unaffected by the war.

On the third day a stranger appeared in Ziklag, clothes rent and travel-stained, bearing every evidence of exhaustion and distress. He was brought to David and asked about his mission and whence he had come. "I have escaped from the Israelite camp" he replied, and instantly David's interest was aroused. "What happened? Tell me" was his quick rejoinder. Thus it was that David heard the dread news of the defeat and decimation of the armies of Israel, the flight of the inhabitants and occupation of the land by the invading Philistines and the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. That must have been a severe blow to David. Jonathan, the one he loved as a brother, the one who had been so faithful a friend during all the changing circumstances his life with Saul; who had so willingly renounced his own claim to the throne in favour of his friend David; Jonathan was dead. Who can doubt that in the anguish of that news, David the resolute and hardened warrior, turned his face away from his fellows that they might not see his grief.

The moment passed. "How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead" he demanded of the man before him. The truth of the news must be checked. In return he received a circumstantial account of how the young man had "happened by chance" upon Mount Gilboa and came upon Saul wounded to death, and upon Saul's request, administered a final stroke to end his life. As evidence of the truth of his story he produced the 'crown' and 'bracelets', more properly a kind of chaplet, worn round the head, and an arm-band denoting Saul's kingship. These he had taken from Saul's body and had brought to David, thinking thus to curry favour with the man whom he knew would now become king of Israel.

He had mistaken his man. David had consistently refused to lift up his own hand against the Lord's anointed, waiting the Lord's own time for removing Saul from the scene. He was certainly not going to endorse what this young man claimed to have done. More, he was going to show his disapproval in the sight of all his followers in the most drastic fashion. Because he had not scrupled to lift up his hand against the Lord's anointed, he should die. David gave the command and the sentence was executed forthwith.

The genuine, original Book of Jasher mentioned in v.18 no longer exists. David's lament over the death of Saul and Jonathan, recorded in 2 Sam.1, is a masterpiece of heroic poetry. How much of it was a genuine expression of David's own feelings and how much he intended to win over Saul's erstwhile adherents, is rather difficult to say. Some of the sentiments expressed, if genuinely felt, were more than kind to Saul. To say that (v.23) "Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided", by no means reflects the animosity Saul displayed towards his eldest son. It is also very doubtful if Saul really did treat his people so generously as v.24 would imply. Perhaps the fairest appraisal of this eulogy is that David, in the generosity of his heart closed his eyes to the many faults of Saul and the manner in which he had persecuted David, and extolled his good points. The man was dead now, and in the hands of the Lord and David was not going to bear him any grudge.

Now it was time for action and there could be no further fraternising with Philistines at Ziklag. The king of Israel was dead and many would be waiting and expecting David to make a move to take the crown. Various references in the books of Samuel and Chronicles suggest that many in the northern tribes were secretly in sympathy with David though appearing to remain loyal to Saul. Some had joined David's band during his time in the wilderness. Now was the time to move. But that was not to go unchallenged. Saul was survived by his son Ish-bosheth or Ish-bael meaning man of Baal showing Saul's apostasy. Saul's cousin Abner, an astute commander of the army, took Ish-bosheth to Mahanaim, a town on east side of Jordan, where he was out of reach of both David and the Philistines, and proclaimed him king over Israel in succession to his father. Ishbosheth was a weakling, mentally and physically and Abner was the power behind the throne. The northern tribes accepted him and he began to exercise a shadow of royal power, whilst David in the south actively prepared to win the allegiance of all Israel.

David selected a capital from which to rule. Jerusalem was still held by the Canaanite tribe, the Jebusites. David enquired of the Lord through Abiathar who had been with him in the wilderness and had been High Priest since Saul annihilated the priesthood some seven years before. David was directed to go to Hebron. So there he went with two wives and six hundred warriors to establish himself. To Hebron came all the responsible men of Judah to pledge their loyalty to David as king.

There were now two kings in Israel, David in the south recognised by Judah and Simeon and Ish-bosheth in the east recognised by the other ten tribes. David made the first move by sending messengers to the men of Jabesh-Gilead, notoriously fierce fighters, to praise them for penetrating Philistine territory to recover the bodies of Saul and his sons. They had given honourable burial and David commended them and promised to hold them in high honour because of their loyalty. He then indicated that the men of Judah had proclaimed him king and left it for them to infer that they would now render him allegiance as they had once given to Saul. David wanted such men on his side.

Meanwhile Abner was not idle and he crossed Jordan with a force, mainly from Saul's tribe of Benjamin and met David's fighters under his nephew Joab. It was at Gibeon in 'enemy territory' for Joab. At Abner's suggestion there was a preliminary skirmish between twelve from each side but this gentlemanly arrangement was frustrated by the fact that all twenty-four were killed. The issue was then settled by the more traditional method; "there was a very sore battle that day". Abner's men were beaten and put to flight. The victory was marred by the untimely death of Asahel, Joab younger brother at the hands of Abner. Political maneouvring led to David being installed as King over all Israel but he remained at Hebron for seven and a half years. The war with the northern tribes dragged on with David slowly gaining the ascendancy. "the war between the house of Saul and the house of David was long drawn out, David growing steadily stronger while the house of Saul became weaker" (2 Sam.3.1 REB). David found time during the intervals between battles to take four more wives and by the end of this period had become the father of six sons.

The transformation from a guileless shepherd boy to an Eastern autocrat was well under way. Later he was to add ten concubines and a few more wives to his harem. The Lord's prediction to Samuel when Israel first wanted a king proved true in David's life as well as Saul's and most of the kings who followed later.

A disruption arose in the house of Saul. Abner and Ish-bosheth quarrelled about one of Saul's concubines. Abner was indignant and declared his intention of transferring allegiance to David. As an astute politician he must have realised that the cause of Saul was doomed and he welcomed the opportunity to change to the winning side while there was yet time. He went south with the offer to transfer the northern kingdom to David's sovereignty, so that he would rule from "Dan to Beer-sheba". He took the precaution of consulting the elders of the northern tribes, reminding them that they had expressed the wish for David to become king and that God had promised to save Israel from the Philistines and all their enemies by his hand. (2 Sam.3.17-18). The Philistines still occupied the northern tribes and Abner's arguments would carry considerable weight. Added to this Abner had the backing of Saul's own tribe, Benjamin, and the package he took to David would be hard to resist. David would be glad to have such a man on his own side, checking the pressure of his nephews, Joab and Abishai. So David arranged a conference and a feast with Abner at Hebron, at a convenient time when Joab was away with the fighting forces, at which a mutually satisfactory agreement was signed, sealed and settled. David was learning the arts of politics. As proof of good faith, Abner was to bring to Hebron David's wife Michal, Saul's daughter, who he was compelled to leave behind six years earlier. What Michal had to say when she found that her husband had acquired six other wives and six sons the writer of 2 Samuel did not think necessary to record.

David's complacency did not last. Joab returned to Hebron and bitterly reproached David for accepting Abner as an ally. "You know Abner, the son of Ner, that he came to deceive you, and to know all that you do" (3.25). He knew that the advent of Abner posed a threat to his own position as David's chief man and he was not going to tolerate that. Moreover, he had a personal grudge against Abner for killing his brother Asahel and sought revenge. He left David, probably in a towering rage and sent messengers after Abner to recall him to Hebron. Joab met Abner, took him aside for quiet conversation and assassinated him on the spot.

The act was a serious breach of hospitality. While at Hebron, Abner was accorded the rigid code of the East under David's protection. In ordinary circumstances the assassin would have been immediately put to death but Joab was David's own nephew. He could do nothing about it. Any advantage David obtained from Abner was now lost. Yet there was no one in the north who counted for anything and David would expect to suppress any further resistance.

He contented himself with making it plain that he was nothing to do with Abner's death and that he condemned the act. The deceased politician was given a state funeral with King David as chief mourner and in a speech at the time said "there is a great prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel". There could be more than a suspicion that David was trying to obtain the good graces of Abner's people so soon to be his own subjects.

The news of Abner's death created consternation in Mahanaim. Both king and people knew that their only champion was gone and they were now entirely at the mercy of David. Ishbosheth had virtually given up the contest (4.1) and waited for the outcome. Inevitably there were two more commanders who concluded it was time to change sides. Baanah and Rechab, men of the tribe of Benjamin, used their privilege of access to go to the house of Ish-bosheth during his mid-day siesta and callously assassinated him, cutting of his head, escaping unseen, and making their way to Hebron and to David. They came gloating into his presence. "Here is the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life. The Lord has avenged your majesty today on Saul and on his family" (4.8 REB).

David was outraged. He rose from his seat in anger. "As the Lord lives, who has delivered me from all my troubles… wicked men have killed an innocent man on his bed in his own house! aml I not to take vengeance on you now for the blood you have shed, and rid the earth of you?" So Banaah and Recheb suffered death for their crime, and their bodies were hung up and publicly displayed in Hebron.

It is easy to dismiss these successive acts of David as mere diplomacy aimed at securing the favour of the men of Israel who formerly supported Saul but it is much more likely that there was genuine magnanimity here on the king's part. He had no real need to court the favour of Israel; he was superior in military force and he knew it, and they knew it. His undisputed acceptance as king by all Israel was now only a matter of time. His past history of sparing Saul's life when he could quite easily have slain him and thus secure the kingship, preferring to wait until the Lord should give it to him, is on a par with his generosity to the survivors of Saul's house and his supporters. David bore no resentment towards his fallen foes and he had no fear of any future danger from them, and that was because he possessed a fixed faith that because God had promised he should have the kingdom there was no power on earth that could frustrate that design. He was prepared to wait.

He had waited from about sixteen years old when anointed by Samuel as the Lord's choice. He was nineteen when he slew Goliath and first attracted the notice of Saul. He was now thirty-seven and had reigned as king over two tribes for some seven years. The true fulfilment of the promise, that he should reign over all Israel on the throne of the Lord, was about to be realised. With the deaths of Abner and Ish-bosheth there were no other claimants to the throne and no other leader able to challenge the Philistines, who still held the greater part of the country in thrall. By common consent, all the tribes sent their representatives to Hebron to invite David to be their king, and all the elders made a solemn covenant "before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel".

(To be continued)

AOH