Second Samuel

LeRoy Eims

This book is the record of the kingship of David. He reigned as king for forty years. "And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem." (I Kings 2:11)

The Bible records more of the details of the life of David than of any other person in the Old Testament. We see him first as a shepherd boy and after that we observe him as a musician, soldier, poet, and king. He was the youngest son in his family and it is interesting to note that it didn't occur to Jesse his father, to even consider him when the prophet Samuel came seeking the first king of the tribe of Judah, the royal tribe and the head of the Messianic family.

When Saul was rejected, the throne passed to a man after God's own heart. In Paul's sermon at Antioch, he refers to Saul and David and said, "And afterward they desired a king; and God gave unto them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, who shall fulfill all my will." (Acts 13:21,22). And then he adds, "Of this man's seed hath God, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus." (Acts 13:23).

Let us look first at David the soldier and king. In the whole range of Bible history there is no other such warrior. He fought and defeated the enemies of Israel, and made his nation the dominant power of western Asia. He had remarkable organizational and executive ability. He came to the throne at a time when the nation was in chaos, and through his leadership and influence the nation was solidified.

When we consider David the man, let us look at his personal traits and character: We cannot read this story without realizing that he was a brave and heroic ruler, but his character was dominated by kindness and generosity. In spite of the frailties, of his nature and personal weaknesses that came to their fullest expression in his sin with Bathsheba, David was a man of true holiness. In the deep yearnings of his soul we see a man of unwavering faith in God. He sank to depths of sin, but then he rose to even greater heights of true repentance with his desire for pardon purity and communion with God in the secret place of the Most High.

Through it all we are profoundly impressed by the straightforward honesty of the Scriptures in telling it like it is. It lays bare the sinful acts of its holiest saints. Through this we see the sinfulness of our own nature and the need for regeneration and sanctification by the power of God. Jesus was speaking to us all when He said, "Ye must be born again."

One of David's greatest acts was the taking of Jerusalem. "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King." (Psalm 48:1,2). Jerusalem was the center of the national life of Israel. Nothing could have been more effective in uniting the people than the capture of Jerusalem and making it the capital of the country.

Three great cities have remarkably affected the world. Athens brought forth that marvelous intellectual civilization which is seen in the aim of the Greeks to create the perfect man by mental process. If intellect could have saved the world, then Greece would have been the savior of mankind, but she failed to meet the moral and spiritual needs. Rome is representative of the will; the iron kingdom that brought forth the man of action. It dealt with the social side of man and perfected the areas of law and government. Jerusalem represents the moral and spiritual nature of man. Man was not last in the intellectual or social planes of development, but in the spiritual. Jerusalem brought us Calvary, the greatest self-revelation of God. There is no cross, no calvary, in Greece or Rome.