Useful Bible Studies > 2 Samuel Commentary > chapter 5
Saul was the first king of Israel, and he was the people’s choice to be king. God selected for them the kind of king that they demanded: a powerful, fierce man to lead them against their enemies. They were not willing to wait for God to choose the right king for them (1 Samuel chapter 8).
David was a very different kind of leader, who truly cared about people. Although he had to fight many wars, his desire was to bring peace. Unlike Saul, David was not afraid to confess his wrong deeds (12:13), or to speak about his own weakness (3:39), He truly loved God, and his greatest desire was to please God (1 Kings 9:4). This, then, was the man whom God chose to be king.
God chose David, when David was still a youth, in 1 Samuel 16:1-13. David had to wait for very many years before the people were ready to accept him as their king. When they were finally ready to appoint him, they did so with great joy. Soldiers from every part of Israel gathered in Hebron. The largest groups came from the most distant parts of Israel.
Usually, the army only came together like that for war, when it became necessary to fight an important battle. On this occasion however, they came not for war, but to join in the joyful ceremony (1 Chronicles 12:23-40).
Jacob had 12 sons, and their families became the 12 tribes (or family groups) in Israel. Those tribes had often quarrelled and sometimes fought each other in the past. David belonged to the tribe of Judah, which had been a separate nation for the last 7 years. However, now all 12 tribes came together to appoint David to be their king. They all declared that he was their relative. They all wanted him to be their king.
Next part: David, the king that God chose (2 Samuel 5:2)
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© 2023, Keith Simons.