Jerusalem+and+King+David

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=Introduction =

2 Samuel 5 talks about David and his first act as the king of Israel which is to go and conquer the city of Jerusalem. There are many reasons for the importance of David’s decision to move his capital from Hebron to Jerusalem: obeying the Lord’s law, to unify the nation of Israel, it shows David’s military strength, which is God, and the history of Jerusalem makes this conquest by David theologically rich and compelling.

=Theological Implications to Jerusalem =

God is all knowing and He had a purpose for Jerusalem and the placement of the city is in creditable because Scripture says, “Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.”(Ezekiel 5:5). So “geographically and theologically it is located “in the center of the nations.”[1] Jerusalem is a place of Israel’s past, Abraham, Israel’s present, King David unifying the nation for the first time by making Jerusalem its capital and Israel’s future with Christ’s Second Coming.  A theological insight about David and the conquest of Jerusalem is that God set standards for His kings and there was a king’s law to follow. Since the king was under the KING he was responsible to carry out what the Lord had degreed in Deuteronomy 17:14-20, “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,” you may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as a king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. Only he must not acquire horses for himself...And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law…” God set up expectations for Israel’s king and they were to be followed and obeyed because God was the true KING and the earthly king is under submission to the true KING. God choose Jerusalem to be the place for worship so David’s eagerness to take the city right after he is officially crowned king of all of Israel shows that David wants to obey the Lord and His decrees.

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 Jerusalem is not a random city that David picked to make his capital but according to Scripture God choose a city to be the place of worship (1 Kings 14:21). Before 1 Kings was written the book of Deuteronomy contains a hint about Jerusalem being God’s chosen place, “…then to the place that the Lord your God will choose to make His name dwell there, there you shall bring burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes…” The sovereignty of God is written all over this because Jerusalem is the place where Israel will bring their sacrifices and where they will worship the LORD. Jerusalem became and will be the center of worship for Yahweh and the city will become a symbol for Israel’s place of worship. David needed to conquer Jerusalem to bring the nation back together and to unify Israel since Jerusalem laid on the border of Benjamin and Judah, the tribes who are not unified. “…maintaining it (Hebron) as the capital of all Israel would have implied a governmental bias for Judah that would have alienated the other tribes from their king and made a truly united nation much more difficult to achieve.”[2] To conquer Jerusalem was not only helping David unify all the tribes it to show David’s military strength and Joshua’s weakness. Joshua failed when he did not wipe out the foreigners and instead allow them co-exist with Israel so David’s attack and victory gave Israel confidence in their new King because the true KING was behind David. “By David making his first recorded act as Israel’s king that of fulfilling the long-neglected Torah command to dispossess the Jebusites and of reinitiating the crusade to eradicate them from the land(Ex 23:23-24; Deut. 7:1-2; 20:17), he was demonstrating his continuity with Moses and establishing himself as king devoted to the Lord’s demands (Deut. 17:19)”[3] Part of the reason for the kings law stated in Deuteronomy in because God did not want the king to become dependent on human resources rather than trusting in God alone.[1]===== = Background of Jerusalem =

Before God brought Israel out of Egypt, God promised Abraham a nation and to make his name great. But then God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, so Abraham went to Mount Moriah, but God stopped him and provided a ram in his place. This Mount by tradition is the same mount where Jerusalem is located and where the Temple will be built. Also, in Abraham’s time it was the city Salem where Melchizedek [5] ruled and Psalm 76:2 refers to Jerusalem as Salem, “His abode has been established in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion.”  All of this happened way before God formed the nation of Israel and yet God’s sovereignty was a part of it. Then years and years later God brought Israel out of Egypt and instead of praising the Lord the people complained of being out in the wilderness and wanted to back to Egypt. As the nation headed to the Promised Land border, Joshua sent out 12 spies to look over the land and when they came back and reported to Moses ten out of the twelve discouraged the conquest of the land while only Joshua and Caleb trusted the Lord to give them the land. So part of the punishment of staying in the wilderness for 40 years came because of the ten spies lack of confidence in Yahweh. So after 40 years Joshua led the nation of Israel into the Promised Land, which God promised to Abraham. But Joshua failed to conquer Jerusalem and kick the Jebusites, the Canaanite people who were suppose to be kicked out. So for many years Israel co-existed with foreigners, and according to Israel’s history they were supposed to be separate to show the world the true God, Yahweh. The tribe of Benjamin and Judah were given land near Jerusalem when Joshua gave out land for each tribe after the Conquest. But even after David conquers Jerusalem and calls it the city of David, he didn’t finish the job because at the end of 2 Samuel God tells David to purchase the threshing floor of Araunah, which is part of Jerusalem ( 2 Samuel 24:21).

=David as King and the Conquest of the Jerusalem =

Also, David was king over only Judah for seven years before the tribes of Israel surrendered and wanted him their king as well. Since the Philistines defeated and killed Saul, David only reigned Judah. Then David was in Hebron when the elders of Israel came to David and asked him to be their king. So after they anointed him king over Judah and Israel then he went up to Jerusalem to conquer it in order to make it his capital. A reason why David at first only reigned Judah was because Saul’s son Ishbosheth took his father’s place on the throne and tried to rule the 10 tribes of Israel, but his own men killed him and thought their act would bring praise from David, but their action gave David more leverage to claim loyalty to David. Jerusalem is a central location for his capital for it is on the border of Judah and Benjamin and the fact that it is on a hill. It is an advantage of being on a hill and surrounded by three valleys because it is easy to defend against the enemy and a well fortified city. So having Jerusalem become the capital was very smart of David and God’s sovereignty in His design for the city and its location gives much confidence in God’s sovereignty. When David went to Jerusalem, the Jebusites were so confident in the natural defense of the city that they sent blind and lame to guard the front lines[6] and yet Scripture makes it sound like David had no trouble taking the city. Scripture does not spend a lot of time talking about how David conquered the city because the author just wants the audience to know, “David took the stronghold (Jerusalem or Zion) and called it the city of David”(2 Samuel 5:7) What Scripture say about how David took the city is by the water shaft( 2 Samuel 5:8). Again Jerusalem brings unity to Israel by bringing Judah and Benjamin together and this is a “…genuine new start for the whole nation and not just a matter of northern tribes being associated with a Judean court in Hebron that already existed..”[6] Israel has never been united as one nation so making Jerusalem the capital is the start of Israel was a true nation.

=Conclusion =

 Jerusalem has many theological implications and symbols that are key to deepen one’s love for the Word of God. Jerusalem is a place of peace and a place to go and worship the one True God and yet in 2010 it is a place of conflict. Yet Jerusalem still has a purpose and a plan in the End Times. Jerusalem and King David both are vital to the redemptive plan of history and God uses them to lead people to the Messiah which you read all about in the New Testament, the Gospels. “This chapter(2 Samuel 5) shows clearly that the statement in 5:12(“And David knew that the Lord had established him king over Israel..), that Yahweh had established David as king over Israel, and “exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people //… // "[7] Beyond line God choose David to be King and God choose Jerusalem as the capital.

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[1] Gaebelein, Frank. The Expositor’s Bible Commentray. (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 1992), 853 <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[2] Bergen, Robert. The New American Commentary 1 and 2 Samuel. (Broadman and Holman Publishers: United States of America, 1996), 319 <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[3] Bergen, Robert. The New American Commentary 1 and 2 Samuel. (Broadman and Holman Publishers: United States of America, 1996), 320 <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[4] Gaebelein, Frank. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 1992), 117 <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[5] Henry, Matthew. A Commentary on the Whole Bible. (Fleming H. Revell Company: New Jersey), 468 <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[6] Evans, Mary. The Message of Samuel. (InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, 2004),186 <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[7] Carlson, R.A. David the Chosen King. (Almquist and Wiksells: Sweden, 1964), 57

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