And the war was long between the house of Saul and the house of David; but David became continually stronger, and the house of Saul became continually weaker.
After Saul's death the throne did not fall straight into David's lap. Chapter 3 sums up the years in between: two houses at war, one rising and one fading. Why did God's chosen king have to win his kingdom so slowly?
The war was inside Israel, not against enemies outside it. One writer weighs what it really meant to set Ishbosheth up as king.
War has not yet ended. If it is not against enemies outside, it goes on against those within. What was tied to Saul's importance in the flesh cannot support David. But now everything has changed, for Ishbosheth was not the Lord's anointed, and to make him king was in fact to rebel against God.
The war was long, but the outcome was never in doubt. Reading Saul's line as a picture, one writer explains why a doomed cause can still fight on for years.
Saul stands for the energy of the flesh, which does not give up easily though it is doomed. The house of David grows stronger and stronger. But given time, the flesh cannot help showing its own weakness.
David was crowned, yet far short of what he had been anointed for. One writer draws the lesson from that gap.
He was now set up as king. But this position fell far short of the one he was destined for and anointed for by Samuel. By what slow and measured steps the Lord leads His servants to their appointed place... How often is God's servant, like David, set in Hebron for a season — that is, holding only part of the service appointed for him. And how necessary this is, to develop in him the qualities that fit him for it.
Saul's side attacked, and God cleared the obstacles Himself. One writer traces how the waiting ended, and where David stepped off the path.
He had to wait God's time until all Israel should accept him. He waited for seven years and six months. During that time there were long wars between the house of Saul and the house of David. Saul's house were the attackers (2 Sam. 2:12), but all efforts to block God's purposes proved useless. One by one, every hindrance to David's receiving the homage of all Israel was removed... Throughout this time of waiting, how did David act? He waited, for the most part, for God to act on his behalf. Only once did he leave this path, his only right one. He gave in to Abner's proposal to secure the kingdom for him by Abner's own influence. The Lord would not allow that. David was not to owe the loyalty of all Israel to Abner. God would move their hearts to receive him. And He did.
Growing power carried its own danger. One writer traces the habit David lost once he was crowned.
Here the Spirit of God wants to teach us something. A believer who receives a position of authority from God soon loses the sense of his dependence, because of the flesh that lives in him. As he uses power he starts to trust himself. He no longer feels his need of the Lord's help, as he felt it in the days when he wandered like a partridge hunted on the mountains. Before the crown was on his head, he would inquire of God, apart from rare occasions, and would not take a single step without Him. But from the moment he receives the crown he forgets his safeguard.
Another writer points to what the chapter records next.
Next the record faithfully notes the king's weakness in giving way to the flesh: his self-indulgence in his different marriages. Sadly, here he began his sowing in the flesh, and later he would reap a sad harvest from it.
David's rise from rejection points beyond David himself.
At times his rescue seemed hopeless, but God always opened a way of escape. In the end every opponent and obstacle was gone, and he stood out before Israel and the surrounding nations as the man of God's purpose, the king of His choice. How long will it be before David's Son, of whom David was a type, shall be seen and owned as King of kings and Lord of lords?
- Long war. The war was inside Israel. The rival king had no title from God: setting up Ishbosheth was rebellion against Him.
- Losing side. Saul's house pictures the energy of the flesh. It is doomed, yet it does not give up easily — and given time it shows its own weakness.
- Slow steps. David was anointed for all Israel, but held only Hebron for seven and a half years. God leads His servants to their place by slow, measured steps that form them for it.
- God clears the way. God removed every hindrance one by one, and moved Israel's heart Himself. David's one wrong step was trying to gain the kingdom through Abner's influence.
- Stronger, and weaker. Power dulled the dependence David kept while hunted, and his marriages began a sowing in the flesh he later reaped. The picture still waits for David's Son, King of kings.
And to David were sons born in Hebron his firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam the Jizreelitess;
David's house is growing stronger than Saul's, and the record turns from war to family: six sons born at Hebron, each by a different mother, with Amnon first. The list looks like a secure dynasty, yet these names later became David's deepest sorrows.
Ahinoam had been with David through his years of flight, and the son she bore him at Hebron opens the line. One writer traces where she came from and what came of her son:
David now married and had two wives. Both were probably from the tribe of Judah. There was a town named Jezreel in Judah, not far from Maon and Carmel (Joshua 15:55-56), and Ahinoam likely came from there. By her he had Amnon, whose history is connected with the sorrows of his house.
David did not lack guidance here. The law already held a plain rule for kings, and he broke it at Hebron:
David takes several wives at Hebron besides Ahinoam and Abigail, his companions in his wanderings. Had he inquired of the Lord before doing so, what would the Lord have replied? Read my Word! Dependence on God and dependence on His Word are one and the same thing. David had the books of the law in hand, and he needed only to think them over to see his path. Doesn't Deuteronomy 17:17 say about the king: "He shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away"? He might have all sorts of good reasons according to man's mind for doing as he did: to secure a royal posterity and so on, but this was not according to God.
The same writer traces the change to the crown itself:
Before the crown was on his head, he would ask the Lord's guidance, apart from rare occasions, and he would not take a single step without Him. But from the moment he receives the crown, he forgets his safeguard.
Nothing in the verse looks like a crisis. Commentators read it as the quiet start of one:
The record next tells honestly of the king's weakness in giving way to the flesh: his self-indulgence in his different marriages. Sadly, he began sowing in the flesh, and later he would reap a sad harvest from it. The record mentions six sons, born to David by his six wives. Three of these sons became a source of sorrow and grief to him.
The law did not forbid these marriages. Another writer still sees David's self-indulgence in them:
Like an eastern king, David strengthens himself by marriages. The law was not able to forbid them, and his self-indulgent nature shows itself in them. So the great sin of his life was already taking shape, and its shadows would darken much of his later days.
The names in this verse carry meanings worth weighing against the story that followed:
Amnon is David's firstborn, and his name means "constant" or "faithful." The name fits him in this way, and it matches the first place he takes. He is the son of Ahinoam, whose name means "kin of pleasure."
He was not the only one. The pattern runs through the whole list:
Amnon, Absalom, Adonijah, become but the living contradiction of what their names express. And so all mere human glory passes, to leave only the harp of prophecy to take up the broken notes of songs that have been.
Being first in the list gave Amnon nothing. The same family list appears again in Chronicles. One writer marks the line between the Hebron sons and the son who did reign:
Here again too, "that which is natural" — these born in Hebron. They never came to the throne. "And these were born to him in Jerusalem, Shimea and Shobab and Nathan and Solomon" — Solomon the last of these... No flesh shall glory in His presence. The last becomes the first. The purpose of God alone triumphs.
Commentators do not read this list only as a record of decline:
It was never God's intention that a man should have more than one wife... Also, far above men's natural thoughts, God used this occasion to illustrate various distinct characteristics of the Lord Jesus in His coming kingdom... This enforces the striking truth that God can overrule man's failure to serve the greater purpose of highly exalting His beloved Son. It reminds us that certain precious fruits will show themselves in the Lord Jesus in "communion" (Hebron) before He reigns in glory.
- Strength. David grew stronger, and it was in his strength — not his exile — that he stopped asking God before he acted.
- Silence. He had the command about a king's wives in writing. He failed not from ignorance, but from neglecting the Word already in his hand.
- Sowing. Six wives and six sons look like a secure dynasty. Yet three of these sons became his grief, and the great sin of his life was already taking shape.
- Sons. Amnon's name means "faithful," yet his story became one of the sorrows of David's house.
- Sovereignty. The Hebron sons never reached the throne. God passed them by, and still used this record to picture Christ's coming kingdom.
and his second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maachah, daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;
This verse names David's second and third sons with their mothers: Abigail, Nabal's widow, and Maacah, daughter of a king in Geshur, outside Israel. These opening verses list six sons by six wives, and they raise a hard question: what house was David building while his throne grew stronger?
The family list reads like evidence of success. Commentators see something else. The law had already spoken to Israel's king about wives, and David owned the books that said so.
David takes several wives at Hebron besides Ahinoam and Abigail, his companions in his wanderings. Had he asked the Lord before doing so, what would the Lord have replied? Read my Word! Dependence on God and dependence on His Word are one and the same thing. David had the books of the law in hand, and he needed only to meditate on them to see his path. Does it not say in Deuteronomy 17:17 concerning the king: "He shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away"? By human reasoning he might have had good reasons for what he did — to secure a royal line, and so on. But this was not according to God. To be convinced of this we need only trace the descendants of his wives. Had David had only godly Abigail as his companion, would he have seen an Amnon bring shame and dishonour upon his house, an Absalom rebel against his own father, or an Adonijah try to seize control of the kingdom?
Maacah was no ordinary wife. Her father ruled Geshur, outside Israel. This marriage crossed a second line, not just the one about numbers.
David's third son was Absalom, meaning "Father of Peace", which tells us the longing of David's heart for peace after the long weary years of war and wandering. But who was Absalom's mother? Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur. This was worse and worse. Not only did David multiply wives, but to find wives of royal birth, he turned to the heathen nations about him. This was also in express disobedience and defiance of God's often-repeated command that they were not to take wives from the nations around them. How could David expect a blessing from the offspring of such a match? It was little use giving the son of this wife a name with such a beautiful meaning, when he was born of a marriage made in deliberate disobedience to the clear Word of God.
Chileab appears here and is never mentioned again in the story. He is listed under a second name, Daniel, in another record of David's family:
Second son of David by Abigail. 2 Sam. 3:3: called DANIEL in 1 Chr. 3:1.
His silence in the record shapes everything that follows, because the sons behind him kept assuming the throne was theirs.
By Abigail he had Daniel, or Chileab, of whom we read nothing. He probably died young, for, on Amnon's death, Absalom, the third son, looked forward to the throne. After Absalom's wretched end, Adonijah, the fourth son, regarded the throne as his right by birth. The Lord did build David a sure house, but Abigail had no share in the building of it.
The verse names the mother, not just the son. That detail carries weight later.
Throughout the course of these books we shall see how the character of their mothers and where they came from had its influence upon their children. A pious mother sees her sons prospering round about her.
Even a list born of failure is not wasted. Commentators find a second layer in these six names.
We now read of David's six sons, each by a different wife (vv. 2-5). Never was it God's intention that a man should have more than one wife. At the beginning He had said, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife" — not "his wives." … Far above men's natural thoughts, God also used this occasion to show distinct features of the Lord Jesus in His coming kingdom. … This drives home a striking truth. God can overrule man's failure to serve the greater purpose of exalting His beloved Son on high.
One writer finds the same pattern in Chileab's name:
The second son is Chileab, and this number speaks of service. The name fits it well: it seems to mean "the instrument of the Father." He is the son of Abigail, whose name means "father (or cause) of exultation" — which is what Israel will be to Christ, when she is redeemed and brought out of her former relationship.
- Cause. David stopped asking. He held God's written rule for a king's marriages, and followed political reasons instead.
- Seed. Each wife named here is a seed sown. Rossier traces Amnon's shame, Absalom's revolt and Adonijah's grab for the throne back to this list.
- Compromise. Absalom's mother was a foreign king's daughter, chosen for royal rank. A beautiful name meaning "Father of Peace" could not undo the disobedience behind the marriage.
- Silence. Chileab, also called Daniel, is named once and never heard of again. With him gone, Absalom and Adonijah each counted the throne as theirs.
- Overruling. God is not defeated by the mess. Commentators read these six names as a picture of Christ's coming kingdom. God can turn human failure toward exalting His Son.
and the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital;
Verse 4 names two more sons born to David at Hebron, each by a different wife. The list looks like a bare family register. But commentators read these names in two ways: as the root of David's later grief, and as a picture of the kingdom of Christ.
The fourth son named here, Adonijah, appears again at the end of David's life:
He seems to have been the oldest of David's sons at the end of David's life. He may have supposed that he would succeed to the throne. But he did not consult his father. He said, "I will be king," and both Joab and Abiathar helped him. David at once proclaimed Solomon as king.
David did not ask the Lord about these marriages. One writer shows where the answer was already waiting for him:
David takes several wives at Hebron besides Ahinoam and Abigail, his companions in his wanderings. Had he asked the Lord before doing so, what would the Lord have replied? Read my Word! Dependence on God and dependence on His Word are one and the same thing. David had the books of the law in hand, and he needed only to meditate on them to see his path. Does it not say in Deuteronomy 17:17 concerning the king, "He shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away"? By man's thinking he might have had all sorts of good reasons for doing as he did — to secure a royal line, and so on. But this was not according to God. We need only trace the descendants of his wives to be sure of it. Suppose David had taken only godly Abigail as his companion. Would he then have seen an Amnon bring shame on his house, an Absalom rebel against his own father, or an Adonijah try to seize control of the kingdom?
The same writer traces Adonijah's later grasp for the crown back to his birth and his home:
Born immediately after Absalom, though of another mother, he no doubt thought he had the same claim as Absalom to the kingdom. He "exalted himself, saying, I will be king." Pride, an unchecked will that had never been curbed, and a high opinion of himself all drove him. He was "a very handsome man." His flaws had been fed by his father's weakness, a weakness that had contributed so greatly to the disasters of David's own life... "His father had never at any time displeased him by asking, Why have you done this?" Families of believers often see their testimony ruined through the weakness of the parents. In sparing the rod with their children they bring the rod upon themselves, as well as dishonour upon Christ. God never acts like this. His discipline is the proof of His love toward us.
One writer reads each son together with his mother:
The fourth son, Adonijah, means "my Lord is Jah," and he is the son of Haggith, "festive," one who keeps Jehovah's feast. This shows us how the taste of Jehovah's grace brings us into subjection to Him as Lord over us; and this is how the Lord's rule is endeared to His own... Jehovah's feasts were times of gathering to and around Himself. Now, much more plainly, He is cultivating intimacy with us; and the more we respond and enter into this, the more will His rule be established over us. The nearer we are to Him, the greater He is to us.
The fifth son is read the same way:
The fifth son's name, Shephatiah, means "Jah judges." He is the son of Abital, "father (or source) of cover," or "protection." The thought is simplicity itself. This is what true judgment is appointed to do. When judgment returns to righteousness, this is what it will be found to give: the protection of man from man — sad that such protection should be needed. When Jehovah judges in the earth openly and plainly, as He will do, how will the earth rest and be secure?
Another writer starts further back, with God's design for marriage:
Never was it God's intention that a man should have more than one wife. At the beginning He had said, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife" — not "his wives." Yet under law God bore with bigamy and polygamy because of the hardness of men's hearts... God used this occasion to show distinct features of the Lord Jesus in His coming kingdom... God can overrule man's failure to serve the greater purpose of exalting His beloved Son on high.
- Seed. David took wives at Hebron without consulting God's Word. He reaped the harvest later in Amnon, Absalom and Adonijah.
- Silence. Adonijah's grasp at the throne grew in a home where a father never once asked his son, "Why have you done this?"
- Rod. Parents who spare the rod bring the rod on themselves. God shows His love by His discipline, not by indulgence.
- Names. "My Lord is Jah" and "Jah judges": His rule grows dearer as we draw near, and His judgment ends in shelter.
- Overruling. God bore with the failure and still made the family list serve the glory of His Son's coming kingdom.
and the sixth, Ithream, of Eglah David's wife. These were born to David in Hebron.
This verse closes the list of David's sons born in Hebron with Ithream, son of Eglah. Six sons by six different mothers raise a question: is this a record of blessing, or of a fault taking root in the king's house?
Both names have meanings. One writer draws them out, and notes that the verse calls Eglah alone "David's wife":
The sixth and last son gives us the effect of all this in blessing. Ithream means "the abundance of the people," for "in a multitude of people is the glory of a king." (Prov. 14:28.) But this "abundance" implies more than "multitude." Ithream is also the "son of Eglah," which means "heifer," the double symbol of labor and of fruitfulness. That is why Eglah is in some special sense called "David's wife"! Yes, our David has indeed linked himself in a special way with service — service in which all fruit is found!
The same writer sees more than politics behind a growing household:
The war goes on, but we hear no more of its incidents. We hear only that David's house keeps growing stronger as Saul's house grows weaker. Like an eastern king, David strengthens himself by marriages that the law had no power to forbid. In these marriages the self-indulgence of his nature shows itself. In this way the great sin of his life was already being prepared, and it would cast its shadow over much of his later days.
The law already told Israel's king what to do about wives. One writer traces the cost of ignoring it, right down to David's own children:
Had he inquired of the Lord before doing so, what would the Lord have replied? Read my Word! Dependence on God and dependence on His Word are one and the same thing. David had the books of the law in hand, and he needed only to meditate on them in order to see his path. Does it not say in Deuteronomy 17:17 concerning the king: "And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away"? By man's way of thinking he might have had all sorts of good reasons for doing as he did — to secure a royal line, and so on. But this was not according to God. To be convinced of this we need only trace the descendants of his wives. Suppose David had had only godly Abigail as his companion. Would he then have seen an Amnon bring shame and dishonor on his house, an Absalom rebel against his own father, or an Adonijah try to seize control of the kingdom?
One writer traces the change to the crown itself:
Before the crown was on his head, he would inquire of God apart from rare occasions, and he would not take a single step without Him. But from the moment he receives the crown he forgets his safeguard. He will find it again a little later, after bitter experience. One leading feature of David's character is that discipline always bears admirable fruit in him.
The same writer turns it on the reader:
Most of our acts of disobedience come from not keeping living daily contact with the Word of God. To follow our own thoughts and neglect this clear, absolute direction is disobedience.
Commentators differ in emphasis — some read the list as a moral warning, others as a picture of Christ. One writer holds both together:
Never was it God's intention that a man should have more than one wife. At the beginning He had said, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife" — not "his wives." Yet under the law God bore with bigamy and polygamy because of the hardness of men's hearts... This drives home the striking truth that God can overrule man's failure to serve His greater purpose — the exalting of His beloved Son on high. It also reminds us that certain precious fruits will show themselves in the Lord Jesus in "communion" (Hebron) before He reigns in glory.
- Word ignored. David had Deuteronomy 17:17 in his hands. He needed only to read it. Disobedience began where daily contact with God's Word stopped.
- Crown gained, dependence lost. Before the crown he took no step without asking God; from the moment he received it he forgot that safeguard.
- Strength that weakened. The marriages that made his house stronger came from self-indulgence, and they were already preparing the great sin of his life.
- Harvest named. This list of mothers bore fruit in Amnon's shame, Absalom's rebellion and Adonijah's grab for the throne.
- Grace overruling. God bore with what He never intended. Through these six names He still pictures the fruits of Christ — Ithream, "the abundance of the people" — before He reigns in glory.