Lesson 5 – King David

¹For some time now, the ark of the covenant had been in the house of Abinidab (see 1 Samuel 5-6). This was not where it belonged according to God’s design. The proper place for the ark was inside the Tabernacle (see Exodus 40:18-21). David’s desire to bring the ark to Jerusalem allowed him to restore it to the place of worship where it belonged.

²David put the ark in the back of a cart drawn by oxen. This violated God’s instructions that the priests were to carry the ark on their shoulders using the supplied poles that went through rings on the box. God was very clear on these instructions.

While no one touched the ark while it rested on the bed of the wagon, it was not secure. When the oxen hit a bump or stumbled, the ark moved around a little. When Uzzah tried to steady the ark, he touched the sacred item and the wrath of God was unleashed against him, killing him. Even though Israel was no longer wandering in the wilderness, God’s design for the treatment and handling of the ark still stood.

³When the ark arrived in Jerusalem, David danced in celebration. He did not restrain himself in any way and everyone present saw him. He did not behave in a reserved way as might be appropriate for a kingly man of dignity. David began dancing after ark-bearers took six steps and they stopped to offer sacrifices to God. The text doesn’t directly say, but we might assume that David danced the entire way from Obed-edom’s house to Jerusalem. He certainly celebrated the entire distance.

⁴When David arrived in Jerusalem, his wife Michal saw him from inside the house. David was dancing and carrying on, wearing a simple linen ephod instead of his royal robes. In her heart she despised him for acting this way, in a manner unbecoming her expectations of a great king. When she confronted David about it to chastize him, David responded that for God’s sake he would make a fool of himself and more. David’s intention was vertical on worshipping God. Michal’s perspective was selfish around preserving honor and dignity.

⁵When the ark came to Jerusalem, David had a place prepared for it. He had set up a tent. The text doesn’t say that the tent was the same as the Tabernacle that God specified in Exodus. But near the tent was an altar where the priests could offer sacrifices. While David did seem to have followed God’s directions about carrying the ark, it’s not clear that he took the time to construct a complete tabernacle as described in Exodus 26.

⁶David was not satisfied with this situation. He lived in a beautiful house while the ark, the place where God was present on earth, sat in a tent. David wanted to honor God by building a beautiful temple where he could put the ark. This setting would much better suit God’s glory.

David first proposed this idea to the prophet Nathan. When he heard this, Nathan approved of the proposal on behalf of God.

⁷After giving a preliminary approval on behalf of God, Nathan went home, but that night he receive a new message from God. He was to return to David and say that David was not the king God had chosen to build Him a temple. God had dwelled in a tent every since the children of Israel had been delivered from Egypt. It would not diminish God’s glory to remain in a tent for a while longer. God had raised up David from being a shepherd boy to become the king of God’s people. However, one of David’s descendants would be the one to build God’s temple.

⁸God went on to promise that He would establish the throne of David’s dynasty forever through the offspring who would build a temple for His glory. Even more, God promised He would not withdraw His Spirit from this king as He had done from Saul. This meant that all future kings of Israel, who reigned out of Jerusalem, would be a descendant of David. This is often called the Davidic Covenant and represents God’s promise to David that his descendants would rule Israel forever (notice the reference to Jesus in Matthew 21:9).

⁹David enjoyed military success against the nations around him who sought to have victory over Israel. He defeated the Philistines and took the city of Gath (where he once found refuge) away from them and made it his own. He conquered the kingdom of Moab (descendants of Lot) so that they paid him tribute. He took the city, or cities, of Zobath-Hamath. When the king of Damascus in Syria came to help, David defeated them too, and imposed annual tribute on them. From there he took additional cities of Tibhath and Cun from Hadadezer and carried off a huge load of spoils. When word of this got around, Tou, formerly an enemy of Hadadezer came to David with precious gifts to ensure that he was not attacked in turn. And David also won victories in Edom (descendants of Esau), allowing him to put military garrisons throughout the kingdom.

¹⁰It is an opinion to say that David was a good king. But the chapter focuses on his military conquests and says that God gave him victory wherever he went. David was also careful to give some of the wealth that he captured through those victories back to God. This degree of divine support seems to support that as king, David enjoyed God’s favor.

¹¹When David was feeling good about his success, he decided to take a census of the people of Israel. This would allow him to understand how great his kingdom had grown. In this, he gave in to the sin of pride. It didn’t matter how great his kingdom was. God had given it to him, just as God gave him victory over so many enemies. The kingdom wasn’t a reflection of David, it was a reflection of God. But by counting the people, David was treating it as his own possession. Even Joab, when he received the instructions to go count the people, asked David why he wanted to do such a thing. The text says that David overrode Joab’s objections to this census and forced him to do it anyway.

¹²Joab completed the census of the people and reported the number to David. When David got the results, his heart convicted him that he had done wrong. In repentance, he cried out to the Lord and confessed his prideful sin. At the same time God spoke to the prophet Gad to come and tell David the consequences of his sin. David would have to choose between one of three options:

1. Three years of famine throughout the land of Israel.
2. Three months of defeat on the battlefield.
3. Three days of pestilence throughout the land.

All of these attacked David’s source of pride in the size of the kingdom he ruled. No matter which he chose, the result would be death of his subjects and would lead to a numerically smaller kingdom.

¹³Ultimately David chose the three days of pestilence. He reasoned that it was better to suffer directly at the hand of God than to be subjected to punishment through a famine or the armies of his enemies. David recognized that perhaps God would show mercy upon him and not subject him to the full measure of the punishment.

David saw the angel coming as it approached Jerusalem and cried out to God, confessing his sin again. He asked for the punishment to fall upon him and his family instead of his subjects who had not participated in the sin. God showed mercy and stopped the punishment at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite (also named Ornan in 1 Chronicles) just outside the city limits. To commemorate God’s mercy, the prophet Gad told David to build an alter on the site of the threshing floor. Araunah offered to give the property to David for the altar, but David responded with the famous principle. “I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the property and offered the sacrifice and peace offering and God turned aside the disaster that threatened Jerusalem.

¹⁴Having purchased the threshing floor, David wanted to build the temple to God on that spot. Since God forbade him to build it, David passed this dream along to his son Solomon. He intended that Solomon succeed him as king. And if Sololomon would honor God, then he would be the one to build the temple instead of David. As a part of this solemn charge to Solomon, David listed the supplies that he had accumulated to use in the construction of the temple. It would be a magnificent and richly ornamented building that would reflect the glory of God.

¹⁵In Acts, Paul stood up at the synagogue in Antioch at Psidia to proclaim the gospel. He recounted the history of the people of Israel from the time of the Exodus onward. When he came to David, the greatest king, Paul reported God as calling David “a man after My own heart.” David was exactly the kind of man God was looking for to be king. Someone who faithfully would follow him and repent when he sinned.