April 2, 2010 2Samuel 3-6:11

The house of David warred with the house of Saul for a long time. David became stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul grew weaker. By this time David had 6
sons from as many wives.

Abner the commander of Saul's army went to visit David. On the way, Abner then went to the elders of Israel to encourage them to make David the king over Israel. Then he and David made a peace treaty with each other. The brother of Asahel, Joab was very angry that David was no longer the enemy of the man who had killed his brother, so Joab killed Abner. When David found out about it he declared that he and his family were innocent concerning the blood of Abner. David tore his clothes and wept aloud as they buried Abner.

Saul's son Ish-Bosheth, became disheartened when he heard that Abner was dead. Two of him men made it their business to put him out of his misery. They went into his house in the heat of the day, during nap time and stabbed him in his bed. They cut off his head and brought it to David. David was not pleased at all! He did the same to these two as he had done with the man who said he killed Saul. He buried the head in Abner's tomb at Hebron.

The elders of Israel came to Hebron and anointed David king at the age of 30. He reigned for a total of 40 years.

David went to Jerusalem and conquered the Jebusites who inhabited the city. He took up residence in the fortress there and called it the City of David. He became more powerful because the Lord was with him. Hiram the king of Tyre sent him cypress logs and craftspeople to build David a palace. David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem and had 11 more children.

When the Philistines heard that David was the anointed king of Israel, they went to fight him. David asked God if he should go and attack the Philistines, and God said that He would hand them over to him. The Philistines were defeated, but that did not stop them from trying again. David inquired of the Lord what he should do and again the Lord told him that he should fight, but this time to circle around the Philistines and wait for the signal that the Lord would give him so he would know that the Lord had struck the Philistine army. David obeyed the Lord and drove the Philistines away.

David brought 30,000 chosen men to bring the ark of God from Abinadab's house to Jerusalem. They traveled in parade fashion with mighty celebrating, with cymbals, harps, tambourines and the like. Two of Abinadab's sons were using a new cart to carry the ark and one of the oxen stumbled. So Uzzah one of the sons, reached out and took the ark. The Lord was very angry at this irreverent act, and Uzzah died right there beside the ark. This made David angry and afraid of God that day. He decided not to bring the ark to Jerusalem and put it in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite where it stayed for 3 months. During that time Obed-Edom and his entire household were very blessed by the Lord.

Tomorrow read 2Samuel 6:12-10:19