I expected David’s transition to king after Saul’s death to be easy, but the new King of Israel still has obstacles to overcome. Even after death, Saul continues to have loyal servants, and unbeknownst to us, he also had another heir after his oldest son Jonathan, who died with Saul. God doesn’t always make things easy, does He? I love how David remains loyal, though. He doesn’t just go and make himself known. He asks God what he should do. In the beginning of the chapter, he says, should I move back to Judah? And which town should we live in? He also rewards Saul’s men for their loyalty. The text doesn’t indicate whether or not the men go with David, but we definitely see the conflict in the next paragraphs. The wording is a little confusing. It says Saul’s son Ishbosheth ruled for two years and David ruled for seven and a half. And then it goes into a civil battle between the two armies. I’m going to assume that this battle happened sometime during Ishboseth’s reign and before David served the full seven and a half years as king which the text denotes. We see at the end of the battle, David lost only a few men, and Ishboseth lost hundreds. This may have been the end of his reign, but we won’t know until we read on!
Writing prompt: hurdles
Even after Saul’s death, David had to get over a few hurdles before he was declared king over all of Israel. Have you ever gotten through one battle just to face another? Write about a time when you thought your struggles were over but then you faced another one.
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