David Called to the Throne
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and I also will requite you this kindness.” And he announced his own
accession to the throne of Judah and invited the allegiance of those
who had proved themselves so truehearted.
The Philistines did not oppose the action of Judah in making David
king. They had befriended him in his exile, in order to harass and
weaken the kingdom of Saul, and now they hoped that because of their
former kindness to David the extension of his power would, in the end,
work to their advantage. But David’s reign was not to be free from
trouble. With his coronation began the dark record of conspiracy and
rebellion. David did not sit upon a traitor’s throne; God had chosen
him to be king of Israel, and there had been no occasion for distrust
or opposition. Yet hardly had his authority been acknowledged by the
men of Judah, when through the influence of Abner, Ishbosheth, the
son of Saul, was proclaimed king, and set upon a rival throne in Israel.
Ishbosheth was but a weak and incompetent representative of the
house of Saul, while David was pre-eminently qualified to bear the
responsibilities of the kingdom. Abner, the chief agent in raising
Ishbosheth to kingly power, had been commander-in-chief of Saul’s
army, and was the most distinguished man in Israel. Abner knew that
David had been appointed by the Lord to the throne of Israel, but
having so long hunted and pursued him, he was not now willing that
the son of Jesse should succeed to the kingdom over which Saul had
reigned.
The circumstances under which Abner was placed served to de-
velop his real character and showed him to be ambitious and unprin-
cipled. He had been intimately associated with Saul and had been
influenced by the spirit of the king to despise the man whom God
had chosen to reign over Israel. His hatred had been increased by the
cutting rebuke that David had given him at the time when the cruse of
water and the spear of the king had been taken from the side of Saul
as he slept in the camp. He remembered how David had cried in the
hearing of the king and the people of Israel, “Art not thou a valiant
man? and who is like to thee in Israel? wherefore then hast thou not
kept thy lord the king? ... This thing is not good that thou hast done.
As the Lord liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your
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master, the Lord’s anointed.” This reproof had rankled in his breast,
and he determined to carry out his revengeful purpose and create divi-
sion in Israel, whereby he himself might be exalted. He employed the