GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
1 CHRONICLES 18:1-2
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This chapter closely parallels 2 Samuel 8:1-16. An outline I’ve borrowed from Dale Ralph Davis goes this way:
1, (18:1-6) Four victories given by the Lord
2, (18:7-11) Spoils and gifts for the Lord
3, (18:12-13) Victories over Edom given by the Lord
4, (18:14-17) Summary of 1 Chronicles 11-18
18:1 Some time after this, David attacked the Philistines. He subdued them and took Gath and its villages from the Philistines. 2 He defeated Moab, and then the Moabites became subject to David and paid tribute.
Ancient Gath was destroyed more than once. During Crusader times, it was associated with the village of Blanche Garde that appears several times in the history of Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199). The modern site is known as Tell es-Safi (White Hill), ten miles southeast of Ekron.
The chronology of this verse is helped by the words “Some time after this.” While some translations have “in the course of time” here and footnotes in those translations (such as the NIV Study Bible) declare that these events happened earlier, the Hebrew text clearly has acharay-ken, “After this,” both here and in 2 Samuel 8:1. David’s subjugation of Gath, Moab, Zobah, Damascus and Edom took place after the transport of the Ark into its tent in Jerusalem. I proposed a general outline of David’s reign with our comments on chapter 11, but I will repeat the key portions here for reference:
I. 1040-1010 BC. David’s early life.
II. 1010-1003. David’s reign as king in Hebron.
III. 1003-c. 992. David’s early years in Jerusalem.
(the ark brought to Jerusalem, wars with many nations)
IV. c. 992-981. David’s middle years in Jerusalem,
(from Bathsheba to Absalom)
V. 981-970. David’s final years.
(including Adonijah’s rebellion).
Moab had once been friendly with David. His ancestress Ruth was from Moab (Ruth 1:22) and his parents had been welcomed there during the troubles with Saul (1 Samuel 22:3). What had happened to make him hostile to these people? We don’t know. But it’s possible that because of a treaty with Ammon, they were drawn into war with Israel and lost. The War against Ammon is the backdrop of David’s sin with Bathsheba, which is not described in Chronicles.
The Moabites paid tribute to David; he did not wipe them out completely. The nation persisted through Old Testament times; there were Moabite and Ammonite women who gave Israel trouble as late as the time of the return from exile (Ezra 9:1; Nehemiah 13:23), and Jeremiah devotes a long chapter (48:1-47) on the Lord’s judgment and wrath upon Moab for its idolatry: “Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh” (Jeremiah 48:13). And Jeremiah’s contemporary, Zephaniah, also says: “Surely Moab will become like Sodom; the Ammonites like Gomorrah” (Zephaniah 2:9). There is no reference to Moab in the New Testament.
This passage helps us to see more of the ways God blessed David during this violent time. The physical enemies of Israel were conquered and brought into submission. Surely the God who did that for David, the apple of his eye, also gives his church spiritual victories over the enemies of Christendom. “Rise up, O Lord, confront them, bring them down, rescue me from the wicked by your sword” (Psalm 17:13), for the Lord’s shard two-edged sword is the Word of his mouth (Isaiah 49:2; Revelation 2:16). Some of the church’s worst enemies come from inside the church, some from one corner, and some from another. The Popes of Rome sometimes brag about their authority over life and death by citing Canon 22, which says, “Even if the Pope murders countless souls, one should never say to him, ‘Why do you do this?’” Others with the same title were immoral in the extreme, such as Paul III who, in his younger years, prostituted his own sister to an earlier Pope (Alexander VI) in order to become a Cardinal. He himself (who commanded that all priests should be celibate) had a wife and a son, and the son was later made into a Cardinal. From the other corner, the so-called Lutherans of the ELCA have abandoned Christ as the only path to heaven and have claimed that anybody who is true to his own religion has a way to everlasting life, and they have mocked and belittled their poor people who try to hold up John 14:6 and other correct passages and they silence them by any means, from bullying to who know what worse things. They are the sort of villains that Clement was thinking of when he wrote, “Do not associate with those who desire peace with hypocrisy… for with their mouths they bless but in their hearts they curse” (1 Clement 15:1,3; quoting Psalm 62:4). “Arise, O Lord, in your anger. Rise up against the rage of my enemies!” (Psalm 7:6)
Do not be afraid of such enemies. Pray for God’s people who are caught in their snares, and pray that they will escape through the truth of the gospel. But be encouraged by the words of Elisha the Prophet:
“Do not be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” The mighty Lord is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 1 Chronicles 18:1-2 Victories from the Lord