Even though Saul is now dead David will still not have an easy ride to the throne. The way will be laden with conflicting interests from all around. It is in this time that we see the emergence of the division that would persist among the twelve tribes of Israel for hundreds of years to come, the division between the ten northern tribes and the two southern tribes. It shows how serious an error it was for Israel to insist on having a worldly style king as they originally demanded of Samuel (1 Samuel 8). All this conflict is rooted back in what was originally a conflict between the desires of God and those of his people at that time. God gave the people the kind of king they wanted to teach them, and us, a lesson. What they got in Saul turned out to be a bad thing for the nation, not just during Saul’s reign but also in the long term and we see it for centuries to come in subsequent biblical history. By having desires fulfilled that were in conflict with God’s will, the people brought conflict right into the heart of the nation and this conflict became a perennial disease. This situation with the nation of Israel carries an important lesson for us as individuals. Sometimes God gives us what we so persistently want to teach us how errant our choices are. The consequences then act as a reminder to us for the future to always defer to God’s will over our own.
Offer up your greatest desires to God and ask him to do his will over yours.
Read 2 Samuel 2
