1 Chronicles 18-20

What’s Happening?

God has just promised David that he will be with him as he subdues all Israel’s enemies, and will grant Israel peace from all her oppressors (1 Chronicles 17:8-12). And now, God makes good on his promises. David wins several strategic battles against Israel’s most ancient enemies; namely Philistia, Moab, Aram, and Edom (1 Chronicles 18:1-8). In each of these victories, David secures massive amounts of tribute and plunder. David donates all of it to the temple building fund (1 Chronicles 18:6-13). As news of David’s conquests spread, kings begin to pledge their fealty to David without ever going to war with him (1 Chronicles 18:9-10). With God by his side, David gives peace to his people, enacts justice on their behalf, and appoints several heads of state to rule alongside him (1 Chronicles 18:14-17). 

Even when David is ambushed by a seemingly spiritual evil, God keeps his promise of victory. An old ally, ominously named “Serpent,” dies. In sympathy, David sends a caravan of gifts to the grieving nation, but the Serpent’s son misinterprets this and accuses David of spying (1 Chronicles 19:1-4). In retaliation, he humiliates David’s envoy and then allies with the nation of Aram to wipe David off the map (1 Chronicles 19:6-7). Out of options, David sends his generals Joab and Abishai to meet them in battle. They are immediately surrounded. But with God’s help, Israel crushes her enemy’s alliance and pushes back the coalition’s forces (1 Chronicles 19:8-19). The next spring, David defeats the remaining forces of the son of the Serpent, places his crown on his own head, and returns to Jerusalem victorious (1 Chronicles 20:1-3). 

God also keeps his promise to grant victory and peace when David fights the Philistines. Throughout Scripture the Philistines were a litmus test for the worthiness of Israel’s kings. It was against the Philistine warrior Goliath that David proved he was God’s chosen king (1 Samuel 16-17). And the Philistines also revealed the unworthiness of Israel’s first king, Saul (1 Chronicles 10:1-14). But God is with David and he secures victory over these enemies; one of David’s soldiers even defeats Goliath’s brother in battle (1 Chronicles 20:4-8). True to his promise, God is with David and he subdues all Israel’s enemies. 

Where is the Gospel?

All the way back in the Garden of Eden, God promised Eve that one of her sons would crush the Serpent. And these victory stories in Chronicles show us David, Eve's son, crushing a son of a man called Serpent. This victory is symbolic. God isn’t just making good on the promises he’s made to David, he’s beginning to fulfill his most ancient promises to all of humanity. David's victory sets a pattern. Soon, another of Eve’s sons will take the throne as the final king of the world and he will crush the Serpent, not symbolically, but fully and finally.

That king is David’s son Jesus. Just as God promised his forefather David, Jesus came to subdue all our enemies and set the oppressed free (Matthew 3:2; John 18:36; Luke 4:18-19). Like his father, Jesus has ridden out into battle against our most ancient enemies—the enemies of Satan, sin, and death—and has defeated them all; not by winning a war on a battlefield, but by dying and rising from the dead (Colossians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 15:26). There is no government, no punishment, and no spiritual force that can harm King Jesus or ultimately kill his citizens. Jesus, David’s son, fulfills all of God’s promises to defeat our enemies and grant us peace from our oppressors forever. 

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see the God who promises victory. And may you see Jesus as the eternal victor over our most powerful enemies—death, sin, and the Serpent.