2 Samuel 3 - David Conquers Jerusalem | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to 2 Samuel Chapter 3, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer.

In 2 Samuel Chapter 3 a long war between Saul’s house and David’s house began in which David grew stronger and stronger, but Saul’s house grew weaker and weaker. This was more of a cold war, and the Philistines were also in the mix controlling a lot of Israelite territory too. Up north in Israel a strange thing happens. King Ishboshet accuses Abner of sleeping with his father the king’s concubine. Quite a few commentators have mentioned that to take a king’s concubine was seen as a claim on the king's throne.

It was a way of saying the king's property was your own. So Ishbosheth is feeling threatened by Abner. Abner gets mad and decides to hand the tribes over to David, and begins the process of doing that. But after a good visit to David at Hebron, Joab murders Abner. Joab had two issues, one with revenge for his brother, and other may well have been a job security issue because Abner was his counterpart in Israel. David also requests Michal his first wife back.

This is one of the strangest things in the Bible. Politically this helped David’s cause as a son of Saul. He might also have still felt fondness for her because she saved his life, and she was his first wife and they were only married a short time. But it had been at least ten years, and she was now married to another and may even have had children. David also had many wives at this point. In today’s world we see people who have multiple partners, not usually at the same time, but often one after another.

Life becomes more and more complicated the more people one is married to. In all of this we can see why monogamy is God’s plan.