2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
Today we will celebrate our nation’s independence, our country’s birthday, the 4th of July. A time of beginning. It is the day we remember in 1776 when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. By that time, the 13 colonies had already been at war with Great Britain for more than a year. But this document made the separation official, at least in the eyes of the colonists. The fifty-six delegates from the thirteen original colonies signed their names to this document, knowing full well that if the colonies lost the war, then they could be executed for treason against the crown. But freedom was a cause they considered worth the risk.
There were two future presidents who signed the Declaration: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. The most famous signature on the document is that of John Hancock, who signed first as President of the Congress. His large and rather flamboyant signature definitely gets your attention; the delegate from Massachusetts was reported to have said after Hancock signed, “The British ministry can read that name without spectacles.” In another famous story, Hancock supposedly said that Congress, having signed the Declaration, must now “all hang together.” To which Benjamin Franklin replied, “Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
The first formal public readings of the Declaration of Independence occurred on July 8 in Philadelphia. John Hancock sent a copy to General Washington instructing him to share it with the Head of the Army in the way he thought it most proper. Washington chose to have the Declaration read to his troops in New York City on July 9. He hoped that hearing it would inspire the soldiers and encourage others to join the army.
The Declaration of Independence was surely part of the beginning of our country, but it wasn’t all of the beginning. The Revolutionary War went on until 1783. It wasn’t until 1787 that our Constitution was written and the United States of America was created. Many of the men who helped write the Constitution went on to hold important positions in the new government, such as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. The Constitution created a strong national government with its three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. Some states agreed to the Constitution very quickly; others were hesitant, because they felt it gave too much power to the federal government. Soon the Bill of Rights was added, with its 10 Amendments limiting the power of the federal government and guaranteeing certain rights to citizens. In 1789 George Washington was elected as the first President of the United States of America.
New beginnings take time. And we can clearly see the importance of good beginnings. That was the kind of new beginning that David experienced when he finally became King of all Israel.
After Saul died along with three of his sons, David became king over Judah at Hebron. But Saul’s son Ishbaal became king of Israel. He reigned for two years, during which time there was constant war between the house of Saul and the house of David. David grew stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker. Finally, Ishbaal was assassinated. And the message came to David at Hebron.
All the tribes came to David and all the elders also came. And there, in the presence of God, David made a covenant with them. They anointed David to be king over all of Israel. He was thirty years old when this happened. He had already been king of Judah for 7 years and would rule over the combined kingdom for 33 years. He soon occupied the city of Jerusalem and named it as his capitol city. And David became greater and greater, because God was with him.
David got off to a good beginning as king for a couple of reasons.
First, David had been chosen by God and everything he did was with the presence of God. He asked God’s will when he was making decisions, and he obeyed God. He waited for God to bring things about in his own time. David did not become greater and greater because of his own strength, but because God was with him. Before the people anointed him as king, God had instructed Samuel to anoint him as king when he was still just a shepherd boy in his father’s house. David was God’s choice to be king of Israel.
Second, David was ready to assume leadership when the time was right. The tribes came and the elders came and they wanted David as their king. And David was prepared for that moment. He knew what it meant to be king, to be a strong leader. God had prepared him, through years of leading an army and then of being king of Judah. He took advantage of these years of training for this bigger job. And he was ready.
Third, David seems to have accepted this new position as king over all of Israel with a certain amount of humbleness. He did not gloat over the leaders from Israel, whose leader Ishbaal had just been assassinated. He did not take advantage of the situation by first going out and defeating their army in battle. He waited and when their representatives came looking to join together in peace, he made a covenant with them to form one nation again. This does not imply that he was weak; in fact, humility can be a sign of true strength.
David was off to a good beginning as king of all Israel. And he would become the greatest king Israel would ever have.
