Reflections on 1 Chronicles 20

 1 Chronicles 20(Contemporary English Version)

1. The next spring, the time when kings go to war, Joab marched out in command of the Israelite army and destroyed towns all over the country of Ammon. He attacked the capital city of Rabbah and left it in ruins. But David stayed in Jerusalem.
   
2. Later, David himself went to Rabbah, where he took the crown from the statue of their god Milcom. The crown was made of seventy-five pounds of gold, and there was a valuable jewel on it. David put the jewel on his crown, then carried off everything else of value.
   
3. He forced the people of Rabbah to work with saws, iron picks, and axes. He also did the same thing with the people in all the other Ammonite towns. David then led Israel's army back to Jerusalem.
   
4. Some time later, Israel fought a battle against the Philistines at Gezer. During this battle, Sibbecai from Hushah killed Sippai, a descendant of the Rephaim, and the Philistines were defeated.
   
5. In another battle against the Philistines, Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath from Gath, whose spear shaft was like a weaver's beam.
   
6. Another one of the Philistine soldiers who was a descendant of the Rephaim was as big as a giant and had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. During a battle at Gath,
   
7. he made fun of Israel, so David's nephew Jonathan killed him.
   
8. David and his soldiers killed these three men from Gath who were descendants of the Rephaim.

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Chapter 20 concludes accounts of David's wars. In these accounts there is no record given of David being defeated in battle. This is no doubt due to his faithfulness to God. But David was human and susceptible to what any person is susceptible to. Whether he became complacent or prideful or for whatever reason, he did succumb to personal failure, and it was in his personal life that David suffered defeat. But as with any of us, his personal failures did not affect only himself. They caused great turmoil for the nation.

Chronicles does not address David's first personal failure for which David is well-known, and that is the affair with Bathsheba and murder of her husband. These events occurred within the time frame of the events recorded in the first verses of this chapter. It was during the siege on the city of Rabbah, when David "remained in Jerusalem," that David had the affair with Bathsheba. This was his first big failure. Beyond the immediate repercussions of these events in which David was confronted by the prophet Nathan about his sin and David repented and asked forgiveness, it would seem that there were no other repercussions. But over time they continued to mushroom and plague both David and Israel.

A second personal failure by David is recorded in the next chapter of 1 Chronicles when David succumbs to Satan's tempting to count the people of Israel against God's instructions. We will reflect on that in the next chapter. The point here is that David was human and susceptible to the same temptations any of us are susceptible to. He paid dearly for his sins, but he never turned away from God and God never rejected him as He did Saul.