1 Chronicles 11:1-4 Then all Israel gathered themselves to David to Hebron, saying, Behold, we are your bone and your flesh.… This chapter properly follows the twelfth chapter. The union of heart to make David king is taken up at the commencement of this eleventh chapter. This event happened on the death of Ishbosheth (see 2 Samuel 5:1-3). The repeated anointings in the presence of the heads of the kingdom seem to have been necessary to the general acknowledgment of the sovereign by the nation. In David we are to see Christ. In the "oneness of heart" to make him king (see 1 Chronicles 12:38), we see that love to Christ which constitutes all true subjects of the Saviour. It was simply love to himself which drew all these heroes around David. At his yearning for the water of the well of Bethlehem, it was this love that made them brave all danger, and, at the risk of their lives, "break through the host of the Philistines." In all this we see the personal love of the Lord's people to their King, Jesus. Love is the mighty bond - love to himself, love that will brave all dangers, love that will lay down its life for him - the reflection of his own shed abroad in their hearts. And the object of this great gathering was one, even as their hearts were one, viz. to make David king. Thus is it also the one desire of all the followers of Christ - that he shall be King. They would cast every crown at his feet and say, "Thou art worthy," and they long for the time when he shall be "King of kings and Lord of lords." But while they were "of one heart" to make David king, he, on his part, made a covenant with them. In this covenant he made himself over to them as their leader and captain, and that they should partake of the reward of his victories and of his glory. All this would be included in that covenant. In this, again, we see Christ, our true David, engaging to his faithful people all covenant blessings. "I will give unto you the sure mercies of David." His own wondrous love has bound them to himself, and that same love ensures to them, in a covenant that nothing can set aside, every spiritual and temporal blessing. "He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." - W. Parallel Verses KJV: Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. |
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