I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Samuel 4-7.

This isn’t where I want to focus, but as I gathered my thoughts on that I was struck by the fact that the Philistines appear to have left Israel alone while David and Ishbosheth were fighting over who would be king after Saul (well technically, it was Joab and Abner who were fighting).  However, once King David consolidated power and used that power to finally conquer Jerusalem for Israel, the Philistines attacked.  This tells us that the Philistines did not want control over the land Israel controlled.  They just did not want a unified country controlling that territory.

Having said that part, what I really wanted to talk about was David bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem.  Now, I have come to the conclusion that the Ark was moved about from time to time between the time it was returned by the Philistines until David brought it to Jerusalem.  David was enthusiastic about moving it to Jerusalem, which probably explains why he did things wrong the first time he tried.  As part of the process of moving the Ark, David wanted to take part in making the offerings.  So, he dressed as a priest was supposed to and made offerings along the way.  In a way, what King David did here was similar to what King Saul did that got him into trouble with Samuel and God before Saul’s first battle against the Philistines.  There is an important difference here.  King Saul offered the sacrifice in order to consolidate his power.  King David offered sacrifices in order to express his joy at being in the presence of God.  While both King David and King Saul broke the letter of God’s law, King David kept the spirit of the law.  It doesn’t mean that we don’t have to follow God’s laws, look at what happened to Uzzah when David first tried to bring the Ark to Jerusalem.