1 Ch. 20: Ammonite Shyamalan

1 Chronicles 20:6 "In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha."

David conquers the Ammonites some more, and then the Philistines. Still fighting those giants. You'd think the Goliath incident would have made the descendents of Rapha think twice before taking on the giants.

Plus anytime you defeat someone with polydactyly, that's awesome.

I guess I would point to the symbolism of David taking the crown from another king, and putting it on his own head. It was a transfer of power. Of wealth. Is this a microcosm of Israel? The crown is the reward. The land was a reward promised to Israel. And David comes, and with God behind him, takes the reward.

1 Ch. 19: Jew Moon

1 Chronicles 19:18 "But they fled before Israel, and David killed seven thousand of their charioteers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers. He also killed Shophach the commander of their army."

I guess what I'm curious of here, is why David sent this envoy of peace to extend condolences to Hanun, king of the Ammonites, whose father Nahash died. I'm sure David did it with complete sincerity, but that was certainly not how it was received. What did David expect? It was a nation in mourning. There was massive upheaval, and I'm sure they thought that another nation would strike them while they were weak. 

God did not command this delegation, but God endowed David with wisdom, and a good heart...hmmm...curious.

Of course it led to war and great victory for David, so maybe the pot was being stirred...

1 Ch. 18: David Wins

1 Chronicles 18:6 "He put garrisons in the Aramean kingdom of Damascus, and the Arameans became subject to him and brought tribute. The LORD gave David victory everywhere he went."

This is an in-game reset of 2 Samuel 8 (entry).  There's a little less detail, such as the killing of 1 of every 3 Moabites is not mentioned here.

We're talking here about David's military victories over Philistines and Edomites et al. 

As the LORD gave David victory over these nations, David gave glory to God, and turned over all the booty to the LORD. It was as if God was extracting tribute from these other nations through Israel. Right?

2 Sa. 10: David Wins More Wars

2 Samuel 10:19 "When all the kings who were vassals of Hadadezer saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with the Israelites and became subject to them. So the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore."

This is a chapter about more military victories for David against surrounding nations. Every time I read about a confrontation, I'm kind of waiting for some sort of screw up where the nation of Israel does something to screw up. But they must be in a groove right now. And I most wonder about their spiritual lives at this point, because whatever David does, God gives them the victory. Is God doing this for David, or the nation of Israel as a whole? I want to believe it's for David, because I can't imagine the nation of Israel having it all together for this long.

David's delegation of sympathy for a deceased Ammonite king Hanun's father is misread as spying, and David's people have their beards cut, and their clothes cut off in a revealing way. They almost immediately realize they've screwed up, so they do what they think is best, and assemble a huge Aramean army for what they assume will be massive blowback from David. And victory for David. David may not have had any intent to attack them until they assembled an army. This is interesting to me. They realized their mistake, and instead of admitting their error, they got all defensive and prepared for war. So David gave the Ammonites something to cry about, but kicking hiney. They tried to regroup, but David was right there, with his expert commanders, Joab and Abishai, and they tear it up.

They should have just apologized.