Read 2 Samuel 3:6-39
This chapter has a lot of political manoeuvring as the consequences of the death of Saul, king of God’s people, work themselves out. But, this being the Bible, these are not just political manoeuvrings, and we see God’s guiding hand, his providence at work.
At the beginning of our passage we see Abner, Saul’s general, strengthening his position among the ex-king’s followers and working towards making himself king. One of his ploys was to take the old king’s mistress. The problem was that one of Saul’s surviving sons, Ish-bosheth, challenged him about his actions – Ish-bosheth as Saul’s son would expect to be the next king. Abner, seeing that Ish-bosheth was not just going to roll over and let Abner have Saul’s kingdom, decided to throw in his lot with David. There was nothing theological in Abner’s decision even though he knew that David was promised the crown by the Lord (v9), this was sheer political expediency. It looked like he couldn’t become king himself with Ish-bosheth opposing him. But, if he took the support of the northern tribes, Saul’s traditional powerbase, to David, then David would surely reward him with high position – a good second prize and who knows what opportunities might then arise.
Abner entered into negotiations with David. David responded by accepting Abner’s proposal so long as he brings Michal, daughter of Saul with him (and Michal will play a significant part in David’s life later). David then sent Abner away granting him safe passage, but one of David’s generals who had a grudge came across him killed Abner.
There is a lot more detail and it can get very confusing as to what is going on, but the upshot is that David now has the support of almost all of the nation. God’s people, who were at civil war not so long ago, are pretty well united. With Saul dead and his son Ish-bosheth shorn of most of his follows there is now no real threat to David becoming king. The one individual who threatened to gain power and perhaps be a danger to David, Abner, had been killed. And David remained with his honour intact and without losing his new-found followers, because Abner had been killed without David’s knowledge and authority.
Things were falling in place for David to be unanimously accepted as king over all Israel. God promised the kingdom to David and indeed had Samuel anoint him, way back in 1 Samuel 16. And now it was coming into being, but only after an incredibly long and intricate series of events had taken place involving an awfully large number of people. For God’s will to come to fruition a lot of things had to happen in exactly the way the Lord wanted them to and if we stand back and go over all that has happened since 1 Samuel 16 then we get a sense of how wonderful God’s providence is, and how even the tiniest event or meeting of people is all part of God’s great plan in our lives. God is in control, God is sovereign.