2 Samuel 12:26-31
Rabbah Is Captured (1 Chronicles 20:1–3)
26 Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the people of Ammon, and took the royal city. 27 And Joab sent messengers to David, and said, “I have fought against Rabbah, and I have taken the city’s water supply. 28 Now therefore, gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it, lest I take the city and it be called after my name.”
29 So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah, fought against it, and took it. 30 Then he took their king’s crown from his head. Its weight was a talent of gold, with precious stones. And it was set on David’s head. Also he brought out the spoil of the city in great abundance.
31 And he brought out the people who were in it, and put them to work with saws and iron picks and iron axes, and made them cross over to the brick works. So he did to all the cities of the people of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
King David was still staying at home (1 Chronicles 20:1) in Jerusalem when kings go out to battle while Joab did his fighting and gaining victory over their enemies. Joab took the royal city Rabbah in Ammon to the point of final victory and called David to come and finish the fight and take the credit as king to name the city after him. Joab was a loyal warrior even after having to play a part in the murder of Uriah for the king to take that man’s wife. David came with a small force to finish off Rabbah and he took the king’s crown for himself and brought the abundant spoils back home. As for the people of that city, he enslaved them as workers to serve Israel as he did with all the captives of every Ammonite city. He then returned to Jerusalem with the booty taken from the royal city which Joab had made possible to overcome. It may seem curious that he did not kill them all until we remember that the Ammonites were descended from Lot (Genesis 19:38, Deuteronomy 2:19) and were family (though tribal as inbred through Lot’s daughter), not of the ungodly nations Israel was to annihilate when possessing the promised land. This conquest shows David struggling to personally lead the army of the LORD into battle after the incident with Uriah and Bathsheba, yet also demonstrates the grace in the LORD honoring the repentant heart of David’s desire to yet serve as the anointed to bring the Seed of the Messiah to us through his lineage. The consequences remained in the conflicts of his family but we find hope in the election and of the calling of God (Romans 8:28, 2 Peter 1:10, Ephesians 1:4, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 14-15) for ourselves in his example of hope in reconciliation (Romans 5:10, 2 Corinthians 5:18, Colossians 1:20) to us all in the Seed who is the Anointed Christ Jesus. We have the reconciling grace of Jesus Christ to fight the good fight (2 Corinthians 10:4-5) against the enemy (Luke 10:19, 20) until the Lord returns to establish His eternal kingdom to come as we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer.
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