Finding Victory in Prayer (1 Chron 14.10, 14)

David enquired of God, “If I attack the Philistines, will you deliver them into my hands?”

When David again inquired of God, God said to him, “You shall not go up after them; go around and come on them opposite the balsam trees.”

Background

Following the nine chapters of genealogies, First Chronicles begins the narrative section with the reign of King Saul (9.35-10.14). But prayer is not mentioned until the author begins to tell is about David. This is intentional—Saul is a negative example, David is a positive example. The author spends chapter 11-19 on David, which contains six prayers.

The first prayer by Davis is a petition—David needs some direction from God. The writer of Chronicles does something interesting with this prayer. Unlike the author of Samuel, who basically tells the history of Israel in chronological form, the Chronicler mixes stories around to make his theological point more clear. After describing David’s anointing and becoming king, the author tells about David making plans to build a palace and a temple, and the bringing of the Ark to Jerusalem. This is important—a successful king builds a lot and honors his God.

In the midst of this activity, the Chronicler tells us two events that we are familiar with from Second Samuel—an attack by the Philistines, both of which include prayers by David.¹ In fact, including these prayers here is central to what the author wants us to understand about success and victory, even though they happened at another time chronologically.

David assembled his army to meet the enemy at the valley of Rephaim. He asked God if he should attack. God answered “yes.” Israel was victorious and David had their idols burned. But the Philistines regrouped and made another raid. Once again David seeks God’s guidance. This time, God tells him to go around and the enemy. At God’s command, David attacked from the rear and was once again victorious.

As we noted in a previous post, one of the Chroniclers’ major themes is that seeking and following God leads to victory; ignoring Him leads to defeat. We see this clearly by comparing Saul’s previous battles against the Philistines with these battles of David.

1. Saul had encountered the Philistines, and lost (10.1-10). David encountered them and won.
2. When Saul lost, the pagan gods were praised (10.10); when David won, they were ruined.
3. Saul did not seek God’s guidance or follow it (10:13-14); David sought and followed.

Meaning

First Chronicles shows us that David was blessed by God in three major stories. First, his friendship with King Hiram resulting in David being able to construct magnificent buildings. Second, David had many sons, which was considered a great blessing in that world because it meant the family and its heirs were strong enough to carry on. The great victories over the attacking Philistines are more blessings.