The Anointed King and His Conquering Grace Text: 1 Chronicles 18:1-2
Introduction: The Kingdom Advances
We live in an age that is squeamish about victory. Our generation of Christians has been taught to be suspicious of triumph, to spiritualize every battle, and to relegate the kingdom of God to a wispy, ethereal realm somewhere in the sweet by-and-by. We speak of Jesus as Lord, but we act as though He is a Lord in exile, wringing His hands over a world spiraling out of His control. We have traded the muscular, conquering faith of our fathers for a sentimental, therapeutic piety that is embarrassed by the Old Testament and terrified of what the New York Times might say about us.
But the Scriptures will not have it. The Bible is a book of war. It is the story of God's long war against the serpent and his seed, a war that culminates in the crushing victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the earthly life of David, the man after God's own heart, is given to us as a type, a pattern, a foreshadowing of the reign of this greater Son of David. The wars of David are not unfortunate, bloody episodes we must apologize for; they are the necessary work of establishing God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. They are a grammar lesson, teaching us how the true King establishes His reign.
In the previous chapter, God made a covenant with David, promising him a house, a kingdom, and a throne forever. This was an unconditional promise of grace. And what is the immediate result of this promise? David goes to war. This is crucial. God's grace does not lead to passivity; it fuels holy aggression. The promise of victory does not lead us to put our feet up; it leads us to sharpen our swords. David, secure in God's covenant, now moves to execute God's judgments and extend the borders of God's kingdom. This chapter is a record of David's victories, and it is here to teach us that the Anointed One, the Christ, will without fail subdue all His enemies under His feet.
We must therefore read this not as a detached historical account but as a prophecy of our own time. We are living in the age of David's greater Son. The kingdom has been inaugurated, and the King is on the move. He is striking down His enemies and subduing them, not with swords of steel, but with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The nations are being discipled. And so, the principles we see here, the principles of divinely-appointed conquest and submission, are the very principles that govern the advance of the gospel in the world today.
The Text
Now it happened afterwards, that David struck the Philistines and subdued them and took Gath and its towns from the hand of the Philistines.
He also struck Moab, and the Moabites became servants to David, bringing tribute.
(1 Chronicles 18:1-2 LSB)
Subduing the Old Foe (v. 1)
We begin with the first of these holy wars in verse 1:
"Now it happened afterwards, that David struck the Philistines and subdued them and took Gath and its towns from the hand of the Philistines." (1 Chronicles 18:1)
The phrase "it happened afterwards" connects this chapter directly to the covenant God made with David in chapter 17. Because God has promised, David now acts. Faith is not a feeling; it is obedience fueled by promise. The first enemy on the docket is the Philistines. This is fitting. The Philistines had been a thorn in Israel's side for generations. They were the perennial enemy, the constant threat on the western flank. They were the nation of Goliath.
Remember that David's public life began with a victory over the Philistine champion. He faced down the giant not with armor and spear, but in the name of the Lord of Hosts. That initial victory was a seed, and here we see the harvest. The one who killed the giant now takes the giant's hometown. Gath was one of the five major Philistine cities, the very home of Goliath. By taking Gath, David is not just winning a battle; he is making a theological statement. He is demonstrating that the God who can fell the champion can also conquer the champion's city. The Lord finishes what He starts.
Notice the verbs: David "struck" and "subdued" them. This is not a negotiated peace treaty. This is conquest. The Hebrew word for "struck" is nakah, a word that means to smite, to attack, to kill. The word for "subdued" means to bring into submission. This is the language of righteous warfare. The enemies of God's people, who have set themselves against His purposes, are to be brought low. This is not personal vengeance. This is covenantal justice, executed by God's anointed king.
For us, the Philistines represent those old, lingering, institutional sins that have plagued the people of God. They represent the Goliaths of unbelief, whether in our own hearts or in the culture, that defy the armies of the living God. And the lesson is this: the grace of God in Christ is not just for forgiving these sins, but for subduing them. The gospel is a declaration of war against every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Christ did not die to make peace with our Philistine habits; He died to give us the grace to strike them down and take their cities.
Receiving Righteous Tribute (v. 2)
Next, David turns his attention to the east, to the nation of Moab.
"He also struck Moab, and the Moabites became servants to David, bringing tribute." (1 Chronicles 18:2 LSB)
Moab has a complicated history with Israel. They were descended from Lot, Abraham's nephew, so they were kin. Ruth, David's own great-grandmother, was a Moabitess. And yet, the Moabites had repeatedly stood against Israel. They hired Balaam to curse God's people and led them into idolatry and sexual sin at Peor. Their kindness was fickle and their opposition to God's covenant purposes was consistent.
So David "struck" Moab as well. The parallel account in 2 Samuel 8 gives us the grim detail that he made them lie down and measured them with a line, putting two-thirds to death and sparing one-third. Modern sensibilities recoil at this, but we must not impose our sentimentalism on the text. This was an act of judicial severity against a nation that had earned God's judgment. David was not acting as a private citizen but as God's magistrate, the "servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer" (Romans 13:4).
But notice the result. "The Moabites became servants to David, bringing tribute." This is a foundational principle of kingdom economics. When the enemies of God are subdued, their wealth is consecrated to the service of God's king. Tribute is the acknowledgment of submission. It is the fruit of repentance. The silver and gold that once funded pagan temples and armies now flows into the treasury of the Lord's anointed to be used for the building of God's house.
This is a picture of the Great Commission. The nations are called to submit to Jesus Christ. When they do, they are not annihilated; they are incorporated into His kingdom. They become His servants. And they bring their tribute. That is, they bring the glory and the honor of the nations into the new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:26). They bring their unique cultural treasures, their art, their music, their intellectual achievements, and they lay them at the feet of King Jesus. The goal of the gospel is not to destroy cultures, but to baptize them. It is to strike down their rebellion and subdue their idolatry so that they might become servants of the true King, bringing Him the tribute of their worship and obedience.
Conclusion: The Greater David's Reign
This short passage is a microcosm of the entire story of redemption. It is a story of grace leading to warfare, warfare leading to victory, and victory leading to a restored and ordered world where tribute is paid to the rightful king. David's actions here are a powerful type of the work of his greater Son, the Lord Jesus.
Jesus Christ, by His death and resurrection, has struck the ultimate Philistine, the Goliath of sin and death. He has conquered the grave and subdued the powers of darkness. He has taken the "strong man's" house and is plundering his goods. The covenant promise made to David finds its ultimate fulfillment in Him. God has given Him the nations for His inheritance, and the ends of the earth for His possession. He shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel (Psalm 2).
This breaking is happening now. For some, it is the breaking of judgment. For those who persist in their rebellion, who will not kiss the Son, His wrath is kindled against them. But for others, it is the breaking of conversion. It is the striking of the hard heart, the subduing of the rebellious will. It is the conquest of grace.
And the result is that we, who were once enemies, who were once Moabites in our hearts, have now become servants of the King. We have been conquered. And our lives are now to be lives of tribute. We bring our time, our talents, our treasures, our families, our work, and we lay it all at His feet. We do this not out of compulsion, but out of gratitude for the King who struck us with His grace in order to spare us from His wrath.
Therefore, let us not be ashamed of our conquering King. Let us not be embarrassed by the language of spiritual warfare and victory. The kingdom of God is not advanced through negotiation and compromise with the Philistines. It is advanced when the people of God, secure in His covenant promises, rise up in the power of the Spirit to strike down the strongholds of unbelief in their hearts, their homes, and their culture, all for the glory of the Son of David, who must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.