The Author of the Victory Text: 1 Chronicles 18:12-13
Introduction: History with a Point
We live in an age that wants its history to be sterile, objective, and above all, godless. The modern historian approaches the past like a coroner performing an autopsy, meticulously cataloging the cause of death while remaining completely detached from the life that was lived. The result is a history that is a collection of facts without a plot, a series of events without a meaning. It is a story told by an idiot, signifying nothing.
The biblical historians, the men who wrote Chronicles, will have none of that. They are not coroners; they are prophets. They are not simply recording what happened; they are interpreting what happened. They are telling you what it all means because they know the Author of the story. For the Chronicler, history is not a random series of battles, treaties, and successions. History is the unfolding of God's covenant promises. It is a story with a hero, and that hero is God. Every battle won, every enemy subdued, every bit of plunder taken is another sentence in the grand narrative of God's faithfulness to His people and His king.
This is profoundly offensive to the modern mind, which wants man to be the hero of his own story. The secularist wants to believe that victories are won by superior strategy, better technology, or sheer force of will. But the Bible attributes all success, all victory, all deliverance to the hand of Yahweh. The human actors are real. Their swords are sharp, their courage is genuine, and their blood is red. But they are secondary causes. Behind the clash of bronze and the shouting of warriors stands the sovereign God, who gives the victory to whom He will. This passage is a case in point. It is a brief, almost blunt, summary of a military campaign. But embedded within it is the central theological claim of the entire Old Testament: God saves His people.
The Text
Moreover, Abishai the son of Zeruiah smote 18,000 of Edom in the Valley of Salt. Then he placed garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became servants to David. And Yahweh granted salvation to David wherever he went.
(1 Chronicles 18:12-13 LSB)
The Instrument of Victory (v. 12)
We begin with the human action, the sharp end of the spear.
"Moreover, Abishai the son of Zeruiah smote 18,000 of Edom in the Valley of Salt." (1 Chronicles 18:12)
The name Abishai should be familiar to us. He was one of the three "sons of Zeruiah," David's sister. These three men, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel, were David's nephews, his chief commanders, and a constant source of both strength and trouble. They were fierce, loyal, and utterly ruthless. David himself once lamented that the sons of Zeruiah were "too hard" for him. They were men of blood and violence, perfectly suited for a bloody and violent age. And here we see Abishai doing what he does best: killing the enemies of God's people.
Notice that the text does not flinch. It doesn't say he "defeated" them or "routed" them. He smote them. Eighteen thousand of them. This is not a sanitized, Sunday School version of history. This is the record of a brutal slaughter in a place called the Valley of Salt, likely a desolate region south of the Dead Sea. This is God's judgment being executed, and He is not using angels with flaming swords. He is using Abishai, son of Zeruiah.
This is a crucial point for us to grasp. God accomplishes His purposes in the real world through real men, flaws and all. Abishai was not a gentle soul. On another occasion, he wanted to take off the head of a man who was cursing David. David had to restrain him. But God took this fierce, violent man and used his particular set of skills to secure the borders of Israel and execute judgment on Edom. Edom, you will recall, were the descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother. Their rivalry was ancient, and Edom had a long history of opposing Israel. Their subjugation here is part of the long outworking of God's covenant promise to Abraham, and through him to Jacob, that his descendants would possess the land and have victory over their enemies.
God is not embarrassed to use rough men to do rough work. He is the Lord of history, and He uses the instruments He chooses. The victory is credited to Abishai's hand, because his hand held the sword. But as we are about to see, his hand was being guided by another.
The Fruit of Victory (v. 13a)
The battle is not the end of the story. The victory had lasting consequences.
"Then he placed garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became servants to David." (1 Chronicles 18:13a)
A decisive battle is one thing; establishing lasting dominion is another. After the slaughter, David's forces, here represented by Abishai, moved to consolidate their gains. They "placed garrisons in Edom." This means they established military outposts throughout the land to enforce the new political reality. Edom was now occupied territory.
The result was that "all the Edomites became servants to David." Their national sovereignty was broken. They were now a vassal state, required to pay tribute to King David. This was not an act of random imperial aggression. This was the fulfillment of prophecy. Hundreds of years earlier, Isaac had prophesied over his sons, Jacob and Esau. To Jacob, he said, "May peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you." And concerning Esau, it was said, "By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother" (Genesis 27:29, 40). Here, in the days of David, that prophecy finds its stark fulfillment. The older serves the younger.
This is what it looks like when God establishes His kingdom. It has real-world, geopolitical consequences. Borders shift. Kings are deposed. Nations are subjugated. David's growing empire was not a monument to his own ambition; it was a physical manifestation of God's covenant faithfulness. God had promised David a kingdom, an heir, and a throne that would last forever. Part of that promise involved giving him rest from all his enemies round about. This is what that rest looks like. It is a peace secured by the sword.
The Source of Victory (v. 13b)
Now, after recording the human action and the political result, the Chronicler pulls back the curtain and shows us the ultimate reality, the true cause of all these events.
"And Yahweh granted salvation to David wherever he went." (1 Chronicles 18:13b)
This is the divine commentary on everything that has just been said. This is the thesis statement for the entire chapter, and indeed for all of David's reign. Who smote the Edomites? Abishai did. Who subjugated Edom? David did. Who gave the victory? Yahweh did. The Hebrew word for "granted salvation" is the verb from which we get the name Joshua, or Jesus. It means to save, to deliver, to rescue. Here it is used in a military and political sense. Yahweh gave victory to David.
And notice the scope: "wherever he went." This was not a one-time fluke. It was not a lucky break in the Valley of Salt. Whether David went north against the Syrians, east against the Ammonites, or south against the Edomites, the result was the same. Victory. Why? Because Yahweh was with him. David's military success was not the result of his own genius, though he was a brilliant commander. It was not due to the ferocity of the sons of Zeruiah, though they were mighty warriors. It was the direct, gracious, sovereign intervention of God on behalf of His anointed king.
This is the fundamental Creator/creature distinction at work in history. Man acts, but God ordains. Man fights, but God gives the victory. To attribute David's success to anything other than the hand of God would be idolatry. It would be to praise the axe for the forest it felled, forgetting the one who swung it. The Chronicler will not allow us to make that mistake. He forces us to lift our eyes from the bloody valley floor and to see the hand of the God who governs all things from His throne in heaven.
The Greater David's Salvation
Why is this brief, violent account preserved for us in Holy Scripture? Is it merely to give us a granular detail of ancient Israelite foreign policy? No. It is to point us to a greater David and a greater salvation.
David was God's anointed king, and God gave him victory over all his enemies. But David's kingdom was a shadow, a type, of the kingdom of his greatest Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the true anointed one, the Messiah. And God has granted Him a far greater salvation, a far greater victory.
Like Abishai, Jesus went into the Valley of Salt, the desolate place of death and judgment. On the cross, He engaged our greatest enemies: Sin, Death, and the Devil. And there, He smote them. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Himself (Colossians 2:15). It was a bloody, violent affair, but the victory was total and complete.
And like David, He has established His dominion. He has placed His garrisons throughout the earth, which we call churches. And all His enemies are being made His footstool. He is ruling and reigning now, and all those who were once servants of sin can become servants of the great King. The promise is that Yahweh will grant salvation to this greater David "wherever he goes." And where does He go? He goes to the ends of the earth through the proclamation of the gospel. And wherever that gospel goes, it brings salvation. It conquers hearts, overthrows idols, and establishes the reign of King Jesus.
This little passage reminds us that our God is not a distant, deistic clockmaker. He is a warrior and a king who actively fights for His people. The victories He gave to David are a down payment and a promise of the final victory He will give to us in Jesus Christ. Therefore, we should not trust in our own strength or wisdom, but in the God who grants salvation. For the battle belongs to the Lord.