David’s conquest of Jerusalem serves us several lessons. Firstly, David did not engage in a frivolous battle. The land was ceded to Judah as far back as the time of Joshua. He was fighting for the inheritance of his tribe. It is important to pick one’s battles wisely. It is neither a show of bravery or wisdom to fight over everything. In his chronicles, Joshua mentioned how the children of Judah failed to conquer Jerusalem. ”As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.” (Joshua 15:63 NKJV).The time span between Joshua and David was about 500 years. So David succeeded where his forbears faltered. This captures the second lesson. Every generation must be an improvement on previous ones and push the frontiers of accomplishment.

David brushed aside their intimidation and got the victory…If you want to do great things in life you must first confront everything trying to intimidate you.

The third lesson is in form of a probe. Why did so many generations of Judah fail to appropriate what was ceded to them by God? Whenever a gap exists between what God promised and the realities in people’s lives, the lapses are certainly from man’s side. The Bible did not give a clear picture of why Judah hesitated, but we can reasonably pin it down to intimidation. The Jebusites were known to be a strong, warring people. From our text, they tried to intimidate David with their words that even the blind and the lame would be enough to repel him. David brushed aside their intimidation and got the victory. This brings us back to our conclusion in the previous meditation. If you want to do great things in life you must first confront everything trying to intimidate you.