David consolidated his rule

Today (January 28) is the feast day of one of the greatest theologians, St. Thomas Aquinas. He was called by various titles, such as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Universalis and Doctor Communis. His contribution to the Church is indisputable. May St. Thomas pray for us, his descendants to continue to contemplate the mystery of our dear Jesus. Amen.

The first book of Samuel finishes with the tragic death of Saul. Not wanting to die a humiliating death in the hands of the Philistines, Saul committed suicide in the battle at Gilboa (1 Samuel 31:4).
Today,  we start reading the 2^nd book of Samuel. It opened with the story of a young, opportunistic Amalekite.  He took the crown and amulet from the corpse of Saul in the battle field, came before David to claim credit for killing Saul! The reasoning of this greedy Amelekite was wrong. Who would want to put on someone else's crown, especially a blood-stained one? This crown must carry such a curse with it that the king who wore it died violently. Indeed, if a potential king is happy to see the previous king dead, he must be a usurper. Sooner or later, he himself will be usurped. David would not allow such stupidity to stain his fame, creating unnecessary obstacles for his future rule. He knew the intention of the Amalekite. He would not allow such a liar any room in his court. David had this Amalekite killed because he claimed to have done something even David himself would not do --- to kill the Lord's anointed (2 Samuel 1:2-16). Had David rewarded this Amalekite, he would have invited more opportunists and even usurpers to encircle him in the future. Where and when did this shepherd boy learn such wisdom?
Then, David moved to Hebron and the men of Judah came to anoint him king over the house of Judah (2 Samuel 2:4). He began his manoeuvres to win over the rest of the 12 tribes. At the same time, Abner, the commander of Saul's army took Ishbosheth, the son of Saul to Mahanaim and made him king over all Israel (2 Samuel 2:8-9).
The house of Saul (Israel) in the north and the house of David (Judah) in the south were competing for the full control of the land. In a battle at Gibeon, Abner killed Asahel, one of 3 brothers. In that battle, Abner lost 360 men, while David 20 (2 Samuel 2:30-31). Obviously, David was militarily more superior and was on the rise. Abner had to plan for himself. Meanwhile, Abner was making himself strong in the house of Saul (2 Samuel 3:6). He was a potential usurper. He was prepared to hand Ishbosheth over to David to secure a covenant with David! Abner thought he knew David through and through, from his date with Goliath until this day. He was confident to be able to outwit David. Upon David's request, Abner brought Michal (David's former wife, daughter of Saul) along to negotiate a peace covenant. He promised to return to the north to persuade the other tribes to make David king. Winning your enemy without fighting was obviously a good option for David. Abner went away in peace (2 Samuel 3:21).
Unfortunately for Abner, Joab, a brother of the dead Asahel, returned from raids and knew of his whereabout. Joab caught Abner up and killed him in revenge for Asahel's death (2 Samuel 3:22-27). When David knew this, he distanced himself from Joab, cursed his house and made a public mourning for Abner (2 Samuel 3:28-34), calling Abner a prince and a great man (2 Samuel 3:38). David must have won a lot of good will from the leaders of the other tribes.
Meanwhile, two captains of Ishbosheth were eager to gain favour in David's eyes. They murdered Ishbosheth in his sleep and brought his head to David to claim reward. Instead, David had them killed, like the Amalekite (2 Samuel 4:2-12). Had Ishbosheth been handed over to David by Abner, he would not have died such a terrible death. David would surely treat him well. Remember, so far, none of the family members of Saul was directly killed by David. As for those 2 captains, had they not learnt the lesson of the Amalekite? Had they been duped by someone to think that David would welcome such a move, would reward someone to do the dirty job for him? Did David engineer all this? We could only speculate.
After the death of Ishbosheth, the only legitimate, surviving contender to the throne was the son of Jonathan, Mephibosheth who was crippled in his feet (2 Samuel 4:4). David treated him well. His throne had already been secured after Ishbosheth's death. It seems that the only way to survive these bloody royal feuds is to be crippled. Being crippled seems to be a blessing rather than a curse when you are in such a hopeless position. In fact, once when he was a fugitive running for his life from the murderous threat of Saul, David had to fake insanity in front of king Achish of Gath in order to keep his life (1 Samuel 21:10-15).
The elders of Israel came to David at Hebron and anointed him king over Israel (2 Samuel 5:3). That was some time around 1000 B.C. Therefore, David was anointed three times, by Samuel in Bethlehem (1 Samuel 16:13); and twice in Hebron by the elders of Judah (2 Samuel 2:4) and the elders of Israel (2 Samuel 5:3).
Coincidentally, one of the greatest Chinese military theorists, Sun Pun 孫臏 (300 BC), suffered the combined incidents of both Mephibosheth and David in his life. Pong Juan 龐涓 and Sun were fellow classmates in the art of war. Sun had greater achievement and Pong was jealous. Without finishing his studies, Pong left and became a military adviser in Kingdom Wei 魏. Later, when Sun paid him a visit, Pong tricked Sun and had his knee caps removed so that he became crippled. Sun had to fake insanity in order to fool Pong to retain his life. In the end, under the arrangement of Sun, Pong was shot a thousand arrows and died at a spot designated by Sun. Life can be such a blood and claws drama!