David Hears of Saul’s Death. David said to him, “How did it go? Please tell me.” He answered, “The people have fled from the battle. Also, many of the people have fallen and are dead; Saul and Jonathan his son are also dead.” 2 Sa 1:4
THE REIGN OF DAVID
INTRODUCTION
The Second Book of Samuel is devoted entirely to the reign of David. His coronation, first by Judah and then by all of the tribes, his wars and conquests, his care for the religious life of the people, his sins, and the calamities he suffered, are impartially set forth in vivid and convincing narrative.
“A very notable thing in the books of Samuel,” says James Robertson, “is the prominence given to music and song. There is in these books an unusual number of poetical pieces ascribed to this period, and all the indications put together give ample justification for the fame of David as the sweet singer of Israel, and for the ascription to him of the origin of that volume of sacred song which never ceased in Israel, and has become embodied in the Psalms.”
1. How did David receive the news of the death of Saul and of Jonathan?
DAVID HEARS OF SAUL’S DEATH
Now it happened after the death of Saul, when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, that he stayed two days in Ziklag.
On the third day a man came [unexpectedly] from Saul’s camp with his clothes torn and dust on his head [as in mourning]. When he came to David, he bowed to the ground and lay himself face down [in an act of great respect and submission].
Then David asked him, “Where do you come from?” He said, “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.”
David said to him, “How did it go? Please tell me.” He answered, “The people have fled from the battle. Also, many of the people have fallen and are dead; Saul and Jonathan his son are also dead.”
So David said to the young man who informed him, “How do you know Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?”
And the young man who told him explained, “By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and there was Saul leaning on his spear, and the chariots and horsemen [of the Philistines] were close behind him.
When he turned to look behind him, he saw me, and called to me. And I answered, ‘Here I am.’
He asked me, ‘Who are you?’ I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’
He said to me, ‘Stand up facing me and kill me, for [terrible] agony has come over me, yet I still live [and I will be taken alive].’
So I stood facing him and killed him, because I knew that he could not live after he had fallen. Then I took the crown which was on his head and the band which was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord.” [1Sa_31:4]
Then David grasped his own clothes and tore them [in mourning]; so did all the men who were with him.
They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and Jonathan his son, and for the LORD’S people and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword [in battle].
David said to the young man who informed him, “Where are you from?” He answered, “I am the son of a foreigner (resident alien, sojourner), an Amalekite.”
David said to him, “How is it that you were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy the LORD’S anointed?”
David called one of the young men and said, “Go, execute him.” So he struck the Amalekite and he died.
David said to the [fallen] man, “Your blood is on your own head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have killed the LORD’S anointed.'”
DAVID HEARS OF SAUL’S DEATH
TOUCH NOT MINE ANOINTED
The scene changes from Gilboa to Ziklag, whither the tidings were carried by an Amalekite. It is remarkable to notice how David received them. Though he had spent years in the rough life of a freebooter, surrounded by coarse and hardened men, he had not lost the delicacy and refinement of his earlier days. To men like Nabal, he seemed an outlaw; but those who were admitted to the inner circle of David’s friendship knew that there was a whole heaven of difference between him and the men who followed him. Let us see to it that by fellowship with God, we keep our nature uncontaminated by the world, its fine edge, not blunted, its bloom not brushed off.
It was genuine grief that made David rend his clothes, and a genuine emotion of horror that led to the execution of this self-confessed regicide. Then from the depths of a guileless heart there poured forth the “Song of the Bow,” one of the noblest elegies in any tongue. Let us speak tenderly of the dead. Let God in His infinite pity judge them, while we scatter rose-leaves on their graves.
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