1-2 Samuel Week Twenty-Eight: 2 Samuel 1:1-27

Now it came about after the death of Saul, when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, that David remained two days in Ziklag. 2 On the third day, behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul, with his clothes torn and dust on his head. And it came about when he came to David that he fell to the ground and prostrated himself. 3 Then David said to him, “From where do you come?” And he said to him, “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.” 4 David said to him, “How did things go? Please tell me.” And he said, “The people have fled from the battle, and also many of the people have fallen and are dead; and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also.” 5 So David said to the young man who told him, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?” 6 The young man who told him said, “By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and behold, Saul was leaning on his spear. And behold, the chariots and the horsemen pursued him closely. 7 When he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me. And I said, ‘Here I am.’ 8 He said to me, ‘Who are you?’ And I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’ 9 Then he said to me, ‘Please stand beside me and kill me, for agony has seized me because my life still lingers in me.’ 10 So I stood beside him and killed him, because I knew that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown which was on his head and the bracelet which was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord.”

11 Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and so also did all the men who were with him. 12 They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan and for the people of the Lord and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. 13 David said to the young man who told him, “Where are you from?” And he answered, “I am the son of an alien, an Amalekite.” 14 Then David said to him, “How is it you were not afraid to stretch out your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?” 15 And David called one of the young men and said, “Go, cut him down.” So he struck him and he died. 16 David said to him, “Your blood is on your head, for your mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have killed the Lord’s anointed.’”

17 Then David chanted with this lament over Saul and Jonathan his son, 18 and he told them to teach the sons of Judah the song of the bow; behold, it is written in the book of Jashar.

19 “Your beauty, O Israel, is slain on your high places!
How have the mighty fallen!
20 “Tell it not in Gath,
Proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon,
Or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice,
The daughters of the uncircumcised will exult.
21 “O mountains of Gilboa,
Let not dew or rain be on you, nor fields of offerings;
For there the shield of the mighty was defiled,
The shield of Saul, not anointed with oil.
22 “From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty,
The bow of Jonathan did not turn back,
And the sword of Saul did not return empty.
23 “Saul and Jonathan, beloved and pleasant in their life,
And in their death they were not parted;
They were swifter than eagles,
They were stronger than lions.
24 “O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul,
Who clothed you luxuriously in scarlet,
Who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.
25 “How have the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle!
Jonathan is slain on your high places.
26 “I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan;
You have been very pleasant to me.
Your love to me was more wonderful
Than the love of women.
27 “How have the mighty fallen,
And the weapons of war perished!”—2 Samuel 1:1-27

Sermon Outline

1. A Truth(MULTILINE)
2. A Response(MULTILINE)
3. A of Remorse(MULTILINE)

References

1 Samuel 30:6

1 Samuel 31:3-6

Luke 6:27-30

Romans 12:14-15

Romans 13:1-2

1 Samuel 31:9-10

Proverbs 17:17

Proverbs 18:24

Weekly Study Guide

Throughout my life, I have experienced several significant “aha” moments—times when a crucial piece of the puzzle fell into place, and my eyes were opened to a new clarity regarding the Bible, God’s plan, or even reality itself that had previously been fuzzy. When they occur, these experiences can leave indelible imprints on you. One such moment happened during a particularly challenging season of my life—a dark, desert time through which God was clearly molding and shaping me. I was searching for direction in life—desperate for even a glimpse of where God would have me serve Him. I distinctly remember one day, sitting in my car, listening to a favorite Bible teacher, when this teacher said something that caused one of those puzzle pieces to fall into place. It was a moment of clarity that opened my eyes to the fact that there was so much more to God’s revelation than I had previously imagined or had been taught. My years of studying the Bible had created for me a picture of the story of the Bible, but many holes remained, and a simple observation by this teacher helped so much more of God and His Word make sense for me.

I don’t remember the topic. But I do remember realizing the impact that gaining an awareness of the big picture of God’s plan had on me. Seeing more clearly the broad strokes of His plan helped all the individual stories in scripture make so much more sense. Better grasping the big picture actually inspired in me a passionate desire to make the study of God’s Word my life’s work. This set me along a path that has defined my spiritual walk ever since. As I continued to pursue an understanding of the broad strokes of God’s plan, I would later discover that the covenants God reveals in scripture are those broad strokes. They are the pillars upon which all of salvation history rests.

In book one of our 1^st & 2^nd Samuel study guide, we began a journey through scripture, examining what God has to say about His plan to redeem the world, and how that plan centers on the nation of Israel and the Messiah that would come from that nation. Our journey involved opening up the historical, theological, and cultural context of how Israel is presented in scripture. We saw how crucial it is to explore more fully all that context entails. Context is so much more than simply noticing just the paragraphs that come before and after our chosen verse or passage. It involves exploring the historical background in which the story lies and seeking out how the recipients of scripture would have understood what was being written to them. For the New Testament, that context is unarguably Jewish. When we begin to read the New Testament through that specific cultural context, the precise message of the New Testament comes into focus.

We went on, in book one, to explore the role and primacy of Israel in the plan of God. We saw how Jewish the New Covenant is—a covenant God made with the nation of Israel. We, in the predominantly Gentile church, do benefit from this covenant, but it was not a covenant made with the church. We are grafted, contrary to nature, into those promises (Romans 11). In discussing the Jewishness of the New Covenant, we were laying a foundation for where our journey would take us in book two. It was there, in book two, that we embarked on the next stage of our journey—an exploration of all the covenants God makes in scripture. When we zoom back, we understand that the covenants serve as the super-structure upon which hangs God’s revelation of Himself. It is through the covenants God has revealed the major steps in His plan to redeem the world back to Himself.

We looked at the first three covenants in scripture, the Edenic, Adamic, and Noahic Covenants, and discussed how these three were contracts God made with the world at large. As history progressed and man’s circumstances changed, God made new arrangements with mankind that set out the new parameters for how He would interact with humanity. But then, in Genesis chapter 12, everything changed. It was here that God took the first step in implementing His plan of rescuing the world from the sin predicament into which we had plunged ourselves. We saw how Genesis 12 transitioned us from prologue to Act One, scene one, of the unfolding drama of redemption. Here, God created a brand-new nation through the choice of one man, Abraham—through whom would spring forth a nation—through which God would send a savior. From then on, all of the covenants that appear in scripture are made with the nation of Israel. By far, the most important of these covenants is the contract God made with Abraham, the Abrahamic Covenant.

We then spent the second half of book two exploring different aspects of this Abrahamic Covenant and discovered that it is the source, and fount, from which flows all the promises of God regarding salvation. One cannot overstate the importance of the Abrahamic Covenant in salvation history. It is God’s promise to bless the world. And when you properly understand the term “blessing” here to ultimately refer to salvation, you begin to see that it is the most important promise in history. We discovered that the Abrahamic Covenant is unilateral, unconditional, and eternal. And we also introduced the idea that the remaining covenants (which we will explore shortly) are simply elaborations of the three main components of that Abrahamic Covenant—namely: land, seed, and blessing. The rest of scripture can be seen as God simply entering into additional covenants with Israel to amplify and clarify those three aspects of that overarching promise He gave to Abraham. The Land covenant (Deut 29-30) elaborates on the “land” aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant. The Davidic Covenant (2 Sam 7) elaborates on the “seed” aspect. And the New Covenant elaborates on the “blessing” aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant (Jer 31; Ezek 36). Unpacking these covenants will be the next phase of our journey. But before we dive into that phase, we need to touch briefly on how the covenants relate to one another, and in doing so, discuss the Mosaic Covenant.

Earlier, in book two, we mentioned that the covenants’ relationship to one another highlights and clarifies the purpose of each. We start with the understanding that the Abrahamic Covenant is God’s overarching promise to bless. It is the umbrella promise under which the other covenants reside. But when God gave Abraham that promise, there was not yet a nation of Israel. It did not come along until hundreds of years later, under Moses. Thus, in the Abrahamic Covenant, God did not give any details for how this blessing would be lived out—how His people would be able to enjoy the blessings promised. God waited to reveal these details at the appropriate time—that is, when Israel became a nation. These forthcoming details would come in the Mosaic Covenant. In this way, the Abrahamic Covenant is a “promise covenant” and the Mosaic Covenant is the “administrative covenant”, or “housekeeping covenant”, that reveals the means God established for His people to experience the blessing of the Abrahamic covenant. In other words, God first makes an over-arching promise, and then later, when the need arises, gives the details of how that promise will be implemented in the life of the people. So, what does this look like?

When God chose Abraham, He gave Abraham a promise of blessing. But as we saw earlier, God reveals His plans to His people little by little, bit by bit—as the need arises. So, Abraham—and the Patriarchs that followed him—could not fully understand how to live lives pleasing to God, as they only had been given the promise. God had given them a measure of revelation, and then, as they demonstrated obedience, more of that revelation came. This is one of the reasons why the Abrahamic Covenant was unconditional. It is simply a promise to bless. We called this a “Royal Grant Treaty”. This was one of the ways people in the Ancient Near East entered into contracts and formal relationships with one another. We covered this more extensively when we introduced the Abrahamic Covenant in book two.

But another common form of contract or treaty used at that time was called a “Suzerain-Vassal Treaty”. This was a conditional agreement made between a king (Suzerain) and his subjects (vassals). As mentioned in book two, Dr. Bock describes it like this: “This kind of covenant is not a grant to a particular subject but a bilateral agreement between the king and the nation subject to him in which the king promises to allow his subjects to enjoy life under his beneficent reign in return for their loyal service to him.”  This second form is what is seen in the Mosaic Covenant where God (the Suzerain) contracts with his subjects (the Israelites). This covenant contains both blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. Thus, we see it is conditional. Under this covenant, God says, “If you obey me, you will be blessed. But if you disobey, you will experience the curse.” This is very different than the Abrahamic Covenant in which God simply says, “I will bless.”

Understanding the difference here between conditional and unconditional is the important first step in understanding the relationship between the covenants. God unconditionally promised Abraham blessing in the Abrahamic Covenant—blessing that would extend down through generation after generation of his offspring. But it was not until Abraham’s offspring actually became a nation that God laid out for them the answer to the “how” question. How would they be able to access the blessings in that overarching promise God made to Abraham? The conditional covenant God made with Moses (as the people’s representative) gave the people these details. This is what we call the Mosaic Law—the list of 613 rules, commands, and regulations that was very much a contractual agreement between God and His redeemed people for how they were to receive His blessing in the land and thus, be a channel of blessing to the world. These were the privileges and duties of a covenant nation. God laid out these expectations to the people at Mt. Sinai, and the people responded, “All that you have said, we will do” (Ex 19:8). This statement was Israel signing its name to this covenant.

And just as a preview for where we are headed…the reason that the church is not required to keep the Mosaic Law is that the Mosaic Law was intended only for Israel, not for the church. We live under a different set of laws—a different housekeeping covenant that details how we are able to access the promised blessing of the Abrahamic Covenant. Next time, we will get into the details of what the Mosaic Covenant included.

(MULTILINE)

Discussion Questions

1. Significant events can etch their way into our memories. What famous person’s death do you recall most vividly, and why? (MULTILINE)
2. What was surprising in this chapter? What do you think the messenger was trying to accomplish by how he interacted with David? Why do you think David ordered the death of the Amalekite messenger? How might this relate to David refusing to “touch the Lord’s anointed” back in the cave when he had the chance to kill Saul (1 Sam 24)?  What does this teach us about David and his view of God’s sovereignty? What do we learn about David’s character from how he reacted to the death of Saul? (MULTILINE)
3. What was the slaughter of the Amalekites mentioned in the first verse and how might it have affected David? In what state of mind might have David been when he got the news of Saul’s death? How might David’s reaction to Saul’s death have impacted those around him, especially in their future dealings with David as their king? What does this story reveal about God, His timing, His sovereignty, and the kind of trust we owe Him? (MULTILINE)
4. Why do you think David mourned for his enemy Saul? What does this teach us about forgiveness and reconciliation? What do we learn about David’s feelings for Jonathan in the song he sang? How do you think most people would have reacted in David’s situation? (MULTILINE)
5. In what ways does this chapter speak to the importance of integrity? How might this lesson influence your own view of God-given authority? How might it influence your perspective on conflict resolution and leadership? In what ways might we seek to show respect and love to those who have wronged us? What is one way that you can leave things in God’s hands this week? (MULTILINE)

Going Deeper

1. Why wasn’t David involved in this battle with the Philistines? In God’s providence, why do you think it would have ultimately helped David’s cause, that he was in no way involved in the death of Saul? How might David have seen being away at the battle with the Amalekites as a blessing in disguise? How do you think the people would have reacted if David was connected with Saul’s defeat, whether through participation or inaction? Why is it important for us to look for the hand of God in every situation in life and how does this rightly orient us to God? (MULTILINE)
2. What do we learn about David’s heart from the Song of the Bow? What does David say about Saul and Jonathan in this song? Why do you think David would want this song taught to the sons of Judah? How would this serve as a method of healing and promote forgiveness in their hearts? What role does mourning and remembrance play in our lives? (MULTILINE)

Transformational Activity

Community

David and his community were mourning and weeping over the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. Mourning is an activity most appropriately done in community. We were meant to mourn and weep alongside one another as we bear one another’s burdens. Think of some times when you were comforted by your community in a season of hurt or need. Think through how God has provided for you through friends and family, and how you are called to do the same for them. Pray this week, thanking God for His provision and for the lessons we can learn about God through seasons of struggle that we cannot learn otherwise.