2 Samuel 1

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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We thank You, Father, we're glad to come to You and worship You in each place and anywhere we want to.

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We thank You for this opportunity to be in Your house to study Your Word, and we thank You for that Bible that You have prepared so we may understand.

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Now we ask You to be with Mike when he is to lead our service.

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We ask You to watch over him and keep him from error.

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And again, we thank You for the love, joy, and happiness that You give to us each day.

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We pray this in the name of Jesus.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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So in case you're wondering why I'm standing here, it's because Brother Mike and Sister Sybil are out of town.

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Brother Andy's in the next room, the room affectionately known as Andy's room, and teaching from the book of Job.

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And we'll be starting our study in the book of 2 Samuel today.

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And I appreciate you asking God's blessing on our time, because if He doesn't bless, then our time will be spent in vain.

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Now, 2 Samuel was originally combined with 1 Samuel, and it stayed that way in the Hebrew text until the printing of the Hebrew Bible in 1517, and that's when the two were separated.

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The Septuagint, along with other Old Testament translations that came afterwards, divvied up Samuel and Kings into four books, and that would be 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 3 Kings, and 4 Kings, real original.

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And written during the Babylonian exile around 550 B.C., they're not sure who the author is.

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Some say it was penned by the prophet Jeremiah.

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There's problems with the timeline there.

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Others say that it was penned by Samuel himself, which would have for itself at least two reasons that would make it difficult.

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First of all, 1 Samuel begins before he's born.

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So that kind of makes it hard.

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And then secondly, it would be hard for him to have written it because anyone? Yeah, he dies back in chapter 25.

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So he's got six chapters to go.

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And we read clearly back in 25, 1, and Samuel died.

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And all the Israelites were gathered together and lamented him and buried him in his house at Ramah.

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So there's no ambiguity there.

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And if there was any doubt, chapter 28, verse 3 starts off, and it's just like the opening lines of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

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And Marley was dead.

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And it starts off, now Samuel was dead.

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So again, no doubt about it.

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Now Samuel could have been like Moses, who wrote the greater part, the larger part of Deuteronomy, just not the end where he dies.

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And that could be the same situation there.

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Most of the people I looked at said that they believed it was written by, or at least in greater portion, by Nathan and Gad.

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The theme of 2 Samuel continues to be as that of 1 Samuel, that there's virtue in humility, and there's destruction in pride, and God is always faithful in his promises.

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So the 2 Samuel, the next portion of this narrative, is unlike 1 Samuel in that 1 Samuel begins before Samuel is born, Hannah is barren, Eli blesses her, God answers her prayer for a child, she lends him to the Lord for his life.

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She obviously didn't understand the definition of lend, because she never got him back.

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She says she lent him to the Lord.

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But he grows up, God's calling on his life becomes more and more evident, and as he grows, despite being a good high priest, an upright high priest, his sons are not so, and the people cry out for a king, like the heathens around him.

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And Saul enters the picture as the answer to the people's desire for a king.

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In chapter 8, verses 19-20, we read, Nay, but we would have a king, that we may also be like the nations that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

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So Saul is anointed as king, and although he begins well, as Mike said last Lord's Day again, still success and faithfulness are not synonymous.

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Saul was successful in his military endeavors, at least at the beginning, but his faithfulness was found to be lacking at best.

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So then David comes on the scene as Saul's soothing musician, as his giant killer, as his mighty military man, and as his son-in-law.

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And the book ends in chapter 31 with Saul's death, and that of his armor bearer, and that of his three sons, and it's a sad ending at best.

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2 Samuel is not such a book, at least not in its regard to its primary character.

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David and his reign are front and center throughout the whole book, from beginning to end.

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So some commentators look at the book more politically, and so they divide it up with David's reign over Judah, chapter 1, through the end of chapter 4, and then his reign over all Israel, beginning with chapter 5 and through the end of chapter 12.

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But most, however, split it up based on spiritual content, dividing it up more along the lines of his triumphs, chapter 1, through the end of chapter 12, and then his troubles, chapter 13, through chapter 24, verse 25.

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So concerning that, George Williams wrote, David the king is the great figure of this book, and when walking in the light presents a rich type of Messiah, the king.

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The first part of the book records the victories which accompanied his life of faith and conflict.

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The second part relates the defeats he suffered when prosperity had seduced him from the path of faith.

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So without further ado, let's get into God's holy word and let him be the ultimate authority and teach us as we read.

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Beginning with verse 1, Now it came to pass after the death of Saul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had abode two days in Ziklag, it came to pass on the third day that, behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul with his clothes rent and earth upon his head, and so it was when he came to David that he fell to the earth and did obeisance.

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And David said unto him, From whence comest thou? And he said unto him, Out of the camp of Israel am I escaped.

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And David said unto him, How went the matter? I pray thee, tell me.

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And he answered, That the people are fled from the battle, and many of the people also are fallen and dead, and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also.

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And David said unto the young man that told him, How knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead? And the young man that told him said, As I happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa, behold, Saul leaned upon his spear, and, lo, the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him.

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And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called unto me.

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And I answered, Here am I.

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And he said unto me, Who art thou? And I answered him, I am an Amalekite.

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He said unto me again, Stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me, for anguish is come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me.

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So I stood upon him, and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen.

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And I took the crown that was upon his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them thither unto my lord.

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Then David took hold on his clothes, and rent them, and likewise all the men that were with him.

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And they mourned, and wept, and fasted, until even for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the Lord, and for the house of Israel, because they were fallen by the sword.

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And David said unto the young man that told him, Whence art thou? And he answered, I am the son of a stranger, an Amalekite.

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And David said unto him, How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed? And David called one of the young men, and said, Go near, and fall upon him.

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And he smote him that he died.

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And David said unto him, Thy blood be upon thy head, for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed.

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And David lamented with the lamentation over Saul, and Jonathan his son.

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Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow.

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Behold, it is written in the book of Jasher, The beauty of Israel is slain upon the high places.

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How are the mighty fallen? Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ascalon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.

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Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings.

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For there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil.

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From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back.

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The sword of Saul returned not empty.

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Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided.

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They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.

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Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel.

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How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle? O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thy high places.

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I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan.

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Very pleasant hast thou been unto me.

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Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.

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How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished? May God bless us with the reading and the hearing of his holy word.

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I've named this lesson, The King is Dead.

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Long live the King.

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So going back to verse 1, we'll look closer at it now.

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Now it came to pass after the death of Saul when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites.

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And David had abode two days in Ziklag.

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So the first thing that we need to do is work out somewhat of a timeline.

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And there's a good bit of travel and battles and death in this verse and the context that are leading up to it that aren't really spelled out here.

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So first of all, as we already said, Saul was dead.

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But at this point, remember, David is unaware of that.

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And the end of the verse tells us where he is.

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Where's he at? He's in Ziklag.

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He's home.

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And how is it that David is living in the land of the Philistines? He's living in the land of the enemies of the Hebrews? He was running from Saul.

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1 Samuel 27.

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And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul.

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There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines.

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And Saul shall despair of me to seek me any more in any coast of Israel.

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So shall I escape out of his hand.

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So David succumbs to what I would say is somewhat of a well-founded fear for his life.

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And though some may say it was just a lack of faith at the hand of Saul.

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And what does he do? But he flees to the land of another enemy.

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David does his imitation of the Beverly Hillbillies.

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He loads up the truck.

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In this case, he loads up his wives, his 600 men, their wives, their children, their stuff, and they move to Beverly.

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Or in this case, the land of the Philistines.

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More specifically, they move to Gath under the care of Achish, the son of Maok, who was the king of Gath.

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And when Saul hears of it, he seeks after David no more, it says.

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So David was right.

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And David asks Achish if he could, rather than dwell in the royal city, if he could take possession of a town somewhere out in the country, which Achish agrees to.

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He gives him the town of Ziklag, which was a small place about 23 miles away from Gath.

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So it was close enough to keep an eye on him, but not so close as you'd go and borrow a cup of sugar.

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And it's there in Ziklag that David and his band are living when the Philistines gather together because they're going to come together against Israel.

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And the Philistines, they encamped in Aphek.

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So they've got Aphek here, but here's Aphek here.

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And Ziklag is, where did we say it was? Ziklag is here.

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Alright, so we've got it there.

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And so that's where they're living at whenever the Philistines say they're going to come up against the Israelites.

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And Saul and the Israelites, they are all the way up here in Jezreel.

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So there's Aphek, there's Jezreel, Saul and the Philistines.

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And then, so it's some 40 miles apart.

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But remember, David and his company just didn't magically appear at Aphek.

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He was in Gath.

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He was talking with Achish.

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That's where Achish was at when he said, assuredly you'll join me in battle.

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And so David would need to return to Ziklag to get his men, which is 23 miles to the south, come another 23 miles back north, then travel another 30 miles from Ziklag, from, yeah, back up to Aphek.

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And from there, they would be starting off to where the battle was going to be at.

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So they began to travel with the main body of the army.

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And they are at the back of the troop.

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They said they were going out by their hundreds and by their thousands of soldiers whenever the princes of the Philistines discovered that David, the killer of Philistines, is in the troop.

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And despite Achish's pleas for David and his men to be allowed to stay and fight for him, they're told to go home in the morning.

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And so they leave the next morning and begin their trek back down some 50 miles from Ziklag, returning on the third day of their trip back home to Ziklag.

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And what do they find there? Places burnt.

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All their stuff is gone.

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All their people are gone.

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And David and his men are devastated.

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And they wept and said until they could weep no more.

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And then they changed tunes a little bit and David's distressed because then the people are thinking of stoning him to death.

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But then he encourages himself and the Lord, inquires of the Lord whether to go after these people.

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And the Lord says yes.

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And so then they head south.

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So, he said Ziklag was here.

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They start heading south.

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They go about, well they didn't really say how far they go.

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And then they come across this this young man, this Egyptian, out in the desert.

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They've got nothing to go on except for the confidence that the Lord told them that none would be lost.

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And so as they go, what do they find? But an Egyptian slave, he's been left to die by his master.

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And they revive him.

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They give him drink and they give him food and they give him sweets.

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And they strike a deal for his help as a guide as they go off.

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And again, this is some 50 miles or so more of a trek.

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So, they're heading down.

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Like I said, they had left Ziklag.

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They were starting to come down south just basically blind.

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Now they know they're headed to the land of the Himalakites because he told them that's where I'm from.

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And so David and two-thirds of his men cross over the Brook Besor because the other third of them were too weak to travel.

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They engage the enemy and kill them.

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And they're killing from twilight until evening.

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And they slaughter everybody except for 400 guys who escaped on camels.

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And then what do they do? What does David and his troop do? They plunder the plunder.

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All that of the Himalakites, which would have included what was their stuff to start off with anyway, you know, David's stuff.

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And then there was that of the Cherthites on the coast of Judah and the south of Caleb.

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So all that stuff plus his 600 men as he comes back over Besor and their families and their little ones and David's wife and all the cattle, all that head back up that 50-mile trek.

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As I was adding this all up conservatively, I'd say that David's been marching with either an army or a group of distraught men or with livestock and family and small children and stuff 226 miles and at least a bare minimum of 10 days.

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That's a lot of marching and walking especially for tender little guys driving cattle, carrying stuff.

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Remember when they leave, they're leaving for battle.

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They're coming back, you know, there was no U-Haul to rent, so they had to make their way up with all that stuff.

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And David and his company return home and then rather than just hoarding up all his stuff with his new-found goodies there, he sends out gifts to all his friends.

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And now after being home two days, we find ourselves in verse 1, and I didn't help but, as I was working on the lesson, but imagine the faith that must have grown in David and company as a result of these last 10 days.

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In the providence of God's good hand he has been sent away from a battle where, in chapter 31 describes not only the deaths of Saul and his three sons, but all verse 6 says, all his men the same day.

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Then because he's sent home early, he's able to ascertain the fate of Ziklag sooner, which means they're out on the road quicker, which means they find the Egyptian slave, who may very well have been dead if they'd come, you know, several days later, and they used him as a guide, which enabled them to follow the Malachites, which enabled them to get all their stuff back, which enabled them to get all their people back, and so and then as well to share their goodies with all the people that had been a help to him as he had been on his travels of hiding from Saul all those years.

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So blessing after blessing after blessing, and as Brother Mike said last week, this account of the rescue as well as the battle in the ending of chapter chapter 31 there and 1 Samuel are no doubt running in parallel with each other and a good bit of time has transpired.

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In verse 2 it says, and it came to pass on the third day and behold a man came out of the camp from Saul with his clothes rent and earth on his head and so it was when he came to David that he fell on the earth and did obeisance.

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Now again we can't know for sure the exact timing but the arrival of this one the arrival of this one with the news of Saul Saul's death on the third day would have coincided with the timing of David's return from Ziklag to Ziklag and he, that is the messenger thinks at least it appears that all his bases have been covered he displays himself as one who is genuinely mourning concerning the death of the king his clothes are torn he's got dirt on his head and he throws himself prostrate on the ground before the one he believes and rightly so that it will be the next king verses 3 and 4 read and David said unto him from whence comest thou and he said unto him out of the camp of Israel am I escaped and David said unto him how went the matter I pray thee tell me and he answered that the people are fled from the battle many of the people are also fallen and dead and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also now we know that David has been obviously more than busy these last few days but it's also true that he's got a genuine concern in reference to what he knew at least in part as it relates to the battle and those that were involved in it.

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The last that he knew remember he's leaving the next morning as he's sent back home to Ziklag and what he did know for sure was that the Philistines had a formidable army a great force that was going up against the army of his people and had David been a baser man a more throne hungry man he might have sent out his own people to ascertain the outcome and well his standing his standing politically but he didn't he is however ready to receive the account of the apparent eyewitness to find the outcome in verse 5 David said unto the young man that told him how knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead so David doesn't beat around the bush he's right he cuts right to the chase how do you know this information and so which is a good question how would you know this information and then also how is it that you're still alive how is it that you that you were there and you came away unharmed where the battle was and you knew to come directly to me and he begins to tell his account of the fall of Saul in verse 6 and the young man that told him said as I happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa behold Saul leaned upon his spear and lo the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him so that we did immediately but okay so he said followed hard after him so what we see here though is contradictions starting off right there there's contradictions and omissions in his account and the account of chapter 31 now again remember David doesn't have chapter 31 for a comparison but I can't help but think that a flag went up when nothing in the remainder of the account this man gives mentions Jonathan who David specifically inquired about now for us we've got both accounts so what do we see but that Saul the sons of Saul they fall at the beginning of the narrative their bodies would have been rallied around the king in his distress and also verse 3 tells us that the archers hit him and he was sore or he was badly wounded by them but this man speaks of horsemen and footmen which if that were the case they would have killed him probably the messenger as well because he would have been in such close proximity to the king and the young man that told him said as I happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa behold Saul leaned upon his spear and lo the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him but I had my cloak of invisibility on and I was fine nobody saw me so I was alright he's going to say as chance I was out one fine morning walking my dog and the next thing I know I found myself in a battle on the top of a mountain sounds a little weak right so there's Jezreel this little thing right here Mike wrote in there that's Mount Gilboa right there ok now Mount Gilboa is nowhere near the land of Amalek it's all the way up there by Jezreel and the land of the Amalekites is all the way down there so even the Amalekites that came north to raid Ziklag and all those other places the Cherithites in the south of Caleb they only came up as far as here in this area right there not all the way up to there so obviously we can't know for sure but there's a good chance that this guy wasn't anything more than a battlefield scavenger or a looter that goes on taking the accoutrements from the soldiers whatever he could get off these fallen guys and then would run with it but his story he's committed now so verse 7 through 10 and when he looked back that's Saul, when Saul looked back behind him he saw me and called unto me and I answered here I am and he said unto me who art thou? and I answered him I am an Amalekite he said unto me again stand I pray thee upon me and slay me for anguish has come upon me because my life is yet whole in me so I stood upon him and slew him because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen and I took the crown that was upon his head and the bracelet that was on his arm and have brought them hither unto my lord do you see what do you see what to me at least it appears to be taking place this Amalekite is playing the role of a character, he's roleplaying somebody that's in the chapter 31 account, do you see who he's roleplaying? the armor bearer, that's right chapter 31 shows us Saul's request to his armor bearer to slay him and that's why this is these uncircumcised heathens would thrust me through and abuse me and he refuses to because he's afraid, the armor bearer so our chapter one version tells us from the account of this man that Saul asks, who is he and where is he from and when he finds out he's an Amalekite one of those that managed not to be slain by Saul when Saul was commanded to destroy all of them, when Saul finds that this is an uncircumcised heathen of that group he says to this guy, please slay me I don't think you'll abuse me I don't think you'll strip me and leave me there like that that's again doubtful he tells David, I stood on the king and I killed him like he told me to and then as a present to you David I took the crown, I took his bracelet like the thief that I am and here they are now obviously it couldn't have been a secret that after I think Mike said 15 years or so of Saul chasing David like a criminal that the king hated him and in turn some would not doubt that the hatred could have been reciprocal from David back to Saul something the storyteller probably didn't take into account was David was an honorable man towards the king we know that over and over again and what he thought would gain him some good standing and probably get him a good reward from the king apparent was to have an outcome that he obviously did not expect verses 11 and 12 then David said took hold on his clothes and rent them and likewise all the men that were with him and they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people and for the house of Israel because they were fallen by the sword so I think it's right about now that this young man was beginning to see the error that he had committed.