Sunday School | David - 1 Samuel 31

We have a lot to cover. Tim is actually in the house, which I gotta tell you, whenever you ask to step in and fill in for Tim, it's always—it's Tim's Sunday school class, you know. It's big shoes to try and fill. He's here because he's been in Belize this whole last week with the fellows. He really wouldn't be able to prepare, although I'm sure he could wing it. But the good thing is, if you guys ask a question that's really hard, I'm going to say, "Well, Tim, what do you think about that?"

So we've been studying the life of David, and we're gonna continue. Today we'll finish up First Samuel chapter 31.

I got to ask a question: Does anybody here believe in little miracles? Little miracles—is that a possibility? I do. Lily does. So I think it's a little miracle that I'm even standing up here today.

Last Sunday, our daughter Becky and her husband Will McLaughlin went to Montana for a week, and they took their youngest child with them. We had Liam and Reese, our two other grandchildren, and we had them Sunday, and then Monday morning we had them a whole week. Monday morning they wake up with the most incredibly horrendous cold—both of them—that you can imagine. After I don't know how many hundreds of sneezes in the face, coughs in the eye, piles of Kleenex of biblical proportions, I can say Theresa, my wife, she's still at home recuperating. I always get it first. I don't have a runny nose. I don't have a cough. I got nothing. So I say that that may even go up to a medium-sized miracle. I'm just saying.

We're going to be covering First Samuel 31, and if time allows—and I think it will—we'll go ahead and start Second Samuel. Tim asked me to fill in, and he did a masterful job a month ago saying this is where we should be, and he kept us on track so we would end up here today.

Understanding David Through Saul and Their Enemies

Our focus has been on David, but you can't really know David unless you also know Saul. They're intricately intertwined throughout First Samuel. Today, chapter 31 of First Samuel will be Saul's death.

But there are also two people groups that I think, to have a great understanding of who David and Saul are, you'd have to know about. That's the Philistines and the Amalekites. They've been throughout First Samuel. In fact, they're both mentioned often in the Old Testament.

The handouts I gave you are almost identical—they're a map, the same map. On one side, there are some references to some Bible verses, and on the other side, there aren't the Bible verses. So if you start with a side that doesn't have the Bible verses, it should look something like this, and we're gonna talk about these two people groups.

The Philistines

Starting with the Philistines: if I were to ask, "What are probably the two best known Old Testament stories about the Philistines in relationship to Israel?" What's the first one that comes to mind?

Goliath. David and Goliath. Absolutely. And then if there was a second one, if you go back a couple books more, what's probably another one?

Samson. Absolutely. As a kid, you always think Samson and Delilah, but it's really Samson and the Philistines—that's what it's about.

But who are the Philistines? Where did they come from?

About four hundred years before David's on the scene—about 1400 BC—the Philistines are living in the area near Greece, the Aegean Sea, and they migrate eastward. First they jump down to Egypt, and then they have some conflict with Egypt. Then they move up to the coastal area right here and establish five city states. Five city states. Sometimes they are referred to as a pentapolis—pent, five, apolis, city.

So these five city states are Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath. I think you probably recognize Gaza because it's still referred to today—Gaza Strip—and then also Gath, Goliath of Gath. But we also heard of somebody else in our studies in First Samuel. Who else was in Gath? Remember the king there, King Achish? Chapters 27 and 29, Achish, king of Gath.

If you remember in chapter 29, the Philistines are getting ready to head north to fight Saul and the Israelites. What happens? The king of Gath says, "Come on David, does he get to go?" No. Even though the king says no, the commanders of the army said, "No, he's not coming."

I always thought, "Well, that's kind of strange. Normally, the king tells the army, 'Let's go,' and that's how it works." But the truth is, each king was over his own little area, his own city state. So while the king of Gath controlled the area of Gath, he did not control the entire army. That's why King Achish was overruled.

When they moved from the Aegean area, they brought with them some technology—technology that dealt with a certain metal. In Israel, they were still in the Bronze Age.

In the Greece area, they had cracked the code on how to take iron ore and make it into a quality weapon. So it was iron. Iron—you know, rock, paper, scissors—well, iron beats this alloy of tin and copper. Bronze looks nice, and it makes a decent weapon. It's certainly better than stone or wood, but it doesn't beat iron. And so that gave a distinct advantage to the Philistines for many years over everybody else by having this iron weaponry.

It's kind of interesting also. Sometimes if you don't know the history of things, you read verses in the Bible and you go, "Oh, what does that have to do?" There's actually a verse that tells us a little bit about this in 1 Samuel 13:

Not a blacksmith could be found in the whole land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, "Otherwise, the Hebrews will make swords and spears." So all Israel went down to the Philistines—their enemies—to have their plow points, mattocks, axes, sickles sharpened. The price was two thirds of a shekel for sharpening plow points and mattocks and a third of a shekel for sharpening forks and axes and repointing goads. — 1 Samuel 13

The price there is like, okay, a shekel here, a shekel there. That's actually pretty expensive when you figure it's done for each one of those tools. And yet, because they're enemies, the Philistines are willing to take the Israelites' money, and the Israelites are willing to pay it out because they didn't have the ability that the Philistines did.

Another side note: How long was David with the Philistines? Does everybody remember reading that part? A year. Fourteen months. So for fourteen months, David and his 600 men are with the Philistines. There's historical and archaeological findings that show about the time David becomes king that the Israelites learned—have cracked the code on how to do iron. Now, it doesn't say anywhere in the Bible, and I didn't even read anything that's said per se, but it seems kind of interesting that after fourteen months, then David becomes king, and they have the technology, and it becomes instrumental in the fact that David, as king, destroys and decimates the Philistines.

Once again, one of those little nuances—the background where you go, "Oh, okay, I can see that." It was the persistent aggression against Israel that was the main factor for the Israelites to cry out to God and say, "We need a king." Now, you know, people always say, "Well, everybody else has a king, we want one too," but it was the Philistines that were constantly the problem that caused them to call out for a king.

If we look at Saul's divine commission, we see in 1 Samuel 9:16:

Tomorrow, about this time, I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be my prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines, for I have seen my people because their cry has come to me. — 1 Samuel 9:16

So that was actually Saul's commission—to defeat the Philistines. I did see it was interesting that it says "prince" too and not "king," and that might have been that transition where God is king, and he's just named as the prince there.

So that's kind of the background on the Philistines.

The Amalekites

So now, let's go to the Amalekites. Amalekites—they get their name from their ancestor Amalek. Who's Amalek? Anybody remember who he might be? I wouldn't know the answer unless I had read it. So he is—grandson. So we have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Esau. Jacob—God changes his name to Israel—he goes down to Egypt for about 400 years. Meanwhile, up here, Esau and Amalek, they still stay up in the Promised Land, the Canaan area. So then Moses comes on the scene—"Let my people go"—they come back up, and as they are coming up, we can remember that the first encounter. Do you remember the story where Joshua and the Israelites are fighting the Amalekites? Exactly. Every time his hands are raised—Moses' hands are raised—what happens? They win. When they fall, they lose. And so they prop his hands up, and they win.

And it says in Exodus 17:

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua: 'I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.'" And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, "The Lord is my banner"—and sometimes we know it as Jehovah Nissi, saying, "A hand upon the throne of the Lord. The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation." — Exodus 17

Notice it doesn't say that Israel will have war—it says the Lord will have war. And then we get a little bit greater insight when we look towards the end of Deuteronomy 25:17:

Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind. — Deuteronomy 25:17

You could probably read the wounded, the old, women, children, the sick. And they had no fear of God.

When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you will blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget.

Those are pretty powerful, reminding words: do not forget. What's interesting is, apart from the Bible, there's no written accounts of the Amalekites. There's no archaeological findings that are directly attributed to the Amalekites. It is as if they have been blotted out, were it not for God's word. And so it came true.

Saul's relationship with the Amalekites is pretty important. What is his command in chapter 15 of First Samuel?

Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.

Did he do that? No. Almost, but no. When you are talking about obedience to God, there is not really "almost." It's either be obedient or not.

And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and devoted to the destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatted calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.

What was Saul's justification for not being obedient? Well, he was going to offer the lambs and the oxen and everything as an offering to the Lord. It's always been one of my favorite Samuel's responses here. Samuel comes to Saul, and Saul said to him:

Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.

And Samuel said:

What then is this sheep in my ears and the lowing of oxen that I hear?

Saul, ever ready to make an excuse and point the finger elsewhere, he says:

They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.

So it turns out that Saul's disobedience in this act specifically leads to his downfall and the loss of the throne.

The Geography of 1 Samuel 29-31

With that, let's flip over to the other side. The purpose for this map here—it's the same map, but we're now going to focus on something specific. This is both going to be a quick summary of where we were starting at about chapter 29, and then where we'll be going today. I'm hoping it will help give you a better feel of the geography.

So often when we read the Bible, we tend to look at it as chapter and verse in sequence. And often that is the case. But the passages that we're going to be looking at here—chapter 29, 30, 31, and then the beginning of chapter 1 of Second Samuel—they're really, in some cases, happening at the same time. It's as if the camera can only be at one place at one time. And to tell the story, you're not able to jump back and forth. So that's what we're going to try and look at as this goes.

If you look at the letter A there, it says First Samuel 29. This is Aphek. This is the location where the Philistines tell David, "No, you're not coming." And so what happens? The Philistines head north up to the Valley of Jezreel. David heads south, heading back to the town that had been given to him by the king of Gath, Ziklag.

Then we see in First Samuel 30, verses 1 through 8, before David can even get there, who attacks? The Amalekites. The dreaded Amalekites. You guys can boo and hiss when you hear Amalekites too. They take them captive, and David makes pursuit. They get down to the Brook of the Soar, and David rescues his wives and recovers everything—all the loot.

So this has all been taking place, and as it's been taking place, meanwhile, back to the north, what's been going on? That's what we'll be covering today in chapter 31. The Philistines attack the Israelites. They make a retreat up to Mount Gilboa, where Saul and his sons are killed. They eventually hang the bodies on the wall at this area here, Beth Shan. We learn about the men of Jabesh Gilead, who then cross over the Jordan River, recover the bodies, and bring them back. They end up burning the bodies there in their town.

Then we'll look at the beginning of Second Samuel, where David has returned back to Ziklag and hears the news of Saul's death.

That's a lot of history and a lot of background, but I thought it might be helpful to get a better understanding of what all has been taking place in this relationship that Israel—specifically Saul and David—has had with the Philistines and the Amalekites.

1 Samuel 31: The Death of Saul

Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa.

And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchishua, the sons of Saul. Now, that's not all the sons of Saul, but those are the ones who were old enough or were in battle there. There's actually another son who will become king for a brief period of time, Ishabeth, but these are the sons who are with Saul when they get killed.

The battle pressed hard against Saul and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor bearer, Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and mistreat me.

Did Saul have a good reason to be worried about what the Philistines might do to him? Yeah. Do you remember what they did when they got Samson? Gouged out his eyes, and then they would imprison him, put him in chains, and they'd like to bring him out for sport, to make fun of him and everything. To be honest, that is nothing compared to what you look at in the historical records. In a mixed audience, I won't go into the graphic details of what they would do to their enemy leaders. It was horrendous. And it's likely the Philistines would have done the same thing with them.

So continuing on:

But his armor bearer would not, for he feared greatly.

That's important—feared greatly. What did he fear? The armor bearer feared something. David made another choice that he wouldn't hurt Saul. They had to have God for him. God's anointed. The Lord's anointed. Absolutely.

So we have the armor bearer whose whole job is basically to not just carry the armor, but almost as the bodyguard, and Saul, his king, is commanding him to do something. But no, he feared greatly.

Therefore, Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him. Thus, Saul died and his three sons and his armor bearer and all his men.

It doesn't mean all of the men of Israel; it means all of his men that were with him there.

On the same day together, and when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead. They abandoned their cities and fled, and the Philistines came and lived in them.

That almost sounds like a snapshot in time, like they run off and the Philistines come rushing in. Well, they actually occupy it for more than a couple years, and it takes a period of time till after David becomes king when they are actually able to get the Philistines out of these occupied cities.

Verse eight: the next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. So, they cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to the house of their idols and the people.

Did you notice something that sounded funny there when I was reading it about the good news? If we look at the Septuagint—the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, written about two hundred years BC—they actually used the word: messengers went out and spread the gospel. They used the word euangelion, that's the Greek word for gospel or good news. And it just seems rather off to hear about the good news in this context, but it's a good reminder. The good news isn't famous sayings or teachings. The good news is, "Hey, something's been done for you." Our gospel is what? Jesus has something for us, and through what he did, our lives should never be the same.

Well, the Philistines, they have good news. Their gospel is, "Hey, our enemy that's been pain for us, we've killed him. This is good news. This is the gospel, the gospel according to the Philistines, I guess you could say."

Continuing on:

Verse 10: They put his armor in the temple of Ashtoreth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan. But when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead—remember we're talking right up here again, they're going to cross over the Jordan—they went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and they came to Jabesh and burned them there. And they took their bones and buried them under a tamarisk tree in Jabesh and fasted seven days.

Most of the commentaries I read say they didn't burn, you know, cremate them, so there was nothing left, because it says there were bones left. They probably were doing it more because of health reasons. The bodies had been up on the wall there, things were starting to happen—decay and everything else—so by burning the remaining decaying flesh off, they could then give them a proper burial there under the tamarisk tree.

Something else that's kind of interesting—you might remember we're first shown Saul earlier in the book of First Samuel sitting under a tamarisk tree. It just seems ironic that here we have him sitting under the tamarisk tree, and now his bones are being buried here under the tamarisk tree.

Yes, John? Did I give you my notes here? My next question—and I kid you not—says, "Why did the men of Jabesh Gilead rescue the remains of Saul's sons?" I've had a regular daily Bible reading for forty years, and you can still remember it all. That's great. I knew if anybody was going to know the answer, John was, and he's right.

In 1 Samuel 11:14-15, we see that this battle that John refers to—the Ammonites had encircled the city of Jabesh Gilead, and they basically said, "Hey, we're going to kill you all off." They eventually say, "Well, you give us a day here, and we'll see if anybody's going to help us," and they say okay. Saul comes, and Saul's been declared that he's going to be king—he hasn't been coronated as king yet. So this is really his first act as king, and it's what really propels him into the national spotlight and gives him his notoriety to become king.

There's also one other thing—this is kind of a rabbit hole, but it's interesting. The last two chapters of Judges talk about a civil war going on in Israel, and the civil war is basically all 11 tribes against one tribe. Do you remember which tribe? Benjamin, exactly. Benjamin did some things that were pretty bad, and as a result, they basically decimate the tribe of Benjamin to the point where they stop and go, "Oh my gosh, we're going to annihilate and get rid of an entire tribe of Benjamin." It says there were 600 men left, but they had also made a promise that they were not going to give any of their daughters to be the wives of anybody from Benjamin.

So what did they do? Well, this town up here—Jabesh Gilead—they had basically been on the side of the Benjamin tribe. What they do is they basically destroy the town for the most part, but there are 400 virgins in Jabesh Gilead. Now, 400 doesn't meet the needs of 600, but the 400 do get married to 400 of the 600. The other 200 men get some women from Shiloh through some games that are played.

But the bottom line is: Saul is a Benjaminite, and we can track his history up to a point. But it's very possible—in fact, the odds are—I'd say there's a two-thirds chance that Saul is actually related to the people of Jabesh Gilead. We don't know that for sure, but there's a 67% chance that he is, which I thought was interesting. There may be more than meets the eye here.

Saul's Death and Christ's Death

Now, as David's life so often points us to Christ—and Tim has emphasized this time and again—there are so many things that David does that we are to look at, and things that he doesn't do that he should have. But it always points to what Jesus has done in a more perfected way.

As David's life does this, I think Saul's death provides us some interesting comparisons and contrasts to those of Jesus. I got this out of a book that Chuck Swindoll did on different Bible characters, and one was on David. I kind of changed it around a little bit, but this is basically what it said, and I thought it was pretty good:

Saul's death appeared to be the end of all national hope, but it really wasn't. Jesus' death appeared to be the end of all spiritual hope, but it really wasn't.

Saul's death appeared to point to the final victory of Israel's adversary, the Philistines. Jesus' death appeared to show our adversaries' victory over God's anointed and any future hope we might have, but it really didn't.

Saul's death paved the way for a new plan of operation of God's people through David's kingly line. Jesus' death provided a new plan of operation for our salvation, especially for us as Gentiles.

Saul's death ended an era of dissatisfaction and failure. Jesus' death ended the era of law and guilt and introduced grace—and frankly, the new covenant that we now are living under.

Saul's death displayed the foolishness of man. Boy, if anyone depicted that, Saul displayed the foolishness of man. And Jesus' death—and I hesitated when I wrote this—but then again I thought of what the Bible does say. Jesus' death displayed, at least from a human perspective, the foolishness of God. And I say that because of what Paul tells the Corinthians:

Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men. — 1 Corinthians 1:24-25

There's this contrast at every turn. Everything Saul could have done, he missed. He missed the boat. He made mistakes all along the way.

And so, with that, we finish up chapter 31, finishing up the book of First Samuel. Now, First Samuel and Second Samuel in our Bible are two different books, but as originally written, they were a single scroll. It wasn't until many years later that, maybe because they were too voluminous and too big, they split it. And there's a good reason they split it here, and it's something I never noticed before.

If you look at Joshua, chapter one, verse one, it starts off with what? It says:

After the death of Moses — Joshua 1:1

So probably the most important person, maybe next to Abraham, in the Jewish faith at that point. And then you get to the next book, Judges, and it says:

Judges one one, after the death of Joshua — Judges 1:1

So we come to Second Samuel, and we should turn there now, Second Samuel chapter one, and what does it say? "After the death of?" Saul. So we've got this pattern: "after the death of Moses," "after the death of Joshua," now "after the death of Saul." This does make for a nice break in separating First and Second Samuel.

First Samuel 2:1, after the death of Saul, when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag.

So he's come back and remains there for two days, and then, on the third day:

Behold, a man came from Saul's camp, and his clothes were torn and dirt was on his head. — 1 Samuel 2:5

Does that sound familiar to anybody about somebody's clothes being torn and dirt on their head? It's a common thing to tear one's clothes; we see it throughout the Old Testament. Job does it a lot. The last time that phrase is used, it's kind of interesting—it's actually in First Samuel, chapter four.

At that time, the leader, or the just former leader of Israel, was a priest, probably the high priest, and his name was Eli. He's pretty old now, I think in his nineties. And Samuel—Eli was the one that raised Samuel, if you remember the story at the beginning. In fact, the chapter just before First Samuel chapter four is the famous line where Samuel hears God's voice and Eli tells him, "Well, if you hear the voice, say, 'Speak, Lord, your servant hears.'" And that's exactly what it was—the Lord.

But what's really strange is we have this time where Eli is sitting, waiting to hear news about the battle with the Philistines. And a man comes running up who's a messenger—ironically, it happens to be a Benjamite, which I thought was interesting. But the messenger, a Benjamite, comes running up and Eli says, "Well, how'd it go?" And he says, "Well, the Philistines, they wiped us out. They killed your two sons." And Eli hears the news, he falls over dead. It says that Eli and his sons died the same day. And this message was given by a guy who happens to have his clothes torn and dirt on his head—the exact same wording that we see here described by the Amalekite.

So we continue on there:

When he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage. David said to him, "Where did you come from?" And he said to him, "I have escaped from the camp of Israel." And David said to him, "How did it go? Tell me." And he answered, "The people fled from the battle, and also many of the people have fallen and are dead. And Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead." — 1 Samuel 2:4-5

So what does this messenger expect David's reaction to be based on what we've seen? Happy news. Chris, that guy that's been trying to kill you for all these many years—he's dead. Guess what? Now you get to be king. I mean, this is great news. Is that what's going to happen? No.

Let's continue on:

Then David said to the young man who told him, "How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?" And the young man who told him said, "By chance, I happen to be on Mount Gilboa. There was Saul leaning on his spear, and behold, the chariots and the horsemen were close upon him. And when he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me, and I answered, 'Here am I.' And he said to me, 'Who are you?' And I answered, 'I am an Amalekite.' And he said to me, 'Stand beside me and kill me, for anguish has seized me and yet my life still lingers.' So I stood beside him and killed him because I was sure he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was on his head and the armlet that was on his arm, and I've brought them here to my Lord." — 1 Samuel 2:5-10

There's a saying that usually goes, "You need to know your audience." And sometimes, whether we're talking to a group of people or to an individual, do you think this messenger knew his audience? No. David, in particular—he didn't know.

What's been David's constant theme, his constant stance? Stuart's already mentioned it. What was that constant stance about killing Saul? God's anointed. God's going to take care of the situation in God's time.

Comparing the Accounts of Saul's Death

So what's wrong with the details of the story that we've just heard the Amalekite tell when we compare it to the end of chapter 31? He thought he died on his own. Well, that's what the Bible says in chapter 31, and yet we hear this Amalekite—so what gives here? Which account do we think is right?

John, you got your hand up? Basically, the Amalekite lied. I think you're right, John. I think he was lying. I mean, it says outright in chapter 31 that he fell on his sword and he died. And when his armor bearer saw that he died, he died. I think that's exactly the case.

I think most likely that the Amalekite was probably a scavenger on the battlefield, looking for opportunities to get some booty, get some stuff. He comes upon Saul—he might have even seen him get killed—and takes the stuff. And then, not knowing his audience, he thinks, "Oh man, this is gonna be worth a lot. If nothing else, David's gonna probably elevate me to some great position."

There's two problems—actually three problems—with this. A, what he's saying is a lie. B, what he's saying is not going to sit well with David. And three, he's an Amalekite.

Who Actually Killed Saul?

So the question could be: Who actually killed Saul? Well, if we're going to look at it, in 1 Chronicles we have kind of a side-by-side comparison of what's going on in 1 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. And in 1 Chronicles 10:13, it tells us:

So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the commandment of the Lord, and also consulted a medium seeking guidance. He did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore, the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David, the son of Jesse.

So I guess in some ways, the bottom line is it was the Lord's timing. It was the Lord's doing that Saul would die.

David's Response to Saul's Death

Continue on in verse 11:

Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him. And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening, for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel.

Notice that he's not just mourning Saul and Jonathan. He says he's mourning for the people of the Lord and the house of Israel because they had fallen by the sword.

And David said to the young man who told him, "Where did you come from?" And he answered, "I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite."

It's almost like he said, "Now let me get this straight. I've already asked this once, but where did you come from?"

David said to him, "How is it you were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?"

You remember the bodyguard? What did it say? He greatly feared. And David is saying, how is it that you were not afraid to put your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?

Then David called one of the young men and said, "Go, execute him." And he struck him down so that he died. And David said to him, "Your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, 'I have killed the Lord's anointed.'"

Was David Justified?

So a question that often comes up: Was David justified in killing this Amalekite messenger? What are the thoughts? How many think David was justified? And how many say he wasn't justified? And how many are not sure?

Yeah, that's actually a great question because there are a lot of different perspectives on that. I tend to lean that he was justified for a couple reasons, maybe three.

One is, there's nothing to indicate—oftentimes, but not always—when somebody does something wrong in the Bible, it says that he erred, he sinned, he should not have. There's something. But there's no indication at this point, at least, that it's saying that David should not have done it or sinned. And by his own testimony, even if he's lying or telling the truth, by his own words, he said that he killed Saul. In David's mind, that's enough.

Even if he was lying, the fact he was an Amalekite would be justification enough from God's original commandment. We saw that mandate—that they were to put these people to death.

Saul's Legacy

If we're going to look at the life of Saul as we wrap up, I think there's one verse that really jumped out to me that best summarizes Saul's life. And this is one of the times when David spared his life:

"Behold, I have played the fool and committed a serious error." — 1 Samuel 26:21

It appears to me that Saul for the most part of his entire life played the fool. Every opportunity it seems like he could have made the right choice and he didn't. And I think the greatest lesson that we can learn from Saul's life—one of my favorite verses—is 1 Samuel 15, verses 22 and 23.

But Samuel replied, "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams." — 1 Samuel 15:22-23

Now, I always focused on that part, and that is my favorite part, but because of the study we've been doing in this class, this next verse kind of jumped out at me.

"For rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft. Divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry." — 1 Samuel 15:23

Samuel is a prophet saying these words to Saul. I don't think even as a prophet he could have envisioned that by saying "you should have obeyed" and "rebellion is like the sin of divination," this would actually happen. What happens in chapter 28? Saul actually has a witch medium do divination, and who gets raised from the dead? Samuel. I mean, think of the ironies. In chapter 15 Samuel is saying rebellion is just like divination. Fast forward, and it actually happens this way. It was like, oh my gosh, God's got a sense of humor sometimes. It reminded me of one of Tim's favorite sayings: there's treasure in there, and sometimes we can dig and find it.

Learning from Others' Mistakes

It would appear, at least for me, that David learned from Saul's life how important it was to obey, that obedience is better than sacrifice. He learned it from Saul's mistakes. There's an old saying: a smart person learns from his mistakes, a wise person learns from others' mistakes. And I think he did, but I think it was also David's walk with the Lord that taught him this. He actually captures this theme of obedience in a couple of his Psalms.

First one, Psalm 40:

"In sacrifice and offering, you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering, have not required. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God, your law is within my heart.'" — Psalm 40:6-8

Do you remember what it says about the new covenant coming, that the law will be written on our hearts? It's almost as if David is starting to look forward to that.

And then his famous psalm, Psalm 51, that takes place after his great sin with Bathsheba, where he's repenting. Once again, the difference between David and Saul is this heart of repentance.

"For you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." — Psalm 51:16-17

Looking to Jesus

For our study in this class, we've been looking at the life of David and all the people and characters, Saul, Samuel, everybody that's intertwined with it. But the whole focus has really been to look to who? To Jesus, the coming anointed one. And it would seem to me that Jesus took this same lesson about obedience, and he took it to its ultimate conclusion. He said to obey is not only better than sacrifice, but by obeying, I'm gonna become the sacrifice. And he actually becomes our sacrifice and dies for us so that we can have that victory that we now get to enjoy, even on the cross.

So that pretty much takes us through the end of First Samuel. We've just started to wade into Second Samuel, and Tim will take us next. What we'll be covering will be David's incredible lament for Saul and for Jonathan, and that's where we'll pick up next in chapter one of Second Samuel.

Thank you.