2Sa 1:1-12 | KingComments | STEP | The history of David, which started in 1 Samuel, continues in this book. Yet it is also a new beginning. The first book ended with the death of Saul, the king after the heart of man. This book is about David. From 1 Samuel 16 onward it also is about him. There he becomes the rejected king. Now it is about him as the crowned king. The second book of Samuel describes the history of the kingdom of David according to the main moments of its development. We find here: 1. The beginning of the reign of David as king of Judah in Hebron, while the other tribes of Israel still adhere to the house of Saul (2 Samuel 1-4). 2. His exaltation to king over all Israel and the blessed establishment of his kingship (2 Samuel 5-9). 3. The time of the humiliation of his kingship as a result of his adultery (2 Samuel 10-20). 4. The end of his government (2 Samuel 21-24). In 1 Chronicles 11-29 we find the same history described, also with additions to it, but more seen from the aspect of the development of the Old Testament kingdom of God. There we see a detailed description of David’s efforts in the design and regulation of public service to God and the organization and affirmation of his kingdom and its administration. David here is still in the area where the Philistines are in power. He is back in Ziklag two days, after he was sent away by the Philistine princes, except by Achis, as a danger for the battle against Israel. God has used it to free him from his false position. He must have been tense about the outcome of the fight in which he was not allowed to participate. Saul could not wait patiently, David could. He knows that everything is in the hand of the LORD. When God works, he can be still. He also does not send a spy to find out how the battle is going. On the third day of his stay in Ziklag there is a report of the battle. An Amalekite brings him the tidings that Saul and Jonathan died. The man really comes from the fight. He does not pretend. David submits the bearer of the tidings to an interrogation about the facts. He wants certainty. Here David doesn’t know yet that the man who brings him this message is an Amalekite. He seems not to have been in the service of Israel or the Philistines, but an independently operating robber. David asks several questions. In this way he discovers the true character of the man and he is kept from accepting the kingship prematurely and from the wrong hands. The Lord Jesus is our Master in everything, even in asking questions. He did not need to ask people who came to Him questions to find out what their motives were, “for He Himself knew what was in man” ( ). The questions He asked were meant to discover man to himself and to bring him to conversion in that way. He also silenced His questioners by His questions. When David asks about Saul’s death, the Amalekite says that he killed Saul at his request. In order to justify his deed, he speaks about Saul’s death as something that would happen anyway. In 1 Samuel 31 we read how it really went ( ). This Amalekite thinks he pleases David by telling him that his great enemy is dead and that he personally took care of it. But he does not know the heart of David. He has acted completely differently than David has always done. The man presents it as if he has done a service to Saul by killing him, and at the same time he has done a service to David. As proof that his story is true, he took some jewelry with him. Tragically, Saul has lost the kingdom by sparing the king of the Amalekites. Now he has his royal dignity taken away by an Amalekite. The Amalekite offers them to David. It is as if this man offers David the kingdom. If David had accepted this, he would have accepted his kingship from the hand of an Amalekite. Amalek is a picture of the flesh, used by satan to fight against God. Accepting the crown means accepting the kingship. David, however, wants to accept the kingship only from the hand of the LORD his God.

‏ 2 Samuel 1:1-12

Introduction

The history of David, which started in 1 Samuel, continues in this book. Yet it is also a new beginning. The first book ended with the death of Saul, the king after the heart of man. This book is about David. From 1 Samuel 16 onward it also is about him. There he becomes the rejected king. Now it is about him as the crowned king.

The second book of Samuel describes the history of the kingdom of David according to the main moments of its development. We find here:

1. The beginning of the reign of David as king of Judah in Hebron, while the other tribes of Israel still adhere to the house of Saul (2 Samuel 1-4).

2. His exaltation to king over all Israel and the blessed establishment of his kingship (2 Samuel 5-9).

3. The time of the humiliation of his kingship as a result of his adultery (2 Samuel 10-20).

4. The end of his government (2 Samuel 21-24).

In 1 Chronicles 11-29 we find the same history described, also with additions to it, but more seen from the aspect of the development of the Old Testament kingdom of God. There we see a detailed description of David’s efforts in the design and regulation of public service to God and the organization and affirmation of his kingdom and its administration.

Message About Saul and Jonathan

David here is still in the area where the Philistines are in power. He is back in Ziklag two days, after he was sent away by the Philistine princes, except by Achis, as a danger for the battle against Israel. God has used it to free him from his false position. He must have been tense about the outcome of the fight in which he was not allowed to participate. Saul could not wait patiently, David could. He knows that everything is in the hand of the LORD. When God works, he can be still. He also does not send a spy to find out how the battle is going.

On the third day of his stay in Ziklag there is a report of the battle. An Amalekite brings him the tidings that Saul and Jonathan died. The man really comes from the fight. He does not pretend. David submits the bearer of the tidings to an interrogation about the facts. He wants certainty. Here David doesn’t know yet that the man who brings him this message is an Amalekite. He seems not to have been in the service of Israel or the Philistines, but an independently operating robber.

David asks several questions. In this way he discovers the true character of the man and he is kept from accepting the kingship prematurely and from the wrong hands.

The Lord Jesus is our Master in everything, even in asking questions. He did not need to ask people who came to Him questions to find out what their motives were, “for He Himself knew what was in man” (Jn 2:25). The questions He asked were meant to discover man to himself and to bring him to conversion in that way. He also silenced His questioners by His questions.

When David asks about Saul’s death, the Amalekite says that he killed Saul at his request. In order to justify his deed, he speaks about Saul’s death as something that would happen anyway. In 1 Samuel 31 we read how it really went (1Sam 31:4-5). This Amalekite thinks he pleases David by telling him that his great enemy is dead and that he personally took care of it. But he does not know the heart of David. He has acted completely differently than David has always done.

The man presents it as if he has done a service to Saul by killing him, and at the same time he has done a service to David. As proof that his story is true, he took some jewelry with him. Tragically, Saul has lost the kingdom by sparing the king of the Amalekites. Now he has his royal dignity taken away by an Amalekite. The Amalekite offers them to David. It is as if this man offers David the kingdom.

If David had accepted this, he would have accepted his kingship from the hand of an Amalekite. Amalek is a picture of the flesh, used by satan to fight against God. Accepting the crown means accepting the kingship. David, however, wants to accept the kingship only from the hand of the LORD his God.

David’s Response to the Message

The man who can wait is the man who is careful. The crown is within the reach of the hands, but its bringer is not sent by God. The eagerness with which he offers the crown is not in accordance with the spirit of David. Even before his son Solomon wrote it down in the book of Proverbs, David shows the truth of the proverb: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles” (Pro 24:17). God-fearing people are saddened when sinners suffer misfortune, no matter how much the judgment that strikes sinners may be deserved.

The spirit of grace in David is also the spirit of discernment. David sees in the approach of the Amalekite the approach of the devil, the enemy of souls. He will not be deceived by the dust on the man’s head and his torn clothes and the tribute he receives.

David is here an example of the Lord Jesus. The devil came to the Lord with the offer to give Him all the kingdoms of the earth. All the Lord must do is kneel down before the devil and worship him. Then, without suffering, He shall acquire all the kingdoms. The Lord, however, lets Himself be guided in everything only by the will of His God.

He defends Himself against the devil with a word from the Scriptures: “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY’” (Mt 4:8-10). He wants to accept the kingship only from the hand of His God and in the way He has indicated: by way of the cross. He waits for the moment when God says to him: “Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the [very] ends of the earth as Your possession” (Psa 2:8).

David does not rejoice about the death of Saul. On the contrary, he is mourning about his death. Also “all the men” who are with David react just like him. They have taken over his character, they are formed by him. David and his men weep not only about Saul and Jonathan, but also about the people of the LORD and the house of Israel.

Saul always was and is to David, “the LORD’s anointed”, and he even still speaks so of him now. David himself has never dared or wanted to kill Saul, because he always saw Saul as the anointed of the LORD. There is respect for Saul with him. This respect is not present with this man. What this man has done is against the will of the LORD. Instead of taking the kingdom out of the hand of the Amalekite, David kills this enemy. He wants to take the kingdom only from the hand of the LORD.

For this deed, the man receives the only ‘reward’ that is appropriate: death. He did not know David’s heart by thinking that he would make him happy with such a message and deed. Maybe we are sometimes so busy that we think we are making the Lord happy, while we have assaulted someone appointed by Him, even if that person deviates so much. In that case, we need to see assaulted in a figurative sense. We can assault someone by always putting him in a bad light. This doesn’t justify the deviation, but there are cases where we must leave such a person to the Lord.