Let us turn tonight to 2 Samuel
chapter 1. This book of 2 Samuel covers
40 years. 40 years was the time that David
reigned as king. In 1 Kings chapter 2, we read,
the days that David reigned over Israel were 40 years, seven years
in Hebron, and 30 and three years reigned he in Jerusalem. So this book could have easily
been named Kings. Samuel did not write the book,
of course. He had passed away. We saw that in 1 Samuel. But
the writers gave it the name of 2 Samuel. But again, it covers
a period of 40 years. Now, 40 years isn't long, is
it? 40 years, it may seem like a long time, but it's just about
a generation and a half, 40 years. And David, he had a long reign,
and this book begins with him first coming to the throne. Tonight, we're going to look
at the first chapter, and in looking at this chapter, we will
divide our thoughts into two parts. Let's read the first 16
verses. 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 Ziglag. It came even 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.
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, and many
of the people also are fallen and dead. And Saul and Jonathan
his son are dead also. 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. And when he looked behind him,
he saw me and called unto me. And I answered, here am I. 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 is 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 it brought
them hither unto my Lord. Then David 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 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. 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. 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. And he smote him that
he died. 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. Let's think
about what we've just read. We saw how that God delivered
David and his army from fighting against the nation of Israel.
When he was with the armies of the Philistines, remember the
lords of the Philistines, they didn't trust him. and they sent
him home. And we pointed out the verse
of scripture in 2 Peter chapter 2 in verse 9, the Lord knoweth
how to deliver the godly out of temptation. And God certainly
delivered David that day from the temptation from the sin that
he had involved himself in by being in the land of the Philistines. But when they came back to Ziglag,
that's a city or small town that he had been given, him and his
men, to live in there in the land of the Philistines, when
they came back, they found that the Amalekites had come in and
and taken all their families, their wives and all their children,
all their goods, they were all taken away, stolen away. And
then, remember David's men even thought of stoning him. They
were so discouraged. And that wonderful verse of scripture
that tells us that David encouraged himself in the Lord. And that's
a wonderful lesson for all of us. When things are not going
as we would hope they would go. Things seem to be against us.
We've got our God. If we know the Lord Jesus Christ,
we've got our God to go to, to encourage ourselves in him, in
his word, in his promises, and look at his providences in what
he has done thus far in our lives. And so, in God's faithfulness,
David and his men, they recovered all of their goods and all of
their families, plus the spoil of the Amalekites. And they've
come back now to Ziklag. And on the third day, we read
here, it came to pass, verse two, it came even to pass on
the third day. Now the third day is the third
day after the battle had begun between Israel and the Philistines. And news was brought to David,
and it was sad news. That's the first thing I would
emphasize tonight. News came to David, and it was
sad news. In a world where sin has entered,
entered by the first man, that is, Adam, then sad news is often,
often sent out among men. As Job said, yet man is born
unto trouble as the sparks fly upward. You have a bonfire and
the sparks, they just naturally fly toward heaven, don't they?
The same is true of man that is born into this world, is born
unto trouble. We should ever be thankful, and
I know we are tonight if we know the Lord, as much sad news as
there is in this world, we should be thankful that God has sent
good news to men. God has sent good news to men,
that is the gospel. of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what the word gospel actually means, isn't it? Glad tidings
of great joy. Glad tidings of great joy. I
think it was William Tyndale, when he translated the word,
the Greek word that we have for gospel, he translated it so that
man was actually dancing and singing. And good news, good
news is the gospel that God has sent to us. But someone said,
I forget which preacher that I knew who said this first, but
he said, you've got to hear the bad news before you hear the
good news. You've got to hear the bad news
first. Well, you say, what's the bad news? Well, the bad news
is that we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
The bad news is that we are enmity with God. We're just born enmity
with God. We're born sinners. And not only
are we born sinners, but we're helpless. And not only helpless,
but hopeless in this world. That's the bad news. And you've
got to hear that first. You won't look for any good news
until you hear the bad news. But then when you hear the bad
news and the good news comes, it is good news. Someone said,
when is a person saved? A person is saved when he hears
the gospel as good news. You see what I'm saying? When
is a person saved? A person is saved when he hears
the gospel, the message, and he hears it as good news. That's good news. Why? Because
that's exactly what I need. That fits my case to a T. The sad news, let's look here,
the sad news that David heard of the battle was first, if you
notice in verse four, the first part of the bad news, or sad
news rather, that he heard was the people are fled from the
battle. The people have fled from the
battle. They've turned coats and they've
run. What a shame, what a disgrace
for the people of God. The sad news, the people are
fled from the battle, and many of the people also are fallen
and dead. If you look back to the first
verse in 1 Samuel chapter 31, it appears that from the very
beginning, from the very beginning of this battle, things went bad. Things went south for Israel. Because it says, now the Philistines
fought against Israel and the men of Israel fled. The first
thing that we see here when the battle begins is the soldiers,
the army, they turn coat and they run. They flee from their
enemies, from the invading army. How different, when I look at
this, I think how different this is from the promise that God
gave to the nation of Israel. If you look back in Leviticus,
just a moment, Leviticus chapter 26. Here, the nation of Israel was
given the land of Canaan, but there were six or seven other
nations that already were living in Canaan, and they've got to
dispossess these nations for them to inherit or to enter into
the land of Canaan. And notice what we read, the
promise that God gave them here in Leviticus chapter 26 and verse
20, verse 7. And you shall chase your enemies.
That was a promise. The nation of Israel, you're
going to chase your enemies. But now we see their enemies
are chasing them. You shall chase your enemies
and they shall fall before you by the sword. But now it's just
the opposite. Their enemies are chasing them
and they're falling by the sword. Yes, but didn't God promise?
Yes, He did promise. But if we would read all of the
chapter, we would see it was a conditional promise, a conditional
promise based on their obedience, the obedience of the nation of
Israel. Look at that next verse. And
five of you shall chase in a hundred. Boy, that's something, isn't
it? You got five men and they go out against a hundred and
a hundred turn and run. And an hundred of you shall put
ten thousand to flight, and your enemies shall fall before you
by the sword." That was God's promise to the nation of Israel,
and we know that when they entered into the land, God fulfilled
that promise. But it wasn't long before they
became disobedient. They began to intermarry with
the nations. And God told them, when you do
this, here's what is going to happen. You give your daughters
under their sons in marriage. You take their daughters under
your sons in marriage. And the next thing that's going
to happen is they're going to be worshiping the gods of these
other nations. That's just, God told them that's
going to take place. And it did. It did. And we know later in the history
of Israel that God sent them out into captivity, 70 years
into captivity in Babylon, and mainly it was over this matter
of idolatry. The Lord our God is one God,
and God is spirit. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, any likeness of him. No, God is a spirit. And we see that, don't we, today?
So much of religion involves people in ceremony and forms,
and people want to see something, they want to smell something,
the incense. No, the worship of God is very
simple. God is spirit and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Well, we see, it
seems to me, go back to our text. Now that's the first sad news
that David heard. The people of God, David's nation. They've turned and they've run
before their foes, and many of them are fallen dead. Many of
them have already been slain on the battlefield. And then
the second part of the sad news, he continued, Saul and his son
be dead. Saul and his son be dead. Now when David heard that, What
did David do? Saul had tried to kill him on
several occasions. What was David's reaction when
he heard that Saul and Jonathan were dead? Well, the scripture
says he rent his clothes. That was a way a person would
show they were in mourning, isn't it? They would rent their clothes
and he mourned and wept and fasted until the even. And by his example,
this is a lesson here on a good example here. By David doing
what he did, his example had an influence on his men. They all did the same thing.
Remember that scripture in 1 Corinthians 15, it says, evil communications
corrupt good manners. And evil companions It could
be translated evil companions, corrupt good manners. Influence. What an influence. Every one
of us have an influence on someone, don't we? Husbands, we have an
influence on our wives and our children and children on your
parents and your friends. We all have an influence. David
had an influence over his men. It was a good influence. It was
a good influence because David showed he didn't hold any grudge
against Saul. He knew that Saul was God's anointed
king. Several times we've seen in 1
Samuel, he had the opportunity delivered up to him on a silver
platter, so to speak, right? Saul was. And David's men said,
let's do away with him now and you will be the king. David said,
no, no, we won't do that. Why? It was always the same thing. He's God's anointed and no one
can touch God's anointed and not suffer for it. He knew that.
He showed his love here. You see his love and his forgiveness
for Saul. Everything Saul had done to him,
tried to do to him, trying to kill him several times, David
showed. He didn't hold any grudge, any
revengeful spirit or anything like that. No, he was doing unto
others as he would have them do unto him. Well, let's think a minute about
the bringer of this sad news, this man who brought this sad
news. What can we say about him? Well,
I've jotted down four things about this man who came bearing
this sad news. First of all, of course, he was
an Amalekite. He said that. He was an Amalekite. He was one of a nation that was
devoted to destruction. Notice that in verse eight. Saul,
actually God had commanded Saul to destroy the Amalekites. And
God gave the reason there why they were to be destroyed. Because
when Israel came out of Egypt, the Amalekites attacked the rear
guard, the people that were in the back, the weakest people,
the people without any defense, so to speak. And they had given
them no cause to do that. And God, you remember God's judgment? The wheels of justice spin slowly,
but they do spin. Payday someday. And that was
true of the Amalekites. You see people today, and people
seem to be getting away with things. Seems like they're getting
away with crimes and wickedness. Well, there's a judgment. There's
a judgment coming. God will deal with everyone in
his day. Well, that's the first thing
about this man. He was a Malachite and the whole nation had been
devoted to destruction. The second thing, he was an opportunist. That's what I say. He was an
opportunist. I think of what God said about
man. In Psalm 50, God said this, thou
thoughtest. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether
such in one as thyself. That's the way men think about
God. Men think God is like we are. We can just overlook something. God is holy. God is holy. But this man, here's my point,
this man thought David was like he was. He thought David was
just like he was, and that when he came to David with this news
and the crown and the bracelet, that he would be welcomed. In
fact, he probably thought, I'm going to be somebody in this
kingdom because of bringing this news to David. But David wasn't
like him. Verse 10, we read, So I stood
upon him and slew him because I was sure that he could not
live. After that he was fallen. I took the crown that was upon
his head and the bracelet that was on his arm and I brought
them hither unto you. My Lord, he just knew he was
going to be rewarded. Why? Because he thought David
was like he was. But no, David was a man after
God's own heart. David was a man of principle.
David was a man who loved God. The third thing I see about this
man, he was evidently a liar. A liar. You look back to chapter
31 in 1 Samuel, where we have the account of Saul's death in
verse 4. Then said Saul, well let's read
verse 3. And the battle went sore against
Saul, and the archers The archers hit him, and he was sore wounded
of the archers. Then said Saul unto his armor-bearer,
draw thy sword and thrust me through therewith, lest these
uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me. But
his armor-bearer would not, for he was sore afraid. Therefore
Saul took a sword and fell upon it." Now, this man, if you look
at his story, Back in chapter one, in verse six, he tells us,
or he told David, rather, the young man that told him, said,
as I happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa, behold, Saul leaned
upon his spear. Well, that wasn't true. It was his sword. We read that. It was his sword. But he says
he leaned upon his spear. And then in verse 10, he said,
I was sure that he could not live. After that, he was fallen. But in verse six, he said that
his life was still in him. His life was still in him. Verse six, he leaned upon his
spear, where the scripture said he leaned upon his sword. And
in verse nine, that Saul's life was yet whole in him. He said
unto me, Saul said unto me, this is what this man is saying, stand
I pray thee upon me and slay me for anguish has come upon
me because my life is yet whole in me. Well, that's not what
he said. The man was a liar. He made up
his story. He made up his story because
he just knew he was going to be rewarded. In verse 16, the
last thing we see about this man, David said, you have brought
your own execution upon you. 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. Now the second part of the chapter,
let's take a few minutes, beginning with verse 17. David lamented
with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son. Also,
he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow.
Behold, it is written in the book of Jasher. Now, the lamentation,
it's an elegy. It begins in verse 19. Verse 18 is a parentheses, and
in that parentheses, if you notice David, what he does, He bade
them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow. In other
words, it seems that Israel fought mainly with sword and spear. Remember it was archers, the
archers, those that shot the arrows that had caused Saul's
being shot, being hit. It wasn't The sword or spirit
was the archer, but now David, knowing this, obviously, he bids
them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow. Charles Spurgeon
preached a message from that text, and he had these four points. Number one, activity is a valuable
solace for sorrow. Activity. What David told them
to do was to be active. They were sad, sure. Their king
had fallen. The crown prince, Jonathan, had
fallen. They were sad. And Charles Spurgeon
made this point. Activity is a valuable solace
for sorrow. And you know that's when the
worst thing you can do is just sit down and feel sorry for yourself.
Right? I mean, when you have a problem
and you've suffered loss or difficulty, don't just sulk over it. Don't
just close the blinds and go to bed. That's what some people
do, and they go into depression. No, activity, as Spurgeon said,
activity is a valuable solace for sorrow. And he gave this
example of the man Alexander Cruden. I don't know if you've
ever heard of Cruden's Concordance or not, but It's not as large,
at least the ones I've seen, as Strong's concordance. But
Spurgeon said Alexander Cruden, who was crossed in love, who
was crossed in love and met with other trials that drove him nearly
mad. What did he do? He gave himself
to the immense work of making a scripture concordance. Now,
you could make a concordance with your Bible program on your
computer pretty easy, couldn't you? But these men who made the
concordances that we've used, all of my ministry at least,
they had to study the scripture and write down word for word
for word for word. That was an immense undertaking. But the point being, activity
is a valuable solace for sorrow. Number two, and admirable use
of disaster is to learn its lessons. As I said, Saul had been wounded
by archers, so what does David command Judah to do? Learn to
use the bow. Teach the children to use the
bow. Train your soldiers in the use of the bow in battle. As
I said, it seemed they were only using, up to this point, swords
and spears. A third point, he made a noble
monument to a friend is to imitate his excellencies. Jonathan was
David's friend. Well, let's build a big, big
monument, marble monument. No. Spurgeon said the best way
to commend him is to imitate his excellence. And we know that
Jonathan used a bow. Remember when Emma David met
out there in the field? And David said, well, how will
you tell me what your father, the king, has determined against
me? He said, I'll shoot my bow. And I'll have a young lad out
there to gather the arrows. We know that he was a man who
used the bow. And then the fourth thing, it
is a great advantage to believers to learn the use of the bow spiritually. That was his best point as far
as I'm concerned. It's a great advantage for believers
to learn the use of the bow spiritually. And what did he mean by that?
What is the bow, the spiritual bow? It's prayer. It's prayer. And what are the eras? Promises. Promises that we string upon
our bow in prayer and we send them directly to the throne of
God. Lord, you say it. Lord, this
is what you said. We do that, don't we, when we
pray? when you pray, and Father, you
said whatsoever you shall ask in my name. Seek, and it shall be opened
unto you. You say these things in prayer,
don't you? Tell God what he's told you in his word. That's
what he meant by shooting Eris back to the throne of God. Now,
the last part of the chapter begins with verse 19, and It is an elegy, which is a song
or a poem expressing sorrow or lamentation, especially for one
who is dead. And I noticed three times that
David said, how are the mighty fallen? Notice that in verse
19, the beauty of Israel is slain upon the high places. How are
the mighty fallen? These were mighty men, weren't
they? Saul and Jonathan and other warriors. How are the mighty fallen? Look
down to verse 25. How are the mighty fallen in
the midst of the battle? And verse 27, how are the mighty
fallen and the weapons of war perished? These were mighty men,
but death is the king of terrors. Death is stronger than any man. One other thing, and I'll finish. In verse 26, David said, I am
distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant hast
thou been unto me. Thy love to me was wonderful,
passing the love of women. Thy love to me was wonderful,
passing the love of women. What does that mean? What is
the greatest love? Men, what do men think is the
greatest love among men? A mother's love for her children,
right? That's what we just, and it's
true. The greatest love, a mother's
love for her children. And what David is here saying,
that Jonathan's love for him, as far as he was concerned, was
even greater than that. Greater than a mother's love
for her children was your love, Jonathan, for me. And he had
certainly displayed that. You and I, as believers, we can
sing, thy love to me, to Christ, not speaking about Jonathan,
but about our Savior. Thy love to me was wonderful. The Lord Jesus in John 15 in
verse 9 said, as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. That's a tremendous statement,
isn't it? As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. What love Christ has for his
people, for his bride. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us here this evening.