After God’s Heart (Part 6) (2 Samuel 1:1-16)                                                                                                        2009.01.04    Pastor Edward Cheng

As we continue in our sermon series, “After God’s Heart,” we find ourselves at a transition point in the story of David and Saul.  At the beginning of 2 Samuel, we encounter a situation in which an Amalekite, presumably on the battle field at the same time the Israelite army was out there fighting the Philistines, claims to have found Saul severely wounded by the enemies.  Saul calls out to the Amalekite and asks the Amalekite to end Saul’s life before the enemies arrive and take him captive, mistreat, and abuse him.  According to the Amalekite, he complies with Saul’s request and takes his life.  In the process, he takes with him some of the royal items on Saul (his crown, for one) and brings them to David to report to David what happened.

This story is interesting enough, but what makes it even more fascinating is the fact that at the end of 1 Samuel, we have a different account of Saul’s death.  According to the end of the first book, Saul is indeed wounded in battle and calls out to his armor bearer to take his life.  However, the armor bearer refuses to do so for fear of taking the life of the king.  Thus, Saul is left to take his own life and does so by falling on his sword.

Why the two stories?  As we answer this question, it actually further highlights what seems to be the “After God’s Heart” point this morning.  It seems to make sense that the end of 1 Samuel is the actual account of how Saul died, and that the Amalekite’s story in 2 Samuel 1 is made up.  He probably made up the story because he saw Saul dead on the battle field and thought to himself, “This is the enemy of David!  If I bring back the crown and arm band, and tell David that I took his life at his request, since David MUST hate him as he David, David will probably reward me!!”  Certainly David would reward him, right?  Doesn’t Saul want to take David’s life?  Hasn’t Saul been chasing him for the last 7-8 chapters of 1 Samuel, and wouldn’t David be glad that his mortal enemy is dead?  That seems reasonable enough, and certainly could be considered natural human nature.

However, David shows us a different attitude.  Instead of being glad that Saul is dead, he mourns instead.  He mourns the fact that the “Anointed of the Lord” is dead.  As a man after God’s heart, David shows us the proper attitude toward the Anointed of the Lord.  In 1 Samuel, when given the opportunity to kill Saul and rid himself of his enemy, David refused, claiming that it was unthinkable to lay a hand on the Lord’s Anointed (1 Sam. 24:6, 10; 26:9, 11, 22-23; 2 Samuel 1:14-16).  In this instance, when confronted with the Amalekite’s report, David’s attitude is the same.  It is not glee, nor celebration, but mourning at the death of the king.  And then after mourning, justice for the king by executing the Amalek for having the gall to lay a hand on the Lord’s Anointed.

David shows us that those who are after God’s heart are loyal to the Lord’s Anointed.  Even if the Lord’s Anointed has become an enemy to him, David was going to be loyal to Saul.  How much more should we be loyal the Lord’s Anointed?

The Hebrew word for “anointed” is translated into Greek as “christos.”  In other words, while this title, “the Lord’s Anointed,” is reserved for whoever was the king of Israel, it came to be synonymous with the Messiah, the Christ, the future Son of God Himself.  What David shows us is that those who are after God’s heart as completely and totally loyal the Jesus Christ, the Lord’s Anointed par excellence. 

How do we live out loyalty to Jesus Christ?  There are three ways I want to suggest this morning.  As He is our King, we are loyal to His commands (faithfulness/obedience).  We are loyal to Him by speaking about Him (evangelism).  And we are loyal to Him by defending Him (apologetics). 

For the first way, faithfulness, Jesus says on a number of occasions in the gospels, “If you love me, you will do what I say” (John 14:15).  I would suggest that the “love” he speaks of is not necessarily a love between brothers, but a love a citizen has for his king.  For the second, we speak about Him because we are His ambassadors to the “country” of Earth (2 Cor. 5:20).  Just as the US has ambassadors to Russia, China, and other countries, so does Jesus Christ have ambassadors to this world.  Finally, for the third, we defend Him because He is not here to defend Himself.  Just as David defended the honor of Saul by taking the life of the Amalekite who claimed to have laid a hand of Saul, along the same vein, we should also learn how to defend our King – not through violence, but through logical sound argument.  More than defending a position, so to speak, or doctrine, we are defending a person – that person, our King, Jesus Christ.