God Is Not Like You • 2 Samuel 1

42:41 Teaching begins

Notes

Today we meet a young man who assumes that, if David is anything like me, he would want to hear my news, and he even lies a little so that it will sound better.

This young man finds out too late that David is not like him at all. That “good news” gets him in trouble.

It’s a mistake to not know God, to assume that I know what God wants out of my life. Ignorance will get a person in real trouble.

I’m reading in 2 Samuel 1.

1. David hears the news about the defeat of Israel, vv. 1-12.

A. The time is the point where David has just returned to his place Ziklag.

1. He wanted to go with Achish king of Gath and the Philistines into battle against Israel. But the lords of the Philistines said, “No way! He could turn on us! Send him home!”

2. The great battle happened and David didn’t know what happened. This is the first news he has heard.

B. Here comes this young man from Saul’s camp.

1. His clothes are torn and there’s dust on his head. He did that to himself. That’s a sign of mourning, bad news, and tragedy.

2. He prostrates himself full before David. He probably came to Ziklag and said I have a message for David. When he’s brought to David he falls down before him in respect and honor.

C. David says where have you come from, meaning, what’s going on? The young man gives the news.

1. I have escaped from the camp of Israel—I fled for my life.

2. The people fled, retreated in confusion, many were killed.

3. Saul and Jonathan are dead also.

D. David asks, “How do you know?” Can you confirm this, or is there any hope?

E. The young man tells his story.

1. I just happened to be on Mount Gilboa and there was Saul leaning on his spear and there were chariots bearing down on him.

2. He saw me, called me over, asked me who I was, and I said, I’m an Amalekite, sir.

3. He said, please kill me, for anguish has come upon me, but I’m still alive. That word anguish is used only here, and there are various translations: I’m in convulsions, I’m dizzy, in confusion, in agony, great suffering.

4. So the Amalekite says I killed him because I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to make it.

5. I took his crown and arm bracelet, and I brought them to my lord, meaning to David.

F. What this young man says is not true. If you read 1 Samuel 31 you see that Saul killed himself. Why would he make up that story? Somehow he found the crown and arm bracelet and says, “If I were David I bet he would be glad to hear that Saul is dead. Now he can be king of Israel like he wants, and I get that, because I’m ambitious too, I want to make something of myself. I bet he would be happy to hear that I finished Saul off, I helped him get where he wants to be. Oh boy. This is going to be good.”

G. David and all his men grieve for the loss of all those men and Saul and Jonathan. They tear their clothes, they weep, they fast until sundown. It’s a complete tragedy.

2. At some point David talks to the Amalekite again because something is not right, vv. 13-16.

A. David mourned and wept for the terrible news, and then he started thinking something like this:

1. He is an Amalekite? They have always attacked and hated Israel. I just came back from fighting with Amalekites when they kidnapped our families and stole everything we had. What’s an Amalekite doing in Saul’s army? Since when?

2. He said he killed Saul, and then he tore his clothes and put dust on his head as if he’s grieving? He’s not grieving!

3. And he’s come to bring me the news. What for? Because he thinks it’s going to be good news for me. He’s telling me he’s the guy who solved my problems for me so I can be king of Israel. He thinks I’m going to reward him for being such a good guy and helping me out.

4. David figured this guy out. In 2 Samuel 4: 10 David tells two other murderers, “When someone told me, saying, ‘Saul is dead,’ thinking to have brought me good news, I arrested him and had him executed in Ziklag—the one who thought I would give him a reward for his news.”

B. David says, “Where are you from?” What did you say you were? Did I hear correctly?

C. The young man says, “I’m a foreigner, an Amalekite.”

D. David says, “How was it you were not afraid to put forth your hand to destroy the Lord’s Anointed?” And he tells one of his young men to execute him.

E. As the man lies dying David says, “You declared your guilt with your own mouth, “I have killed the Lord’s anointed.’”

F. The Amalekite made a big mistake assuming that David was like him.

3. David is the kind of guy who goes on to compose a lament for Saul and Jonathan and the soldiers of Israel, vv. 17-27.

A. Here are the things that David wants Israel to remember.

1. David speaks of the beauty of Israel being slain, the mighty fallen. He refers to the soldiers who died and Saul.

2. He doesn’t want the Philistines to rejoice over his death because he doesn’t rejoice over Saul’s death. David is not like the Philistines. He did not consider Saul his enemy. You can read the superscription of Psalm 18 and see something striking: A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord, who spoke to the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He separates Saul from his enemies. He was a difficult problem to deal with, to be sure, but David did not consider Saul to be his enemy.

3. They were mighty warriors. 1 Samuel 14:47-48 Now when Saul had taken the kingdom over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, the sons of Ammon, Edom, the kings of Zobah, and the Philistines; and wherever he turned, he inflicted punishment. He acted valiantly and defeated the Amalekites, and delivered Israel from the hands of those who plundered them.

4. David emphasises that Saul and Jonathan were beloved and pleasant and devoted to each other in life and in death. They were loyal and faithful.

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

6. Saul served and benefitted Israel, made them wear scarlet and gold. He made their lives better.

B. David wants Israel to remember how wonderful Jonathan was.

1. That word wonderful could be translated “miraculous”.

2. The love of Jonathan was more wonderful and miraculous than the love of women. David is not talking about sexual love, and he is not referring to homosexual relations. There is something here that transcends the loyal love of women for their husbands, the love of mothers for their children. Mothers can be fierce, defending, nurturing, willing to suffer for their children.

3. But Jonathan loved David as he loved his own soul, 1 Samuel 18:1-3. That describes the love of God, that values the beloved even as oneself.

4. Jonathan encouraged David in 1 Samuel 23:17 Thus he said to him, “Do not be afraid, because the hand of Saul my father will not find you, and you will be king over Israel and I will be next to you; and Saul my father knows that also.” Jonathan knew God had chosen David which meant that he would not inherit the kingdom from his father Saul, and he rejoiced in that. Love does not envy, does not seek its own, is not provoked.

C. What’s important about this lament is that it is only remembering the good things of Saul. It’s only honoring to his memory, and to the memory of Jonathan.

D. You can recognize God’s love in the lament: Love suffers long and is kind, does not behave rudely, is not provoked, does not keep a record of wrongs, does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. This lament expresses David’s love which he received from God.

4. So what?

A. Do not assume you know what God wants out of you because you will do the very thing that will get you killed forever.

1. We think, God wants me to straighten up my life and be good. I have to try harder because I’m not doing that well right now. If I work harder at my life, God will be happy with me.

2. That is offensive to God. Thinking like that will get you killed. God wants you to be perfect. You aren’t perfect now, you haven’t been perfect in the past. How will you be perfect now and change the past? It is a very low view of God’s righteousness.

B. God wants you to understand His ways and walk with Him.

1. You need a perfect righteousness to do that so He has made a perfect righteousness to give to you as a gift. Jesus the Son of God has paid for your sins, suffering in your place. There is nothing for you to do. You look to Him, receive his perfect righteousness, and you thank Him for it.

2. As you keep looking to and trusting in Jesus He transforms your life from glory to glory, as from the Holy Spirit.

C. If anyone keeps working on their own righteousness they will greatly offend God because that ignores what He has done. That ignores the death and resurrection of Jesus and makes it nothing.

D. You think, but I have to do something! That’s ignorant. Your need is so overwhelming that if Jesus doesn’t save you you must be damned forever.

E. The amazing thing is that all God’s paths are mercy and truth to those who walk with Him. We get to know His mercy and compassion that is over all His works. We get to know His love, more wonderful than the love of women or anything else in this life. Don’t assume anything about God. Learn the truth directly from Him.

Let’s pray.