2 Samuel 1:1-16
The Report of Saul’s Death
1 Now it came to pass after the death of Saul, when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had stayed two days in Ziklag, 2 on the third day, behold, it happened that a man came from Saul’s camp with his clothes torn and dust on his head. So it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the ground and prostrated himself.
3 And David said to him, “Where have you come from?”
So he said to him, “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.”
4 Then David said to him, “How did the matter go? Please tell me.”
And he answered, “The people have fled from the battle, many of the people are fallen and dead, and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also.”
5 So David said to the young man who told him, “How do you know that Saul and Jonathan his son are dead?”
6 Then the young man who told him said, “As I happened by chance to be on Mount Gilboa, there was Saul, leaning on his spear; and indeed the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him. 7 Now when he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me. And I answered, ‘Here I am.’ 8 And he said to me, ‘Who are you?’ So I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’ 9 He said to me again, ‘Please stand over me and kill me, for anguish has come upon me, but my life still remains in me.’ 10 So I stood over him and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was on his head and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them here to my lord.”
11 Therefore David took hold of his own clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him. 12 And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son, for the people of the LORD and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
13 Then David said to the young man who told him, “Where are you from?”
And he answered, “I am the son of an alien, an Amalekite.”
14 So David said to him, “How was it you were not afraid to put forth your hand to destroy the LORD’s anointed?” 15 Then David called one of the young men and said, “Go near, and execute him!” And he struck him so that he died. 16 So David said to him, “Your blood is on your own head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have killed the LORD’s anointed.’”
This aftermath of the defeat of Israel under Saul by the Amalekites left David in Ziklag for a few days. There an Amalekite man came to them from the battle from Saul’s camp, disheveled and exhausted to report on what he saw. This surviving messenger told David of the massive defeat with men running away for their lives, as well as the death of Saul and Jonathan. David asked how he knew the king and his son were dead in the midst of such chaos and the man gave the account of his meeting them on the battlefield with Saul pierced with his own spear but still barely alive. Saul had begged him to finish him off in his mortal wound and suffering and the man did so. He then took the crown and arm band of the king and came to David with them. David and his men mourned Saul’s and Jonathan’s deaths and then David asked the man who he was and where he was from. When he heard that he was a foreigner, of the enemy, David asked how he dared to kill the LORD’s anointed. Then he had him executed for this, telling him that his blood was on his own head for this presumptuous act. Imagine how much more the religious leaders of the Jews must have felt as they killed the Lord’s Anointed, Jesus the Christ! Yet God showed mercy and forgiveness to those who crucified our Lord and those who stood by when they repented (Acts 2:38-39) and turned to believe and receive the Anointed by faith as they were cut to the heart (Zechariah 12:10, Acts 2:36-37) by the sword of the truth piercing them. Those who rejected this word of truth (Acts 7:51-52, 54, 60) suffered the eternal consequences of remaining under the wrath of God (John 3:18, 36) on their sins, however, unless they later were convicted (Romans 5:9, 1 Thessalonians 1:10) of their sin, God’s righteousness in Christ, and the judgment to come (John 16:8) for all still rejecting Him before dying (Hebrews 9:27-28) and facing the Lord on that final day. Like the Amalekite messenger who took matters into his own hands to kill the anointed of God, so will we all answer for the sin of Adam demonstrated in the murder of the Anointed on the cross of our curse along with those who were there, unless we likewise repent (Mark 1:15, Romans 6:23, Acts 2:38, 3:19) and find reconciliation with His forgiveness of mercy in this gospel of grace in which we stand (Romans 5:2) for eternity. We are all guilty of killing the Anointed as children of the first Adam like the Jews who justified their actions while standing at the foot of the cross, yet we can find reconciliation in the second Adam (Romans 5:14, 15, 17, 18-19) who is our Lord of grace. This is the gospel bringing peace with God in His Anointed One, His Son.
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