2 Samuel 1:1-27: Living by Conviction

2 Samuel 1:1-27: Living by Conviction

This morning, we’re beginning a journey working through the book of 2 Samuel passage by passage. And the first passage we come to is 2 Samuel 1:1-27, so I’ll be reading a selection of verses from that passage. Hear now the words of the Living and True God:

¹ After the death of Saul, when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag. ² And on the third day, behold, a man came from Saul’s camp, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. And when he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage. ³ David said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.” ⁴ And David said to him, “How did it go? Tell me.” And he answered, “The people fled from the battle, and also many of the people have fallen and are dead, and Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead.” ⁵ Then David said to the young man who told him, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?” ⁶ And the young man who told him said, “By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and there was Saul leaning on his spear, and behold, the chariots and the horsemen were close upon him. ⁷ And 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?’ I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’ ⁹ And he said to me, ‘Stand beside me and kill me, for anguish has seized me, and yet my life still lingers.’ ¹⁰ So I stood beside 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 armlet that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord.” ¹¹ Then David took hold of his 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 and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. ¹³ And David said to the young man who told him, “Where do you come from?” And he answered, “I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite.” ¹⁴ David said to him, “How is it you were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?” ¹⁵ Then David called one of the young men and said, “Go, execute him.” And he struck him down so that he died. ¹⁶ And David said to him, “Your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have killed the Lord’s anointed.’ ” ¹⁷ And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and Jonathan his son, ¹⁸ and he said it should be taught to the people of Judah; behold, it is written in the Book of Jashar. He said: ¹⁹ “Your glory, O Israel, is slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen! ²⁰ Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult…. ²³ “Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely! In life and in death they were not divided; they were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions. ²⁴ “You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you luxuriously in scarlet, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel. ²⁵ “How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle!...

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, we thank you for the gift of your Word. And we pray what Jesus prayed in John 17—sanctify us in the truth, your word is truth. We understand, from this, that your Word isn’t just true but the very standard of truth itself. So please use your Word by your Spirit to sanctify Your people. And we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

Several months ago, I found myself in a situation in which I had to choose between living by conviction and living by convenience. It all began when I purchased a vehicle that initially seemed reliable. But after a few weeks, I began to notice a very subtle issue with the transmission. So, I asked my mechanic to take a look at it, and he confirmed my worst fears: the transmission was indeed slipping and would need to be replaced at a cost of nearly $6,000. I then got a second opinion from a transmission specialist, and he said the same thing and told me it would cost over $7,000. Obviously, that wasn’t exactly the news I wanted to hear.

Yet the situation then became more interesting when the first mechanic advised me to trade in the car to a dealership without disclosing the transmission issue. He told me the issue was subtle enough that even most dealerships probably wouldn’t catch it. Plus, it was technically the dealership’s responsibility to inspect the vehicle. And on top of that, I wouldn’t be doing anything to the dealership that the guy who sold me the vehicle hadn’t done to me. So, that left me with a choice between living by convenience—in order to avoid being out $6,000—or living by conviction. Thankfully, by God’s grace, I made the right decision in that particular instance.

Yet I share that story to illustrate that we all face a wide variety of situations in which we’re tempted to elevate what’s convenient above what we know deep down to be right. For example, how often are you tempted to be less than truthful in order to avoid upsetting someone? How often have you been tempted to take an ethically dubious shortcut at work for the sake of your performance metrics? How often have you been tempted to participate gossip or go along with a crude joke in order to gain social acceptance?

How often have you been tempted to watch a movie or show with sexually explicit scenes simply because it had a good plot? How often have you been tempted to go back on your word because it became inconvenient to do what you said you’d do? How often have you been tempted to withhold money that God’s told you to give to the church in order to buy something you don’t really need? How often have you been tempted to neglect prayer because it’s just too much effort to set aside the time?

As you can see, our lives are filled with situations that force us to choose between living by conviction and living by convenience. And as 2 Samuel 1:1-27 makes clear, David likewise had to choose between those same two options. Thankfully, he chose to live by conviction. And that’s the main idea of this passage. David lived by conviction rather than convenience.

Yet, before we dive into this passage, let me remind you of how we got to this point in David’s life. As some of you may recall from our sermon series on 1 Samuel, God chose David to be the king of Israel even while another man, named Saul, sat on the throne. Saul had failed to be a godly leader on numerous occasions and had therefore been informed by God that his time as king was coming to an end. And it wasn’t long before Saul figured out that God had chosen David to be the next king. So, pretty much the entire second half of 1 Samuel is about David fleeing for his life as Saul jealously seeks to kill him. Then, at the very end of 1 Samuel, Saul’s mortally wounded in battle and ends up taking his own life.

And that brings us to the book of 2 Samuel, which records David rising to the become king of Judah, establishing Jerusalem as his capital, and eventually becoming king over all Israel. He then proceeds to consolidate his power, defeat the enemy nations around Israel, and expand Israel’s territory. Yet, at the height of his power, David unfortunately makes some very bad decisions and is eventually forced to pay the price for those decisions in some very painful ways.

So, even though David’s referred to as “a man after [God’s] own heart,” he still has some serious leadership failures. This points to the fact that God’s people need a king even greater than David—a king who will reign in perfect righteousness and be the perfect Shepherd for God’s people. And that king, of course, is Jesus. So, that’s what we’ll be studying over the course of this next season in the life of our church.

Yet, today, we begin with an examination of 2 Samuel 1:1-27. So, look with me first at verse 1: “After the death of Saul, when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag.” So, again, the last chapter of 1 Samuel recorded Saul’s death during a battle with the Philistines. Yet, in contrast to Saul’s defeat on the battlefield, David wins a great victory. This verse records him returning from “striking down the Amalekites.”

Interestingly, back in 1 Samuel, we learned that the specific reason God had rejected Saul as king was because he failed to deal with the Amalekites as God had commanded. The night before Saul died, he was told in 1 Samuel 28:18, “Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day.” So, Saul being rejected as king was the consequence of his failure to carry out God’s wrath against the Amalekites. However, as we see in verse 1 of our main passage, at the very same time Saul was dying on the battlefield, David was doing what Saul had failed to do. He was “striking down the Amalekites.” So, already in 2 Samuel—in the very first verse—we find a description of David succeeding where Saul had failed and being obedient where Saul had been disobedient.

We then read in verses 2-4: ² And on the third day, behold, a man came from Saul’s camp, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. And when he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage. ³ David said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.” ⁴ And David said to him, “How did it go? Tell me.” And he answered, “The people fled from the battle, and also many of the people have fallen and are dead, and Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead.”

So, David was aware that a massive battle had taken place between the Israelites and the Philistines, but he apparently didn’t have internet access there in Ziklag, so he wasn’t yet aware of the outcome of that battle. But this man who had escaped from the Israelite camp comes to David and gives him the devastating news not only that the Philistines crushed the Israelites in battle but also that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead.

After that, verses 5-10 tell us, ⁵ Then David said to the young man who told him, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?” ⁶ And the young man who told him said, “By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and there was Saul leaning on his spear, and behold, the chariots and the horsemen were close upon him. ⁷ And 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?’ I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’ ⁹ And he said to me, ‘Stand beside me and kill me, for anguish has seized me, and yet my life still lingers.’ ¹⁰ So I stood beside 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 armlet that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord.”

Now, it’s important to understand that 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel are meant to be read together. So, as soon as we read this man’s account of how Saul’s life came to an end, it should immediately raise a red flag in our minds as we recall the notably different account of how Saul’s death took place in 1 Samuel 31. According to 1 Samuel 31:3-5, ³ The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. ⁴ Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me.” But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. ⁵ And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him.

So, as you can see, there are many features of this account that agree with the story that the Amalekite told David, but there’s one crucial difference. In the end, according to the narrator of 1 Samuel, Saul died by falling on his own sword rather than by the hand of the Amalekite. And we should absolutely believe what the biblical narrator tells us rather than what the Amalekite tells Davd in our main passage.

So, we can conclude that this Amalekite is lying to David in an attempt to gain David’s favor. He predicts that David will be the next king and assumes that David will be very happy with him for killing Saul—since Saul had been seeking to take David’s life for years. So, this Amalekite falsely tells David that he’s the one who ended Saul’s life. And when he backed up his story by presenting David with Saul’s crown and armlet, it seemed quite credible indeed.

And perhaps you’ve been tempted to behave in a way that’s not all that different. Perhaps you’ve been tempted to misrepresent yourself in order to impress someone, exaggerate things on your resume in order to get a job, or put a spin on certain facts in order to make a good impression. I imagine we’ve all experienced such temptations at one time or another.

Now, keep in mind that this Amalekite was telling David this fabricated story because he assumed David would look upon him favorably for his role in Saul’s death. However, as we see in the subsequent verses, that assumption couldn’t be more misguided. Verses 11-12 tell us, ¹¹ Then David took hold of his 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 and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

So, instead of rejoicing at Saul’s death, David grieves over Saul’s death. He tears his clothes—which was an expression back in ancient times of deep distress—and mourns and weeps and fasts over the devastating news of Saul and Jonathan’s death. It’s also worth noting that, not only does David mourn in this way, “all the men who were with him” mourn in this way as well. Obviously, this isn’t at all the response we’d expect. I mean, if someone’s hunting your leader down in order to take his life and is then killed, it would be pretty normal and expected to rejoice at that news. But that’s not how David’s men respond. Instead, they follow David’s example in mourning Saul’s death.  

And that’s an important reminder for us of the moral influence of a godly leader. Leaders who lead in godliness can have an enormous moral influence on society. This is one reason we should seek to elect godly leaders whenever possible. Obviously, in our two-party system of government, we don’t always have the choice of a godly leader, especially in the general election. Unfortunately, we’re often only presented with a bad option and a worse option.

But this is why we should, first of all, vote in primaries and then seek to use our vote and perhaps even our influence to elect the godliest leaders possible. We shouldn’t be content with merely having leaders who will “get things done” but should desire and seek to elect leaders who will actually be a positive moral influence on society through their character and conduct.

I’d also like to use this opportunity to challenge parents—and fathers in particular—to be deliberate about leading your family on the path of godliness through your own personal example. It’s been said that we can teach what we know, but we’ll end up reproducing who we are. You can tell your kids about the right way to live all you want to, but you should expect them to pay more attention to the way you live than to what you say.

When one of my boys was about three years old, he would refer to a certain kind of shirt he sometimes wore as a “daddy shirt.” He said that I wear “daddy shirts” and that he also had a “daddy shirt” as well. And at first, I wasn’t sure exactly what he meant, but I eventually figured out that a “daddy shirt” is simply a button-down shirt. Apparently, I often wear button down shirts, so my son started thinking of them as “daddy shirts.” And he was so proud of that fact that he had a “daddy shirt” as well.

And that’s the way it works. Children naturally adopt many of the behaviors they see their parents modeling—especially their fathers. Again, we can teach what we know, but we’ll usually end up reproducing who we are. So, how deliberate are you in being a godly influence on your children through the kind of life you live and the kind of person you are?

Then, as we return to our main passage, after David and his men mourn Saul’s death, David turns once again to the Amalekite who brought him the news of Saul’s demise. Look at verses 13-16: ¹³ And David said to the young man who told him, “Where do you come from?” And he answered, “I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite.” ¹⁴ David said to him, “How is it you were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?” ¹⁵ Then David called one of the young men and said, “Go, execute him.” And he struck him down so that he died. ¹⁶ And David said to him, “Your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have killed the Lord’s anointed.’”

So, this man came to David apparently looking for some kind of reward for finishing off Saul. And I guess you could say that David gave him a reward alright, but I don’t think it was the kind of reward the man was hoping for.

In reality, even though the man was a sojourner in Israel, he should have known better than to put to death “the Lord’s anointed.” That’s the phrase David uses twice in these verses to speak of Saul. And it’s the same phrase David used for Saul on two separate occasions back in 1 Samuel when David had ample opportunity to kill Saul but steadfastly refused to do so. And that phrase is significant because it implies that God’s the one who’s ultimately responsible for appointing and establishing kings over nations—and, even more broadly, for putting all earthly rulers in their positions of leadership.

This is precisely the Apostle Paul’s point in Romans 13:1-2 as well. He writes, ¹ Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. ² Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. So, when you oppose the leader whom God has appointed, you’re, in effect, opposing God.

And in our main passage, David demonstrates that he understands that. And even though his order to execute this Amalekite might seem harsh, it demonstrates that David had no role whatsoever in Saul’s death. To the contrary, David never took advantage of the multiple opportunities he had to kill Saul but instead entrusted the situation to God. Even though David had to continually flee for his life as Saul pursued him and surely must have been tempted to take matters into his own hands by killing Saul, David chose instead to yield to God’s will and trust in God’s protection.

You know, so often, we’re tempted to take matters into our own hands and accomplish what we deem to be “good” ends through not-so-good means. Perhaps we’re tempted to tell a “white lie” in order to avoid hurting someone’s feelings, manipulate someone into doing to what we think they should do, misrepresent a situation in order to keep a customer happy, or pad a resume in order to better provide for our family. There are a nearly endless list of situations in which we’re tempted to live as though the ends justify the means.

And I’m sure David faced that same temptation. After all, God had already led Samuel to anoint David as the next king. It was clear that God wanted David to be king. So, it would have been incredibly easy for David to reason to himself that, since God wanted him to be king, it would be morally permissible to “help God out” a little by killing Saul. Yet David steadfastly refused to take matters into his own hands and instead surrendered the situation to God—allowing God to raise him up as king in his own timing and in his own way.

And that’s what we’re called to do as well. In the words of David in Psalm 37:3, we’re called to “Trust in the Lord, and do good.” And keep in mind that it’s the former that enables us to do the latter. In order to make God-honoring decisions in challenging situations, we have to trust God. We have to believe that God will take care of us even when we renounce human wisdom in order to do things his way. And he will take care of us. The Bible’s filled not only with teachings that we should trust God but also with examples demonstrating that we can trust God.

Then as we look at the final portion of 2 Samuel 1—specifically verses 17-27—we find a lament written by David regarding the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. This was a lament that David not only wrote for his personal use but also one that he “said…should be taught to [all] the people of Judah.” And I won’t read the lament, but I believe it’s a wonderful example of what it looks like to honor someone for the position they hold even if we find it difficult to honor them for the person they are. And that’s what we’re called to do with our political leaders. Even if we find it difficult to honor the person, we’re called to honor the office.

This is even more clear in Romans 13. We’ve already seen in verse 1 that we’re commanded to “be subject to the governing authorities.” Yet we’re also told to honor them. Romans 13:7 says, “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.” And 1 Peter 2:17 tells us, quite simply, “Honor the emperor.”

Now, to be clear, there are several things this doesn’t mean. Honoring earthly rulers doesn’t mean we never voice disagreement with their policies. It doesn’t mean we never express concerns about their character. It doesn’t mean we never criticize their actions or decisions. And it doesn’t mean we never disobey their decrees—if their decrees directly contradict how God tells us to live.

So, then, what does it mean to honor our earthly rulers? Three things come to mind. Honoring earthly rulers involves obeying them when doing so doesn’t violate biblical teaching. It also involves speaking about them respectfully—and that includes the way we speak about them both in our conversations with others and on social media. And third, it involves praying for God to be at work in and through our earthly rulers. So, we’re called to honor earthly rulers in our obedience, in our speech, and in our prayers. And just given the realities of our nation’s political climate, I’m going to go out on a limb a little bit here and venture to guess that this is an area in which the vast majority of us probably have a lot of room to grow.

Yet the main thing I’d like to highlight from our main passage is the portrait it paints of David. I believe the purpose of this passage is to help us see that David’s going to be a much different kind of king than Saul. We saw again and again in 1 Samuel how Saul was driven by his own pragmatic impulses. Yet David’s concerned first and foremost about honoring God—even when being less scrupulous seems like it would be a lot more convenient. As we’ve said, David lived by conviction rather than convenience. And one of the clearest examples of that is how, even though Saul sought to take David’s life, David still honored him as “the Lord’s anointed.”

So, what about you? Will you live by conviction, or will you live by convenience? And let me just remind you that, not only will living by conviction result in God’s blessing in your life in a variety of ways, it’ll also make an impact on others. Going back to the story I shared about my $6,000 transmission issue, I ended up biting the bullet and paying my mechanic to replace the transmission on that vehicle. Even though he tried to talk me out of it and convince me to pass on the problem to someone else, I explained to him that I was a Christian and wanted to honor God by the way I lived.

And that opened up a door for me to have some wonderful gospel conversations with him, which I’m still able to have to this day. He told me he’s a Muslim, so I gave him a short book entitled, What Is the Gospel? And as I talked about Jesus, he seemed genuinely interested in what I was saying. And the reason I have so much of an open door for those discussions even now is because he respects me for the way I handled that transmission issue. Now, to be clear, there are plenty of instances over the course of my life in which I wish I’d been a better representative of Jesus, but I share that particular example with you as an encouragement to live by conviction so that, among other things, you can be an effective witness in the eyes of a watching world.

Yet our most foundational motivation for honoring God in the decisions we make is the astounding love and grace he’s shown us in the gospel. And that’s where 2 Samuel 1 ultimately leads us. As we see from David’s lament in verses 17-27, it was indeed a great tragedy when Saul, “the Lord’s anointed,” died. Yet that tragedy pales in comparison to another tragedy that’s recorded much later in the Bible.

The New Testament tells us about someone else who’s rightly called “the Lord’s anointed.” He’s actually introduced by that very title in Luke 2:26, where it speaks of the coming of “the Lord’s Christ.” And as you may be aware, the title “Christ” literally means “anointed one.” So, Jesus is directly called “the Lord’s anointed.”

And even though Jesus was perfectly righteous, he was eventually crucified. More specifically, he allowed himself to be crucified. Isaiah 53:7 says, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” The only truly innocent person ever to live was killed “like a lamb…led to the slaughter.”

And the reason Jesus allowed himself to be crucified was to pay for our sins. So, whereas Saul died as a consequence of his own sin, Jesus died for our sins. He took on himself the punishment our sins deserve. Also, unlike Saul, Jesus’s story doesn’t end in the tragedy of his death but continues on in the triumph of his resurrection. And because he’s now raised from the dead, Jesus now stands ready to save everyone who puts their trust in him. 

And that’s what we need to do before we attempt to do anything else. Before we even attempt to make God-honoring decisions in our everyday lives, we first need put our trust in Jesus to rescue us from our sins and change us from within. This involves renouncing our trust in all of our own moral accomplishments and instead putting our full confidence in Jesus alone as the only one who can cleanse us of our sins and make us right with God.

And doing that is prerequisite for doing everything else we’ve talked about in 2 Samuel 1. You see, of all our attempts to live by conviction are tragically misguided if we’re trying to do so in our own strength or through our own moral abilities. We might be able to make ourselves look okay on the outside, but what we really need is for Jesus to change us on the inside. Only then will we truly be able to live in a way that’s pleasing to God.

In addition, not only is the gospel the necessary prerequisite to us being able to live for God, it’s also what gives us the necessary motivation. When the pressure’s on, why would we choose to live by conviction when living by convenience is so much easier? It’s because we’re so grateful to Jesus for the love he’s shown us and the grace he’s poured over us that we desire to honor him in every decision we make. So, it’s ultimately the gospel that gives us both the ability and the motivation to live by conviction rather than convenience.