David Hears Of Saul's Death Series

Scripture

First Samuel and Second Samuel were originally written as one book. They were eventually divided into two books. First Samuel essentially deals with the life of Saul, and Second Samuel deals with the life of David. The end of First Samuel describes the death of King Saul. The beginning of Second Samuel describes David hearing of Saul’s death.

Let’s read about David hearing of Saul’s death in 2 Samuel 1:1-16:

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.’ ” (2 Samuel 1:1-16)

Introduction

Death sometimes has a profound impact on survivors.

You may know of Adoniram Judson. He became one of the greatest American Baptist missionaries, spending forty years serving the Lord in Burma. He was born in 1788 in Malden, MA. Judson entered the College of Rhode Island & Providence Plantations when he was sixteen, and graduated as valedictorian of his class at the age of nineteen. While studying at college, he met a young man named Jacob Eames, who was a devout deist and skeptic. Judson and Eames developed a strong friendship. During this time, Judson began to embrace the ideas of the French philosophers. On his twentieth birthday, Judson broke his parents’ heart with the news that he had abandoned the Christian faith of his childhood, and that he was moving to New York City to pursue a life of pleasure working in the theatre.

While looking for a permanent place to live, Judson stayed in an inn. During the night, Judson heard a man in the room next door who was dying. The man next door was in terrible distress. Judson wondered whether the man was prepared to die. Moans passed through the walls, and he could hear the man’s restless struggling. What would his agnostic friend Eames say to dismiss his anxiety and remove his concerns about eternity? Was the man next door a Christian? Or was he, like Judson, one who had despised the prayers of his parents and rejected the gospel for a worldly “freedom”? After a while, he began to think about what would happen to him when he died, and he tried to answer “Christian superstition” with the clever answers of Eames.