What To Do When Our Lives Are Interrupted By The Death Of A Loved One?

Intro:

1. Samuel Wise founded the Free Synagogue in New York City back in 1907. He once accepted an invitation to address an anti-Nazi meeting in Brooklyn. He received several death threats. He opened his speech with these words:

“I’ve have been warned to stay away from this meeting under pain of being killed. If anyone is going to shoot me let him do it now. I hate to be interrupted.”

2. We all hate to be interrupted, and death is one of the greatest interruptions we face! The difficulty is not so much in our being interrupted from this sick and sorry world but when we are interrupted by the death of others.

3. What to do when our Lives are Interrupted by the Death of a Loved one.

2 Sam. 1:1-27

I. First, the Report of Saul’s Death. 1:1-10

2 Samuel 1:1-10 (NKJV)

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."

A. For starters, this man Lamented. 1:1-2

Saul, the first king of Israel is dead. He did in battling the Philistines on Mt. Gilboa, and now an Amalekite comes bringing news of that death. Tearing clothes, putting dust on the head were all outward signs of grief. (I Sam.4:12/2 Sam.13:31/Job 2:12).

B. Furthermore, this man apparently Lied. 3-10a

This simple does not line up with what we learned in I Sam. 31:4-5. Apparently this man came upon Saul’s dead body and thought that making up this story would bring him into David’s favor, since Saul was seeking David’s life…2 Sam. 4:10

C. Finally he Looted. 10b

Taking these things would be proof that his story, at least in part was true.

This shows the contrast between how a believer thinks and how the world thinks.

Peterson, “Saul hated David. Saul chased David. Saul defrauded David. Danger, hardship, loneliness, loss – all because of Saul. But, there was something else going on that was more significant than Saul’s hatred of David, and that was God’s anointing of Saul. What God did for Saul far outweighed anything that Saul did to David…God’s grace in Saul’s life, not Saul’s hate in David’s life, is what gave content to David’s prayers and decisions.”

This kind of thinking a lost man cannot comprehend. The lost and saved always view things differently.

II. Next, David’s Response to Saul’s Death. 1:11-27

2 Samuel 1:11-27 (NKJV)

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.