When The Mighty Fall | 2 Samuel 1

INTRODUCTION

Today, we are beginning our sermon series from 2 Samuel.

The two books 1 and 2 Samuel are actually part of one book in the Hebrew scripture but the Greek translators of the Hebrew scripture has divided it into 2 books (1 & 2 Samuel). I think they have done a good job of division where part 1 ends with Saul and part 2 starts with David ascending to the throne.

2 Samael 1 is set in the aftermath of Saul’s death. Saul and his son, Jonathan died in the battle in 1 Samuel 31, battle at Mount Gilboa. Israel faced a humiliating defeat by the Philistines. In 2 Samuel 1, David is going to find out about this and we are going to see his response.

2 Samuel 1:1

After the death of Saul, David returned from striking down the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days.

When Saul was fighting the Philistines, David was down fighting the Amalekites and was not even living in Israel territory. Remember, the Philistines would not let David fight for them. So, David was not even there when the Philistines were when Saul and his men were defeated and killed.

2 Samuel 1:2-10

²On the third day a man arrived from Saul’s camp with his clothes torn and dust on his head. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him honor.

(So this individual arrives. He is in mourning mode. His clothing is torn and he has got dust on his head).

³“Where have you come from?” David asked him.

He answered, “I have escaped from the Israelite camp.”

⁴“What happened?” David asked. “Tell me.”

“The men fled from the battle,” he replied. “Many of them fell and died. And Saul and his son Jonathan are dead.”

⁵Then David said to the young man who brought him the report, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?” (David wants verification of this report.)

⁶“I happened to be on Mount Gilboa,” the young man said, “and there was Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and their drivers in hot pursuit. ⁷When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me, and I said, ‘What can I do?’

⁸“He asked me, ‘Who are you?’

“‘An Amalekite,’ I answered.

⁹“Then he said to me, ‘Stand here by me and kill me! I’m in the throes of death, but I’m still alive.’

¹⁰“So I stood beside him and killed him, (this is the form of finishing someone off who has already been mortally wounded) because I knew that after he had fallen he could not survive. And I took the crown that was on his head and the band on his arm and have brought them here to my lord.”

This raises questions because in 1 Samuel 31, Saul had been wounded by the archers and he knew he was going to die. He did not want to be tortured by the Philistines, so he asked his armour bearer to kill him by the sword. The armour bearer did not want to do that. So we are told there that Saul fell on his own sword and committed suicide and then the armour bearer did the same thing.

Well, in this chapter we have a different story. The story in 1 Samuel 31 is more authentic as it is the narrator speaking. In this chapter it is an Amalekite speaking. So who is accurate, the Biblical narrator or the Amalekite? Some believe in a harmonious view to suggest that Saul had the sword pierce him and then the Amalekite helped Saul to finish him off before the Philistines could get a hold of him. But others say that the Amalekite fabricated this story to get some favour with David for breaking the news and brining Saul’s crown and the arm band.

The Amalekite thought that David would be happy. Saul was chasing after David and everyone knew that David is going to be the next king. So he thought he was doing a favour to David. He thought David would rejoice at it.

Proverbs 24:17-18

¹⁷Do not gloat when your enemy falls;

when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice,

¹⁸or the Lord will see and disapprove

and turn his wrath away from them.

Proverbs 17:5b

Whoever gloats over disaster

will not go unpunished.

Let’s see what David’s response is:

2 Samuel 1:11-12

¹¹Then David and all the men with him took hold of their clothes and tore them. ¹²They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the Lord and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

David is concerned about the army of the Lord, the nation of Israel, and the death of Saul and Jonathan. So they mourned, wept and fasted. This is great suffering emotionally for David.

2 Samuel 1:13-16

¹³David said to the young man who brought him the report, “Where are you from?”

“I am the son of a foreigner, an Amalekite,” he answered.

¹⁴David asked him, “Why weren’t you afraid to lift your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?”

¹⁵Then David called one of his men and said, “Go, strike him down!” So he struck him down, and he died. ¹⁶For David had said to him, “Your blood be on your own head. Your own mouth testified against you when you said, ‘I killed the Lord’s anointed.’”

The Amalekite got his reward. So, we see again, David had great respect for Saul, he would not have killed him. It is inappropriate to strike down the Lord’s anointed, so you are going to pay for his life.

We see David’s loyalty to Saul continuing here.

The fake news side would have told David was after Saul’s crown. How did he get that? This is how he got Saul’s crown and how he responded to the one who brought it to David.

A time to Grieve

When David heard about it, he mourned terribly.

David’s Lament for Saul and Jonathan

2 Samuel 1:17

David took up this lament concerning Saul and his son Jonathan,

Then we get a lament that David sang concerning Saul and his son Jonathan.

He is not saying, “Wow, finally the throne is wide open, the Lord has heard my prayer and I am ready to occupy the throne of Israel or I am ready to take over my destiny.” He is not celebrating at all. David is grieving.

We all face grief in life, we enter into a time of grief. David is lamenting.

Lament – Lament is more than just grief. It is thoughtful grief. Here, lament is like a poem that others can enter into because it is structured. It is a structured sorrow and David was an expert in poetry and he pens this lament so that others could enter into it.

2 Samuel 1:18

¹⁸and he ordered that the people of Judah be taught this lament of the bow (it is written in the Book of Jashar):

He also ordered the people of Judah to also teach and sing this song. I want my tribe to mourn. As the tribe of Saul, the tribe of Benjamin is in mourning. David said, “I do not want our tribe to rejoice or show bias or favoritism happening in my tribe.” Even though David was filled with sorrow he could see here an opportunity that could bring national and political unity. A nation can be unified over a tragedy, a family can be unified over a loss, and David could read the sense of the nation and he knew that not only was it was time for him to grieve but a time for him to unify the people.

Let’s read David’s song of Lament:

2 Samuel 1:19-27

¹⁹“A gazelle ^{(symbolizes human dignitary)} lies slain on your heights, Israel.

How the mighty have fallen!

²⁰“Tell it not in Gath,

(Don’t broadcast this in Philistine territory.)

proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon,

lest the daughters of the Philistines be glad,

lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice.

²¹“Mountains of Gilboa,

may you have neither dew nor rain,

may no showers fall on your terraced fields.

For there the shield of the mighty was despised,

the shield of Saul—no longer rubbed with oil.

²²“From the blood of the slain,

from the flesh of the mighty,

the bow of Jonathan did not turn back,

the sword of Saul did not return unsatisfied.

²³Saul and Jonathan—

in life they were loved and admired,

and in death they were not parted.

They were swifter than eagles,

they were stronger than lions.

(He admired what great warriors Saul and Jonathan were.)

²⁴“Daughters of Israel,

weep for Saul, (don’t let the daughters of Philistines be glad but the daughters of Israel weep)

who clothed you in scarlet and finery,

who adorned your garments with ornaments of gold.

(Saul’s time was a time of prosperity.)

²⁵“How the mighty have fallen in battle!

Jonathan lies slain on your heights.

²⁶I (this is David’s person lament) grieve for you, Jonathan my brother;

you were very dear to me.

(We know that they were great friends. In more than one occasion a covenant was made between them. They had a covenant relationship. They were loyal to each other.)

Your love for me was wonderful,

more wonderful than that of women.

(There is a modern view that David and Jonathan had some kind of homosexual relationship, it is ridiculous if you understand the context of the OT, that would have been considered wrong in the law and David and Jonathan were not engaging in that kind of behaviour here. He does not mean that the love that he had with Jonathan was of the same type of love he had with women. I think what he is saying is that the love that he received from Jonathan which was a loyalty and allegiance formed a stronger bond in many ways than the mere romantic love that he experienced with woman. The covenantal relationship that he had with Jonathan was unique and it surpassed anything that he experienced with any woman at a strictly romantic level. He is talking about the allegiance and loyalty and unique than he experienced from a woman.)

²⁷“How the mighty have fallen!

The weapons of war have perished!”

So Saul and Jonathan are dead and gone and what we see here is that it is caused not celebration but for mourning and lamentation.

CONCLUSION

We can bring 1 Samuel 31 and 2 Samuel 1 together and state the main theme:

Rebellion Against the Lord Culminates in Humiliating Defeat.

Saul rebelled against the Lord and eventually he dies and Israel is defeat.

The Fall of the Lord’s Rebellious Servants is to be Lamented, not Celebrated.

Remember this: Sometimes Christians go astray; they bring dishonor to the church and God’s name. God will sometimes punish them for their actions. In many cases they would have hurt other people and there might be a temptation to celebrate their fall, but David did not view it that way at all. The fall of Saul brought humiliation to Israel and the Israelite army and David viewed it that way. It is never something to celebrate when one of our brothers or sisters falls. It brings dishonor to the cause of Christ and it is something that should be lamented and their example needs to be avoided at all costs.

Remember, many Mighty Have Fallen. I need to be on my guard.

The essence of David’s lament is to show us that mighty people can fall and when the mighty fall, they take a lot of people with them. Right in the book of Samuel, we find many mighty men of God fall.

Eli and His Sons: Fall through Corruption and Neglect; 1 Samuel 2–4

Saul: Fall through Disobedience and Pride; 1 Samuel 13, 15, 28, 31

David: Fall through Lust and Abuse of Power; 2 Samuel 11–12

How to Keep from Falling?

1 Peter 5:8

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Be alert, watchful, sober-minded and faithful.

Find a local church—be faithful to the local church. Find a small group—be faithful in your small group. Get in the discipleship groups—be faithful in the discipleship groups.

Grieve Well, but don’t Stay There

The mighty are not supposed to fall, but sometimes they do. Accidents are not supposed to happen, but sometimes they happen. Marriages are not supposed to end, but sometimes the do. Illnesses are not supposed to kill young people, but sometimes they do. These are just samples of things in our life that can produce grief. We feel, “life was not supposed to be this way. Doors have been closed. Things have been lost.” So, we need to grieve. We need to take time to grieve.

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4

¹There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

⁴a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

Greif actually helps us to bring resolution to what could have been, what should have been, what never will be. David will never reconcile with Saul; the door is closed. David will never walk through lie with Jonathan or have him as his second in command, the door is closed. It will never happen. Death closes doors. Greif is also condition where one needs to move on.

David grieved with Judah. He shared his. Shared grief can actually be a beneficials process for everyone, a necessary process but we cannot live in that process for the rest of our lives. We cannot live in the shadow of grief.

For David this was a time to grieve and a time to lament but the time will soon come upon him when he will step out of the shadow and do the next thing, move into the next season.

The first words after this in

2 Samuel 2:1

In the course of time, David inquired of the Lord. “Shall I go up to one of the towns of Judah?” he asked.

To take the time to grieve. Remember to step out of the grief and into the next season because there is a time for every matter under heaven.

And in closing, every single passage we see points us to the exclusivity of Jesus Christ Here, David is weeping over Israel. You know Jesus Christ Himself would look and be distraught, looking at Jerusalem, because they did not want to hear Him. We see Saul’s faithlessness. Later we see David’s faithlessness. Then we see Jesus Christ’s faithfulness, being the complete payment for our sins, doing what David failed to do as a king, what Saul failed to do as a king, and what every other king failed to do when they were king.

Jesus Christ did not fail in His job. Jesus Christ showed us how to lament. He also showed us how to have friends. He showed us how to love the brothers that He walked this earth with. Jesus showed us what it was like by serving them, by washing their feet, by feeding them and nurturing their physical bodies and their spiritual bodies.

Jesus Christ modeled for us how to be friends and how to lament. More than anything, Jesus revealed to us God.