People Standing Before God

17David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son 18(and he commanded them to teach the children of Judah the song of the bow; behold, it is written in the book of Jashar): 19“Your glory, Israel, was slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen! 20Don’t tell it in Gath. Don’t publish it in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. 21You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain on you, and no fields of offerings; For there the shield of the mighty was defiled and cast away, The shield of Saul was not anointed with oil. 22From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, Jonathan’s bow didn’t turn back. Saul’s sword didn’t return empty. 23Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives. In their death, they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles. They were stronger than lions. 24You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you delicately in scarlet, who put ornaments of gold on your clothing. 25How the mighty have fallen in the middle of the battle! Jonathan was slain on your high places. 26I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan. You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. 27How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war have perished!”

The author of 1 Samuel is the prophet Samuel, and the authors of 2 Samuel are thought to be the prophets Gad and Nathan. The book is believed to date from around BC 1010–931, and it is thought to have been written in Israel.

The message God gives us in Scripture is alive, and its life gives it the power to change a person at the very root. God gave Jesus Christ, the light of the world, as the atoning sacrifice, yet the dark world refuses to receive that light and goes on living in darkness. God’s people, by contrast, live in the full daylight of the Spirit, where they clearly see, sense, and understand who God is. Living by faith, they know how precious a grace their salvation is, and that is how they can tell light from darkness.

The world hardly realizes that God forgives sin and is giving it the opportunity to repent. Even as he watches people live wickedly, God does not rush to judge them. Through the course of their lives he gives them chance after chance to turn back, because he wants them to know him. This very patience of God is what will leave them without excuse when judgment comes. Since no sin can be hidden before God, we must strive with all our might not to sin.

What kind of life are you living now? What fills your heart? Only when you know whom you fear and what your heart is full of can you draw nearer to God. If the world is what satisfies you, you must repent. Why? Because the dark world is a place where no one can see a step ahead, and there is no hope in speaking and acting as human feelings and interests dictate. Almighty God wants his people to live as his spiritual children, with wisdom and understanding. A life of faith will certainly bring hardship, but that is the faith that lives by God’s will, and it is the condition for entering the eternal Kingdom.

2 Samuel 1 opens with a conversation between a man who tries to deceive God’s servant and a man who will not be taken in by a lie. The exchange between the young Amalekite, who hoped to win wealth and honor by deceiving David, and David, who knew God’s will and judged rightly, shows plainly how the way a person looks at an event shapes its outcome. The young man had no idea what kind of faith bound David to God, so he thought he could fool him. Measuring everything by their own yardstick like this, people come to think themselves the wisest of all. The incident took place while David was staying at Ziklag after his great victory over the Amalekites, who had carried off his family and his people. The Amalekites had attacked Ziklag because they did not fear David, but they were crushed by David, who was under God’s protection. To attack a man of God like this is the same as declaring war on God himself.

God answers for the life and the soul of the person of faith, so no one should deceive or attack someone who relies on God alone. David lived by faith, yet he was only human: there were years when he suffered at Saul’s hands, and there were times when he strayed from God’s will and sinned. Even so, God, who knew his faith, was angry with the Amalekites who troubled David and helped him to victory. To become a child of God is to live under that same protection.

God has mercy on whom he will have mercy; that is why he forgave the sins of David, who strove to be born again. In the world a criminal record follows a person for life and keeps proving that they are an offender, but sin that God has forgiven is wiped away, white as snow. Here is what you must understand clearly: however humane, fair, and kind a person of the world may be, God does not protect them. The reason is that they lack the true life God gives. But those who carry that true life, however imperfect they may be, God shields like the apple of his eye, so that the life within them goes on into eternity.

Just as the world’s coming judgment will not change, neither will God’s love for those who have received Christ. If we forget this, we will commit a terrible sin, scheming as cunningly as that young Amalekite. The crown and the bracelet he brought suggest that he really was beside Saul as Saul lay dying miserably on the battlefield. Why, then, as he watched Saul die, did he hit on the shallow idea of making himself the hero who had killed Saul?

Anyone can come to a crossroads in life, and the decision they make at that moment changes where their life ends up. When a person weighs a matter, they cannot think beyond what they already know, shaped as they are by how they have lived, what they have learned, and whose influence they have been under. Because of that, the conclusion they reach is settled before they reach it. So we must train ourselves day by day to live by the word of God.

1 Samuel 31:4

4Then Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me!” But his armor bearer would not; for he was terrified. Therefore Saul took his sword, and fell on it.

Saul’s legalistic faith made him think it a disgrace to be killed by the uncircumcised, that is, by Gentiles. It never occurred to him that the sins he had committed were graver than the shame of dying at Gentile hands, and he asked the soldier at his side to kill him. But the soldier could not bring himself to kill the king, and Saul took his own life.

Although Saul had died by his own hand, the young Amalekite lied to David, claiming he had killed Saul at Saul’s own request. Not realizing that killing Saul would by itself bring heavy punishment from David, he even brought the crown and the bracelet from Saul’s arm as proof, and heaped a greater sin on top of the first. He had no idea what kind of faith David had. He did all this on the simple assumption that David would be overjoyed to hear that his enemy had died at the young man’s hand.

David is not easily deceived, for he weighs good and evil by God’s wisdom. The young man’s thinking is the kind ordinary people fall into. Like the young man, who hoped to get ahead by deceiving David, God’s people, too, take prospering in the world for blessing, and that belief leads them to offer prayers meant to deceive God and to put on a counterfeit devotion. Had this young man met God through the word and through faith, he would have had a right faith and would never have done such a foolish thing.

Thinking not of the riches he might gain through David but of the God who was with him, he would have done nothing sinful in God’s sight, and he could have saved his life. If he had simply told the truth, that he had seen Saul die and had brought the crown and the bracelet because he felt David ought to know, David would have thanked him for so full an account of Saul’s death and rewarded him.

This incident shows how hard it is for anyone to set aside the greed in front of them and look at the world and its events with a good heart. Those who long for wealth and honor will, like the young man, inflate a story about something they never did, and to get what they want they will even lie, though the one they lie to is David. Out of greed to prosper in this world, people commit the sin of trying to use almighty God, and that sin keeps them out of the eternal Kingdom.

2 Samuel 1:14

14David said to him, “Why were you not afraid to stretch out your hand to destroy Yahweh’s anointed?”

This is the very reason the young man had to die. David grieved over Saul’s death, but he was furious that a foreigner claimed to have killed the king of Israel whom God had anointed and set up, because to kill Saul was to challenge God himself, Israel’s true King, and to trespass on his royal authority.

Here we see how coolly David weighed matters by God’s law when he dealt with a problem. For him, God’s will came before human feeling. We know this because, although Saul’s death worked to his own advantage, he set his feelings aside, put first things first, and handled the matter without a misstep. When a problem comes, it is never easy to shut out our own feelings entirely and ask first how God sees the matter and what decision would be right in his eyes. Because God approved this faith in David, David could become the great king who built a united kingdom.

We need to know how God would have us judge and decide. The church is a gathering of people whose circumstances and knowledge differ, so their thinking may differ too, and disputes can arise over how to settle things. But just as David acted carefully to set an example for the people who were watching his decisions and actions, we must act in faith for the salvation of others’ souls. Only in this way would the people honor and follow David all the more, and only in this way, with its people serving God and the nation loyally, could Israel grow strong.

David was the one with the most reason to rejoice at Saul’s death, yet he never let his natural feelings show. I imagine he believed that, because God’s appointed time had come, God had removed a great stumbling block to clear the way for a new beginning, and that he rejoiced and gave thanks. While he was being hunted, David had several chances to kill Saul, but he waited patiently until God, the Lord of life, decided the matter. He believed that once Saul’s sin reached its full measure God would surely act; that belief kept him from striking Saul and made him wait for the time.

Now that God had judged Saul and David’s suffering was over, David still kept the clear discernment that refused to be fooled by the Amalekite’s lie. We must be patient, even when we are wronged, until God judges the wicked. That does not mean David simply sat back and took it. While fleeing from Saul he looked after the people, he fought wars to defend the nation, and at every moment he offered prayer and praise to God and showed good conduct.

Understand this clearly: when the time comes, God does his own work. Like David, all we need to do is fulfill the calling he has given us until he answers. If you think you must solve the problem yourself, you will only create another one, and you will not experience God’s grace. When you wait patiently so that God can go before you and work, you will be commended as a good and faithful servant and, like David, be called someone after God’s own heart.

Leviticus 16:29

29“It shall be a statute to you forever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and shall do no kind of work, the native-born, or the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you:

God did not discriminate against the foreigners living in Israel. The young man introduced himself as the son of a foreigner, an Amalekite, because, unlike strangers who stayed in Israel for a time, he was a Gentile who had settled in Israel and become part of its society. Such people were treated the same as the people of Israel and enjoyed the privilege of sharing in the tithes the Israelites brought. Yet because they could not own land as the Israelites did, they likely faced hardships that only outsiders know.

The young man may have thought that bringing the king the news of Saul’s death might give him his chance to own land like an Israelite. But carried away by his impulses, he committed the grave sin of deceiving God and God’s servant.

God’s people make the same mistake. Pilgrims who long for the eternal Kingdom of Heaven suffer many losses for holding to their faith. Then, wanting an easier life, they leave God or turn on those who preach the word, which is sheer folly. The young man declared proudly that he was a foreigner living in Israel, yet he did not truly understand God or David’s faith. In the same way, those in the church, too, say they believe in God, but because they do not truly know him, they are not led by the Holy Spirit.

When God’s children, who believe in the Creator, behave just like the people of the world, they are like that foolish young man who misread the situation and lied that he had killed Saul, the anointed king. Of course, Saul was a wicked man who deserved judgment. But judgment is God’s to decide, so no foreigner had any business using Saul for his own wealth and glory.

2 Samuel 1:16

16David said to him, “Your blood be on your head; for your mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have slain Yahweh’s anointed.’”

The young man had not actually killed Saul, but the moment he told his lie, his words became Satan’s tool and the evidence against him in a judgment that could not be undone. From the moment he lied to David, it no longer mattered how loudly he might protest that he had not killed Saul and had lied only because he wanted a better life; his chance to escape judgment was gone. He should have turned back before he lied to David. The words that come out of our mouths are the measure of our character; we must therefore think more deeply before we turn anything into speech or action.

Matthew 15:18

18But the things which proceed out of the mouth come out of the heart, and they defile the man.

A person’s words are the person, so when someone speaks, it is because they have decided that their own thinking is right. That is why we must think, and think again, before we speak. People act without thinking, and then, when their conscience pricks them or they sense a loss coming, they try to take their words back, saying they did not mean it or that it was a slip. But by saying it they have already shown what they are made of, and calling it a mistake comes too late. Words and deeds can break good relationships, and they can also mend broken ones. So we must always weigh our words before we speak.

Greed drove the young man to claim he had done something he never did, and his own words sealed his death. Had he met a wise person who taught him the word properly and come to know God as he truly is, he would not have committed this sin. Had he learned to live honestly, he would not have tried to deceive David, and when the urge to lie came, he would have repented. Listen to the lie he told, and you can tell what kind of man he was. One day, when we stand before God, he will ask us what words we spoke and how we lived. Then, however unwilling we may be to confess, we will declare every detail with our own lips. Knowing that, we must live honestly and do what is good now.

2 Samuel 1:26

26I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan. You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.

How could David forget Jonathan, Saul’s son? He could not, because Jonathan, though himself the prince, acknowledged that David was the one God had chosen, rescued David every time he was in danger, and served him with all he had. He was a man of faith. Now David heard that this Jonathan had died with Saul. Saul and Jonathan died in the same place, but as they stand before God, what awaits the two of them after death will be different. If, like Jonathan, we know that life is a pilgrim’s road toward the Kingdom of God and live by faith, we will have nothing to be ashamed of even in death. But those who, like Saul, cannot let go of greed and jealousy and torment David, though God himself set them up as king, will face judgment.

There are also people like the young Amalekite, who enjoyed God’s grace while living in Israel yet never became a true Israelite. Instead of giving thanks that he had been sheltered among God’s people, he wanted the visible blessings of the world, and for this he died in the place of the wicked.

Among God’s people, too, there are some who enjoy every grace God gives, yet reach for more instead of giving thanks and bring misery on themselves. Pride and greed go before destruction, so we need the wisdom to give thanks for what we have been given, to be content, and to know how to repay grace. David himself did not always live honestly and uprightly. But his faith, which knew the God of life, made him repent continually of the sins he committed along the way and caused him to be forgiven by almighty God.

God did not remember the sins of David, who repented so sincerely, and he helped David lead the nation and its people. Even as David burned with anger at the young man who lied about killing Saul, he must also have felt that the chain of his suffering had at last been broken. David’s suffering was now over. The moment had come when he would be repaid for all those years of trusting God alone, enduring to the end, and refusing to take revenge on his enemy. Now David took the throne that God had prepared for him as his reward. Having become king, he no longer had to flee from worldly power, and he would live in ease and plenty.

Friends, you must endure until God brings your suffering to an end. Only if you bear it patiently until he drives out Saul, your enemy, and gives you a place where the people truly accept you as king and serve you can you receive a blessing that no one can take away. I hope you will entrust your future to God and live your faith patiently until you hear that King Saul and all your enemies are dead. Bearing injustice is never easy, but if you trust God, who uses even that suffering to make you grow, and hold fast to your faith, God will become your eternal resting place. May you, like David, rely on God alone and receive great blessing.