Weeping For Our Sauls (2 Samuel 1)

2 Samuel begins the way 1 Samuel ended – with a tragedy of historic proportions. The first king of Israel had been mortally wounded in battle and proceeded to finish himself off with his own sword. The great king Saul who stood head and shoulders above the rest of the children of Israel (1 Samuel 9:2) now lays on the ground, a corpse, his crown and armlet salvaged by a homeless Amalekite, an enemy of Israel. His body was mutilated and placed in the Philistine trophy case. And David, with a grieving heart, immortalized the words, “How the mighty have fallen” (2 Samuel 1:19, 27).

And probably the most shocking twist in the whole Saul-verses-David saga was that David mourned him.He grieved over him and lamented him in song. It was as though Saul was a hero, a friend, or a father. He was certainly a national monument, but not one that we would ever want our sons to emulate or our daughters to marry. He was demonized. Bitter. Jealous. Irreverent. Presumptuous. Hot-headed. Murderous.

He was David’s enemy.

Yet, David loved him nonetheless. David prayed for him anyway. David avoided even speaking evil of him. And when he died, David wept. For Saul was the Lord’s anointed.

I was pondering this text and began to think that, sort of, in a way - and this is a bit of a stretch - our enemies have also been anointed. They have been consecrated and set apart by God also. Note Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:43-47:

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?"

The gospel makes provision even for our enemies. Love them. Pray for them. They may or may not ultimately embrace the gospel, but we are to treat them with a sincere love nonetheless. We are not to objectify, stereotype, target, or slander them. We are to love them.

But we war against our inner-Amalekite, so to speak. To him, loving an enemy is unintelligible. It's psychotic. It's way too risky. The Amalekite in 2 Samuel 1 lied to David, claiming to have nobly finished off Saul himself. Maybe he lied to opportunistically gain the favor of the future king of Israel. Maybe, he reasoned, that by claiming to raise his hand against David’s enemy and bring news of his downfall that David would accept him and love him; maybe even give him a place in his court one day.

Never would he have imagined that what would have pleased David more would have been to spare the enemy. So the same fate that befell Saul came upon him. The Amalekite was killed because he didn’t love David’s enemy.

I think there’s a truth in here for all of us. Hating even the most vile of people will ultimately kill us. It kills our spirits while we live out this life. Hatred makes us bitter, jealous, and harsh. It makes us cynical, stiff, and rude. We supplant God's commission to show his love to the world around us with a stiff, defensive posture. Rather, we scan the world around us looking for potential threats to our safety and peace of mind. We become useless to the kingdom of God. As a result, we further separate ourselves from the innocent love and kindness of our Savior, opting for a hard heart. And, worse, we ultimately will taste an eternal separation from God if we don’t obey Jesus’ words and deliberately strive to weave into our lives the truth, power, and love of the kingdom of God (Matthew 11:12).

I think there’s a clue we can look for to gauge whether or not we’re loving the way God wants us to love. Are our hearts breaking more and more for our enemies? Do we see measurable and growing compassion in our lives for those we don't like? Will we also weep over the “Sauls” in our own lives?

Created 9 months ago