OT Series. 27. 2 Samuel 1 XICF Gabe Orea 2/Dec/2018 Magnanimous

Our Sacred Scriptures 2 Sam. 1, LEB & ESV

17 And David lamented with this funeral song over Saul and Jonathan his son, 18 and he said “The Bow” should be taught to the people of Judah; look, it is written in the Book of Jashar. He said: 19  “Your glory, O Israel, is slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen! 20  Tell it not in Gath, do not publish it in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult.

21  “You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor fields of offerings! For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil. 22  “From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, and the sword of Saul did not return empty.

23  “Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely! In life and in death they were not separated; they were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions. 24  “O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you luxuriously in scarlet, who adorned your clothing with golden ornaments.

25  “How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle! “Jonathan lies slain on your high places. 26  I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; you were very dear to me; your love was more wonderful to me than the love of women. 27  “How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished!”

pray

We Make Choices We have the power of making choices beyond our instincts.

We Make Choices Our choices will impact not only our own lives

We Make Choices but also the lives of others. Not only the lives of others directly involved in the result of our choices

We Make Choices but also the ones that are watching us at a distance. Today, we will watch at a distance the behavior of King David when one of his political enemies was killed.

17 And David lamented with this funeral song over Saul and Jonathan his son, 18 and he said “The Bow” should be taught to the people of Judah; look, it is written in the Book of Jashar. Just as a side note, this is one more example of some portions of inspired Scripture that was written in other books, that unfortunately we don’t have anymore. We can at least say that outside of what we know as the Bible, there were some scrolls with portions of inspired Scriptures, as is the case of that book called Jashar. 2 Sam. 1, LEB & ESV

Setting We remember King Saul becoming increasingly angry and jealous over David. Part of the problem was the messy politics of the prophet Samuel. Samuel anointed David as king while Saul was still the king. No wonder political struggle took off. The people were divided, just as in modern politics. There were two factions: the followers of Saul and the followers of David. They fought against each other in several ways. Eventually Saul was killed in battle against a foreign power, the Philistines. Not only him, but also some of his sons were killed in the same battle, side by side with their father. Among his sons was Jonathan, who was an intimate friend of David. Our passage for today happens when David receives the news of the death of King Saul and Jonathan. David composed a funeral song to honor the death of King Saul and his son Jonathan. The song of laMENT expresses David’s pain at the death of the first king of Israel and of Prince Jonathan and at Israel’s defeat at the hands of the Philistines. It also expresses the depth of the loss suffered by Israel: How the mighty have fallen! Although the closing chapters of 1 Samuel had shown Saul’s growing hostility towards David, David’s lament says nothing negative about the former king. Instead it praises him as a great warrior. Those who were with David were likely waiting to see his reaction to the news of the death of the man who had often tried to kill him. However, David’s response was appropriate: he mourned the death of one who was God’s anointed. He had acknowledged Saul’s anointed status on several occasions when he had refused to take Saul’s life himself.

David’s response to the death of his enemy should lead us to reflect on our own attitudes. The godly response is to lament as David did. It is not a time of mockery or a display of arrogance and superiority, but of lament, yes, even in the case the fallen one was a sinner. “So Saul died on account of his sin which he had sinned against Yahweh concerning the command of Yahweh that he did not keep. He also consulted a medium to seek guidance. But he did not seek Yahweh.” 1 Chr. 10:13-14.

is slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen! 17 … He said: 19  “Your glory, O Israel, is slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen! He addresses the people of Israel (2 Sam. 1:19–20). David calls the dead king and his army “Your glory, O Israel” and “the mighty.” The term translated high places is frequently used in the Old Testament as a technical name for places of worship outside of Jerusalem, which were often places of pagan worship. Such a tragedy that the glory of Israel, the mighty ones, fell exactly at the pagan places of worship. This is the tragic way David choose to start his funeral song, admitting the reality of the story.

do not publish it in the streets of Ashkelon, 20  Tell it not in Gath, do not publish it in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult. Gath was the capital city of the Philistines where the leaders would rejoice at their victory, and Ashkelon was the chief religious center, where the people would give thanks to their idols for helping their army defeat Israel. David could picture the welcome home, with the Philistine women singing and dancing in praise of the victors. What an irony because it was exactly in this way that the Israelite women had welcomed David after the defeat of Goliath, the Philistine champion. The world turns! In a male-dominated society, it was most shameful and degrading to see the females among the enemies boasting and celebrating victory over a male famous soldier. David expresses his anguish of this

Ullrich Armstrong Ullrich – alcohol addiction; Armstrong – Systematic drugs use to improve his physical performance. 2001 – Ullrich fell to the ground; Armstrong waited for him. 2003 – Armstrong fell to the ground. Following him was the German Ullrich, only 15 seconds behind,. To the admiration of the crowd, now Ullrich refused to speed off but instead slowed down to allow the American to recover and catch up. It was the time for Ulrich to return Armstrong the favor. Two rivals treating each other with honor. Ullrich said, “Of course, I would wait. If I have won this race by taking advantage of someone’s bad luck, then the race was not worth winning. I have never in my life attacked someone who had crashed. That’s not the way I race.” Ullrich Armstrong

21 “You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor fields of offerings! For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil. Saul’s death was a break to David and his men, but celebration was not allowed, thanksgiving was not offered, hugs, smiles and laughter were frowned upon. They did not feel vindicated or victorious at Saul’s death. Instead, they were stunned, speechless and sad. David prayed that God would forsake the place and not send rain or dew to the fields or give the farmers fruitful harvests, even though this meant there could be no grain offerings, probably in reference to Dagon, the pagan god of the harvest. He asked that God’s creation join him in mourning over the defeat of Israel and the fall of their king.

21 “You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor fields of offerings! For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil. David comes at last to the name of the king who has lost his life there, but so painful is the subject that he approaches it indirectly, via the expression “the shield of the mighty.” What he could not have brought himself to say about the king, he can say of the shield: it was defiled with the blood and dirt of war, and it was not anointed with oil. Shields were rubbed with oil both to keep them bright and to cause arrows and other projectiles to bounce off them. But it would be somewhat prosaic, dull, ordinary, for David to refer to the practice of oiling the shields in this poem, so I can’t help thinking it is a poetic artifact to indirectly reference to the anointed of God, King Saul. Saying “the shield of Saul is not anointed with oil” is probably meaning that sadly, tragically, King Saul himself is not anointed anymore. The situation is so painful and embarrassing that he approaches it indirectly, and in this way he reaches the heart of his poem.

22 “From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, and the sword of Saul did not return empty. 23  “Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely! In life and in death they were not separated; they were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions. He praises Saul and Jonathan. This is the heart of the song, depicting Saul and Jonathan as victorious warriors. But to David, these men weren’t just great soldiers; they were also generous people in life and in death loyal to each other and to the people. How do we know this about Saul and Jonathan? From his meeting with Samuel in the medium’s house, Saul knew that he and his sons would die that day in battle (1 Sam. 28:19), yet they did not hide, even when their armies flew away leaving them behind; they chose to stay and battle until the end; they entered the contest determined to do their best. Jonathan knew that his father had disobeyed God and sinned against David, yet he stayed at his side in the fight. Even though the army of Israel was defeated, David wanted the people to remember the greatness of their king and his sons.

22 “From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, and the sword of Saul did not return empty. 23  “Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely! In life and in death they were not separated; they were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions. The strongest blow of death is to produce separation. David is saying, even death did not accomplish separation between King and son; they battled together until their VAliAnt fall. Here we see a Christocentric principle: Father and child are not separated by death. In the same way, Paul says that nothing can separate from the love of God, not even death. Father and child remain together.

“Jonathan lies slain on your high places. 25  … “Jonathan lies slain on your high places. 26  I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; you were very dear to me; your love was more wonderful to me than the love of women. Now David exposes his personal agony for his beloved friend. To read homosexual overtones into David’s expressions of his love for Jonathan is to misinterpret his words. Solomon described the love of husband and wife as “strong as death” (Song 8:6 NKJV), and the friendship of David and Jonathan was that strong, a loyalty that even the danger of death could not destroy.

27 “How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished!” David closes his poem pointing back to the beginning, how the mighty have fallen! There is one word I can think of when watching at a distance the behavior of David when his political enemy fell to death, and that is

Magnanimous generous in forgiving an insult or injury; free from petty resentfulness or vindictiveness: to be magnanimous toward one's enemies. My sermon’s title, Magnanimous, comes from this attitude that is inspiring. But we do not find it only in David, but actually ultimately expressed in our Lord Jesus Christ, when surrendering his own life, and referring to this executers, he prayed:

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Now, this is Magnanimous! “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Let grief do its work; that is a healthy practice for yourself. Express your sorrow.

Remember the positives and achievements. When you have an adversary, try to think also in his/her good points, especially when he falls. That is a healthy practice for those around you as they watch your words and actions. Remember the positives and achievements.

Nothing can separate you from the Father. Be encouraged to remember that … Not even death. If God is your Father, you can have peace of mind that Father and child are to be together, even in the most difficult circumstance.s Nothing can separate you from the Father.

Be magnanimous; win with honor. Don’t mock your ADversary. Be inspired by David’s story and ultimately by the example of our Lord Jesus at the cross; he won with honor, so we can do it as well. Be magnanimous; win with honor.