“On the third day, there came a man from Sha’ul’s camp with his clothes torn and earth on his head. He approached David, fell to the ground, and prostrated himself. David said to him, ‘Where are you coming from?’ ‘I escaped from the camp of Israel,’ he replied. ‘Tell me, please, how did things go?’ asked David. ‘The people have fled the battle,’ he answered, ‘and many of them are wounded or dead. Sha’ul and Y’honatan his son are dead too.’ David asked the young man who had told him this, ‘How do you know that Sha’ul and Y’honatan his son are dead?’”-2 Samuel 1:2-5
When we last left off, an unnamed man in tattered clothing with dirt on his face had come to David.
David started drilling him with questions.
“Where did you come from?” David asked.
The man replied, “From the battle camp of Israel.”
David asked, “What happened in the battle?”
The young man said, “It was a disaster. God’s people were scattered before the Philistines.”
Then he told David the worst news:
Jonathan and Saul are both dead.
David, well aware that soldiers often mix facts with rumors, asks the messenger how he knew for sure that Saul and Jonathan were dead.
The man says he witnessed their death with his own eyes.
He says that during the battle, he ended up on Mount Gilboa and saw King Saul badly wounded, leaning on his spear.
The Philistine chariots had completely taken the battlefield.
Saul called out to the man and asked who he was.
The man said he was the son of an Amalekite who had moved to Israel.
Saul, in great pain and sure he was going to die, asked the man to kill him.
So, the young Amalekite did.
Then, he took Saul’s crown and bracelet and ran to bring them to David.
Oh boy, this messenger should never have left home that day.
Even after thinking over the man’s story and realizing it was filled with holes, this messenger was doomed from the get-go.
David had just finished slaughtering about 1,000 Amalekites.
This meeting was happening in what little was left of David’s village because of the man’s relatives…
Not to mention, the boy belonged to a race cursed by God.
There couldn’t have been a worse time to be an Amalekite – especially given the current circumstances.
So here’s the takeaway for today:
Trying to take advantage of a bad situation by bending the truth or twisting the facts will usually come back to bite you.
This young Amalekite thought he was bringing David good news and maybe even hoped for a reward, but instead, his lies sealed his fate.
We’ll see the result of those lies the next time we meet.
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