When the Mighty Fall

Coming up today on Renewing Your Mind. As we continue with our study of the life of David, we remember how David had fled from the presence of Saul and had virtually abandoned hope in the promises of God that God would protect David from Saul and deliver David someday to the throne of Israel. I'm going to jump ahead now to the very last chapter of the book of 1 Samuel that tells of a catastrophic battle that takes place between the armies of Israel and the armies of the Philistines.

This is a crucial moment in the history of Israel. We read in chapter 31, the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled. And the Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons, and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Melchisua, Saul's sons. The sons of Saul, three of them, fell in this battle.

And what the narrative goes on to say is that the battle became even more fierce and was loaded on one side with the power of the archers of the Philistines. And the archers hit Saul, and he was severely wounded. And now at the point of dying, Saul said to his armor bearer, draw your sword, thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me. So Saul is mortally wounded.

You see the scene. He's about to die. He does not want to suffer torture at the hands of the conquerors. And so he says to his armor bearer, he begs his armor bearer, please run me through with your sword.

Put me out of my misery. Let me die with some dignity. Don't allow me to fall into the hands of my enemies. But the armor bearer wouldn't do it. The Scriptures tell us that he was greatly afraid, and so therefore Saul himself took a sword and fell upon it. And when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his own sword and died with him. And so Saul, his three sons, his armor bearer, and all of his men died together that same day. This was an enormous victory for the Philistines, and they were not afraid of gloating about it.

Listen to what they did. When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those that were on the other side of the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities and fled, and the Philistines came and dwelled in them. And so it happened the next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain that they found Saul and his three sons. They cut off his head, they stripped him of his armor, and they sent word throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim it in the temple of their idols and among their people.

Now listen to what they did. They take the armor of Saul, and they hang it in the temple of the asterisk. That is, in their pagan temple, they display the armor of the king of Israel. And they took his body and fastened it to the wall of Bethshan. Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done, all the valiant men arose and traveled all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan.

And they came to Jabesh and burned them there, and they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh and fasted seven days. So this band of Israelite guerrillas heroically and valiantly went and rescued the body of Saul that he might be buried with his bones among his own people there in Israel. Now this record of the death of Saul includes within it the narrative that Saul dies by his own hand. He's mortally wounded by the archers of the Philistines.

He asks his armor bearer to finish the job. When his armor bearer won't do it, Saul then falls upon his own sword. And the Scriptures say that when he did that, he died, and then his armor bearer committed suicide as well. But that's not the story that is given to David. David gets another story, a different and conflicting account of what happens.

That story is told to us in the first chapter of the second book of Samuel, where we read that after the death of Saul, when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites and so on, that it happened that a man came from Saul's camp with his clothes torn and dust on his head. And when he came to David, he fell on the ground and prostrated himself, and David said, Where have you come from? And he said, I escaped from the camp of Israel. And David said, Tell me, please, how did it go? What happened out there? And the man replied, The people have fled from the battle.

Many of the people are fallen and dead, and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also. David said, How do you know that? Then the young man who told him said, As I happened by chance to be on Mount Gilboa, there was Saul leaning on his spear, and indeed the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him. Now when he looked behind him, he saw me, and he called to me, and I answered, Here am I. And he said, Who are you?

And I answered and said, I am an Amalekite. And then he said to me again, Please stand over me and kill me, for anguish has come upon me, and my life still remains in me. So I stood over him and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was on his head, the bracelet that was upon his arm, and have brought them here to my Lord. Who was a dangerous thing in the Old Testament to be a messenger? Because when the messenger brought bad news, he was often killed for bringing the bad message.

Though if he brought good news, he could be in for a tremendous reward. Now this Amalekite, who comes to David with the news of the death of Saul, doesn't know for sure how David is going to respond to this. But he assumes, obviously, that David will be pleased that Saul has died. And so he tells David that he finished the job. He said he came along, and there he had found Saul on his spear, but he still hadn't quite died according to this man. And he said that Saul begged him to finish the job, and so he did it.

He's sort of couching it both ways. On the one hand, it could be seen as an act of treachery to kill the king. On the other hand, if David is unhappy that Saul is dead, then at least he can say, I was just doing what Saul wanted me to do. And he said, And look, David, I brought his crown, and I brought his bracelet for you, my lord. So he's really trying hard to get in the good graces of David.

Now how would you expect David to respond to this? We have been watching relentlessly the pursuit of David by Saul. It's David's profound fear that Saul would kill him. Now for the first time, that fear has to be finally and fully removed from David. Saul is no longer a threat to David. Saul is dead. So one might expect that though David would certainly be brokenhearted about the news that Jonathan, his bosom friend, had been killed, that he would be elated to hear that Saul has perished.

But that's not his response. Verse 11 of chapter 1 says, Therefore David took hold of his own clothes and tore them, and so did all of the men who were with him. And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son, for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. And then David said to the messenger, Where are you from? And he said, I am the son of an alien, an Amalekite. And David said, How was it that you were not afraid to raise your hand against the Lord's anointed? If I wanted Saul killed, I could have done it myself, but I wouldn't do it because he was anointed by God to be the king.

Who do you think you are, an alien Amalekite, to come and kill the king? And so David is furious at this messenger who is taking credit for the death of Saul, and David orders the messenger to be executed. He said, Your blood is on your own head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, I have killed the Lord's anointed. And then in verse 17, which is what I want to focus our attention on today, we read these words, Then David lamented with this lamentation over Saul, and over Jonathan his son, and told them to teach the children of Judah the song of the bow.

Indeed, it is written in the book of Jasur. We have seen already the uncommon gifts that David had with music and with poetry. One of the most moving forms of ancient music and poetry was the dirge, or the lament. We remember a whole book of the Old Testament written by the prophet Jeremiah called the Book of Lamentations, where Jeremiah expressed his unbelievable grief over the destruction of Jerusalem. Here David, in the midst of mourning, provides a lament, a dirge over the death of Saul and of Jonathan.

And it's a dirge that most of us are familiar with, at least in its highlights. We've heard portions of this lamentation expressed in our culture over and over again. The central thesis, the central refrain of the lament reads like this, O how the mighty have fallen. It is a calamity for people when their leaders, when their heroes are killed or fall from grace, are disgraced in one way or another, who can forget the national reaction to the accusation against O.J.

Simpson when he was charged with the murder of his ex-wife and another man, who can remember of those who were alive during the time when the President of the United States was assassinated, the funeral cortege that went down the avenue in Washington, D.C. with the symbol in the parade of a horse without a rider, symbolizing the fall of the national leader. O, how the mighty have fallen. In this case, David, along with the nation, is grieving over the death of their king. Verse 19 begins the lament. The beauty of Israel is slain in your high places.

How the mighty have fallen. Tell it not in Gath. Proclaim it not in the streets of Asculon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.

Do you hear what he's saying? Oh, this is a day of utter distress and calamity. Don't speak about it in the streets of Gath. Don't proclaim it in the places of Asculon. Where are Gath and Asculon?

Don't proclaim it in the places of Asculon. Where are Gath and Asculon? Those are two of the five major city-states of the Philistines.

This was a day of gala celebration among the Philistines. The king of Israel was dead. Their archenemy had fallen in battle against him. They're dancing and singing and having a parade, and David is crying.

Publish it not in Asculon. Tell it not in Gath how the mighty have fallen. Then he calls upon the mountains.

O mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew nor rain upon you, nor fields of offerings. For the shield of the mighty is cast away there, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil. 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. David pronounces a curse upon the battlefield, on the scene where the heroes of Israel had fallen. And then he goes on, Saul and Jonathan were beloved and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles.

They were stronger than lions. Do you see that even David who had been warned by Jonathan, where Jonathan in a sense betrayed his own father by taking David into his confidence and protecting David from the rage of Saul, although in Jonathan's mind he was not betraying Saul, he was protecting Saul. He was protecting Saul from Saul's own madness. And David appreciates that, and David says at least there's one good thing.

Father and Son were together. That bond was not destroyed. They fell as a family. O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul. Boy, how hard is it for us to mourn over the death of an over the death of an enemy. But somehow in the deepest chambers of David's heart, he still could not look at Saul as an enemy. He looked past the madness of Saul, past the jealousy of Saul, and remembered those tender moments when Saul expressed his love for David as if David were his own son. O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet with luxury, who put ornaments of gold upon your apparel. How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle. Jonathan was slain in your high places. And now he changes his focus to his distress over Jonathan. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan, for you have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women.

How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished. David could have seen this as an occasion to celebrate his own freedom from the pursuit of Saul. He could have just wrung his hands in glee and say, ah, the throne is mine. All the obstacles to my dreams have been removed.

That which stood between me and the kingdom of Israel has now vanished. I will celebrate and rejoice in this occasion. He doesn't do it. He takes no joy in the fall of the mighty. Jealous people do. Bitter people do. Small people do.

Weak people do. But even with all of his faults, David recognized in Saul in Saul a man of great power and virtue. He applauds his victories in the field. He knows that Saul was a double-minded man. He knows that Saul was good and bad, vicious and virtuous. And he, at this moment, takes an occasion to praise him for whatever virtue was manifested there. That takes grace, beloved.

It takes grace to see virtue in the lives of your enemies and the lives of the opponents. But not only that, David is concerned, and this is something that he loses later for a season. He's concerned not only for Jonathan and not only for Saul, but he's concerned for the people. Because he knows that no king lives as an isolated individual. No prince lives in solitude.

They are public people, public personae. And so, there is a sense in which the destiny of the nation is tied up with the destiny of their leaders. And David sees that and says, this is a day of untold calamity for our nation. Our king has fallen. Our prince has fallen.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Here, we see David at his best. David expressing grace. David expressing a profound love for his adopted father, as it were, his king, and for Jonathan, whom he loved as a brother. David's deep mourning over the loss of his friends reveals much about his character. Saul had been chasing him down to kill him, yet David loved him deeply. As R.C.

mentioned, as R.C. mentioned, we see David here at his best. But as we examine his life, we also see him at times at his worst. We have been studying the life of David here on the Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind, and I hope you'll stay with us. Dr. Sproul will return in just a moment with a final thought on our responsibility when leaders fall. As we return to this series each week, we're seeing an amazing story unfold. But more than that, we're learning how David's incredible life set the stage for the rest of redemptive history. Dr. Sproul is showing us how to connect the Old Testament accounts to the New Covenant.

Our resource offered today will help you do that as well. You'll be able to see the full narrative of Scripture. It's the special edition of Dr. Sproul's series, Dust to Glory. It's a 57-part study tour that explores the themes and events of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And this special edition set provides an extra disc containing the study guides for the series.

So request Dust to Glory when you go to renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343. We have the privilege here at Ligonier Ministries of reaching people around the world with teaching series like the one we've heard today. We want to help believers around the world understand theology, the Bible, church history, and what it means to have a Christian worldview. One of the ways to connect with this rich teaching is through RefNet. That's our 24-hour internet radio station. When you tune in, you'll hear curated Christian content from a reformed perspective. You'll hear from Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, Alistair Begg, Dr. John MacArthur, and of course, Dr. R.C. Sproul.

You can listen at any time at refnet.fm or on the free RefNet app. Now here is R.C. with a final thought. I'd like to ask you how you feel sometimes when you read in the newspaper of scandals that attach themselves to the names of the rich and famous. As a people, we're almost addicted to gossip, aren't we? We kind of wring our hands in glee when we discover another scandalous action of somebody who is prominent in our society. The tabloids are filled with this kind of stuff.

The popular magazines create a feeding frenzy whenever we hear of a new scandal with somebody that's powerful or that somebody that's famous. Instead, we ought to be weeping. We ought to be heartbroken when our leaders fall and when they embarrass that which they stand for and that which they represent. The other point we need to take from this story is a lesson on being gracious to our enemies. Jesus said that we are to love our enemies and to be concerned for them and not to take delight in their destruction.

We may be grateful when their evil is resisted and defeated. But that was not David's heart to be vengeful here. David, on this occasion, had a broken heart because he cared for those who fell. David's sorrow wasn't temporary.

He had promised Jonathan that he would take care of his dear friend's family, and David did just that. I hope you'll join us for the message titled, The Cripple at the Table. That's next Saturday here on Renewing Your Mind. That's next Thursday here on Renewing Your Mind.