A SUGGESTED OUTLINE OF THE BOOK OF 1 CHRONICLES
Ancestry: Genealogy of the twelve tribes (1 Chronicles 1—9)
Unity: The nation brought together (1 Chronicles 10—16)
Dynasty: God’s covenant with David (1 Chronicles 17)
Victory: The borders expanded (1 Chronicles 18—21)
Efficiency: The nation organized (1 Chronicles 22—29)
I. The temple ministry (1 Chronicles 22—26; 28:1—29:20)
II. The army (1 Chronicles 27)
III. The heir to the throne (1 Chronicles 28—29)
Chapter One
David, King of Judah
(2 Samuel 1:1—2:7)
(See also 1 Chronicles 10:1–12)
For ten years David was an exile with a price on his head, fleeing from Saul and waiting for the time when God would put him on the throne of Israel. During those difficult years, David grew in faith and godly character, and God equipped him for the work He had chosen for him to do. When the day of victory did arrive, David was careful not to force himself on the people, many of whom were still loyal to the house of Saul. He took a cautious approach, and we can’t help but admire David for his wisdom and patience as he won the affection and allegiance of the people and sought to unify the shattered nation. “So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands” (Ps. 78:72 NKJV).
VINDICATION (1:1–16)
The Lord prevented David and his men from assisting the Philistines in their battle against Saul and Israel, so David returned to Ziklag. There he discovered that the Amalekites had invaded and taken all the people and goods and had left the town in ruins. God in His providence led David to the Amalekite camp. David routed the enemy, delivered the women and children, and reclaimed all the goods as well as the loot the Amalekites had collected in their raids. He then returned to Ziklag and awaited a report from the battlefield (1 Sam. 29—30).
A deceitful messenger (vv. 1–10). On the day that David was slaughtering the Amalekites, the Philistines were overpowering Saul and his army at Mount Gilboa, where they killed Saul and three of his sons (1 Sam. 31; 1 Chron. 10). The next day, while David was returning to Ziklag, the Philistines were humiliating Saul by desecrating his body and the bodies of his sons, and the Amalekite messenger was starting off to bring the news to David. It took him at least three days to get to Ziklag, which was about eighty miles from the scene of the battle. So it was on David’s third day in Ziklag that he received the tragic news that Israel had been defeated and that Saul and three of his sons were dead.1
Scripture gives us three accounts of the death of Saul and his sons: 1 Samuel 31, the report of the messenger in 2 Samuel 1:1–10, and the record in 1 Chronicles 10. According to 1 Chronicles 10:4, Saul killed himself by falling on his sword, but the messenger said he had killed Saul to save him from experiencing further agony and humiliation. First Chronicles 10:14 informs us that it was God who killed Saul for his rebellion, especially the sin of seeking guidance from a medium. Only with great difficulty can the reports in 1 Samuel 31 and 1 Chronicles 10 be reconciled with the report of the messenger; therefore, it’s likely the man was lying.
There’s no question that the man had been on the battlefield. While he was searching for spoils, he found the corpses of Saul and his sons before the Philistines had identified them, and he took Saul’s insignias of kingship: his golden armband, and the gold chaplet he wore on his helmet. However, the Amalekite didn’t kill Saul as he claimed, because Saul and his sons were already dead. But by claiming that he did, he lost his own life.2
One of the key words in this chapter is fallen, found in verses 4, 10, 12, 19, 25, and 27. When Saul began his royal career, he was described as standing head and shoulders “taller than any of the people” (1 Sam. 9:2 NASB; see 1 Sam. 10:23 and 16:7), but he ended his career a fallen king. He fell on his face in fear in the house of the spirit medium (1 Sam. 28:20), and he fell on the battlefield before the enemy (1 Sam. 31:4). David humbled himself before the Lord, and the Lord lifted him up; but Saul’s pride and rebellion brought him to a shameful end. “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12 NKJV).3 Saul was anointed king at the dawning of a new day (1 Sam. 9:26), but he chose to walk in the darkness (1 Sam. 28:8) and disobey the will of God.
A grieving camp (vv. 11–12). The Amalekite messenger must have been shocked and then afraid when he saw David and his men tearing their garments and mourning the death of Saul. He thought that everybody in Ziklag would rejoice to hear the news of Saul’s death, knowing that this meant the end of their dangerous fugitive way of life. He probably expected to be rewarded for bringing such good news, but he obviously didn’t know the heart of David. In David’s eyes, Saul was never his enemy (2 Sam. 22:1), and on the two occasions when David might have slain Saul, he made it clear that he would never lay hands on the Lord’s anointed (1 Sam. 24:1–7; 26:1–11).
The messenger claimed that he was an Amalekite, the son of a resident alien (2 Sam. 1:13). But if he had been living in the land of Israel, he surely would have known that the king of Israel was the anointed of the Lord. If a loyal Jew had found the four corpses, he would have sought to hide them and protect them from the enemy; but the Amalekites were the enemies of Israel, the very people Saul was supposed to wipe out (1 Sam. 15). It’s likely that the messenger was a genuine Amalekite but not a resident alien in Israel. He was more likely a “camp follower” who made his living scavenging after the Philistine army. By claiming to be the son of a resident alien, the man was asking for certain privileges specified in the law of Moses, privileges he certainly didn’t deserve (Ex. 22:21; 23:9; Lev. 19:33; 24:22; Deut. 24:17).
A righteous judgment (vv. 13–16). At evening, when the time of mourning had ended, David further interrogated the messenger and concluded that the man deserved to die. If the story he told was true, then the man had murdered God’s anointed king and deserved to die. If the story was not true, the fact that the Amalekite fabricated a tale about killing the king revealed the depravity of his heart. “Out of your own mouth I will judge you” (Luke 19:22 NKJV). The Jews had been commanded to annihilate the Amalekites (Ex. 17:8–16; Deut. 25:17–19), so when David ordered the messenger to be slain, he was simply obeying the Lord, something Saul had failed to do (1 Sam. 15).
In slaying the messenger, David vindicated Saul and his sons and demonstrated publicly that he had not been Saul’s enemy and did not rejoice at Saul’s death. This was a dangerous thing to do, for David and his men were living in Philistine territory, and the Philistine king still thought David was his friend and ally. For David to take his stand with the dead king of Israel could be considered an act of treason. But the Lord had vindicated David, and David had vindicated Saul, and David wasn’t afraid. The conduct of David and his camp, when reported to the Jewish people, would help to convince them that David indeed was chosen by God to be their king.
LAMENTATION (1:17–27)
David’s grief over the death of Saul and Jonathan was sincere, and to help the people remember them, he wrote...
