Second Samuel says that David was grieving about the death of Saul and Jonathan. However, there was something that wasn’t quite right about it! I mean, yes, Second Samuel makes it quite clear that Jonathan and David were pals, who looked out for each other, saved each other’s lives, and were closer than brothers. So, David was likely very sincere about his grief over Jonathan’s death.
Saul, on the other hand…. well that’s a different story. Saul has a bad track record of trying to kill David and making him a fugitive, because of jealousy, even though David played the harp to soothe Saul’s stress, slew Goliath the giant Philistine with a sling and Goliath’s own sword, saved the Israelites’ army from death, led one thousand men in greatly successful battles against the Philistines, was buddies with his son, and brought him 200 Philistine foreskins so that he could marry Saul’s daughter. Apparently, Saul had some jealousy issues.
But during those manhunts, David had many chances to kill Saul. He didn’t because he didn’t want to kill The Lord’s anointed. Did anybody notice that was the only reason that David listed for not wanting to kill Saul? I get the feeling that sinking a spear into Saul’s back wouldn’t have been the worst thing for David. Later in the story, during a battle with the Philistines, Saul died, and that made David king. Oh ho! A twist in the plot! I believe that David was quite sincere about his grief over Jonathan’s death. King Saul’s death… well, he wasn’t happy, but he can’t have been extremely sad about it…. somewhere in the middle.
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