This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to seeing
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s
happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his gospel.

Let’s jump in.

Saul is dead and the
throne of Israel is empty.

But David doesn’t know that.

He has been busy
fighting the Amalekites.

He doesn’t know that Jonathan was
killed, and Saul committed suicide.

And David doesn’t find out until three days later
when an Amalekite messenger delivers the news.

David questions the messenger
for details, but the Amalekite lies.

He invents a story about mercifully killing
Saul himself, presumably to win David’s favor.

Even though the Amalekites are enemies, this
Amalekite has killed David’s other enemy—Saul.

He’s hoping this lie will earn him a place in David’s
kingdom as he hands Saul’s crown to David.

But David doesn’t celebrate
like this Amalekite expects.

Instead, he cries.

God’s anointed king Saul and
David’s friend Jonathan are dead.

David’s love for Jonathan and his loyalty to Israel as
God’s chosen nation overshadows any political

ambition. He can’t celebrate his rise to power
if it means harm to God’s kingdom.

So, David executes the man who thought he
could profit from the death of God’s anointed.

David then writes a public poetic
eulogy for Saul and Jonathan.

The refrain cries out three times,
“How the mighty have fallen”.

The song proves David’s genuine grief over Israel’s loss,
and his unfailing loyalty to God and the good of his kingdom.

Only after a time of national mourning
does David ask God if it’s time to leave

his Philistine headquarters and
return to Judah to take the throne.

God directs him to the southern city of Hebron
where he’s officially anointed as the new king of Israel.

And his first act as king is to reach out
to the northern town Jabesh Gilead.

This town had been loyal
to Saul from the beginning.

And it’s where Saul first
gathered Israel’s armies.

David is trying to bring together
fractured Israel under his leadership.

He honors their loyalty to Saul and invites them
into a new alliance—a new covenant—with him.

[music]

When Saul rose to power, we saw
his cowardice and his rebellion.

Saul hid from his own coronation,
and he refused to listen to God.

That’s why as David rises to power, we’re
shown his loyalty to God and his kingdom.

He would rather weep over God’s anointed
than celebrate the death of his enemy.

He would rather reconcile with those most
loyal to Saul than cut them out of Israel.

David is the right king for Israel!

And Jesus is the right King for us.

Like David, he humbly considers God’s Kingdom as more
important than giving his enemies what they’re owed.

And even while being tortured,
he forgives his captors.

Jesus would rather die as God’s anointed than
celebrate the death of his enemies.

Jesus rises to power not to finally end a
vendetta against us, but to invite those loyal

to the powers of darkness into a new alliance—
a new covenant—bought by his blood.

Jesus unifies not just northern and
southern Israel but the North and South Poles.

There is no more Jew or Gentile, Arab or American, Korean
or Japanese. All who join his Kingdom are united in Jesus.

Jesus is the unifying and humble King we need, and if you
swear loyalty to him, he will faithfully lead you into his Kingdom.

So, may the Holy Spirit open your eyes to see
the God who has appointed a King for his people.

And may you see Jesus as the King we need
to unite our world and lead us into his Kingdom.