David becomes king over Israel
"And all the elders of Israel came to the king in Hebron.
And king David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the Lord,
and they anointed David king over Israel”
In the next few episodes of David, we learn how David finally became king, first over Judah, then over all Israel. But David was not a perfect man. Like all of us, he had weaknesses. And yet God had the highest opinion of David. God called him a man after his own heart. David's very royal way shows us why he was a man after God's own heart. Because this path has made him the man who became the king, which is reported to us in the Bible. Because this path was rocky, full of challenges, marked by despair, uncertainty and the persecution of Saul. The chapters in 1 Samuel 16-31 tell us about it. But they also show us an incredible faithfulness and dedication to doing God's will. We see in these previous chapters on the one hand his moral disposition and on the other hand his spiritual disposition. And though David made dubious moral choices, he is still a man after God's own heart. This clearly shows me that God sees much deeper.
David learns of Saul's death (2 Samuel 1)
In chapter 1 of 2 Samuel we read that shortly after David defeated the Amalekites and recaptured the stolen people, an Amalekite (who had fought in Saul's army) appeared to David at Ziklag. He was soiled with dirt and his clothes were torn. He told David about the final stages of the fight. But his story was a mixture of truth and fiction. Knowing that both Saul and Jonathan played important roles in David's life, he was hoping for some form of reward from David. So he told of Saul's and Jonathan's deaths, and he told David that he himself killed Saul at his request or command. He brought the king's diadem as proof.
But his plan failed. For instead of rejoicing at finally getting rid of his mortal enemy, David tore his clothes and began to wail and weep. And with him all his people. The tearing of the clothes was an expression of deep dismay at the time. We know from the previous chapters that David and Jonathan had a special friendship, but there was enmity between him and Saul. How surprised this Amalekite must have been at David's reaction, since he had expected the opposite. And in verses 13-16 we read, “David said to him, How are you not afraid to lift up your hand against the Lord's anointed to kill him? Your blood be on your head; for your mouth spoke against yourself, when you said: I killed the Lord's anointed.” And he commanded a young man to kill the bearer of the news. And so it happened.
For David, Saul has always been the chosen and anointed king of God. For him, laying hands on Saul was an act that belonged to none other than God himself. We have read in the previous chapters that he himself had had the opportunity to kill Saul himself in various situations but had not done so because Saul had been the anointed of God. To kill the anointed was a direct sin against God Himself. And David was a man who hated and loathed sin against God. David's behavior towards God and his reaction towards the Amalekite shows us why David was a man after God's own heart. David loved God with all his heart and respected his decisions.
For me, David is a role model that shows us human inadequacy on the one hand and his devotion and love for God on the other. And even if we are full of flaws and weaknesses but love God with all our hearts, we can be and become men and women who are after God's heart.
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