2 Samuel 1: A Killer on the Couch

Welcome to chapter by chapter four year journey through the greatest book given to the human race, the Word of God, the Bible. We get to go through chapter by chapter seven minutes a day and seven days a week. Join us each day and share it with others so that they can join this journey that will be life changing. We'll stop at unexpected places on the journey and be challenged. Some verses will create odd wonder and will have chapters that will be instructive and others. We'll find joy and comfort. We will occasionally be convicted and want to change, but all in all the journey will be worth it. Once in a while we may take a detour on the journey and hear from some of God's servants on their favorite passages from a chapter of scripture and let them give you their insight. Every journey needs a small detour occasionally. The best way to get the most from this podcast is read the chapter we're discussing before after. It's his word, the Transform. You'll find more and see more than I can ever articulate. Welcome to chapter by chapter in today's chapter is second Samuel chapter one, a killer on the couch. The story still haunts me to this day. Daniel was brought to our church in the inner city when we first started it. He was led to the Lord by two women on the streets and after they prayed with him they didn't know what to do with him so they brought him to me. Daniel didn't seem like a normal street person so I thought I would bring him home with me, let him sleep in my one bedroom Detroit apartment couch and help him get a job. All of that happened. It was probably six days into the stay of my short-term roommate that I remembered vividly what I heard on a Saturday morning in that apartment is I was praying for our Sunday service. I remember hearing the voice, "Get rid of that man, this is a setup." I couldn't tell if it was audible but it felt like it was. I remember packing up Daniel's things and calling his job telling him not to come home but to meet me at the church. Then it happened. I told Daniel at the church what God spoke to me and God is my witness what happened next. Daniel's eyes rolled into the back of his head where I only saw the whites of his eyes and a demonic voice came roaring out of him saying, "Ha, I've been sent here to kill you. Get out of this place. It belongs to us." Daniel was a demonic in the area we planted a church who was on assignment by hell to kill me. My killer was sleeping on my couch and God told me to get him out. What I thought was a good thing that I did without even praying about it could have been a catastrophe if I didn't pray that Saturday morning. Second Samuel 1 is about a killer on the couch. Just when Saul and his three sons are buried under the Tamarisk tree in J. Besh, Second Samuel 1 has us revisit the night of his gruesome death. It was as if God wanted us to hear a little bit more on the details of this man's death. David is grieving over the death of Saul and Jonathan and even writes a song for Israel about their deaths call the song of the bow. The sentence that keeps reprising in the music is this how the mighty have fallen. While David is grieving, the soon-to-be king is visited by a stranger that tells him a chilling tale. This is Second Samuel 1-3. Then David said to him, "From where do you come?" And he said, "I have escaped from the camp of Israel." David said to him, "How did things go? Please tell me." And he said, "The people have fled from the battle and also many of the people have fallen and are dead and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also." So David said to the young man, "Who told him? How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?" The young man told him and said by chance, "I happened to be on Mount Gilboa and behold Saul was leaning on his spear and behold the chariots and the horsemen pursued him closely. When he looked behind him, he saw me and he called to me and I said, "Here I am." He said to me, "Who are you?" And I answered him, "I am an amalachite." Then he said to me, "Please stand beside me and kill me for agony as sees me because my life still lingers in me." So I stood beside him and killed him because I knew that he could not live after he had fallen. I took the crown which was on his head and the bracelet which was on his arm and I have brought them here to my Lord. Now this is not a contradiction to the first Samuel 31 Saul committing suicide. I believe this amalachite would be part of an assisted suicide. I believe he helped Saul fall on the sword. Let the words resound in your spirit. I am an amalachite. Those four words are not just a description of Saul's suicide helper. Those four words are an autopsy of his death. Saul had a killer on his couch. Have you ever said this is a good job, a good college? This guy I'm dating is the best or marriage is best for us right now and it turns out to be a disaster. They were assisting you in spiritual suicide and you didn't know that there was a killer on your couch. 18 years earlier, Saul had his Saturday morning prayer moment and God spoke to him to get rid of his Daniel. They would be the amalachites. This is first Samuel 15 too. Thus says the Lord of hosts, "I will punish amalach for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt." Now go and strike amalach and utterly destroy all that he has and do not spare him, but put to death both men and women, child, infant and ox, sheep, camel and donkey. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, oxen, fatlings, lambs and all that was good and were not willing to destroy them utterly. But everything despise and worthless that they utterly destroyed. The nation he was to destroy is the nation that killed Saul. It seems that this amalachite man was a trusted servant and served with Saul. He was one of the best and good he kept from 1 Samuel 15. The man that could have saved his life and bring a breathing soul to David to recover helps him die. He was killed by one of the best that he ended up saving in 1 Samuel 15. An amalachite can be a person, a thought, a place that you have labeled as good and God asked for it to be surrendered. The unsurrendered amalachite always surfaces later and brings destruction. I've seen it happen when a wife says you are spending too much time with that co-worker or that single woman and the response is it's all good, nothing is happening. Don't worry, it's good. It is God telling you through your spouse to take the sword to the amalachite and then keeping them around becomes the death of a marriage and even adultery. What God wants gone that you keep around will eventually assist you in your demise. For some reason we have this thought that whatever God demands of us is optional and that we can decide if we want it gone or not. To make Jesus Lord of our lives means he can veto anything he wants. Elizabeth Elliott, the wife of the martyr Jim Elliott, said these powerful words, "I really don't think you're in a bargaining position with God. He is the master. He is the commanding officer. It's not for you to have input. It is simply for you to accept the orders as the orders are given. Be careful of defining what is best for your life or who is best for your life excluding God and the decision making. Let God decide what's best because he may be keeping a killer off the couch." Thank you for joining chapter by chapter. Every chapter from the greatest book of the Bible, the Word of God, seven minutes a day, seven days a week. We'll see you tomorrow.