READING: 2 Samuel 1-2, Luke 22:1-23
“How the mighty have fallen!” (2 Sam. 1:19, 25, 27).
David used this phrase three times in his lament over the deaths of Saul and Jonathan in today’s reading. Furthermore, the images of their lying “slain on your heights” (2 Sam. 1:19, 25) echo the tragedy of their deaths. They were “loved and delightful, they were not parted in life or in death. They were swifter than eagles, stronger than lions” (2 Sam. 1:23), but now they were gone. Death plays no favorites, and even the leaders fall.
How deep David’s grief particularly for Jonathan must have been! His words translated into English surely don’t capture all his pain: “I grieve for you, Jonathan, my brother. You were such a friend to me. Your love for me was more wondrous than the love of women” (2 Sam. 1:26). Jonathan was David’s best friend, and, as one writer describes it, “his untimely death left a gaping hole in David’s soul.”* The agony of death must have broken David’s heart.
So, we are reminded today that death takes down the mighty, and even the strongest of relationships can’t avoid its intrusion and pain. It comes, whether we like or not, and despite all our best efforts to delay or stop it. All of us will fall in death if the Lord tarries His coming that long.
How grateful I am today that God conquered death through the cross and resurrection of Jesus!
PRAYER: “God, I grieve the reality of death today, but I praise You for the victory You’ve already won.”
TOMORROW’S READING: 2 Samuel 3-5, Luke 22:24-46
*Bergen, R. D. (1996). 1, 2 Samuel (Vol. 7, p. 293). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
