Allocution
Then David said to him, “How is it you were not afraid to stretch out your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?” 2 Samuel 1:14 NASB
How is it – Allocution is a formal speech of advice or warning. But if you watch “Law and Order,” the television crime series, then you know that allocution is the requirement of a perpetrator in a plea bargain sentencing. The criminal stands before the judge and admits to his crime without excuses. Then the sentence is passed and the case closed. Without the legal background of allocution, this story about David seems cruel and deceptive. But once we understand the process of allocution, things change.
The battle with the Philistines is a disaster. Israel is defeated. David and his men were involved in another conflict with the Amalekites. A few days later, a young man appears before David. In the ensuing dialogue, David learns that Saul and Jonathan are both dead. David asks, “How do you know Saul and Jonathan are dead?” The young man reports that, “by chance,” he witnessed Saul’s attempted suicide and assisted Saul taking his life. Once again we encounter an “accident” in the stories of David. This time the Hebrew phrase is a single word repeated in two forms. Niqro niqretiy is the verb qara, once in the infinitive and once in the first person singular. “By chance I happened to be” is really the idea of an accident with exclamation points. The young man suggests that all of this really had nothing to do with his choices. He just happened to be at this particular place at this specific time for no reason at all. He just did what Saul asked because he happened to be there. The entire event was merely coincidence. Oh, yes, and by the way, he just happens to be an Amalekite.
I am quite sure that this young man never suspected his life would end because he told David the truth. But it did. David has the man executed. Why? Because he showed no hesitancy in killing Saul, even though Saul asked him to do it. David’s question assumes that anyone would resist involvement in the death of a man chosen by God. The Amalekite did more than assist in Saul’s suicide. He dishonored YHVH. Even when David “happened to be” in a position to kill Saul, David refused. David chose to honor God’s choice. But this Amalekite showed no honor to God in his action. The accidental encounter became a choice with terrible consequences.
Was David cruel? Was his verdict justified? We might argue both sides. Amalekites were supposed to be eliminated long before this event. God’s anointing passed to David long before this “accident.” But in the end, these are only suppositions. What is real is this: there are no accidents. Every “by chance” is an opportunity of choice—and some of those circumstances have terrifying possibilities in them. “Accidents” surround the stories of David. Opportunities are presented in all the circumstances. Eventually David himself falls victim to happenstance. But he didn’t have to. And neither do we.
Topical Index: niqro niqretiy, by chance, accident, Amalekite, Saul, 2 Samuel 1:14
How did an Amalekite end up in the middle of David’s camp? By chance, too? I highly doubt it. The flesh is “above all things deceitful, and desperately wicked”. Innocent? Or calculative to gain advantage? Hmmm, let me guess….
The flesh, or, the “natural man” assumes all other flesh is out to gain advantage, too. That is the only thing it has been reduced to being able to see. This is why it can never understand or “receive.. the things of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (I Cor. 2:14). The spirit of wisdom, being connected with its Source at all times like it obviously is, is just simply not available to the disconnected. You can be terribly clever and versed in the ways of the world and still do some incredibly stupid things when you are up against spiritual discernment. David knew what any good commander knows: nobody trusts a turncoat. Further, he discerned the wicked spirit of a killer for advantage, who would kill again for the same. The line had already been crossed, and the land was also already crying for blood (justice). This would have been a no-brainer for a Torah adherent.
Anyone can become blind by the desire for advantage. I am convinced that blindness to “the things of God” is a side effect of seeking glory (advantage, or, weight) that belongs only to Him. When we make a move for the glory due only to the Throne our lights go out and we become a blind Syrian, groping in the dark for the advantage we were sure was just right there. That Amalekite had to have been forgetting a whole bunch of stuff that should have been common knowledge – or at least common sense – for him to make that calculated move. If there is one thing that I think greed results in, universally, it is blindness, just as surely as lying results in deafness to the truth.
Great discussion opener. Skip you are teaching us the basics or at least trying to help us understand the deceptive nature we all have before we even begin to wage war biblically. Brings me to a scripture but I always share before sinking about putting up my dukes so to speak. Genesis 3:1 Holman Christian standard Bible now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. Talk to the woman did God really say you can’t eat from any tree in the garden? Now this may lead aspect to the garden if so let’s stay on track with the amalekites and David thank you shalom
Laurita
Well said, seeking advantage drives all…
Skip, I have been thinking a lot about Greek dualism influencing the way we think about what the Bible has to say about flesh vs. spirit (see; the Greek in me says that the two are mutually exclusive, somehow!). I can see how the Greek mind would read that through the lens of dualism, ending up perhaps in a version of gnosticism, but if we consider the Hebrew understanding of nephesh we are clearly up against something else. If I sin, all of me sins, and suffers accordingly. If a part of me is doing right, the rest of me goes along for the ride, so to speak. If I am breathing pure air deeply, my mind clears up and my spirit likewise strengthens and cheers up. If my mind is thinking negative thoughts, my body immune takes a nose dive and my spirit is oppressed, too.
SO, when the Bible talks about the flesh, it cannot mean my isolated bio reality, for there is no such thing, and when it talks about spirit, that is going to be including my thought life and emotional and physical response as well. Could we study what these terms mean, then, in CONTRAST to our Greek conditioning? I feel I need more understanding. The dots are not all lined up yet for me, even though you have written about this so many times already. I am still not there, yet. Thank you!.
Exodus 17:14 “…for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Ametek from under heaven….”
2 Sam 1:13 “…I am the son of an Amalekite stranger…”
The question, for me, is why did this person declare himself “the son of”…anyone? Seriously, no one that i know of ever declares “I am the [son/daughter] of [insert name of someone].
The answer, for me, is: because your bloodline mattered in hebrew culture. It matters in Jewish culture today, that’s why it is that if the mother is jewish the baby is jewish. One could PROVE the bloodline of the baby through the mother.
We will never know what would have happened if the guy had said “I’m Steve” and nothing more.
And then there is this: Nothing in Scripture is happenstance or freestyle. There is a reason.
The man is an Amalekite, they are under a generational curse and even tho he did what Saul begged him to do, and he did it with righteous intent (who am i to question this man’s innocence because of his bloodline?) and he presented the information to David, probably believing it would be considered a good thing…
And dies on the spot.
YHVH’s word is forever, his decrees are forever. And the reason we are TOLD of this man’s bloodline, is because it matters.
There is an answer to the curse tho, and it is as efficient and effective as hydrogen peroxide, Peroxide is better then bleach; bleach is superficial, only cleanses the top layer of anything whereas hydrogen peroxide is able to penetrate and cleanse lower layers. Don’t use bleach on mold, it will discolor the top layer so you believe it’s gone, but the spores beneath it’s reach are still alive and sprouting. Hydrogen peroxide destroys those lower layers of mold spores. **that’s a freebie piece of information that just slipped in, and now, back to my rant:***
Where was i…oh, yeah, the answer to the curse, generational and/or otherwise.
Repentance.
“Opportunities are presented in all the circumstances.”
There’s no chance it’s just by chance. It’s not a trick or a trap. It’s testing by trial. The testing of our faith that we may become perfect and complete, not lacking anything. But will we live by faith, live by the Ruach, be sober and alert, and ask for wisdom? Or will we be doubting, double-minded, and unstable in all our ways?
“Happy is the one who endures testing, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love Him.” [Jam. 1:12]