Oh, and retrieve the ark — it's not there. Similar to the six other times, he inquired of the Lord.
Death of Saul. David had — one long story. It — it had — there was no first and second Samuel. It was just Samuel. And so, but the scribes, they seem — seem to not have enough room on a scroll, and so they decided that they had to cut somewhere. And they decided to cut it right here at the death of Saul, because it seemed like a good place, because there are other biblical books in the Old Testament that begin after the death — then fill in the blank. So for instance, Joshua and Judges begin after the death of Moses and after the death of Joshua. And first Samuel is all about Samuel and his judgment of Israel, his leadership of Israel, and then Saul and his judgment of Israel and his leadership of Israel, and then their eventual deaths. And so second Samuel begins with this — this pregnant question: What is gonna happen? What is Israel gonna do now that the leader has died? How are God's promises of the land and the people and the nation gonna be fulfilled going forward? Is David going to rise up and be the king? Are there gonna be factions within the country that split the kingdom? What is gonna happen?
And right away we — we hear this phrase: "after the death of Saul." And what happened to Saul, if we were to turn back a page and — and look at — at 1 Samuel 31, is he is fighting the Philistines on Mount Gilboa. And he's got his — his sons with him. The way that they would fight back then, all of the — the most important people, like the king and his attendants, would be in their own little entourage, you know, somewhere most safe on the battlefield. But we're told that the — the archers of the enemy find Saul. And we don't know how many times he got shot, but he knows instinctively that he is mortally wounded and he's not going to make it out of this one alive. And so he turns to his armor bearer and he says, "Finish me off, please. I — I'm not gonna make it." And the armor bearer has such respect for the office of the king and — and — and love for Saul, he — he can't bring himself to do this. Says, "I — I couldn't do it." And so Saul takes his own life and falls on his sword and dies tragically on the battlefield.
And then his sons are also slaughtered, including Jonathan, and many of the army flees, and — and that sort of thing — the battle is lost. And the Philistines come across his body, then they — they — they behead him. They take it, and along with his sons, they hang it outside of one of their cities, as a public shaming and a public warning to Israel. And the very last thing that happens in first Samuel is some of the Israelite faithful come and — and take the bodies down and give them a proper burial. Kind of a little mini raid in the night.
And then we get this phrase: "after the death of Saul." And that's very important to think about how he died, because we're gonna get a different version of events from this messenger that comes in a moment. But the next phrase that shows up is: when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites, he remained two days at Ziklag. And David was striking down the Amalekites because Saul had been hunting him, and so he — he was — he had kind of run into the wilderness of the southern part of Judah, and he was trying to protect his own people. He had kind of settled in this city, Ziklag, and the Amalekites are some of the ancient enemies of Israel who are plunderers and raiders. And what they do — they've been doing this for centuries at this point against the Israelites — they come in and they — they burn a city, they capture everybody, take all the plunder, and they run away before they can get caught.
And so David is out doing something, and his men, his 600 men, are with him. And the Amalekite raiders come and they raid Ziklag, and they take David's wives — unfortunately for them — because David finds out about this when he comes back, sees the city burning. And they find a — a — you know, one enemy soldier, and they interrogate him, and they figure out what had happened. And he then, with his 600 men, pursues them, gets his wives, and saves everybody. They didn't kill any of the inhabitants. They bring them all back, they take all the plunder, and they're there in Ziklag for two days. And they're there waiting to hear how it went with the Philistines. What — what are — what's gonna happen with all those questions? What was gonna happen with the kingdom?