2 Samuel 1:1-16

Well, good evening. Turn with me in your Bible, if you have one, to 2 Samuel chapter 1.

2 Samuel 1 · chapter mention

If you're looking in one of the Pew Bibles, it is page 254.

We are starting a new series tonight in the second half of the book of Samuel.

If you were here this past spring, we did the first half of the book of Samuel, called 1 Samuel.

And now we're at 2 Samuel.

Before we dig into the passage, let me introduce our passage by asking this question.

Have you ever had an enemy?

Have you ever had an enemy who drove a wedge between you and your spouse or significant other, which resulted in them leaving you?

Have you ever had an enemy who tried to poison your relationship with your best friend and permanently isolate you from each other?

Have you ever had an enemy who undermined your opportunities to get a stable job that you were well qualified for?

Have you ever had an enemy who literally gathered an army to hunt you down, intimidated you into leaving your home country, chased you into the desert, and tried to kill you over and over again?

Well, that was King David's experience of Saul.

Or David's experience, before he was king, of King Saul.

No less than 16 times in 1 Samuel, Saul tried to kill David.

Besides that, Saul literally stole David's wife, Michal, from him, effectively isolated him from his closest friend, Jonathan,

drove David into the forest, then into the wilderness, and finally into exile, living among the Philistines.

Now, maybe some of you can relate to having an enemy in one or two of those ways.

But probably for most of us, maybe we have to deal with people who are annoying.

Maybe there's people who say mean things behind our back.

Or occasionally get mad and yell at us.

But most of us have never had to deal with an enemy at that level.

Now, the good news for David is that his great enemy, Saul, is now dead.

King Saul has been killed in battle.

That's the last chapter of 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel 31, along with his son Jonathan.

For the people of Israel, it was a national crisis.

It's sort of like if the president and the vice president got assassinated on the same day.

Right? It's never happened in American history.

But for David, it was his golden opportunity to rise up and lead the people of Israel.

To unify them and become their king.

The prophet Samuel had already anointed David back several years ago, 1 Samuel chapter 16.

1 Samuel 16 · chapter mention

Halfway through the book, he had anointed David to be the future king of Israel.

Now, this evening, what we're going to look at is David's response.

And what we're going to read and what we're going to look at is David's response to the death of Saul, his enemy.

And as we look at his response, we'll see David's character begin to emerge.

Because one of the clearest ways that we can see someone's character is how they deal with enemies and people who oppose them.

And cause trouble for them.

So let's read together 2 Samuel chapter 1.

2 Samuel 1 · chapter mention

And after the death of Saul, when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag.

And on the third day, behold, a man came from Saul's camp with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.

When he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage.

David said to him, Where do you come from?

And he said to him, I have escaped from the camp of Israel.

And David said to him, How did it go? Tell me.

And he answered, The people fled from the battle.

And also many of the people have fallen and are dead.

And Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead.

Then David said to the young man who told him, How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?

And the young man who told him said, By chance, I happen to be on Mount Gilboa.

And there was Saul, leaning on his spear.

And behold, the chariots and the horsemen were close upon him.

And when he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me.

And I answered, Here I am.

And he said to me, Who are you?

And I answered him, I am an Amalekite.

And he said to me, Stand beside me and kill me.

And for anguish had seized me.

And yet my life still lingers.

So I stood beside him and killed him.

Because I was sure that he couldn't live after he had fallen.

And I took the crown that was on his head and the armlet that was on his arm.

And I have brought them here to my Lord.

Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them.

And so did all the men who were with him.

And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son.

And for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel.

Because they had fallen by the sword.

And David said to the young man who told him, Where do you come from?

And he answered, I am the son of a sojourner and Amalekite.

David said to him, How is it you were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?

Then David called one of the young men and said, Go execute him.

And he struck him down so that he died.

And David said to him, Your blood be on your head.

For your own mouth has testified against you, saying, I have killed the Lord's anointed.

And David lamented with his lamentation over Saul and Jonathan his son.

And he said, It should be taught to the people of Judah.

Behold, it is written in the book of Jashar.

He said, Your glory, O Israel, is slain on your high places.

How the mighty have fallen.

Tell it not in Gath.

Publish it not in the streets of Askelon.

Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice.

Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult.

You mountains of the Golboa.

Let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor fields of offerings.

For there the shield of the mighty was defiled.

The shield of Saul not anointed with oil.

From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back.

And the sword of Saul returned not empty.

Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely, in life and in death, they were not divided.

They were swifter than eagles.

They were stronger than lions.

You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you luxuriously in scarlet,

who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.

How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle.

Jonathan lies slain on your high places.

I am distressed for you, my brother, Jonathan.

Very pleasant have you been to me.

Your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women.

How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished.

So in tonight's passage, we see two responses to Saul's death.

We see first the Amalekite messenger.

And second, we see David's response along with his men.

So let's look at these two responses in turn, and what we can take from them.

First, the Amalekite's response to Saul's death.

Now initially, this Amalekite appears to be a loyal and compassionate ally.

Right?

He arrives with his clothes torn, dust on his head, traditional expressions of grief.

He says, I've escaped from the Israelite camp.

He traveled over 80 miles to Ziklag, where David was sort of hiding out, or where David

was staying, just to bring him this message.

And he presents himself as a compassionate human being.

Saul was in the middle of the battlefield, already wounded.

No way he could survive.

He put him out of his misery.

He ended Saul's suffering.

But when we look closer, it becomes clear that this Amalekite is actually not loyal and

compassionate.

Instead, we see that he was self-serving and deceptive.

Now turn back a page if you're looking in the Bible.

1 Samuel 31, verse 3 through 5, describes the death of Saul.

1 Samuel 31:3–5

Verse 3 says,

So Saul's badly wounded.

He says to his armor bearer, please, don't let me be killed by one of these foreigners.

Kill me yourself.

And the armor bearer says no.

And so Saul falls on his sword himself.

Now the Amalekite story is a little different.

I saw Saul leaning on his spear, chariots and riders almost upon him.

Saul asked me to end his suffering, and I did.

But you know, there's something a little fishy about the Amalekite story.

All right, verse 6 of chapter 1.

He says,

By chance, I happen to be on Mount Gilboa.

That's sort of like saying,

By chance, I happen to be walking through Newhallville at 2.30 in the morning.

And I got mugged.

Just by chance.

No, it probably wasn't by chance.

Right?

And there was Saul, he says, all alone in the midst of the battlefield,

leaning on his spear and people, the chariots and riders were upon him,

but none of the Israelites were protecting him.

Really?

That would be very unlikely for the whole Israelite army to completely abandon

the most important person, their commander-in-chief, their king,

in the midst of the battle.

And if the Amalekite really wanted to honor Saul,

he wouldn't just swipe Saul's crown and armband.

He would have at least tried to give Saul a decent burial.

That was what the men of Jabesh Gilead did.

Again, you can read it at the end of 1 Samuel chapter 31.

1 Samuel 31 · chapter mention

They went and retrieved Saul's bones from the Philistine temple,

where the Philistines had taken them the next day,

and took them back home as an expression of honor to Saul.

That he wouldn't be defaced and hanging on the wall of a Philistine temple,

but rather given a decent burial as an Israelite.

So what really happened?

Well, most likely, this Amalekite was sort of scavenging, right?

The battle had ended.

It was sunset.

The Philistines didn't do their looting until the next day.

And so he thought, hmm, maybe I can grab some things.

And he comes upon Saul.

And he says, ooh, I know who this is.

And ooh, I know that David and Saul have been rivals.

And I bet if I bring the crown from Saul's head

and bring the other royal insignia to David and present them to him,

I will surely get a high place in David's kingdom.

And David will know that I'm loyal to him and not to Saul.

You see, the Amalekite was trying to take advantage of a national,

of what was really a national tragedy for his own personal advancement.

And David wanted nothing to do with that.

He saw through this guy's hypocrisy.

Verse 13, he says, where do you come from?

And he says, I'm the son of a sojourner.

Now that word, sojourner, it basically means a resident alien in Israel.

It means a foreigner from another nation who chose to settle and live within the borders of Israel.

So in other words, this guy has grown up in Israel.

He knows what he's doing.

He's not just sort of a random visitor passing through,

doesn't really know what's going on, doesn't really know what he's doing.

He knows who Saul is.

He knows who David is.

He knows exactly what he's doing.

And he wasn't afraid to, he was bold and shameless.

And David says, why were you not afraid?

Why did you have no fear of God in you?

That you put out your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed.

Or perhaps that he concocted this whole deceptive story that he actually had when he actually hadn't,

but he was wanting to boast about it.

And wanting to use it for his own personal gain.

And David orders his men strike him down.

Now that might seem like a very harsh response.

But as David said in verse 16, your own mouth has testified against you.

You said, I killed the Lord's anointed.

If you kill the Lord's anointed king, you deserve the death penalty.

There was no such thing as life imprisonment back then.

It wasn't even possible.

We can debate about the death penalty.

That's another topic for another day.

But if you kill the king, what else?

And you see, David was on his way to becoming the king of Israel.

But he wanted to make it very clear from the start.

That my kingdom and God's kingdom will be marked by loyalty and truthfulness and the fear of God.

And so willful deception and shameless disobedience and rejoicing over an enemy's demise must not gain a foothold in my kingdom.

That's the point that David was making.

That he didn't take advantage of this event.

He didn't think, finally, Saul, my enemy is dead.

He wept.

Saul, the king.

Has been killed.

I think it would have been very tempting for David to simply rejoice over Saul's death.

Rejoice over his newfound freedom.

Perhaps immediately proclaim himself king.

Before anyone else could.

Immediately exterminate anyone who is connected with Saul.

That was the typical practice of kings back then.

You sort of clean house.

And get rid of everyone else who is connected with the former kingdom.

When you're replacing someone.

But David didn't do that.

David wept.

And that's really the central emphasis of this chapter.

If you look at the story in verse 1 through 16.

It starts with the Amalekite arriving.

And then David questions the Amalekite.

And then in the middle of the conversation.

When David realizes that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead.

He stops the conversation.

And he just weeps.

And it says they wept.

And they mourned.

They fasted until evening.

And then later on David continues the conversation.

And asks him a couple more questions.

And then the Amalekite departs.

Or he's struck down.

Right?

But right in the center of this narrative.

Is David weeping.

And the author wants to draw our attention to that.

That this whole conversation back and forth is interrupted.

By David weeping.

And then.

In the rest of the chapter we see David's lament.

For Saul.

And Jonathan.

And this lament.

Marks the midpoint of the book of Samuel.

The book of Samuel is really one book in two parts.

First and second Samuel what we have.

Probably just because it was too long to fit on one scroll.

And so they divided it into two.

For convenience.

Because they couldn't fit it all in one scroll.

But at the beginning of first Samuel.

There's the song of Hannah.

It's a song about God raising up the humble.

And bringing down the proud.

And at the end of second Samuel.

There's a psalm of David.

About how God has exalted him.

And how God is my rock.

And God is my fortress.

And he has raised David up to be the king.

And David's giving glory to God for that.

And right in the middle.

We have this poetic lament.

And those are the three poems in the book.

The rest of the book is just a long story.

But this lament sort of marks the midpoint of the book.

And the key line is repeated three times.

Verse 19, verse 25, verse 27.

How the mighty have fallen.

Now I think there's a few things that we can learn from this passage about grieving.

And about responding to loss and tragedies.

So first, it's right to mourn the loss of a loyal friend.

Who stood by you all the way to the end.

This is what David does for Jonathan.

David's, verse 18.

There's a, verse 18 says,

He said it should be taught to the people of Judah.

There's a note down at the bottom.

If you're looking in the ESV.

And it says, in Hebrew, it says the bow.

He said the bow should be taught to the people of Judah.

That's probably the name of the lament.

And Jonathan was particularly known for being an archer.

A skilled archer.

Verse 22 refers to that.

And so he probably named this song sort of as a reference,

as a remembrance of his friend Jonathan.

His loyal friend.

In verse 25 and 26, he really expresses his grief for Jonathan.

You know, if you remember, in the book of 1 Samuel,

Jonathan stands by David when nobody else does.

Jonathan was Saul's son.

So if the kingship is passed on hereditarily,

Jonathan is next in line to be king.

But Jonathan realizes that God has anointed David.

And God has chosen David to succeed Saul rather than him.

And instead of being jealous and envious, as Saul was,

he sort of gives his total allegiance to David.

He makes a covenant with David,

which basically means an oath of allegiance to,

and he says, you're going to reign.

I'll be second to you.

So he gladly says, I'll gladly serve under your leadership.

So Jonathan protected David from the irrational anger of Saul.

He went to visit David when David was all alone in the wilderness.

It said he helped him find strength in the Lord.

He stood up for David in ways that others were unwilling or simply unable to do.

He was the most loyal friend that David ever had.

And that's what David laments here.

He says, I'm distressed.

He says, your love has been better than the love of women.

David had many wives.

It was one of his flaws that almost led to his downfall.

We'll see that later on.

And his wives supported him and comforted him.

But none of his wives stood up for him in the way that Jonathan did.

And none of his wives really could have,

were in the position that Jonathan was to protect him from Saul,

to really save his life,

and to be loyal to him as a friend.

And so that's what Jonathan did.

One person said, the more we love, the more we grieve.

And David grieved for Jonathan as a loyal friend.

But David didn't just grieve for Jonathan.

David also grieved for his enemy Saul.

And, you know, this was the same Saul

who, when David was playing the harp in his court,

threw a spear and tried to kill him.

The same Saul who gathered his men

and pursued David into the remote parts of the wilderness.

The same Saul who caused so much trouble for David

that David had to basically go and live in enemy territory.

Couldn't live his own, couldn't be safe in his own country anymore.

And the same Saul whose frantic attempts to hold on to power

had made Israel weak and helpless before her enemies.

David wept over Saul's death.

David didn't see Saul only through the lens of his own experiences of him

as his enemy.

David saw Saul as God saw him,

as a man that God had created in his image,

as a man who had been called to greatness,

as the first king of Israel,

as a man who had once been powerfully used by God

to defeat Israel's enemies,

as a man who had tragically fallen through his own willful rebellion.

David knew that one day God would judge Saul.

But David also knew that it wasn't his responsibility

to carry out God's judgment against Saul.

When David was younger,

when he was first brought into Saul's kingdom,

he was Saul's armor bearer.

That means he was Saul's trusted assistant.

And Saul ideally could have become his mentor,

his teacher,

and his guide,

but instead Saul turned on him

and became his enemy,

his persecutor.

And their relationship was never restored.

At the very,

at the best,

at best,

there were isolated instances

when Saul recognized his folly

and repented of his madness.

But it was never safe

for David to remain close to Saul for very long.

And yet David responded

to the news of Saul's death with weeping.

Not with rejoicing,

not with indifference,

but with weeping.

It's right to mourn

not only when a loyal friend

who stood beside you all your life dies,

but also when someone dies

with whom you've had a broken relationship.

Maybe you were married once to them

and are now divorced.

Maybe you were once close,

but had a falling out

and were never reconciled.

Maybe someone in authority

abused you

or treated you wrongly.

Part of the right response to that

is to grieve.

To bring the pain

and the injustice of that

before God Almighty.

Lay it out before him.

It's also right to mourn

when the leaders of God's people

fail

and when their failures are exposed.

Saul was appointed

as a leader over God's people,

over Israel.

He had a high calling.

He did not live up to it.

Sometimes Christian leaders

don't live up to their calling.

Sometimes it tends to make the headlines

when one pastor steps down

because of an affair

or another takes the church's money

or another abuses his power,

mistreats people.

Sometimes our response

can be to become cynical

and withdraw.

Sometimes our response

if you're in the church

and maybe if you're a leader in the church,

sometimes our response can be

that's them, that's not me.

You know, we're not like that.

I think part of the right response

is simply to weep

and see that this is not

how God has called us to live

and this is not glorifying

to the name of our Lord.

That's what David did here.

He mourned over Saul.

He mourned immediately.

When we hear tragic news,

sometimes it's helpful to,

I mean, David seems to sort of

stop everything he's doing

and mourned and wept

fasted until evening.

Sometimes it's helpful

to stop what we're doing

and let the news sink in

if possible to gather with others

and express sorrow.

But David doesn't just grieve

sort of reactively and immediately

in the immediate aftermath

of hearing bad news.

He also sits down

and writes this lament.

He put words to his grief.

It wasn't just a stream of consciousness

but an orderly expression

of his grief.

The song was taught

to the people of Judah.

It was actually handed down

for generations to come,

included in the Holy Scriptures.

others.

And I think this can also be

a very helpful practice

in the wake of loss

or tragedy.

To express our grief

which tends to be

disorderly and chaotic

and unpredictable

by its very nature.

To express our grief

in some kind of orderly fashion.

Maybe it means write a poem

or a song

or draw a picture.

Gather together

a collection of photos.

Compose a tribute.

The song is

has an order to it.

Has a refrain

How the Mighty Have Fallen

repeated three times.

Has three distinct parts.

Verse 20 and 21

are sort of negative warnings.

Verse 22 and 23

describe Saul and Jonathan together.

Verse 24 through 26

calls

are sort of invitations

to weep for them individually.

You know,

I think

I think grieving

and mourning

is something that we

we don't

naturally learn to do

if you grow up

in this culture.

Right?

Because

most of the time

we either try to avoid

death and sickness

and just

push it away from us

and stay far away from it

as much as we can

or simply fight against it

and that's all we

try to do

but we don't often

have these

ways

of

mourning

and grieving

and

walking forward together.

And so

it's something

we need to learn.

And I think

that this passage

can teach us

something about that.

Notice also

David doesn't

immediately jump

to words of comfort

and peace

and joy

and assurance

of God's presence.

The lament

is focused on

remembering

Saul and Jonathan

their greatness

as warriors

and the tragedy

of their loss

to the nation

of Israel.

And you know

there's a time

to mourn

and sometimes

the way to get

to a place

of comfort

and peace

it means

we have to

pass through

that

dark valley

of mourning.

So as

a pastor

I periodically

have to officiate

funerals

and

in a traditional

Christian funeral

or memorial service

people gather

to honor

the memory

of a dear friend

to mourn

in the face

of death

both realizing

someone else's death

but also that

we're all going

to die

and sort of

facing that reality

and also to find

hope

and comfort

in the promise

of the resurrection

of Jesus Christ

and the faithfulness

of God.

That's basically

what a traditional

Christian funeral does

honor someone's memory

expresses grief

in the face of death

and hope

in the light

of resurrection.

But today

something that's become

more and more common

is to have

not just

not a traditional

funeral or memorial service

but what's often called

a celebration

of life.

To remember

and as much as possible

try to relive

and recreate

someone's unique

personality.

To celebrate

the activities

they enjoyed doing

and the foods

that they loved.

Basically

to have a party

that they would have

enjoyed being at.

I remember

going to one of these

for a friend

of my wife

someone who was

in college with her

and had died

in a tragic accident

and that was

sort of the goal

to remember

who he was

as a mountain climber

and to have a party

but there wasn't

there was only

one moment

in the whole ceremony

where people

were really given

permission

to grieve

and you could hear

some people

just breaking

into tears.

Now

what to say

about this?

It's appropriate

when someone dies

to give thanks

for their life

and to honor

their accomplishments.

That's what David

does for Saul

and Jonathan here.

But it's also

actually important

to really mourn

and to face

the reality of death

and not to

celebrate someone's life

while pretending

that death

and mourning

isn't a reality.

That can sometimes

just be an expression

of denial

and reflecting

sometimes the fact

that we don't know

how to deal with death.

And one of the things

that the Bible

invites us into

is

to learn

to mourn

and to lament.

David called

that's what David

does in verse 24

he calls upon

the daughters of Israel

to mourn for Saul

he also mourns

personally

pours out his grief

for Jonathan.

Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 7

Ecclesiastes 7:2

verse 2

says this

better to go

to the house

of mourning

than the house

of feasting

because death

is the destiny

of every person

and the living

should take it

to heart.

In other words

the only way

to genuine comfort

and deep healing

from God

involves going

through

mourning

and lamenting.

Now this is hard.

I acknowledge

this is

you know

I was thinking

about this sermon

I was like

this is sort of

the first sermon

of the new school year

and you know

people are excited

to be here

and I'm like

and I've got this text

and I tried to frame

it in other ways

and I tried to think

about it in other ways

and I'm like

this is really

a lot of what

this text

is teaching us to do

is to learn

to lament

and learn to mourn

and Jesus said

blessed are those

who mourn

for they will be

comforted

and he doesn't just

mean blessed are

those who mourn

when your friend dies

that's part of it

but also those

who mourn over

our own sin

and our own fallenness

and turn toward God

and those who mourn

over the tragedy

that sin has wrecked

in the world

that our rebellion

against God

and all of its

terrible consequences

part of the right

response to that

is to mourn

over that

and to bring that

before God

and to call out

Jesus

let your kingdom

come

Jesus

let your will

be done

come

we need you

we long

for you

now this doesn't

mean that we should

remain paralyzed

by grief

David went on

to do many things

he went on

to rule over Israel

he went on

to fight great

battles

and bless

God's people

and bring them

together

as united people

he went on

to reign

as king

so there's a time

to stop everything

and mourn

there's a time

to get up

and continue working

even if you still

feel the loss

of a loved one

very acutely

and deeply

so this is what

we see in David's

response to the

death of Saul

he responds

not by pursuing

his own self

interest

not by rejoicing

that his enemy

has fallen

but by mourning

over him

and you know

we see this

in David's life

but in the

New Testament

we see Jesus

Christ

the true

and everlasting

king

and we see

the same thing

with Jesus

many of us

think about

Jesus mourning

for Lazarus

his friend

who got sick

and died

and Jesus

went to his grave

and he wept

but Jesus

also wept

over Jerusalem

he said this

Luke 19

41

when Jesus

drew near

excuse me

when Jesus

drew near

and saw the city

of Jerusalem

he wept over it

saying would

that you

even you

had known

on this day

the things

that make

for peace

but now

they are hidden

from your eyes

for the days

will come upon

you

when your enemies

will set up

a barricade

around you

and surround

you

and hem

you in

on every

side

and tear

you down

to the ground

and they

will not

leave one

stone

upon another

Jesus warned

the people

in Jerusalem

that there

was a coming

destruction

because of

their rebellion

against God

and their

rejection

of his

Messiah

but he

wept

over that

city

and he

wept

over those

people

he wasn't

indifferent

and cold

to them

he wept

over them

in the book

of Revelation

Jesus is

described

as a lion

who will

rule the

nations

a strong

king

but he's

also described

as a lamb

who laid

down his

life

in humble

sacrifice

you see

more than

David

more than

anyone else

in the history

of the world

Jesus had

enemies

we think

about

the Pharisees

who plotted

against him

and the

Roman officials

who were

happy to

have him

crucified

so it would

cause less

trouble for

them

but in

some sense

the whole

story of the

Bible

is about

God

and how

God will

deal with

his enemies

because from

the beginning

Satan and

the angels

rebelled

against God

Adam and

Eve

in the

garden of

Eden

rebelled

against God

and all

of us

have followed

in their

footsteps

and really

the big

question of

the Bible

is how

will God

deal with

people

who

in all

kinds of

ways

are trying

to

exclude him

from our

life

and dishonor

him

and put

ourselves

in the

center

where he

should be

and glorify

ourselves

and get

the glory

and honor

for us

and for

I mean

we sort of

want to be

the king

when he's

the rightful

king

and the

question is

how will

God deal

with us

and the

good news

is what

Paul says

in Romans

Romans 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5

God shows

his love

for us

in that

while we

were still

sinners

Jesus Christ

died for

us

if while

we were

God's

enemies

we were

reconciled

to God

by the

death

of his

son

much more

now that

we are

reconciled

shall we

be saved

by his

life

we'll

go on

to see

more

of

David

how

he

deals

with

his

enemies

how

he

deals

with

all

kinds

of

other

things

but

the

the

main

message

of

the

Bible

is

that

though

we

were

enemies

of

God

that

God

has

come

and

reconciled

us

to

himself

and

he

invites

us

to

be

reconciled

to

him

let's

pray

Lord

God

we

thank

you

for

your

scripture

that

speaks

to

us

about

many

things

that

we

might

otherwise

neglect

or

ignore

Lord

we

thank

you

for

how

you

call

us

to

mourn

over

the

fallenness

and

rebellion

and

brokenness

of

this

world

we

thank

you

Jesus

for

how

you

came

in

your

compassion

and

laid

down

your

life

for

us

on

the

cross

so

that

we

might

be

reconciled

to

you

so

we

might

be

at

peace

with

you

so

that

we

might

belong

to

you

and

be

part

of

your

kingdom

forever

Lord

we

pray

that

you

would

we

pray

that

you

would

teach

us

how

to

mourn

and

how

to

hunger

and

thirst

for

your

righteousness

how

to

mourn

not

not

because

we

have

no

hope

but

because

we

have

hope

in

you

that

one

day

you

will

come

and

make

all

things

new

and

for

all

who

turn

to

you

one

day

we

will

be

part

of

your

kingdom

and

we

will

be

healed

and

we

will

rejoice

and

there

will

be

no

more

mourning

Lord

we

pray

that

you

teach

us

to

walk

in

the

path

of

the

cross

Lord

knowing

that

you

have

gone

before

us

and

pay

the

great

price

on

our

behalf

we

pray

this

in

Jesus

name

amen