God Doesn't Need Help

2 Sam 1:1-16 (NIV) After the death of Saul, David returned from defeating the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days. 2 On the third day a man arrived from Saul's camp, with his clothes torn and with dust on his head. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him honor. 3 "Where have you come from?" David asked him. He answered, "I have escaped from the Israelite camp." 4 "What happened?" David asked. "Tell me." He said, "The men fled from the battle. Many of them fell and died. And Saul and his son Jonathan are dead." 5 Then David said to the young man who brought him the report, "How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?" 6 "I happened to be on Mount Gilboa," the young man said, "and there was Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and riders almost upon him. 7 When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me, and I said, 'What can I do?' 8 "He asked me, 'Who are you?' "'An Amalekite,' I answered. 9 "Then he said to me, 'Stand over me and kill me! I am in the throes of death, but I'm still alive.' 10 "So I stood over him and killed him, because I knew that after he had fallen he could not survive. And I took the crown that was on his head and the band on his arm and have brought them here to my lord." 11 Then David and all the men with him took hold of their clothes and tore them. 12 They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. 13 David said to the young man who brought him the report, "Where are you from?" "I am the son of an alien, an Amalekite," he answered. 14 David asked him, "Why were you not afraid to lift your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?" 15 Then David called one of his men and said, "Go, strike him down!" So he struck him down, and he died. 16 For David had said to him, "Your blood be on your own head. Your own mouth testified against you when you said, 'I killed the Lord's anointed.'"

Second Samuel opens with the account of a messenger coming to David and telling him that Saul and Jonathan and many others were dead . Thinking to gain David's approval and possibly receive a reward from him, this messenger, who was an Amalekite, told David that it was art his hands Saul died. He said he had come upon Saul, who was still alive after falling on his own sword. Saul, who pleaded with him to kill him before the Philistines came upon hism and mutilate his body while he was still alive. The young man claimed he did as Saul requested. Some Bible students beleive that  young man told the truth ; others believe he lied, but whatever the correct version is, he took his story to the wrong man.

David had always had a strong aversion to raising his hand against God's annointed. Neither would he permit any of his men to do it. So when the young Amalekite claimed to have killed Saul, David had him put to death . David did not want what the Lord did not give to him. He would not take by force what God had promised.

So many of us make the mistake of feeling we have to help God fulfill his promises.

"Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all" ( 1 Chronicles 29:11).

From: Strength For The Journey - Theodore H. Epp