2 Samuel 1: 13 (ESV) 

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, an Amalekite.” 

In 2 Samuel, Saul and Jonathan are dead, and David rises to power. He began in Saul’s inner court as a musician, armor-bearer, and friend to Jonathan. He then became an enemy of Saul due to paranoia because God’s hand was no longer on Saul due to his disobedience. David was made king over Judah in the southern portion of Canaan and then the northern section, which was the area most loyal to Saul. 

David is deeply distressed and mourns the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. He interrogates the young Amalekite, who says he is a ger. The biblical term ger means a resident alien. He lived peacefully among the Israelites but maintained his Amalekite identity. A person in this “category” would have some obligations while living among them but was not bound to Israel’s covenants with God. The Amalekites were gentile strangers and not part of the family of God. He and his family could have become a citizen of Israel if his father had desired. Why is this important to us? Once again, we better understand New Testament teachings when grounded in the Old Testament. 

Most reading today’s text are gentiles. In Romans chapter 11 and Ephesians chapter 2, we read the following: 

Romans 11:24 “For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree. (also see Ruth Chapter 2) 

Ephesians 11: 11-14 “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” 

We were foreigners to God’s covenants, wild olive shoots grafted onto domestic olive trees, the uncircumcised. However, once we step over the line of faith and accept Jesus as our LORD and Savior, we become a member of God’s family. 

Prayer: Thank you, LORD, for being a God of mercy, grace, and love. Thank you for giving those of us not physically born into the family of your chosen people Your Son, Jesus, as our Redeemer. Thank you that we will get to see you face to face and live with You forever in Zion. In the name of our blessed Savior, I offer this prayer. Amen.