Mar. 31 - 2 Samuel 1-3

In today's reading, David finds out about the death of Saul.  A man came to him and told him that he had "finished off" Saul.  Saul had pierced himself with his sword, but wanted this man to finish the job because he would die anyway.  The man did and came to tell David.  David ended up ordering that this man be killed because he went against God by killing one of His anointed ones. 
David grieved over the deaths of Saul and his son, Jonathan.  David was then told by the Lord to go to the town of Hebron, one of the towns of Judah.  He took his two wives and some others with him and they relocated to Hebron.  David met with the people of Judah and told them that he would now be their king since Saul was dead.  The people of Judah continued to follow David, however, a man named Abner brought Saul's son over to rule Israel.  There was plenty of fighting going on between the two groups.  David's followers grew stronger while Saul's people continued to grow weak. Finally the two groups try to make amends, but David says he will only meet with them if he is given back his first wife, Michal (who was a daughter of Saul).  They agreed and ordered that she return to David.  David sent Abner away to finalize some details with the Israelites and in the meantime, Joab (one of David's followers) was unhappy with the fact that David and Abner were actually getting along.  Joab then sent a message to Abner to meet with him and ended up killing him, to retaliate against him for killing his brother a while back.  So, David's followers are concerned and think he had something to do with this.  When they saw how he was mourning the death of Abner, they realized he didn't have anything to do with it and continued to be please with him.