1 Samuel 31-2 Samuel 1

¹ Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa. ² And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Melchishua, Saul’s sons. ³ And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was sore wounded of the archers. ⁴ Then said Saul unto his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it. ⁵ And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him. ⁶ So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, that same day together. ⁷ And when the men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley, and they that were on the other side Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities, and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them. ⁸ And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa. ⁹ And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to publish it in the house of their idols, and among the people. ¹⁰ And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth: and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan.¹¹ And when the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul; ¹² All the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there. ¹³ And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days. ¹ Now it came to pass after the death of Saul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had abode two days in Ziklag; ² It came even to pass on the third day, that, behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head: and so it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the earth, and did obeisance. ³ And David said unto him, From whence comest thou? And he said unto him, Out of the camp of Israel am I escaped. ⁴ And David said unto him, How went the matter? I pray thee, tell me. And he answered, That the people are fled from the battle, and many of the people also are fallen and dead; and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also. ⁵ And David said unto the young man that told him, How knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead? ⁶ And the young man that told him said, As I happened by chance upon mount Gilboa, behold, Saul leaned upon his spear; and, lo, the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him. ⁷ And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called unto me. And I answered, Here am I. ⁸ And he said unto me, Who art thou? And I answered him, I am an Amalekite. ⁹ He said unto me again, Stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me: for anguish is come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me. ¹⁰ So I stood upon him, and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen: and I took the crown that was upon his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them hither unto my lord. ¹¹ Then David took hold on his clothes, and rent them; and likewise all the men that were with him: ¹² And they mourned, and wept, and fasted until even, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the Lord, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword. ¹³ And David said unto the young man that told him, Whence art thou? And he answered, I am the son of a stranger, an Amalekite. ¹⁴ And David said unto him, How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed? ¹⁵ And David called one of the young men, and said, Go near, and fall upon him. And he smote him that he died. ¹⁶ And David said unto him, Thy blood be upon thy head; for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord’s anointed. ¹⁷ And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son: ¹⁸ (Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.) ¹⁹ The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen! ²⁰ 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 triumph. ²¹ Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil. ²² 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. ²³ Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. ²⁴ Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel. ²⁵ How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places. ²⁶ I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. ²⁷ How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!

All of 1 Samuel has been about God dealing with His people Israel. Throughout the time of the judges, Israel sinned against the Lord, suffered the consequences of those sins, and then God delivered them through judges. That period was marked by decreasing morality and increasing rebellion against God. It can be summed up in the words, “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:25; 21:25). That period culminated in 1 Samuel with the wicked priesthood of Eli’s household and Israel demanding a king from Samuel (1 Samuel 1-8). Israel’s demanding of a king was their rejection of God and their desire to be like the nations around them, so God gave them what they asked for despite warning them about the consequences of their desire. That king was Saul. Saul looked the part, was gifted, and had success early on. In time, however, his heart was revealed to be far from the Lord. He continually disobeyed the Lord and refused to confess and repent of his sin. When Saul found out that the Philistines were marching against Israel in 1 Samuel 28, he desperately tried to inquire of the Lord. However, he had killed many of the priests at Nob (1 Samuel 21), he had been exposed to the prophets in Ramah (1 Samuel 19), and the Lord did not answer him directly through visions or dreams. Saul was truly left to himself. In his desperation he sought out a witch in Endor to conjure up Samuel’s ghost to maybe hear from God’s prophet one final time. When Samuel appeared and revealed Saul’s doom that was coming the next day, Saul could do nothing but fall into depression and then feast with the witch at Endor. Saul was the king that was like all of the kings of the nations around Israel. He was power hungry, paranoid, and bent on his own selfish ambitions.1 Samuel 31-2 Samuel 1 mark his end as king. This section marks the end of the period where God would remove the king like the nations around Israel and establish His king after His heart to shepherd His people. 1 Samuel 31 and 2 Samuel 1 are about Saul’s doom and David’s response to it. From these two chapters, we learn four things about God’s judgment. We will examine the first two this week and the other two next week.

First, we learn that God’s judgment is certain. What God promises, He will do. The evening before, God had promised through Samuel that Saul and his three sons would both die at the hands of the Philistines and Israel would lose decisively in the battle. That is what the first six verses of 1 Samuel 31 tell us happened. Saul met his disastrous end in the battle and the details of his death are recorded in verses 3-5. When the Philistines overcame Saul and Israel’s army, Saul was struck by the Philistine archers and knew that his death would come when the Philistines arrived. To avoid such a humiliating death that they would surely give him, he turned to his armorbearer and asked him to kill him. The armorbearer was afraid to strike the king and so Saul took his own life by falling on his own sword. What is remarkable about this is that the armorbearer exhibited more fear of God than Saul did. Saul had reached the place where he was willing to do what David (previously) and the armorbearer (currently) were unwilling to do and that was take his life. Rather than expressing repentance or turning to the Lord, Saul continued to live his life his own way according to his own selfish desires all the way to his bitter end. In many respects, Saul’s life is a foreshadowing of a man who died in similar fashion in the New Testament by taking his own life, Judas Iscariot. Just as Saul ate a “last supper” of betrayal with the witch of Endor that sealed his fate, so Judas ate the last supper with Jesus before going out to betray the Son of God. Just as Saul would take his own life rather than repenting and turning to the Lord, so Judas, in his grief for what he had done, went out and hung himself (Matthew 27:5). Despite both of them being so gifted by the Lord (Saul was anointed as king and given the Spirit and Judas was a disciple who had the gifts and experiences with the other eleven apostles), their lives met a disastrous end by their own hand. This is not to speak of suicide as an unforgiveable or unpardonable sin. It is a sin and certainly demonstrates that a person has reached a very dark place, but the only unpardonable sin is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31). The suicide of these two individuals is clearly connected to the depths of darkness that they had consigned their souls by their unrepentance and sin. Richard Phillips rightly says, “his suicide is the last nail in the coffin of the faith he once professed.” Saul met his end and we find that his three sons (including David’s friend Jonathan) met the same end with him. In Saul’s case, the greatest commentary on what takes place is what we do not find him doing. There is no cry to the Lord for help. There is no humility. It is selfishness all the way to the end. He was willing to selfishly sin by taking his own life to avoid humiliation. Who knows if the Lord would have heard his cry for help in that final hour, but Saul would not turn to Him and could not turn to Him because he had hardened himself. Phillips goes on to add, “Thus, he dies as he had lived, in hardened self-will and without faith in God’s salvation, not even crying out to the Lord with his dying breath.” Saul was his own worst enemy in his life. Essentially, all of the evil that came upon him, came upon him by his own hand (his sin and rebellion). That is the case of all apostates. Inevitably, judgment will fall. Hebrews 10:26-27 warns us that judgment is all that the person has to look forward to who rejects the Lord. Jesus told Nicodemus that the one who does not turn to Him in faith is “condemned already” (John 3:18-19). There is coming a day when God will judge the world in righteousness. Are you ready?

Next, we learn that God’s judgment is absolute. What followed the death of Saul and his sons in the account of 1 Samuel 31:7-13 were three things. First, the Israelites in the region were soundly defeated and fled from the Philistines. They abandoned their cities and gave them over to the Philistines. Second, the Philistines found Saul’s body, cut off his head, took his armor to put it into the temple of an idol, and put his body on public display on a wall in Bashan. What is amazing about this is that the humiliation Saul tried to avoid in his suicide ended up occurring anyway. Sin never prospers. Thirdly, verses 11-13 tell us about some valiant men from Jabeshgilead who took the body of Saul and his sons back from the Philistines, burnt the bodies, and buried their bones “under a tree at Jabesh.” They followed that by mourning for Saul. There are a few things that must be noted about these three things. We must see that God’s judgment that day did not just fall on Saul but on all of Israel. It wasn’t just Saul that lost but the whole nation. This is because Saul was a representation of their hearts because he was the king like they wanted and that they demanded. Therefore, they suffered along with him. An irony found here is where Saul’s bones were buried. The last time he was underneath a Tamarisk tree was in 2 Samuel 22:6 just before he slew all of the priests of Nob. There, he was grasping his spear, holding on tightly to his power. Here, in 1 Samuel 31, he was buried there with no spear, no armor, and no power. His rule that was marked by selfishness and murder earlier was now over. The men of Jabeshgilead are mentioned here as a reminder of one positive action that Saul took as king in 1 Samuel 11 when the Spirit of God led Saul to defeat the Ammonites who had tried to oppress and harm the people there. Their actions were not so much about glorifying Saul as recognizing the greatness of God’s kingdom and how God used that king to preserve them. Their actions were meant to honor God for His deliverance, not allow the Philistines to glory in their victory, and to anticipate that God’s kingdom would continue after Saul. The Lord would still be with His people. God’s judgment had been carried out against Saul and Israel suffered in it as well. His judgment was absolute and thorough, but in His wrath, God would remember mercy for His people (Habakkuk 3:2). There was still hope in the future.

And so, Saul’s rule as the first king of Israel came to an end. His life is chronicled for us, not just so that we can see who he was, but so that we might look to his example and learn from it. We learn from his life the danger of unrepentant sin and that sin will inevitably be judged. God’s judgment is certain and it is absolute. One day, many people will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and discover this solemn reality. On that day, there will be no second chances and no turning back. On that day, death will not be physical, but eternal. That day is coming and quickly approaching. On that day, there will be no façade, no pretense, and no avoiding exposure. Just as Saul tried to hide from his humiliation by taking his own life and had that humiliation come anyway, so many on that day that have tried to hide their sin and avoid its consequences in this life will experience the weight of it all before God’s throne. There is good news. God’s Son, His King, has come and taken His wrath for our sin that we might be saved from judgment and given eternal life. All a person must do is turn to Him in repentance and faith. Saul’s judgment didn’t have to come. The Lord rebuked and corrected him all along the way, yet Saul would never humble himself and turn to Him. God’s Word graciously speaks into our lives today, warns us of coming judgment, and confronts our sin so that we might turn and live.