1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel; the Israelites fled before them, and many fell dead on Mount Gilboa. 2 The Philistines were in hot pursuit of Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua. 3 The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him critically.
4 Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me.”
But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it. 5 When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him. 6 So Saul and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men died together that same day.
It is really important to decide who to follow, who to side with, who to align yourself with. Don’t say “Saul is King so I can ignore what I see with my own eyes and know in my own heart”. Following David and becoming a deplorable may be a much tougher choice, but it is also a much wiser choice. All those closest to Saul suffer a big loss for aligning themselves with him.
7 When the Israelites along the valley and those across the Jordan saw that the Israelite army had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their towns and fled. And the Philistines came and occupied them.
8 The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 9 They cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and they sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temple of their idols and among their people. 10 They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan.
11 When the people of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 all their valiant men marched through the night to Beth Shan. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth Shan and went to Jabesh, where they burned them. 13 Then they took their bones and buried them under a tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.
Saul had his failures, but he was an Israelite. He lacked faith, that was his true failing. He lacked the obedience to the word of God, that was plain to see from everyone, but the cause was a lack of faith. How do you build your faith? Well you meditate on God’s promises. God will supply, be anxious in nothing, I am a member of God’s household, He is my Father, I am His child. Then you speak God’s word. Too many think it is sufficient to listen to God’s word. Saul was given three experiences: don’t worry about your donkeys, the Lord supplied him bread from God’s house, and he spoke with the prophets. When Saul prophesied he became exposed, naked. That is true of everyone. When you speak the word of God the light shines and you get exposed. As a result many will shun speaking the word, but you need to embrace the light, come to the light, let that light work in you to expose things you need to confess and repent of. Look at David, all his psalms show that he did this. He was fully exposed but he also grew in grace and in faith. This is how you find the path that leads to salvation. We saw Saul flopping around, going to mediums even though he was well aware of the prohibition in God’s word. In contrast we saw David going to Philistia even though many Bible expositors thought this was backsliding. We saw that this enabled him to carry out God’s secret mission to defeat the Amalekites while also recovering part of our inheritance that we had ceded to the Philistines. When you walk by faith you will have to go outside the camp unto Jesus and embrace His disgrace. But we also learned that all those experiences where we cry to God about how unfair and unrighteous they are were of God and worked out for good. Saul pursued David until David did what God wanted and went where God wanted him to go. The job was simple, deal with the Amalekites and then you will be king.
This chapter reminds me of a story I heard about Joe Montana when he was at Notre Dame. Notre Dame was getting beat bad and it was either the end of the third quarter or the beginning of the fourth quarter and all of a sudden the whole stadium erupted in cheers. So a reporter from out of town asked a local reporter what was going on? He said “they just put in Joe Montana at quarterback and now you are in trouble”. Sure enough Joe, the second string quarterback, led them to a fourth quarter comeback. If you want to be a king know this, no one needs you to take over when we are winning.
4 Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me.”
But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it. 5 When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him. 6 So Saul and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men died together that same day.
It is really important to decide who to follow, who to side with, who to align yourself with. Don’t say “Saul is King so I can ignore what I see with my own eyes and know in my own heart”. Following David and becoming a deplorable may be a much tougher choice, but it is also a much wiser choice. All those closest to Saul suffer a big loss for aligning themselves with him.
7 When the Israelites along the valley and those across the Jordan saw that the Israelite army had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their towns and fled. And the Philistines came and occupied them.
8 The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 9 They cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and they sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temple of their idols and among their people. 10 They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan.
11 When the people of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 all their valiant men marched through the night to Beth Shan. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth Shan and went to Jabesh, where they burned them. 13 Then they took their bones and buried them under a tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.
Saul had his failures, but he was an Israelite. He lacked faith, that was his true failing. He lacked the obedience to the word of God, that was plain to see from everyone, but the cause was a lack of faith. How do you build your faith? Well you meditate on God’s promises. God will supply, be anxious in nothing, I am a member of God’s household, He is my Father, I am His child. Then you speak God’s word. Too many think it is sufficient to listen to God’s word. Saul was given three experiences: don’t worry about your donkeys, the Lord supplied him bread from God’s house, and he spoke with the prophets. When Saul prophesied he became exposed, naked. That is true of everyone. When you speak the word of God the light shines and you get exposed. As a result many will shun speaking the word, but you need to embrace the light, come to the light, let that light work in you to expose things you need to confess and repent of. Look at David, all his psalms show that he did this. He was fully exposed but he also grew in grace and in faith. This is how you find the path that leads to salvation. We saw Saul flopping around, going to mediums even though he was well aware of the prohibition in God’s word. In contrast we saw David going to Philistia even though many Bible expositors thought this was backsliding. We saw that this enabled him to carry out God’s secret mission to defeat the Amalekites while also recovering part of our inheritance that we had ceded to the Philistines. When you walk by faith you will have to go outside the camp unto Jesus and embrace His disgrace. But we also learned that all those experiences where we cry to God about how unfair and unrighteous they are were of God and worked out for good. Saul pursued David until David did what God wanted and went where God wanted him to go. The job was simple, deal with the Amalekites and then you will be king.
This chapter reminds me of a story I heard about Joe Montana when he was at Notre Dame. Notre Dame was getting beat bad and it was either the end of the third quarter or the beginning of the fourth quarter and all of a sudden the whole stadium erupted in cheers. So a reporter from out of town asked a local reporter what was going on? He said “they just put in Joe Montana at quarterback and now you are in trouble”. Sure enough Joe, the second string quarterback, led them to a fourth quarter comeback. If you want to be a king know this, no one needs you to take over when we are winning.