Day of Reckoning: Daily Thoughts from 1 Samuel (1 Samuel 31)

People tend to tell the story of reversals of fortune in terms of the hero’s or heroine’s perseverance and strength. But God always tells the story in terms of His response to one’s humility or arrogance.

Saul began so humbly but became conceited. Now God had brought him to his end and fulfilled his predictions about Saul.

Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul. The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me.” But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him. Thus Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men, on the same day together. And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled. And the Philistines came and lived in them.

The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines, to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people. They put his armor in the temple of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 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 Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh and burned them there. And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and fasted seven days. (1 Samuel 31, ESV)

What the dead prophet Samuel predicted (1 Samuel 28:19) has come true. The Philistine army wins the day against Israel, and Saul and his sons die in battle, though Saul has to hasten his death himself. The Philistines find his body and the bodies of his sons and fasten the bodies to the wall of Beth-shan to declare to all their victory and to cast aspersion on the life of king Saul and his family.

Saul had rescued the people of Jabesh-gilead early in his reign (1 Samuel 11) and they now repay Saul by rescuing his body and his sons bodies from Beth-shan and burning them so that they cannot be further desecrated. They then bury the bones remaining after the burning and do appropriate mourning for their fallen king.

It is a sad testament to the failure of Saul’s kingship. He failed because he did not obey Yahweh, the true king of Israel. He became arrogant and sought to destroy David, the one whom God was raising up in Saul’s place. What Samuel’s mother Hannah predicted many years before had come true: “Yahweh makes poor and he makes rich, he brings low and he exalts” (1 Samuel 2:7). As Jesus taught, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11), or as the psalmist says, “Yahweh lifts up the humble and casts the wicked to the ground” (Psalm 147:6).

In 1 Samuel we have seen the humbling of Eli’s priestly line and the exaltation of Samuel’s leadership as prophet, priest and judge. And we have seen the humbling of the once humble but then arrogant Saul, and the exaltation of David. David’s accession to the position of king is not yet complete. 2 Samuel will chronicle that process and David’s career as king. And we will see yet more reversals of fortune in the lives of those who are humble or proud.