David:The Shepherd King, #11
How The Mighty Are Fallen!
1 Samuel 32
By Dave Redick
Hwy 20 Church of Christ, Sweet Home, OR
"And now it was night - a dark, Philistine night. The headless bodies of Saul and his sons, deserted by all, swung in the wind on the walls of Beth-shan amid the hoarse music of vultures and jackals."
Introduction
It is sometimes quite revealing to consider what people have said on their death beds, just prior to leaving this world. Here is a sample I have recently gathered: Convicted murderer Richard Loeb was a bit optimistic about his survival, after having been stabbed 56 times by a fellow convict in 1936. He said, "I think I'm going to make it!" James Rodgers replied to the question whether he had a last request before facing a firing squad: "Why yes, a bulletproof vest." Legendary swashbuckler Douglas Fairbanks must have been confused just before giving up the ghost in 1939. His last words were: "Never felt better." William Palmer, who was hanged in 1856, said, when told to step on the scaffold's trap door, "Is it safe?" Charles Wood, a murderer who died in the electric chair in 1963, faced witnesses and quipped, "Gents, this is an educational project. You are about to witness the damaging effect electricity has on wood." P.T. Barnum, believed by some to be the greatest ballyhoo artist in history, said as his last words, "How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?"
One would think that being so close to death's door would sober a person into considering the prospect of facing his Maker, but apparently such is not the case with some.
Such was not the case with the ancient king of Israel, Saul, either. Saul did not die in bed, but his last words had little to do with facing his Maker. I doubt that surprises any of you who are familiar with the Bible. This was characteristic of the rest of his life as well. We will see the last words of King Saul this morning as we consider his death in battle and how it relates to our ongoing study in the life of David.
Turn in your Bible with me, please, to I Samuel 31. We will consider this entire chapter in this message.
Three very simple divisions can serve to help you keep the events of this chapter straight in your mind. You might want to write them down: I. A Battle Rages (verse 1); II. The King Dies (verse 2-10); III. The King is Buried (11-13).
I. A Battle Rages.
(Read 31:1)
Ironically, this could well have been the same battle that David would have been involved in against his own countrymen had not he been sent back to Ziklag by the Philistine commanders, in the timely providence of God, as we saw several messages ago.
The terrible events described in this chapter would not become known to David until after they had happened, as is described in the first chapter of II Samuel. While this battle was going on, David was fighting with the Amalekites who took his family from Ziklag.
In short, the Philistines, in a single, devastating offensive on the army of Saul, killed not only the king, but also the three princes in line for the throne of Israel. Saul's three sons were slain with their father. The Hebrews took flight like sparrows scattered by a hawk, leaving Israel vulnerable to the plundering hoards of Philistines.
Israel's foot-soldier army, led by Saul, from whom the Lord had departed, was just no match for the arrows and swift chariots of the Philistines. Israeli bodies were strewn over Mount Gilboa like litter on the freeway. This battle was a major defeat that might have finished Israel as a nation had not God had a bigger plan in mind.
Oh, things could have been different, had not, forty years before this, Israel demanded a human king to be over them. God had warned them when Saul was chosen that things would end up like this, but they hadn't listened. And now judgement had arrived for Israel.
Judgement had arrived for Saul as well.
He was rebellious toward God right up until the end. We didn't look at it, but less than 24 hours before this, Saul had consulted a spirit medium in his desperation, something absolutely forbidden by God then and now.
The details of the bloody battle are given in the remaining verses of this chapter.
II. The King Dies.
(Read v. 2-3)
Israel did not have archers in her ranks at this time. Their weapons and armor were designed for face-to-face, hand-to-hand combat. As they turned in flight from the approaching Philistine enemies, they exposed their unprotected back sides. The arrows of the enemy found their mark. Saul was hit.
(Read v. 4-6)
So Saul, showing so much human promise at the beginning of his administration, ends it all in suicide. What a tragedy!
Let me digress just a moment and comment on the subject of suicide. It may be a bit out of the intention of our text here, but it is certainly not out of the realm of real life as we know it today.
There are five accounts in the Bible of suicide. Two of them are here in this passage: Saul and his armor bearer. The third suicide account is that of Ahithophel, a counselor of Absalom in II Samuel 17. Ahithophel hanged himself. The fourth account of suicide is that of a king named Zimri in I Kings 16:18. He burned himself to death in his own palace. The last Biblical suicide is, of course, that of Judas the betrayer of Jesus, who hanged himself (Matthew 27:5).
All five Biblical suicide accounts had to do with people who were dealing with pressures with which they thought they could not cope. Life had, in their estimation, become too difficult, usually due to circumstances of their own making.
Suicide is murder - the ultimate in murder. It is also the ultimate form of cruelty to those it leaves behind.
Listen to what one California woman wrote who survived a suicide attempt because of the intervention of some close friends:
"No matter how bad the pain is, it's never so bad that suicide is the only answer...suicide doesn't end pain. It only lays it on the broken shoulders of the survivors." And she ends her story. "By the way: to all the doctors, nurses and psychiatrists who forced me to live when I didn't want to - thank you for keeping breath in my lungs and my heart beating and encouraging hope in me when I didn't have any hope." ("Newsweek", Feb. 7, 1983, p.13)
Here are some statistics on Suicide collected by the L.A. Suicide Prevention Center:
Once every minute in the U.S., someone attempts suicide. 70 people each day succeed. In this country there are 24% more deaths by suicide than by murder. In L.A. County, more people kill themselves than die in traffic accidents. Suicide is the #9 cause of adult death in this country. It is the #3 cause of death in people ages 15-30. Among teenagers it is the #2 killer. The suicide rate among those under 30 increased 300% in the last decade. Until recently, women attempted suicide 3 times as often as men. Recent statistics show that figure to be worsening, especially among young black women. 4 out of 5 of those who commit suicide have attempted it previously. The old saying that those who talk about it won't do it is apparently a myth. (Source: Charles Swindol in his series on the life of David).
Suicide has to be one of the greatest statements of lack of faith in God that there is. It in effect, says, "Though you have promised that all things work together for good in my life, God, I don't believe you, therefore, I'm going to bail out."
Perhaps it is easier to understand how an unbeliever could commit suicide, since he knows no hope beyond the seemingly random circumstances around him. But for a believer it is a tragedy!
If you know someone who is talking or has talked about committing suicide, tell them that it is wrong and call them to put their faith in God and get help. Suicide is not the answer to anyone's problems.
Incidentally, Jewish rabbinical tradition has it that Saul's armor bearer who also fell on his sword that day was none other than Doeg, the scoundrel who slaughtered the priests of Nob back in I Samuel 22. That is conjecture, of course, but if it were true, we would have here the ultimate statement of God's avenging in this life the lives of those 85 godly servants of Jehovah and their wives and children.
Writing about Saul's suicide in this chapter, one commentator said, "Those are in a deplorable condition, indeed, who leap into hell before them to escape difficult circumstances behind them." How true that is!
(Read v. 7)
So there is a mass exodus of people from the cities in the vicinity of Mt. Gilboa. Without godly leadership, this is always the result: the people of God suffer, the devil moves in and claims the territory. That was true back then and it is true in the church today. Godly leadership is an absolute necessity! We need men who are leaders and men who are godly. We should settle for nothing less. Paul told Titus to chose leaders (in that case elders) who were "holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, that (they) may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict."
I mention that in passing because there are some trends today that are developing in the churches that aren't good. One is to settle for anyone who has a degree in theology who can preach an entertaining sermon. Another is to choose elders who do not meet biblical qualifications. Yet another is to fail to appreciate the leadership that is currently in the field doing a good job (that isn't the case here, by the way, but as a result, men are leaving full time ministry at an alarming rate). When godly leadership falls, the devil moves into the church.
(Read v. 8-9)
This has to be the ultimate form of grisly humiliation for Israel.
(Read v. 10)
The goddess Ashtaroth was the Philistine goddess of lust and fertility. The purpose of this action was to show the supposed power of Philistia's gods over Jehovah.
Alfred Edersheim wrote in his book entitled Old Testament History:,
"And now it was night - a dark, Philistine night. The headless bodies of Saul and his sons deserted by all, swung in the wind on the walls of Beth-shan amid the hoarse music of vultures and jackals."
What a sad ending for a life that could have had so much potential and could have been so different!
We come now to the place where
III. The King is Buried.
Most of Israel was too devastated, shocked, and afraid after the defeat to do anything about this outrage. David had not yet heard about this monumental defeat. So it fell to the brave men of the little berg of Jabesh-gilead to give Saul and his sons a decent burial.
(Read v. 11-13)
There were perhaps two motives behind this risky, middle-of-the-night rescue of the bodies of the slain leaders by the men of Jabesh-gilead. First, they had once been rescued themselves by Saul from the Ammonites in one of his relatively rare moments of obedience to God. (You can find that account in I Samuel 11 - I won't go into it here). Second, these brave men had a conviction for what was right and proper. As far as they were concerned, the king needed a decent burial and it was a disgrace to them not to have it for Saul and his sons. No matter that it might cause them to risk their lives to assure such a burial.
I, for one, appreciate that dedication to what is just and proper and right, especially when I see it in one who is willing to sacrifice himself to see it happen as these brave men did. I am going to tell a story on one of our members that I have not asked permission to share with you. I usually make it a policy not to do that, but in this case I did not ask because I knew if I did, the brother in mind would not want me to mention it, lest he be tooting his own horn. I tell you the story, not in the spirit of horn tooting, but in the spirit of a good example.
Deaths and funerals seldom come at opportune times. Several weeks ago when Sister Helen Miller passed away, the funeral came at a time when this brother had planned his vacation. This brother was not one of the actual participants in the service (by that I mean not a pallbearer, speaker, etc.), so had he not attended the service, it might only have been noticed by a few. I asked him when he was leaving on his vacation and he told me that he and his wife were not leaving until after the funeral. They would stay and help out in whatever way they could, because, in his words, "It just wasn't right to not stay and pay proper respects to one like Helen." That brother was Rollie Morehead and I have probably embarrassed him thoroughly by now. Forgive me, brother, but your fine example and conviction to what you viewed as right and proper was just too good to pass up. (By the way, this is not intended to be a slam to anyone who did not or could not attend that funeral. Such an issue should never be legislated or extorted from the pulpit. I simply wanted to give you an example of someone who had the strength of his convictions like these men of Jabesh-gilead. You may well be showing the strength of your conviction in other areas not noticed).
There is another thing in this part of the passage that I would like you to see. (Don't worry, I won't embarrass anyone else). It is something only apparent to the careful student of Bible geography (on that score, I must admit that it had to be pointed out to me, I did not notice what I am about to show you).
The city of Beth-shan, on whose wall the headless body of Saul and his three sons hung in humiliation wasn't more than a stone's throw away from the place where the trumpet's blast had declared Saul's inauguration as king. In other words, his forty year reign had brought him full circle, back to within a few hundred yards of where he had started.
W. Phillip Keller wrote in his book David: The Time of Saul's Tyranny:
"Though Saul had ruled with tyranny and terror for forty years, Israel, at the end of that era, lay beaten and distraught under the heel of its ancient foes. No ground had been gained. No new boundaries had been extended. No sense of security or strength as a people had been established. In terrible truth it had been a time of great anguish and deep remorse for God's people."
Saul ended it all very near the same place where it was when he started - or perhaps even a few steps back.
Saul did accomplish some things in his lifetime. He taxed the people and had a beautiful palace. He made them acceptable to the surrounding nations because they had a king they could see. In all fairness, there were a few times when he did what was right, usually when he stood to benefit from it.
But tragically, his contribution to Israel had little lasting value. He ended up not very far from where he started.
Let me ask you, symbolically, when you die, will you be far from where you first began your life in God's kingdom? Will there be miles of growth to mark the path of your spiritual journey or will it by just inches? Will the kingdom have benefited from your having lived in it? Or will it actually have regressed.
Looking back on a person's life at the point of death can be very revealing because, long forgotten are all of the things done that didn't go anywhere. All that remains is what counted for eternity.
I quoted a moment ago from W. Phillip Keller. Let me do that one more time, this time reading his evaluation of the life of Saul.
"For He, the Almighty, the Eternal One, Creator of heaven and earth, looked for more from his chosen people than mere sacrifices and offerings. He desired something from His children beyond bulls, calves, fruit or grain. He longed for their loyalty. He longed for their love. He longed for their simple, quiet, gentle compliance with His commands.
"This Saul failed to do. In stubbornness of spirit and waywardness of will he had refused to comply with the wishes of God. In deliberate disobedience he had repeatedly rejected the Word of God. With painful perverseness he had refused to repent of his rebellion.
"The choices were his. The disastrous decisions had led to total alienation from Jehovah. His faith in God had been diluted to nothing, while he himself had become a tragic castaway.
"Yes, oh yes, Mount Gilboa would stand stark and dark, unforgettable as a solemn reminder to all men of all time that the sinister wages of sin are death. No person can sin with impunity against the love and mercy and patience of God, without paying the ultimate penalty."
Conclusion
If I were to choose one passage that sums up the tragedy of Saul's life as King of Israel, I would choose I Samuel 26:21c.
(Read it)
