1 - 6 The Death of Saul and His Sons
1 Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. 2 The Philistines overtook Saul and his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua the sons of Saul. 3 The battle went heavily against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was badly wounded by the archers. 4 Then Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and pierce me through with it, otherwise these uncircumcised will come and pierce me through and make sport of me.” But his armor bearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it. 5 When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him. 6 Thus Saul died with his three sons, his armor bearer, and all his men on that day together.
After we have seen the deviation and restoration of David we are moved back to the events around Saul. The Philistines are supreme. Saul, after his inner distress by visiting the medium in Endor (1Sam 28:7-25), also gets distressed from the outside. A king is identified with his people. The people are falling. The people who wanted a king who goes before them (1Sam 8:4-5), falls with their king here. With Saul, his three thousand chosen men have also fallen. They fall with their lord. This is how it goes with every human being. Every human being falls with his lord, the devil, or conquers with his Lord, the Lord Jesus. Three sons of Saul, including Jonathan, also die.
Saul sees that his end is approaching. Yet there is no call to God. All he wants left is to prevent him from falling alive into the hands of the Philistines. He calls the Philistines “uncircumcised”. But even though he himself has been circumcised and thus externally a member of the people of God, he is uncircumcised of the heart (cf. Rom 2:28-29). Circumcision is a picture of the judgment of the sinful flesh, the acknowledgment that God had to judge it in Christ (Col 2:11).
Saul maintains the outer separation between him as an Israelite and the Philistines, without realizing that he is inwardly exactly like them. David lived among the Philistines, but never was a Philistine. Saul was never among the Philistines, but he is one of them inwardly. Samson also spoke about Philistines as the uncircumcised (Jdg 15:18), but he did so to God. Jonathan also, but in faith (1Sam 14:6). Saul does it in orthodoxy.
His condition is tragic. He is only surrounded by enemies. God has withdrawn from him. Saul asks his armor bearer to kill him, but he is greatly afraid to do this. David has also been an armor bearer of Saul. He too never stretched out his hand against Saul. Then Saul commits suicide. Saul is the first of the few people who are mentioned in Scripture as having committed suicide: Saul’s armor bearer (verse 5), Ahithophel (2Sam 17:23), Zimri (1Kgs 16:18) and Judas (Mt 27:5). According to Samuel’s word, Saul and his sons die on the same day (1Sam 28:19).
His armor bearer follows the example of his lord. He connected his life to that of Saul. When Saul is dead, there is no more purpose for him to live. The difference between Saul’s and Jonathan’s armor bearer (1Sam 14:6-7,12-14) is as great as the difference between Saul and Jonathan. Today we can recognize Saul’s armor bearer in many who adore an idol. When this idol falls, their lives fall to pieces and it loses its subsistence value. They have lost what they have venerated so much and commit suicide. To this despair the devil leads every man who follows another man as his god.
Saul’s death puts an end to an old system of things that sidelines God. Now God puts that system aside (Hos 13:11). He judges it through the Philistines as His rod of discipline. Now there is room for His king, for the man of His choice, the man after His heart. The fall of Saul and his men means the fall of Israel. This is the situation David is in when he becomes king. He comes to bring order to the greatest disorder resulting from judgment. Prophetically it will be the same. The Lord Jesus will not accept His government until all human government has come to an end, that is to say, it has been put to an end by Him.
7 - 10 The Philistines Celebrate the Victory
7 When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, with those who were beyond the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled; then the Philistines came and lived in them. 8 It came about on the next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 9 They cut off his head and stripped off his weapons, and sent [them] throughout the land of the Philistines, to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people. 10 They put his weapons in the temple of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.
Saul has not fulfilled his mission to deliver the land of Israel from the Philistines. On the contrary, when he has died, the Philistines come and live in the cities abandoned by the Israelites. What Saul had wanted to prevent in his pride, that he would be mocked, happens to him (cf. Jdg 16:25). He escaped the torments of the Philistines by his suicide, but they defaced his body by beheading it.
When he was introduced to the people, it appeared that he stood head and shoulders above the people (1Sam 10:23). The people have therefore applauded him and greeted him as their hero. His enemies have let his head go through the land like a trophy and bring the joyful message of victory into the house of their idols and to the people. They fasten his body on the wall of Beth-shan as a sign of reproach.
11 - 13 The Inhabitants of Jabesh
11 Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 all the valiant men rose and walked 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. 13 They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
Then it turns out that Saul still has friends. There are still people in Israel for whom this humiliation goes too far. They sacrifice their night’s rest in order to pick up Saul’s body and the bodies of his sons, after which they burned them and buried the bones. Then they fast for seven days. They understand something of the reproach that has been placed on Israel.
With this everything that has to do with the king after the heart of man and the system that belongs to him has ended. The way is free for the man after God’s heart. This is what the next book is about.