“David, “You’ll never take me alive, God.”
1 Samuel 31:1-13
Vs. 1-7 I did things my way.
Vs. 8-13 What might have been
Intro.
This chapter serves as the visible summation of what Saul had said verbally concerning his own life in 26:21. “I have played the fool and erred exceedingly.” You will recall Saul had been a national hero; people had sung that he had slain his 1000’s, but you can see his decline after he had refused to obey the Lord and wipe out the Amalekites. Then David comes on the scene, and the Lord blesses him as he seeks to obey the Lord, which causes envy and hatred towards David from Saul. The more Saul tried to achieve in the flesh, the more he lost. And now we come to the sad and tragic end of a man who hardened his heart against the Lord and refused to return even unto death. Saul saw at the end of his life what the price of his rebellion was as three of his four sons and his army died around him.
Oswald Chambers makes an interesting observation when he says, “The great enemy of the life of faith is not only sin but right choice based upon our rights. Whenever our rights become the deciding factor of our lives, it dulls our hearts to God’s will; good is always the enemy of the best!” Saul had lived life not wanting to trust the Lord and instead sought away around the plan of God. He sought to live according to what seemed right in his own eyes and did so even at his own death. Proverb 14:12 would fit well over Saul’s tombstone: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
Vs. 1-7 I did things my way.
Vs. 1 If we were to look at a map, we could see just how far the Philistines had advanced as they went all the way up into the Jezreel Valley, almost up to the Sea of Galilee. This gave the Philistines a great man advantage as they had already successfully cut Saul and his army in half. They also had a superiority in weapons, as in 2 Sam. 1:6. We are told that they had chariots, which were highly effective on flat land.
Saul had been more interested in attacking David than he was defending the nation from the enemy, and as such, he was not prepared for the battle, as we are told in 28:5, “he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.” In verse 28:19, Saul made things worse by seeking to hear God by going through a medium, and this was the night before the battle. But in spite of Saul and the medium, God spoke to Saul’s words of judgment through Samuel, giving Saul yet another opportunity to get his heart right, saying that “tomorrow he would be with him.” Well, well “tomorrow” has come TODAY. There are a great many people like Saul that fail to realize that “tomorrow” is now today and the life of rebellion has come calling.
Apparently Saul and his army left their camp on Mount Gilboa and began to experience such a defeat that they retreated back to camp only to be caught and slaughtered along the way. Remember that this was the battle that David and his men were going to be in. The first thing that goes is his army; many had already defected to David, and others died on the hill Gilboa; still others deserted (verse 7). So Saul’s army was no match without Samuel’s guidance and David’s leadership, and they were easily defeated.
Vs. 2 Having seen the battle turn in their favor, the Philistines now turned their attention to the man who stood head and shoulders above the rest, Saul. Tragically, we are told that Saul’s sons are caught in the crossfire as three of the four sons died in front of him. Jonathan, the oldest and most loyal to David, dies, as we would expect him to fight for his God, his country, and his father, the king, unto the very end. Based upon Jonathan’s words in 18:1-4, we know that if Jonathan had survived, he would have gladly yielded the throne to David, but this more than likely would not have been the case with the other three sons.
Jonathan, whose heart was knit together with David’s, will have to wait for the day when he will reign alongside David as well as the Son of David. Yes, he would miss the glory of David’s kingdom, but we need not be saddened by this, as he will not miss the greater glory of the Son of David’s kingdom. Hey, dear saint, to fall in battle in this life for the honor and glory of our King fighting alongside our Father against the enemies of His kingdom is no big loss; it is a big gain for us!
There is an interesting point as we look at what Saul named his four boys, as it reveals his spiritual digression over time:
Jonathon: “The gift of Jehovah”
Abinadab: “King of Nobleness”
Mechishua: “King of help.”
Ishbosheth or Eshbaal: “The shame of Baal” to “Baal’s man”
God is merciful to the nation as well as to David in taking Saul’s sons in battle, as he will be left only with Ishbosheth, who will be propped up by his uncle Abner until he accuses him of sleeping with his father’s concubine and switches to David’s side. Eshbaal will murder both those who attempt to gain favor with David, but David will exact the death penalty upon those who kill him. This will leave only the 5-year-old crippled son of Jonathan, whom he will take in as his own son.
Vs. 3 The fact that it says that the archers (plural) hit Saul suggests to us that he had been struck by many arrows and mortally wounded. He must have realized at this moment that not only was the battle lost, so too was his life. The Philistines were well known for abusing their enemy’s kings and nobles, and so in front of him he probably watches them hack off the heads of his three boys. So fearing the same fate as his boys, he seeks to take matters into his own hands.
Vs. 4-6 In yet another selfish act on his part, he asks his armor bearer to kill him, but he will not, so Saul falls on his own sword. Apparently Saul is still alive when an Amalekite is asked to cut off his head, which sums up the life of Saul, one that his flesh ruled and took his life (2 Sam 1:8-10).
Far too many people have passed into eternity with the words of that old movie “Angels with dirty faces” (replayed on “Home Alone”) on their breath: “You’ll never take me alive, copper,” only instead of “copper,” it’s God. Oh to God that people would let the Lord “take them alive”! Saul had always tried to live life on his own terms, and now at his death he was seeking to die on his own terms. In the words of the prophet “Frank Sinatra,” Saul was singing to the very end, “I did things my way!” Do you see a pattern here? Man, when you and I seek to do life on our terms, “Captain our own ship,” all that is going to happen is we will just run it aground. Oh, you have free will. You can “do things your way.” You can die with the words, “You’ll never take me alive, God.” God will let you have what you want, and you can die apart from ever knowing His love. You and a myriads of others will spend eternity proclaiming how you defied God’s love, reject His repeated attempts to reach you, and have thumbed your nose at truth, but why?
Saul has been in the process of killing himself for 20 years, and he has finally come to doing so himself. There is no mention of prayer or repentance after watching his son die. Instead, all he wants is to make sure that he won’t be tortured or humiliated, so he seeks to take his own life.
Saul’s actions here show what lies at the root of suicide: selfishness, as this was the last act of a man who would not stand up to life. Suicide is the 9th leading cause of death in the U.S. and number 1 amongst youth, as three people per hour take their own lives more than any other country in the world. Which goes to show you something very interesting. It has nothing to do with circumstances, as there are far more countries in the world that have far worse situations than we face in this country. What these statistics show us is that the number one reason people commit suicide is the very reason Saul does here, “self-centeredness.”.
I pray no one here is contemplating suicide, as you don’t want to kill your body. Your body got dressed and came here. You see, people who are suicidal are killing the wrong part of themselves. What we all need to do is kill the self-centeredness in our lives. The lie of Satan is that if you kill your body, you end it all; you don’t end it all; you just kill the clock and enter into eternity in a life that will keep a person in a never-ending existence apart from God, who alone can satisfy the longing of their hearts. Just kill the self-seeking, self-worshiping life, and if you really want to end that part of you, the Bible says that we only need to “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:11) Paul spoke of it this way in Gal 2:20 when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” You see Paul killed his old self-centered life when he trusted in Jesus, and he recalled that daily.
Saul’s reign had begun with such promise and victory but ended with utter ruin. In the last breath of defiance and rebellion, there is absence of any sign of repentance or crying out to God. Saul had been told the day before that he would die (1 Samuel 28:19), yet he seems to be unprepared to meet God. Twenty years earlier God had pronounced judgment upon Saul and had given him those years to get his heart right. Perhaps Saul was like a good many people today who think that they have plenty of time to get their hearts right, but we are told by Jesus in Matt 24:44 that “you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” And for all of those 20 years, all that Saul did with his heart was harden it towards the things of God.
Vs. 7 The victory of the Philistines was so complete that even those on the other side of Jordan fled in terror. Geographically, with the Philistines occupying this territory, they cut Israel in half, from east to west, which would leave the entire nation vulnerable to total, complete occupation by the Philistines. In Israel’s terror to flee Jonathan’s five-year-old son named Mephibosheth (the idol breaker) will be left permanently injured (2 Samuel 4:4), but David, when he becomes King, will continue to grant him favor for the rest of his life.
The fear of the nation at the destruction of their leader shows the danger in trusting in a man instead of God. Hey, Christian, we need to be people who would look to the Lord instead of stumbling ourselves when a leader falls’s. This also reinforces the truth of why the people God places in leadership over His people are under a higher standard. We see here how Saul’s habitual sin and hardened heart not only brought about his ruin, it reached beyond affecting his immediate family to literally endangering the entire nation.
This is why the New Testament proclaims a higher standard for leadership in God’s Church. In 1 Tim 3:2, Paul speaks to his protégé that they should be “blameless,” which does not mean before God but before man. Simply put, there ought not to be anything for people to grab a hold of, specifically in the 13 areas he mentions. James warns likewise in 3:1, saying, “Let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.”
Vs. 8-13 What might have been
Vs. 8-10 Apparently when the Philistines came to loot the dead bodies, it was the day after Saul attempted to take his own life and had the Amalekite do so for him, which means that Saul still had time to have gotten his heart right before the Lord and instead of doing so shortened his opportunity to do so. Beth Shan is at the north end of Mount Gilboa, just above the Jordan River and across from Jabesh-Gilead. And it is here they pinned to the wall of their city the body of Saul after beheading him and taking his head back to the areas of Gath to put it in the temple of Dagon, their god.
According to 1 Chron. 10:9, they took Saul’s body, “stripped him and took his head and his armor, and sent word throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temple of their idols and among the people.” Saul’s death gave an opportunity for the Philistines to disgrace Saul’s professed God. First, cutting off Saul’s head was the way that they proclaimed in that culture that their god was superior to Saul’s. Second, the Philistines were letting their people know that their gods had given them a great victory over their chief enemy and that the worship of Dagon was greater than the worship of Jehovah. If only Saul had stripped himself of the rags of his pride, placed God as his head, and trusted in the Lord’s protection instead of his own, none of this need would have happened.
Vs. 11-13 In a time of loss and tragedy like this, God still has His valiant men to do His work. The men of Jabesh Gilead took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from their place of humiliation and gave them a proper burial. Saul is gone, but God is going to raise up a man after His own heart, David. The army of Israel has died, and those who survived turned and ran, but God still has His valiant men. You see, God’s work is always bigger than any one man or any one church. He will always have His people ready to step up when others fall.
In an interesting twist, we recall Saul’s first victory came as Jabesh Gilead had been held captive by the Ammonites (11:1-11). These fellows hadn’t forgotten this even though it had been 40 years, so they risked their lives to take down Saul and his son’s bodies from the walls of Beth Shan to repay the kindness God showed them from the hand of Saul. They marched all night, risking their lives to recover the bodies; to do so, these valiant men had to cross the Jordan River and go through many miles of enemy territory to honor a man who had risked his life for theirs. They further honored Saul as they took his body back to their city to dispose of it properly and bury his bones under an evergreen tree where he used to hold court.
Even though Saul had forgotten what kind of man he could have been, they had not. Do you have any regrets? I wish to have none; I don’t want to look back over my stay here and say, “Man, I wish I would have trusted the Lord in this area and just allowed Him to have His way in my life.” Saul’s life is just a big waste; he could have been so used to God that he had more talent and abilities than did David, but he wanted to rule over his own heart instead of being like David and allowing God to rule his heart. How about it, saint? Do you want to live life without any regrets? Then let the Lord take you alive!
Many people wonder about cremation as a part of burial, and here we see that it was a practice amongst the Jews. As far as I’m concerned, cremation will do in thirty minutes what nature will do in thirty years. It’s only speeding up the process of nature, reducing our body back to dust. The same 17 elements that are in dirt are the same 17 elements that are you and me, and the Bible says in Gen. 3:19, “dust you are, and to dust you shall return,” so in my opinion it is a matter of choice and not scripture. Jesus said in Matt 10:28, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him, who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Cremation of the body is a matter of choice, hey, but if you stop and realize it, so too is cremation of the soul? Solomon would say in Eccl. 12:7, “The dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.”
So they took what remained of Saul’s ashes and buried them in Jabesh, which means “dry.” And such was the case with Saul’s life as he departed from the presence of the Lord from living water he drank for a time from stagnant water, and in the end his life parched spiritually. Oh, how tragic a life lived in rebellion is. A person’s life is a vapor of missed opportunities of what could have been instead of awaiting a glorious graduation into His presence.