The 31st chapter of 1st Samuel 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 a way 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.”