## The Death of Saul - Life of Saul - 8

Last week we looked at the dark final days of King Saul. As he called upon Samuel's spirit to give him counsel, what he received was condemnation and finality. Samuel had told him that it was over...Israel would lose to the Philistines, and Saul and his sons would be dead in the next 24 hours. (1 Sa. 28:19)

Four words can describe the scenes of the end of Saul's life:

1. Defeat
2. Death
3. Disgrace
4. Devotion

I. Defeat v1-3

A. Samuel's words were proven to be true.

B. Saul and his army was not only defeated by the Philistines, they were humiliated and put to flight.

C. It appears from the text that Saul and his sons were now trying to escape, but the Philistines were in hot pursuit.

D. His sons were killed, and an arrow seriously wounded Saul.

E. The source of defeat

1. Defeat always comes from within.

2. Saul was defeated in his spiritual life, and this led to his defeat on the battlefield.

3. We are no different, if we would be successful in what we do in life, we must first be successful in our life for God.

(Prov 4:23) "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."

II. Death v4-6

A. Defeat leads to death.

1. The tragedy is that our disobedience has an impact on the lives of those around us.

2. This reminds us of the loss of life at Ai when Joshua fail to pray and they were defeated.

3. Usually our focus is on the primary characters in such accounts, but consider that all of Saul's men were killed.

4. All because of Saul's disobedience!

B. When faced with the thought of capture and torture by the Philistines, Saul begged his armor bearer to kill him.

C. When he refused, Saul killed himself.

D. In despair the armor bearer took his own life as well.

E. Note: Who had been Saul's armor bearer?

1. God worked to protect David from what would happen to Saul.

2. He knew the importance of keeping him away from a man whose life would end so tragically…

3. And would cause the death of so many others.

F. An Alternate View of Saul's Death cf 2 Sam. 1:1-10

1. Saul saw that he was defeated; he did not want to fall into the hands of the enemy alive, because they would only humiliate him.

2. Therefore, he tried to take his own life by falling on his sword. (convinced that Saul was dead, his armor bearer committed suicide)

3. This, however, did not kill him; and he was yet alive, leaning upon his spear (2 Sam. 1:6), when the Amalekite came along and finished the work.

4. Some believe the Amalekite in 2 Sam. 1 was not telling the truth, but only giving this story to David to explain why he possessed Saul's royal crown and bracelet.

5. Perhaps he thought that David would reward him because he "did Saul a favor" by killing him.)

6. There is an important lesson in this view of Saul's death: because Saul refused to slay all of the Amalekites (15), one of them ended up killing him.

7. The sin that we fail to deal with, eventually causes our downfall.

III. Disgrace v7-10

A. The rest of the army fled. (7)

1. When they saw what had happened to the leadership…

2. They all took off and left their cities unprotected.

3. The Philistines took over and began to live in these cities.

B. The aftermath of the battle. (8-10)

1. As was the common practice in those days, the Philistines came back after the battle to steal all they could from the dead bodies of the Israelites.

2. They found Saul and his sons and celebrated in their deaths.

3. They cut off Saul's head and took his armor and placed it in the house of Ashtaroth.

4. They took his body and the bodies of his sons and attached them to the wall of Bethshan for public display.

5. They saw this defeat as a victory for their gods, instead of being the result of the judgment of the One True God.

C. This certainly was a horrible disgrace to the entire nation of Israel.

1. Our defeats give cause for the enemy to rejoice.

2. It brings reproach against God…and

3. It is a shame and a disgrace for all believers.

IV. Devotion v11-13

A. The men of Jabesh-gilead

1. Saul had once rescued them from the Ammonites. Cf 1 Sam. 11:1)

2. They never forgot what he had done for them.

3. So their brave act here was in devotion to a king who had delivered them from the hand of the enemy.

B. What they did for Saul. (11-13)

1. They traveled all night through enemy territory at great risk to their own lives.

2. They retrieved the bodies from the wall at Bethshan and returned to Jabesh.

3. There they burnt the bodies and gave them a proper funeral and remembrance.

Defeat; Death; Disgrace; and Devotion…and so ends the life of King Saul. Next week we will finish our study with some lessons to be learned.