I Samuel 28:3-25 & I Samuel 31

“Saul’s Final Days” • 12.18.07 • Autonomy, Authority And The Man Of God, Session #15

Intro.

- Last week, we watched David slink into a position that he never would have believed that he would be in. He was lining up with the enemies of God against God’s people.

- In the meantime, Saul found himself in an even stranger position.

- Saul had rid the land of mediums and spiritists from the land, but now he found himself seeking one out.

• I Samuel 28:5-8 : “When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, ‘Find me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.’ And his servants said to him, ‘In fact, there is a woman who is a medium at En Dor.’ So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes, and he went, and two men with him; and they came to the woman by night. And he said, ‘Please conduct a seance for me, and bring up for me the one I shall name to you.’”

- Saul is in a place of utter hopelessness, but what is the most strange is that this works!

• I Samuel 28:15-19 : “Now Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?’ And Saul answered, ‘I am deeply distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me and does not answer me anymore, neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may reveal to me what I should do.’ Then Samuel said: ‘Why then do you ask me, seeing the Lord has departed from you and has become your enemy? And the Lord has done for Himself as He spoke by me. For the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord nor execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also deliver the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.’”

- Saul takes some food, his final meal in the house of a medium, and goes on his way.

- Chapter 31 is the final day of Saul’s life. Saul watched as each of his sons died before his eyes on Mount Gilboa. Then, as he realizes that his house and rule will die with him, he is hit.

• I Samuel 31:3,4 : “The battle became fierce against Saul. The archers hit him, and he was severely wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armorbearer, ‘Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me.’ But his armorbearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and fell on it.”

- Saul’s life ended on the battlefield, but his body would become an ornament of victory.

• I Samuel 31:8-10 : “So it happened the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. And they cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and sent word throughout the land of the Philistines, to proclaim it in the temple of their idols and among the people. Then they put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan.”

- Saul was a terrible King, but was a King of Israel nonetheless. His treatment at the hands of the hated Philistines, prompted a heroic response.

• I Samuel 31:11-13 : “Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose and traveled 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. Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.”

- Most of Saul’s life has left us with exhortations that stem from negative experiences.

- If I could synthesize the lessons that I have learned from Saul, I might do so like this.

- First, no man ever elevates beyond the level of God’s authority. Saul was the King of Israel, with men under his direct authority. The most powerful man in the land.

- But no matter the place, we are to position ourselves under the authority of God.

- Second, no man can exchange true worship for religion. Saul left people and animals alive, who had been sentenced by the Lord, under the pretense of making a religious sacrifice. God said, through Samuel, that He would rather have been obeyed, than receive a sacrifice.

- Third, no man can endure throughout his life without the strength of God. Saul was constantly a man of fear, lacking in direction and purpose.

- Saul has devoted much of his resources and his time, over the period of several years to a personal vendetta against David.

- In fighting his own battles, he ignored his true enemy, the Philistines, and it was his downfall.

- How God would have desired to come alongside an obedient vessel, strengthening his hand and fighting for Him. Saul, being an autonomous man, never experienced this from the Lord.

- If we left it here, we might be discouraged, and heavy hearted.

- We look at Saul, and we see thousands like him. We see leaders and people of prominence and the story seems similar: The wrong guy is in place and he’s abusing the position.

- It makes us angry and sad that this is the story that everyone hears. Thankfully that is not where the Holy Spirit leaves the story.

- I Samuel does not end with Saul, but with men who performed a heroic act on behalf of a less than honorable man. Here is how the Spirit leaves the story of the men of Jabesh Gilead for us:

I. They Heard (v.11)

II. They Acted (v.12a)

III. They Finished (v.12b,13)

Text

I. They Heard (v.11)

• I Samuel 31:11 : “Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul…”

- Who were the people of Jabesh Gilead? We have heard their names before.

- Back in chapter 11, Saul was newly crowned King over a people that had no king or infrastructure. But then an incident compelled Saul to publicly become what he had been annointed to become.

- The story begins with an Ammonite who proposes the brutal, absolute surrender of the people of Jabesh Gilead. They asked for a reprieve to see if anyone would come to their aid.

- Word came to Saul, who was incensed at the action of these Ammonites. He called his people unto action and sent back word to the people of Jabesh Gilead.

• I Samuel 11:9 : “And they said to the messengers who came, ‘Thus you shall say to the men of Jabesh Gilead: ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have help.’ Then the messengers came and reported it to the men of Jabesh, and they were glad.”

- They rejoiced at Saul’s gesture of assistance and were indeed delivered.

- Fast forward to this day and today, the people of Jabesh Gilead hear of what has been done to Saul.

- What had happened was an abomination and insult, both to Saul and to God.

- In that culture, to have your dead body treated this way was considered a fate worse than death itself. Additionally, Saul’s death was used to glorify pagan gods and to mock the living God.

- The word “hear” seems to denote more than just receiving news of an activity that has taken place. The word seems to embody a sense of obligation, in that the word can mean “to listen with the intent of complicity.”

- In other words, this was more than a news item to the people of Jabesh Gilead. They perceived it with an eye toward what action they should consider personally.

- The Jabesh Gileadites had a personal connection with Saul. They felt more than a loyalty. They felt obliged due to their prior relationship with Saul.

- He was their deliverer, their hero, and they literally owed him their existence.

- How much more you and I, when we hear the news of some situation within the realm of the brotherhood and the Kingdom of God?

- Jesus has delivered us from the Kingdom of darkness, and the slavery of sin. How can we hear without an intention to fulfill our responsibility to Him?

II. They Acted (v.12a)

• I Samuel 31:12 : “…all the valiant men arose and traveled all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan…

- I often find it fascinating to note what is not said. Notice here that there is a distinct lack of intervention of God into this scenario.

- God did not command them to act, nor did He send a prophet to bring them orders.

- These men acted from instinct, a righteous indignation that this treatment of their King, their hero was wrong!

- Sometimes, especially in the context of what God has already spelled out explicitly, praying and waiting is inappropriate.

- Perhaps at this time, people could plead ignorance of the New Testament or the book of Proverbs, but the Mosaic law was based on the twin themes of “loving God” and “loving your neighbor as yourself!” Of course, we have the whole Bible and are therefore responsible.

• Proverbs 3:27 : “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in the power of your hand to do so.”

• James 4:15-17 : “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

- We can have a funny set of legalistic structures that keep us from doing good! Jesus condemns that attitude. The Pharisees had perfected this in the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

• Mark 3:4,5 : “Then He said to them, ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?’ But they kept silent. And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.”

- Jesus did good to others. These men of Jabesh Gilead decided that they should do good on Saul’s behalf.

- All the valiant men arose. These were men of strength, resource. What had to be done, had to be done by these men. It could not be taken up by anything less.

- What had to be done? The answer was obvious, the situation, intolerable. Nothing less than the recovery of Saul and the bodies of his sons would suffice.

- Notice the action that the people of Jabesh Gilead took. It quickly went from hearing to doing. All the valiant men arose. This was a unified activity.

- Notice secondly that this took all night. They traveled through the night, roughly a little over 20 miles. This was an immediate activity, with no time for the usual rest.

- Finally, they took the body of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth Shan. This was a risky activity. They did this in defiance of the Philistines, who would have made Saul and his sons, the source of their mockery.

- These men took unified, immediate action. They made haste and never looked back.

- They acted out of a grateful heart, they acted out of a sense of duty.

- I love that they did not wait around to find out if anyone else would take this on. They did not send out word to the other tribes, offering them the chance to act first!

- At personal cost to themselves, they took on this activity.

- Sometimes in the Kingdom of God, this type of man is necessary. Men of valor, men of strength or resource are called upon to be the men of the hour.

- Will you be counted among them? You might say, “Well, I am not strong physically.” True, but you may be strong in the experience of the Lord!

- “Alright, I am not strong in the Lord!” Perhaps you are strong physically! Financially, emotionally, physically, in whatever state you have strength, be the man who is ready to act!

III. They Finished (v.12b,13)

• I Samuel 31:13 : “…and they came to Jabesh and burned them there. Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.” : They brought the bodies back to Jabesh and burned them there.

- It’s hard to see exactly what is happening here. They burned the bodies, likely because of the level of decay. An alternative reason was to keep the Philistines from coming to recover the bodies and further defile them. They protected the bodies and honored them by doing this.

- Then they took the bones, or perhaps the ashes from the bones and buried them.

- Finally, in an act of respect, the men fasted for seven days. testifying to their sorrow.

- They completed the job, from the rescue to the burial, God giving them strength to come to the end of what they had in their hearts.

- The men of Jabesh Gilead saw a need, dispatched men to meet that need and followed the need to the end, caring even for the minute details, showing concern and compassion for the deceased King.

- It’s not enough to hear or even to do a job part of the way. Would it have been enough for them to remove the bodies from the wall? Would it have been enough to drop the bodies off into their land? They took it all the way to the end.

- Jesus was a finisher, taking it all the way to His own sacrificial death. He yelled at the end, “It is finished” completing the work of redemption on our behalf. Don’t just hear and don’t just do! Finish!

Conclusion

- In closing, I want to say that many of you are these type of men. What resources you have, have been made available on many occasions that I have witnessed personally.

- You have stepped up, gone to bat, hit some home runs and made this a great place to serve.

- My message to you as we come to the end of this calendar year, is to gear up for more of the same next year.

- In fact, if you would be a man like those from Jabesh Gilead, this is a way of life.