Day 87 – 1 Samuel 31:1-13

Scripture Review

1 Samuel 31:1-13

"Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa." (1 Samuel 31:1)

The battle likely began in the plain of Jezreel and drove Israel back up the heights of Gilboa in confusion. The Philistine archers and distance fighting tactics helped throw Israel into panic before close combat ever settled the issue. Gilboa is not just a battlefield here. It is the mountain where years of rebellion finally collect on the note.

"And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul's sons." (1 Samuel 31:2)

Scripture names the sons one by one. Jonathan dies here. The same Jonathan that stood in covenant friendship with David and knew David was God's anointed. He dies loyally, fighting for his people and his father, while Saul's house collapses around him

"And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was sore wounded of the archers." (1 Samuel 31:3)

Saul is not falling in some clean heroic scene. The king who once towered over Israel is now reduced to dread under incoming arrows. There is no arrogance left. Just pain, fear, and the awful knowledge that Samuel's word from Endor has arrived on schedule.

"Then said Saul unto his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it." (1 Samuel 31:4)

Saul, a man who would not submit to God spends his last strength trying to control the terms of his own death. My commentary notes that "abuse me" means maltreat me for their amusement. The armourbearer refuses, and Saul falls on his own sword. He kills himself to avoid disgrace, and the Philistines still disgrace him. Sin never keeps the promises it makes to desperate men.

"And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him." (1 Samuel 31:5)

The armourbearer had feared to kill Saul, but once Saul is dead, he follows him in death. This teaches me that a backslidden leader can drag others into sin and even death. Saul's fall continues taking people even after his death. His sons, servants, soldiers, cities.

"So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, that same day together." (1 Samuel 31:6)

This verse sounds like a ringing bell. "That same day together." God's timing is amazing, the very same day David was recovering all from Amalek, Saul was losing all at Gilboa. The house that had been warned, rebuked, and rent in principle back in chapter 15 now falls in fact. The kingdom is not patched. The day is not prolonged. The sentence lands all at once. It is one thing for the prophet Samuel to say the kingdom is torn from thee; it is another thing to read, "So Saul died."

"And when the men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley, and they that were on the other side Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities, and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them." (1 Samuel 31:7)

Now this defeat spills past the battlefield and into the land itself. Towns are abandoned. Homes are left behind. The Philistines move in. The people on both sides of the valley and the Jordan see the collapse and do the only thing they think they can do, run. Gilboa is no longer just the place where Saul dies. It becomes the place where Israel's weakness is advertised to its enemies.

"And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa." (1 Samuel 31:8)

The looters come to strip the dead and discover what has happened. The next day is always cruel after a massacre. Not a massacre but it reminds me of what happens after a bad storm comes through a city or town. The looters come out to steal things from people that had left.

There is no dignity left in the scene from a military standpoint. The battle is over. The bodies are being searched. What Saul feared in verse 4 is now standing over him in armor and boot leather. The Philistines are not going to mourn him. They are going to use him. "When a man dies outside the will of God, the world has no reverence for the corpse."

"And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to publish it in the house of their idols, and among the people." (1 Samuel 31:9)

This is the devil's parade lap. The shame is both religious and public. Saul's head is taken, his armor stripped, and the victory is preached as a triumph of Philistine gods over Israel's king. Saul did not want the uncircumcised to make sport of him. They do exactly that anyway.

"And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth: and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan." (1 Samuel 31:10)

The house of Ashtaroth is identified as a shrine of the Philistine goddess and says Saul's body was fixed to the wall of Beth-shan, the commanding city at the eastern end of the plain. The armor from the king of Israel lying in a pagan house, and the body itself fastened up like a trophy. This is what the world does with a fallen saint once it is done flattering him.

"And when the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul;" (1 Samuel 31:11)

Saul had delivered Jabesh in his early days as king. The men of Jabesh have not forgotten. Jabesh remembers the better beginning, and memory stirs courage.

"All the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there." (1 Samuel 31:12)

The inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead respond out of gratitude for Saul's earlier rescue. So even in a failed reign there are still embers of remembered kindness. That is worth pausing over. Saul's story is tragedy, yes, but the chapter does not pretend he never did anything brave or good. These men risk themselves to recover dishonored bodies. They can't undo Gilboa. They can't restore the kingdom. But they can refuse to let the Philistines have the last public word over Saul's body.

"And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days." (1 Samuel 31:13)

The burning was likely because of mutilation and the need to prevent further desecration. The bones are what they mean to keep. This is damage control wrapped in loyalty.

The book of 1 Samuel closes with bones under a tree and a seven-day fast. Whatever Saul's failures, the remains of Israel's first king do not lie forever exposed. The valiant men of Jabesh bury the bones and mourn. Seven days of fasting is not a small courtesy. It is a real grief. The reign ends badly, but it does not end without lament. And that, too, is right. A failed king may still be a tragic one.