The Tragic End of Saul- A Cautionary Tale: 1 Samuel 31:1-13

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. The death of Saul.

Whoa welcome, Thanks you for tuning in.

I just wanted to start the podcast a little different

morbid Yes, bump on today Saul dies on the podcast. No, no, no, Hey,

welcome to the Bible Guys. We just thought we'd wake

you up. But I'm Chris, He's Jeff, and we are

just a couple of guys that like to talk about

the Bible. And today we are actually bringing to an end,

or wrapping up or putting a bow on Saul's rain,

the very first king of Israel.

That's right.

But before we do that, we have a segment, and

this is one of my favorite segments. I like these.

Do you like these?

Do you like them?

Who's most likely?

And we have to do it quick. That's right.

I haven't read these.

I have not read these.

I haven't even contemplated them.

And we just sort of like ask a question, or

actually desiree asks questions. Yes, and then you and I

have to either vote me or you.

Okay, right, yes, all.

Right, So I'll take the first one.

Okay.

Who's most likely to buy something ridiculous online and then

pretend it was a joke? Mmm, I don't know.

I don't know. I don't buy much on the line.

I mean neither, But I'll just maybe say me.

Okay, I'll vote for you too.

Okay, you're voted only because you get one only because

it seems like.

That's an odd one.

I'm a little bit more ridiculous with no purpose than you.

Okay, would you agree with that?

Yes, I'm gonna get two votes, two votes for that,

two thumbs up.

Okay.

Who's most likely to adopt a pet rock and treat

it like royalty?

Hmmm?

Did you have a pet rock?

I did? I had many rocks when I was a kid.

Okay, but then I'm going to vote for you.

Yeah, I'm gonna vote for me too.

Yes, I had.

I had somebody give me a pet rock, you know,

one of the ones.

Were the official ones?

Yeah, in a box.

Yes, And I remember looking at it then and going

what Yeah, somebody put Google eyes out of rock and

sold it.

To you, and they paid money for this.

They were very popular. That guy was laughing all the

way to the Yeah. Yeah, he literally found the rocks,

and all he had to do was buy Google.

Eyes and put him in a box.

Yeah, by the way, I I bet you I had

four or five legitimate Google eye pet rocks. And I

had a collection of rocks for years and years. Wow,

like boxes of rocks that.

Were cool, like like just things that captured you attention.

Like you know, legitimate no, no, no, legitimate geology. Just

be like, look at this one. This one's green.

Cool, that kind of thing, collecting rocks.

Yeah, I had a collection of rocks.

I have fossils in my office.

Oh well that's better.

Yeah they're rocks.

Sure, sure, petrified and fossils. Okay, here's the third one

who's most likely to think they're really good at karaoke

but actually aren't.

Well, you really would be, So it's gonna have to

be me.

I'm gonna I'm gonna say you then.

Yeah, it's gonna have to be me.

I don't think i'd actually really good.

I don't think I would be really good at karaoke personally. No.

Okay, have you ever done karaoke?

Of course I've never done Carrio? What never?

Who has never done Karrio?

Never done karaoke of any kind ever?

I've done karaoke fifty times.

Yeah, publicly, No, I've never I have.

A video right now karaoke.

I believe you.

I believe I'm not gonna play it, but I've done it.

Okay. Well, then maybe you're the one that thinks you're

really good.

Maybe it could be fifty times, Yeah, could be.

Okay.

Who's most likely to invent a new dance move that

becomes an Internet sensation? That's definitely you.

Yeah, that's pause.

You've seen my dance moves.

Yeah, but I but I'm right there with you, though. Boy,

I think that the only way it would be a

sensation if it's like the Carlton dance from from a

Fresh beell Air, Right is that one? It's like be

something goofy like that. Yes, it wouldnt be an actual sensation. Okay, Well,

then here's the last one. Who's most likely to lose

their phone in the fridge?

Oh me, I have Oh wow, I've lost my phone

in the fridge.

I've never done that. Yeah, well that's definitely you.

I just set stuff down when I walked somewhere, I

sat stuff down. I forget where it was, so I

was going through some stuff. All of a sudden, I

needed to move some things from one shelf to another

shelf to get stuff in, set.

My phone down, do it all. Then I'm walking I

cannot find my phone.

And then we were sitting in the dining room area

and somebody called me and you could hear it buzzing

in a fridge.

Oh my goodness, my phone. Then you get right, how

long was in there?

Not enough to long enough to make it cold?

Okay, that's so funny. I've definitely never done that, and

nor will I do. I ever think I would actually

set a phone in.

A fridge, like I just set stuff down.

I know I do too, but I think if I'm

in a fridge and I'm moving stuff and I'm like, oh,

I've got something in my hand, I just don't think

instinctively I would set a phone down.

I wouldn't have found it either, But it happened.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's what you used to say.

I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached to my body,

right like you'd lose it.

You'd lose your head.

Well that's definitely me at times, for sure. Yeah. Well,

my wife says, My wife says, how can you have

such an incredible memory on some things, and then like

not know where your keys are?

Always my keys, my wallet, my phone. Yeah I'm always

missing one of them.

Yes, yes, yeah, and you know what, Liz, men need

men purses.

No, I don't think we do.

I know, but I'm saying like I wish I sort

of wish that was a stylish thing.

Well kind of is. Now you get the like the shoulder.

Bags, well not for real, man, not for.

You have to have a bun, you have to have any.

Chest, right and then and then we look like you

always need a shower always always okay, right, and unshaven.

Then you can wear a man purse.

Okay, immerse, immerse. Yeah that's all right. Now you're really

going to get the hate mail.

I know, I know I really can carry. Yeah right, okay,

that's what's coming. When I was a youth pastor, we

used to have this thing where all the football players

would tease cheerleaders because we knew that they worked hard,

you know, like because you know in youth group, she

had both the cheerleaders and in the in the uh

in the football players. But I had two football players

that came to my youth group. Specifically, they used to

tease the cheerleaders because they wouldn't call them real athletes.

So they would do a cheer. No, they would do

a cheer and they woul they would pack their knees

and they would go. They would just do this, they

would go, cheerleaders are athletes too.

Oh no, oh no, okay, so just send uh, send

all of your hate mail to I didn't say the

guys dot com didn't say.

It was me. I think cheerleaders are incredible athletes.

Yes, okay, I'm just.

Telling you that that was a funny thing that they did,

y Bible guys dot com. Oh, I frowned on it.

I frowned on it. I disapproved of that. Now that

you told this story and laughed about it. Okay, Well,

speaking of death.

Right right right? There's no transition to this, none at all.

So you know, yesterday we talked about Samuel warns Saul

that he's going to die.

Yes.

Then a few pages later, all kinds of things happen.

The Philistines finally kicked David out of the out of

their camp. People start coming to David, Lots of soldiers,

lots of people in Israel start to shift their loyalty

over to David. David winds up actually destroying the Amalekites. Finally,

the ones that Saul did not. David goes through and

God uses him to bring judgment on the Amalekites. And

then after that, even more people come and start joining

David's army. And then but the Philistines were a perpetual

thorn in Saul's side. And here's what happens. In First Samul,

chapter thirty one, it says, now the Philistines attacked Israel,

and the men of Israel fled before them. Many were

slaughtered on the slopes of Mount Gilboa. The Philistines closed

in on Saul and his sons, and they killed three

of his sons, Jonathan and Benedab and milk Ashua. Wow, Malkashua, Yeah,

I don't know that I've even heard that name.

Oh so it sounds like he's from Hawaii.

Malkashua. Yeah, Polynesian, Yeah maybe so, I don't know.

Polynesian. Sauced chick fil Asia. Really good.

They go.

The fighting grew very fierce around Saul, and the Philistine

archers caught up with him and wounded him severely. Saul

groaned to his armor bearer, take your sword and kill

me before these pagan Philistines come to run me through

and taunt and torture me. But his armor bearer was

afraid would not do it, so Saul took his own

sword and fell on it. When his armor bearer realized

that Saul was dead, he fell on his own sword

and died beside the king. So Saul, his three sons,

his armor bearer, and his troops all together.

That same day, when.

The Philistines on the other side of the Jezreel Valley

and beyond the Jordans saw that the Israelite army had

fled and that Sal and his sons were dead, they

abandoned their towns and they fled, so the Philistines moved

in and occupied their towns. The next day, when the

Philistines went out to strip the dead, they found the

bodies of Saul and his three sons on Mount Gilboa.

So they cut off SAAL's head and stripped off his armor,

and then they proclaimed the good news of Saul's death

and their pagan temple and to the people throughout the

land of Felictia. They placed his armor in the temple

of the Astorreths, and they fastened his body to the

wall of beth Shan. But when the people of Jabesh

Gilly had heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,

all their mighty warriors traveled through the night to beth

Shan and took the bodies of Saul and his sons

down from the wall, and they brought them to Jabesh,

where they burned the bodies, and then they took their

bones and buried them beneath the Tamaris tree at Jabesh,

and they fasted for seven days.

Now have you ever been to the city of bet Shan, Yes, so,

know that the old city where I've actually seen the wall,

the remnants or the foundation i should say, of the

wall of where Saul's body was hung right right, because

this particular fortress would have been uh and and the

remnants are still there on the top of this hill.

So there was sort of like there was like Old

Testament Betian, and then there was like New Testament Roman Roman. Yeah,

and the Roman one is vast magnificent. It's magnificent.

Did you go in the public toilets? Yes, yeah, yes,

there is, so it's pretty crazy. They had the rich

people's public toilets, and then the poor people's latrines. Rich

people had like polished marble seats. But there's no there's

no there's no block between, there's no there's no no stalls.

Right, so you just come in and do business.

Literally, that's where the phrase doing your business comes from,

is that the wealthy Romans would all come in to

use the same toilet to sit and sell, you know

euse shops and do business. I've got some things to sell,

I'll buy them, right, and they do business right there

in the in the toilets hysterical.

So that's there. But that's in the Roman area.

There's a big Amphitheater there, there's a bunch of shops there,

there's a main street, there's like hot tubs.

There's a huge, a huge colisseum. Did you already say that, Yeah,

yeah yeah, Amphatheats Amphitheater is massive, Yeah, absolutely massive.

But then and that's the Roman part. You've got this

main street there, it's pretty impressive. But then up on

a hill above is where the ancient right, well, the

Roman was ancient, but the Old Testament version.

Of quite small too. Actually, right, but did you hike

up there? We didn't, Yeah, so I hiked up there

and uh and you know, and and what you saw

was the actual foundation of the entire castle. Oh and

then there's like like you know, foundations where the walls

would have been, right and uh, and it's smaller than

you would think. But all that to say this, if

they were to well they did hang Saul's body from

the wall, that meant everybody saw it.

Yeah, because this hill it's not in the hilly area.

It's kind of flat, just south of the Galilee.

Yes, but this one hill just juts out of the

plane pretty steeply. There's a picture of it here in

the Life Application Study.

But oh yeah, I know for sure.

Hey, if you don't have a Life Application Study Bible,

go online. We don't make any money for promoting these,

but grab one. You know a lot of people like

to get these chronological life application study Bibles. I don't

know how practical that is for actual Bible study. It's

practical for us in the way that we're doing this thing,

but for you go get a traditional life Application study

Bible and oh yeah, there you go.

There's pictures, there's the walls.

Yeah, so there's the foundation of the walls. I mean,

that's quite a lot left isn't it.

Yeah, huh, you know, it's really amazing.

Yeah. So, I mean I know that the people can't

see it, but.

There's there's some pictures in there in the Life Application

Study Bible all that kind of stuff.

It's pretty great.

Yeah. Cool.

So anyways, here's Saul Man and he sees that this

time is up. His sons have died, he's already been

wounded mortally, he's been shot multiple times apparently by the

by the archers, and he's begging.

His armor bearer to kill him, please kill me.

Yeah. And you know what I actually appreciated. Well, you know,

I remember like reading this for the very first time,

and I thought, gosh, is David. After David says I'm

not going to put my hand against God's anointed twice,

you know, that's recorded. Who knows, maybe he did it

even more, you know, but I actually thought to myself

when Samuel said tomorrow you're going to die, I thought, oh,

like David is going to have to actually kill him,

you know. And then come to find out it wasn't

David that killed him. God was able to use the

Philistines to take out Saul, and thank goodness, right because.

Paul took himself up. What do you mean self committed suicide?

He fell on his own stuff?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, but I mean he took himself out.

I think the picture is Saul had ruined his own life.

Right.

Oh's god, right, you have nobody to blame but yourself soul.

Right, right, and and and so you know it's it's

such a sad tale, but it's important, right because just

like you said at yesterday's podcast, Saul was all about

himself from beginning to end. Everything was about him, right, right.

And when we live our lives for ourselves, it's a

wasted life. And if you you know, I understand, we

all have to take care of ourselves. We all have

to put ourselves and our mental health, you know, in priority.

But when we decide that we are more important than

God and than others, right, and we and we live

our lives just for ourselves. Listen, there will be moments

of pleasure, there will be moments of happiness, but in

the end, we're going to get to the end of

our lives and our lives are going to be empty.

Our lives are going to not have purpose or meaning

or fulfillment. Because when you live a life for yourself,

it's a wasted life. Yeah, and only when we decide to,

you know, trust God and put God first and put

others first and realize how God designed us that others

are a part of the equation, when we realize the

fulfillment and the blessing, and you know, just the richness

of life, because we're only truly fulfilled when we are,

you know, living out the way that God designed us

and created us for.

Yeah, it's such a sad ending because he had all

the things on the surface when the when Samuel anointed Saul,

you would have thought this guy's God at all. He's tall,

he's handsome, he commands a lot of respect, he's rich,

all these things.

He's going to be great.

He's a great warrior, he's talented.

He's taller than all the rest of us, he's everything

about him is just better.

And instead he never lived up to his potential.

Never like like, I don't know that the Bible shows

hardly any days in his entire Early on, he had

a couple of victories where he did what God said,

and then he just began to just run am up

and serve himself and do what he wanted to do.

And he just failed miserably. He never lived up to

his own He may be a potential, he may be.

A person who is a victim of believing his own press.

Yeah, absolutely right.

And so you know here he is early on, like

you just mentioned, and he had a few victories, and

he's listening to Samuel, you know, and he's recognizing that

it's a humbling position to be annointed as the first

king of Israel. And and then later on he lives

for himself. It never says so, but it could be

that maybe he started to think how great he is. Right,

in other words, stop thinking, you know, hey, we're not

going to give God the credit. We're going to take

the credit. And actually that's a pretty good lesson for pastors,

isn't It's a it's a good lesson for everybody, because

we've seen people who think that they're pretty important in

major volunteer positions at church.

Absolutely right.

And you know, hey, I'm an elder, I'm a deacon, right, Oh,

I'm a I'm a Bible leader. You know, it's my

parking space, he move over, this is my spot on

the pew. Right. We've seen that as kids, and and

I think it's a victim. It's it's easy for anybody

to start believing their own press. It's but it's very,

very dangerous, and sometimes we don't even realize we're doing it.

A number of years ago, I'm not going to say

his name, I'm not going to say the country, but

a number of years ago, I was in a meeting.

We had a state dinner at a country in Africa,

with the president and his cabinet, a bunch of other people,

and he was struggling through because he's a dictator and

I have mixed feelings about how he leads. But he

was struggling with some faith things because he was kind

of leaning towards Christianity and all those kinds of things,

but struggling with how how do you lead? And he

made a statement, he was given a speech. He said,

in this world, there's good kings and bad kings, right,

That's that's what exists. Was he's a president, he's elected,

but there's good kings and bad kings. And he said

the difference between the good king and the bad king

is a good king king believes he's the king and

can do whatever he wants.

That's a bad king.

I'm sorry, a bad king believes he's the king, he

can do whatever he wants and that the people are

there for him. And a good king, a good leader,

realizes that he's there for the benefit of the people. Right,

that's the difference between the two. And it's like it's

like Saul lived his whole life as if it was

about him and the kingdom was there for him, right, right,

he wasted how much resources? How many lives of soldiers

just hunting one guy. David literally calls himself a flee.

I'm a flea. Why are you hunting me? The resources

just wasted over this one grudge.

That's what I always say to the policeman who pulls

me over for going three miles an hour over, I'm

like all the crime in the world.

Yeah, I'm a flee.

I'm a flee. Yeah, go do something more important to

give me a warning. And then he's like no.

But he wastes the resources of the kingdom on a

personal and vendetta. He's obsessed with his own circumstances, his

own situation, and everything in his life spirals out of control.

Whereas you see David the other way, leads as if

the people were most important and he was there to

serve the people. It's a huge difference between these two kings,

good kings and bad kings. And the differences are you

living for yourself and using the people around you or

are you living for other people?

Right?

And if you live for others, by the way, and

this president went on and he said, the reality is

if a good leader would serve as people well and

cause the people to succeed and to prosper, the people

will love him and they will give him everything he wants. Right, So,

if you would leverage your influence for the betterment of

your team at work, or for your family or whatever,

your people will love you. They will learn to love you,

they'll learn to trust you and respect you, and you'll

get what you're trying to accomplish in life too.

It'll always happen.

But if you only serve yourself, you will always tear

down everything around you. The thing you're trying to accomplish,

you're single handily tearing down until finally he takes his

own life right. Everything everything, He just destroyed everything because

he was obsessed with himself and not the things of God,

not not other people just didn't serve well. So it's

every time I read this, I just I feel so bad.

The Note for Life Application Study Bible for his verse

four says saw face death the same way he faced life.

He took matters into his own hands without thinking of

God or asking for his guidance.

Isn't that amazing?

Yeah?

What a statement that that could have gone on his tombstone.

Yeah, I probably could have. Yeah, you're right about it.

Self face death the same way he faced life. Yeah,

but my wife and I we do.

She didn't have a tombstone. He was his head was

cut off and that's.

Right, and then they buried him out under under a tree.

They could have carved this on the tree. My my

wife and I we do this thing. It's called letter boxing.

It's it's it's a whole deal. You can go online

letterboxing dot org.

You look at it.

It's basically a treasure hunts all around the world, little

rubber stamps and blah blah blah, all this stuff, and

it's they're just fun to do. So we've done like

almost four hundred of them. And I know, yeah, it's

this whole weird thing we do. But sometimes and they

always send you to obscure places you'd never guess and

you've got to use compasses and figure out codes and

all this stuff. Sometimes other times they're just really really simple,

go to this place and here it is.

Right. So we wound up doing this series and it

was all B movies. All the stamps.

People hand carved these rubber stamps, right, and they were

all B movies like The Werewolf.

And the Mummy and whatever. Nice.

And they were hidden in cemeteries all around Oakland County

And so it's kind of a Halloween kind of an idea.

It was a fun one. It took us most of

the day to do these things.

Which is the county that next over there, Yeah, we live.

So one of them, it was the last one or

the next to last one, was hidden at a tombstone

that had the man's name and it said husband, father failure.

Oh wow, and then it just had the dates of

his life.

Whoa somebody.

Wait a minute, somebody had it carved husband, father failure.

It sounds like what they're saying is he was a

great husband, a great father, and then also.

He failed us both. Yeah I'm hearing he failed his wife.

He failed that's what it has to mean.

Yeah, because he can't mean the other, right, and so.

I came away from that going. It was the first

time I think I'd ever really thought what do I

want on my tombstone? Right when I read this phrase?

He faced death the same way he faced life. He

took matters in his own hands without any consideration of God.

And I think, Man, what I want on mine? You

know I don't want that I want Hey, he trusted God,

he served his family and his church.

Well, I have a tendency.

I have a tendency to think that that's some unresolved

anger that will never go away.

Well, they etched it in marble.

What I'm saying is like, you know, God calls us

to forgive, God calls us to let go of all

the bitterness. But if you etch it in marble, it

almost seems like even if you have finally one day

you have peace for your own sake, right, which is

which is a pretty big thing. Right, you're in a Well,

I guess they wouldn't visit.

What would have happened.

It would have turned around and in the last couple

of years of his life. Hey, I've been running the

wrong direction. You know, the people are more important. God's

more important. I'm going to stop serving myself. If he'd

repented and changed, I think I think his end would

have been different. You know, he'd already had lost the

kingdom all those kinds of things, but he could have

had a different ending. And then I have a lot

of respect, quite honestly, for the people from Jabesh Gilead.

Their warriors went out and said, hey, he's not the

best guy, but we're not gonna let the Philistines desecrate

him and his sons, right right. And so these guys

went out and and if you know that that beth

Shan plateau, that was a hard place to get to, right,

You were so exposed coming in on that spot. And uh,

they risk their lives to go show respect, to give

honor to whom honor is due. He's a king, give

honor to him. He represents our people, and the Philistines

are desecrating his body, and they went out and risked

their lives. So there's a huge contrast between Saul and

the lack of dignity and then the dignity and courage

of these these unnamed warriors from Javish Giliad to say, hey,

we're going to do the right thing.

Yeah, that's great, man. I love that part of the story.

Wow, well, hey, here it is. We're we're able to

see their character was so strong we're able to get

a glimpse of it even though we don't know their names. Right,

they're they're they're worthy of being noted right in history

and because of their character, which is something to be

said by character. Okay, well, hey, that's our time, so

hopefully we will see you next time on the Bible.

Guys,