The Sad Story of Saul: Or Why One Should Not Let Evil Destroy You Part 8
As David just barely missed a chance to backstab the Philistines behind their own lines, Saul and his forces were going to face to face those very battle lines from the front end.
Both of their stories have different endings, let's cover David's side first.
David had had to travel from his home base in Ziklag to the Philistine camp before Achish got told no on letting David fight with the regulars and sent David back home, apologizing for David having wasted time for nothing. On the way back, David's reputation as an effective mercenary came back to haunt him again.
Some Amalekites who were really mad Dave made a habit introducing them to the business end of a blade decided to wait until Ziklag was minus it's defender before launching a massive raid, burning the place, and ganking all families of the mercs to sell for ransom.
However, during the course of the raid, one of them had to leave behind a slave who was too weak to move, and after David provided them some food and promised not to turn the guy back over to the Amalekites, spilled his guts about where to find them. After a quick consult with God via Abiathur about his chances of taking them down (and God was all "go for it"), Dave hunted them down and turned them all into red smears on the edge of his blade.
He then discovered a ton of plunder from others the Amalekites had raided and decided to be magnanimous and turn it over to the Israelites. Since this was around the time Saul was confirmed to have finally died in battle and David had been consistently gaining support for his off the books raids on bandits and other thugs while falsely LARPing as a Philistine blade for hire, this proved to be the springboard to at least half of Israel asking him to lead them since Saul died, his son Johnathan was dead too, and they had more confidence in him than they did any of Saul's notional hereditary successors.
Note: David still had deal with some Saul loyalists afterwards, but that is beyond the scope of this particular Bible Study.
Now let's cut back to Saul's story.
As we saw last time, Saul had plenty of reasons to let his heart sink to his testicular region in fear, but he had no choice but to squelch his fear. While God had rejected him as king, he was still legally obligated to do his job. And sure, he was prone to depression and his morals were terrible at best, but to his sole remaining credit, even he realized he had to be the military commander in chief, so when the Philistines marshaled their armies, he decided he was going to try to tilt the battle in his favor by meeting them at Mount Gilboa.
This was not a bad choice. Israelites were used to fighting on mountains and hills, and given the Israelites had much less formal military training on the whole, this made it easier for them to use terrain to balance out the fact most Philistines were used to fighting on open terrain in set piece battle.
Unfortunately, it was still a crushing tactical defeat. Not only did the Philistines rout the Israelites, most of them were killed, and the few survivors included Abner, who continued to support Saul's family even after their patriarch died.
However, Saul and his son Johnathan were not so fortunate. Johnathan had already been slain here, Saul was near death himself and asked his armor bearer to finish him off so the Philistines won't do the job, but the man refuses to off his own king.
And so Saul ends his own life by falling on his own sword literally.
Now, that said, let's compare and contrast a few things. Both Saul and David were anointed to do as God commanded. Neither was perfect, but they proved themselves as able military commanders.
However, Saul proved to be prone to violent mood swings, impulsive, irrational, and a total hypocrite to his oath to his official duties, often wasting the resources of the state for personal reasons. David proved far more capable of keeping his emotions in check, was far more thoughtful, rational, and most of all, put the benefit of others over his own interest, sometimes even at the direct detriment of his own.
But most important, both were directly handed their mandates by God. Saul broke faith with God, David did not.Even more tellingly, David was never fully aware he was supposed to be the next king, despite everyone from Saul on down coming to that conclusion, and not only did he refuse to shortcut his way to that by killing Saul (either in self defense or assassin style), he made a point of keeping his word to never harm Saul or his family by his own hand, even at the direct risk of his own life, because like the man or not, God had made him king, and until he died, David would respect that.
It's easy to see why God ultimately considered David the superior choice for king over Saul. 1 Chronicles points out Saul's biggest failing was his refusal to do as God commanded. David was far from perfect in that regard, but unlike Saul, when God called him out in his own reign, David was the king who bowed before the King of Kings.
Saul rose and then fell because he ultimately could not do that when he stumbled, and we need to keep in mind no matter how high we rise, we still fall if we do not kneel before all that God says that we should do.
Both of their stories have different endings, let's cover David's side first.
David had had to travel from his home base in Ziklag to the Philistine camp before Achish got told no on letting David fight with the regulars and sent David back home, apologizing for David having wasted time for nothing. On the way back, David's reputation as an effective mercenary came back to haunt him again.
Some Amalekites who were really mad Dave made a habit introducing them to the business end of a blade decided to wait until Ziklag was minus it's defender before launching a massive raid, burning the place, and ganking all families of the mercs to sell for ransom.
However, during the course of the raid, one of them had to leave behind a slave who was too weak to move, and after David provided them some food and promised not to turn the guy back over to the Amalekites, spilled his guts about where to find them. After a quick consult with God via Abiathur about his chances of taking them down (and God was all "go for it"), Dave hunted them down and turned them all into red smears on the edge of his blade.
He then discovered a ton of plunder from others the Amalekites had raided and decided to be magnanimous and turn it over to the Israelites. Since this was around the time Saul was confirmed to have finally died in battle and David had been consistently gaining support for his off the books raids on bandits and other thugs while falsely LARPing as a Philistine blade for hire, this proved to be the springboard to at least half of Israel asking him to lead them since Saul died, his son Johnathan was dead too, and they had more confidence in him than they did any of Saul's notional hereditary successors.
Note: David still had deal with some Saul loyalists afterwards, but that is beyond the scope of this particular Bible Study.
Now let's cut back to Saul's story.
As we saw last time, Saul had plenty of reasons to let his heart sink to his testicular region in fear, but he had no choice but to squelch his fear. While God had rejected him as king, he was still legally obligated to do his job. And sure, he was prone to depression and his morals were terrible at best, but to his sole remaining credit, even he realized he had to be the military commander in chief, so when the Philistines marshaled their armies, he decided he was going to try to tilt the battle in his favor by meeting them at Mount Gilboa.
This was not a bad choice. Israelites were used to fighting on mountains and hills, and given the Israelites had much less formal military training on the whole, this made it easier for them to use terrain to balance out the fact most Philistines were used to fighting on open terrain in set piece battle.
Unfortunately, it was still a crushing tactical defeat. Not only did the Philistines rout the Israelites, most of them were killed, and the few survivors included Abner, who continued to support Saul's family even after their patriarch died.
However, Saul and his son Johnathan were not so fortunate. Johnathan had already been slain here, Saul was near death himself and asked his armor bearer to finish him off so the Philistines won't do the job, but the man refuses to off his own king.
And so Saul ends his own life by falling on his own sword literally.
Now, that said, let's compare and contrast a few things. Both Saul and David were anointed to do as God commanded. Neither was perfect, but they proved themselves as able military commanders.
However, Saul proved to be prone to violent mood swings, impulsive, irrational, and a total hypocrite to his oath to his official duties, often wasting the resources of the state for personal reasons. David proved far more capable of keeping his emotions in check, was far more thoughtful, rational, and most of all, put the benefit of others over his own interest, sometimes even at the direct detriment of his own.
But most important, both were directly handed their mandates by God. Saul broke faith with God, David did not.Even more tellingly, David was never fully aware he was supposed to be the next king, despite everyone from Saul on down coming to that conclusion, and not only did he refuse to shortcut his way to that by killing Saul (either in self defense or assassin style), he made a point of keeping his word to never harm Saul or his family by his own hand, even at the direct risk of his own life, because like the man or not, God had made him king, and until he died, David would respect that.
It's easy to see why God ultimately considered David the superior choice for king over Saul. 1 Chronicles points out Saul's biggest failing was his refusal to do as God commanded. David was far from perfect in that regard, but unlike Saul, when God called him out in his own reign, David was the king who bowed before the King of Kings.
Saul rose and then fell because he ultimately could not do that when he stumbled, and we need to keep in mind no matter how high we rise, we still fall if we do not kneel before all that God says that we should do.
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