SPEAKER_00: There is a category in literature of an antihero.
SPEAKER_00: An antihero is somebody who is, strangely enough, not the protagonist, but not the antagonist either.
SPEAKER_00: You never know quite how to judge the antihero.
SPEAKER_00: They're usually on the side of the good person, not always, but generally on the side of the good person, but they don't have the same motivation as the good person.
SPEAKER_00: They're not the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, often when the battle comes, they are fighting against the enemy, but for different reasons than the protagonist.
SPEAKER_00: Like Hans Solo, the antihero is driven by his own desires, his own greed, not by virtue, not by trying to help, but by some other illicit lust.
SPEAKER_00: Like Severus Snape, the antihero, is often unnecessarily cruel.
SPEAKER_00: The antihero, like I said, is not classified as the villain and often fights against the villain, but because of their own conduct, they're certainly not considered good.
SPEAKER_00: That's the classic antihero.
SPEAKER_00: Taylor Swift's song, Antihero, begins with the line, I have this thing where I get older but never wiser.
SPEAKER_00: And that describes Saul, King Saul, right down to his bones.
SPEAKER_00: King Saul is the biblical version of the antihero.
SPEAKER_00: He was driven by self-protection.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he fought against the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: I said this morning that Saul is one of the most enigmatic people in the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: He is difficult to categorize.
SPEAKER_00: Would you say that he was on the team of the Lord or on the team of the pagans and the Gentiles?
SPEAKER_00: He escapes classification.
SPEAKER_00: It's not for nothing that he died fighting the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: In some sense, you could say that he and David had the same enemies, but for the wrong reasons.
SPEAKER_00: Saul was driven by self-protection.
SPEAKER_00: He was driven to advance his own kingdom and his own reign.
SPEAKER_00: Saul wasn't an enemy of God, was he?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, after all, he's described at length here in 1 Chronicles chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: Israel is God's people, and Saul was their first king.
SPEAKER_00: When the reader is done with 1st and 2 Samuel, the reader comes away knowing that David is a type of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that Saul tried to kill David, and yet also set David up for his first victory.
SPEAKER_00: As we study Saul briefly tonight, it's helpful to remember why David was a type of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If David is the hero of 1 and 2 Samuel, so to speak, and I know in the Bible there's only one hero, God, through the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what I mean by that.
SPEAKER_00: As you're going through 1 and 2 Samuel, it's clear that David is the star.
SPEAKER_00: David is a star because he is a type of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What makes David a type of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he's a shepherd from Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: A shepherd and from Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: That's two things.
SPEAKER_00: He was called by God to deliver his people from bondage.
SPEAKER_00: God answers David's prayers through David's worship, and God brings peace to David's people through David's sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: God anointed David.
SPEAKER_00: The word anointed is the word Messiah, anointed David to deliver his people.
SPEAKER_00: That becomes the prototype for the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: The Messiah, as we saw this morning in the sermon, is called the Son of David.
SPEAKER_00: David was led up to the Mount of Olives where he wept over his city and then was ushered into exile.
SPEAKER_00: He was a king betrayed by his people, cast out, and left to die only to return.
SPEAKER_00: All of this is the pattern that is followed by Jesus, of course.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus fills in the model and the prototype of David in a more real and more profound way, but nevertheless inside of the lines of David.
SPEAKER_00: That's what makes David the quote hero of 1 and 2 Samuel, with all the caveats that only God is the hero and all that.
SPEAKER_00: You have to understand David's role as the hero of the narrative, so to speak, in order for you to get your mind around what God is doing with Saul.
SPEAKER_00: If David is the prototype of the Messiah, Saul then becomes the prototype of those who are near the Messiah or on the fringes of the Messiah, but don't commit themselves to the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't surprise us that if David is a type of Christ, Saul is the antitype or the antihero.
SPEAKER_00: And what makes him that way, it's just motivations.
SPEAKER_00: Even when David and Saul were fighting in the same battle and on the same side, they were fighting with different motivations.
SPEAKER_00: David fought for the glory of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: That was true from his first battle until his last one.
SPEAKER_00: And David couldn't believe it.
SPEAKER_00: Looking at the Israelites, saying, How can you stand here quiet when God is being mocked?
SPEAKER_00: Saul fought his battles against the same enemies as David, but for different reasons.
SPEAKER_00: Saul fought for his own kingdom, his own reputation, his own dynasty.
SPEAKER_00: Saul's life was marked by sin and compromise.
SPEAKER_00: Saul lacked courage, and Saul disobeyed God.
SPEAKER_00: But those aren't the only differences between Saul and David.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, David also sinned, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: And David, there were times that he lacked courage, when he feigned madness, for example.
SPEAKER_00: There were times when he disobeyed God.
SPEAKER_00: The key difference between Saul and David isn't that one sinned and the other didn't, or one obeyed and the other didn't.
SPEAKER_00: The key difference is that Saul was driven by self.
SPEAKER_00: Before we get into the text tonight, it's helpful to remember who Saul was.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, an Israelite is reading 1 Chronicles when they get out of exile.
SPEAKER_00: They've spent a generation or two generations in Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: And they're ushered back in at the end of exile, and Chronicles is written to help them remember who they are and where they came from.
SPEAKER_00: And so they would be reading 1 Chronicles and they would get to the story in chapter 10, verse 1, which is the death of Saul and his sons and the battle against the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: They know all that.
SPEAKER_00: They're not learning history on a blank page from 1 Chronicles.
SPEAKER_00: They know 1 and 2 Samuel.
SPEAKER_00: They know what happened to Saul.
SPEAKER_00: They know their own history.
SPEAKER_00: It almost even condenses it too much to say they know they knew 1 and 2 Samuel.
SPEAKER_00: They're Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: They knew who Saul and David were.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, if I were to ask you who George Washington was, you could tell me all kinds of stuff about him.
SPEAKER_00: And it wouldn't be that you read a book on him.
SPEAKER_00: That's where you knew it is a book that you read, or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: No, you know who he is because you live in Washington, D.C., for goodness' sake.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Israelites as it relates to Saul.
SPEAKER_00: They know who Saul is.
SPEAKER_00: But some of us don't.
SPEAKER_00: And so to bring you up to speed here, Saul was chosen by God to be the first king of the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites demanded a king.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted a king because the other nations had a king, and they wanted a king that would look good on a horse leading the army.
SPEAKER_00: That was basically their criteria.
SPEAKER_00: And God gave them exactly what they wanted.
SPEAKER_00: They chose Saul to be king because Saul was tall, dark, and handsome.
SPEAKER_00: He would fit the part.
SPEAKER_00: But the flip side of that is that because Saul was not chosen for his godliness, because he was not chosen because of his covenant love for God's people, but rather for his appearances, they got a king who loved appearances and not a covenant faithfulness to God.
SPEAKER_00: And right away you see this, right?
SPEAKER_00: Minute one of Saul's reign as king, he's hiding in the baggage because he's ashamed of what he looks like in front of everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: That is going to be the pattern of his life.
SPEAKER_00: That goes too far to say that Saul lacked courage.
SPEAKER_00: He had courage, but for the wrong reasons.
SPEAKER_00: Saul was bold in some points.
SPEAKER_00: Like when he was trying to kill David with the spear, that was some boldness.
SPEAKER_00: When he heard that the priests betrayed him and he slaughtered all the priests, that's bold.
SPEAKER_00: It's not really fair to call him a coward.
SPEAKER_00: Saul also had humility.
SPEAKER_00: He hid in the bags.
SPEAKER_00: He recognized he wasn't strong enough to fight Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: But notice that the areas of Saul's boldness and humility are the opposite of David's areas of boldness and humility.
SPEAKER_00: When it came to fighting Goliath, Saul had humility, David had boldness.
SPEAKER_00: When it came to the issue of the priests, David had humility before the Lord, and Saul had boldness.
SPEAKER_00: Saul was bold in all the wrong times and humble in all the wrong times.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't just lack courage with Goliath, he lacked courage with God.
SPEAKER_00: He lacked courage with the people.
SPEAKER_00: And those two facets combined tragically to undo his life.
SPEAKER_00: Remember where his kingdom ended, really, was in 1 Samuel 15.
SPEAKER_00: This is the very beginning.
SPEAKER_00: It had barely gotten off the ground.
SPEAKER_00: He'd had a few military victories already, that's true.
SPEAKER_00: But Samuel told Saul, the prophet Samuel told King Saul, wait here for me to offer a sacrifice before we go into battle.
SPEAKER_00: Saul got tired of waiting.
SPEAKER_00: He felt like Samuel took too long.
SPEAKER_00: So he offered the sacrifice on himself by himself.
SPEAKER_00: And when Samuel asked him, why did you do that?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what Saul said?
SPEAKER_00: I was afraid of the people.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: And when Samuel rebuked Saul and said, the kingdom's going to be taken from you.
SPEAKER_00: You don't deserve it, you coward.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what Saul said?
SPEAKER_00: At least go back before the people and pray with me before the people so they know we're still united.
SPEAKER_00: What in the world is that?
SPEAKER_00: Saul depended on David, teenage boy David, for spiritual help.
SPEAKER_00: Saul wanted Jonathan to be king, and he rightly saw David as a threat.
SPEAKER_00: And so he saw David and Jonathan's friendship as a threat.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jonathan was probably 20 years older than David.
SPEAKER_00: Conservatively, maybe 25, somewhere in there.
SPEAKER_00: Jonathan was much older than David, and yet they were fast friends because of their common covenant love for God, and Saul saw that as a threat.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember Saul tried to sabotage David's life by taking his honri daughter, his mean daughter, and marrying her off to him?
SPEAKER_00: How's that for a twist?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna punish you by having you marry that daughter.
SPEAKER_00: And do you remember how it didn't work?
SPEAKER_00: When Saul came to kill David, it was that daughter who hid David and lied to Saul, and David escaped.
SPEAKER_00: Saul hunted David's king.
SPEAKER_00: Or sorry, God's king.
SPEAKER_00: Saul hunted David.
SPEAKER_00: When Saul understood that David was the true king, he tried to put him to death.
SPEAKER_00: David didn't do any of that.
SPEAKER_00: David waited to be king.
SPEAKER_00: David never would have harmed Saul.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's obvious.
SPEAKER_00: He had opportunity to do time and time again, out of self-defense, out of like basic castle doctrine, David could have struck down Saul and been held guiltless, but he wouldn't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Saul's life we're gonna see this morning or this evening is ended when a true two-front war happens.
SPEAKER_00: He's fighting the Amalekites to the south and fighting the Philistines to his east and his west.
SPEAKER_00: He was stuck in battle and he didn't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what Saul did when he didn't know what to do?
SPEAKER_00: He summoned a witch, a necromancer, and asked the necromancer, this this witch, to conjure up Samuel from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Samuel appears, the witch was scared right out of her hat.
SPEAKER_00: Picture her saying, I never I've never seen this work before.
SPEAKER_00: That story has always fascinated me because this is an insane battle.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be the biggest battle of Saul's life.
SPEAKER_00: It's not one of many battles.
SPEAKER_00: This is the war.
SPEAKER_00: If Israel loses this war, they're over.
SPEAKER_00: No David, no Jerusalem, no line of twelve tribes to produce the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: This is a huge battle on multiple fronts.
SPEAKER_00: It is complex, and Saul doesn't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning, remember I asked you if if Jesus were to ask you, what's one thing I could do for you?
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what you would say.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Saul had his chance.
SPEAKER_00: He summoned up a dead person and got one question with them, and it was help me with this battle.
SPEAKER_00: And it's always fascinating me how just disinterested Samuel was in the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of sobering, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Like, as Americans, we get wrapped up in politics, the next election and this and that.
SPEAKER_00: It's such a big deal, the next election.
SPEAKER_00: And Samuel comes back from the dead and is just bored by the whole conversation.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's a big war that the future of our country depends upon?
SPEAKER_00: Yawn.
SPEAKER_00: How Saul's life ends.
SPEAKER_00: How does someone like that end?
SPEAKER_00: That'll be our outline.
SPEAKER_00: Tonight, he's a king without a crown, and we're gonna walk through the end of Saul's life.
SPEAKER_00: You have to understand Saul spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: He believed in God, he had tasted spiritual truth, he knew Yahweh, he fought against God's enemies.
SPEAKER_00: He was used by God.
SPEAKER_00: You can't take that away from Saul.
SPEAKER_00: He was used by God, he was chosen by God and used by God, but he never repented and he never valued God above himself.
SPEAKER_00: He was contrite when confronted, but contrite over being confronted, not contrite over his sin.
SPEAKER_00: He was sad that he was caught.
SPEAKER_00: He's sad that he was convicted.
SPEAKER_00: He cried and he made vows.
SPEAKER_00: I promise I'll never sin again.
SPEAKER_00: I promise, and wept and wept and wept.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't mean anything because he didn't love God.
SPEAKER_00: How does such a story end?
SPEAKER_00: That's this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: This whole chapter, by the way, it feels like a coronation ceremony in reverse.
SPEAKER_00: The crown is ripped off and everything falls apart first.
SPEAKER_00: You see that a man-pleasing king, a king without a crown, comes to an end when he is defeated.
SPEAKER_00: The Philistines fought against Israel.
SPEAKER_00: The men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Geboah.
SPEAKER_00: The Philistines overtook Saul and his sons.
SPEAKER_00: The Philistines struck down Jonathan.
SPEAKER_00: That is the son of Saul that should have been king, that was best friends with David, had made a covenant vow with David, struck down in battle along with Abinadab and Malsheshua, the sons of Saul.
SPEAKER_00: It's not right that Jonathan dies with Saul in battle.
SPEAKER_00: It's not, I mean it rubs you the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: But even back in 1 Samuel chapter 30 and 31, it's just wrong.
SPEAKER_00: He belongs with David, not with Saul.
SPEAKER_00: But he's struck down at Saul's side.
SPEAKER_00: There's no question of his loyalty.
SPEAKER_00: He was loyal to God, of course, Jonathan was, but that expressed itself in loyalty to his king, like David.
SPEAKER_00: The battle pressed hard against Saul.
SPEAKER_00: The archers found him, and he was wounded by the archers.
SPEAKER_00: Saul said to his armor bearer, draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and mistreat me.
SPEAKER_00: It's lines like that that I'm telling you, makes Saul so complicated.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to be killed by uncircumcised Gentile person.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want somebody who's not from the 12 tribes.
SPEAKER_00: He'd rather be killed by David, honestly.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the armor bearer had seen David with opportunities to kill Saul, and David didn't do it.
SPEAKER_00: The armor bearer's not going to do it either.
SPEAKER_00: You can't.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of armor bearer kills the guy he's carrying the armor for?
SPEAKER_00: He won't do it.
SPEAKER_00: So Saul took his own sword and fell upon it.
SPEAKER_00: That is not an easy way to die.
SPEAKER_00: Like you have to get momentum.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't I haven't tried it, but I'm just mapping out the physics of this.
SPEAKER_00: He's already wounded.
SPEAKER_00: Like he's on death store.
SPEAKER_00: He's got arrows sticking out of him.
SPEAKER_00: He thrusts himself onto a sword that he lodged in a crevice in the wall, maybe.
SPEAKER_00: Brutal.
SPEAKER_00: That's how a person like this ends.
SPEAKER_00: Not every time with suicide, but just a sad, pathetic death.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, when the armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died.
SPEAKER_00: The armor bearer was innocent.
SPEAKER_00: The armor bearer was not wounded.
SPEAKER_00: But he couldn't bear to see Saul killed, the one he was supposed to protect.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that one of the people lies about this?
SPEAKER_00: Goes and tells David, Oh, I saw Saul wounded, and so I thought I'd help him by taking his own life.
SPEAKER_00: That was the wrong lie to tell to David.
SPEAKER_00: David killed the guy.
SPEAKER_00: The truth isn't much better, though.
SPEAKER_00: Saul died, verse 6 says.
SPEAKER_00: His three sons died, his whole house died.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrew, that's even more poetic than it comes across in English, right there.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrew, it's rhythmic.
SPEAKER_00: Saul died.
SPEAKER_00: His sons died, his house died.
SPEAKER_00: All the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that the army had fled.
SPEAKER_00: Saul and his sons were dead.
SPEAKER_00: They abandoned their cities and they fled.
SPEAKER_00: And the Philistines came and lived in them.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what happened.
SPEAKER_00: Saul's defeated, utterly defeated.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just die, but the Philistines pack it up and move into their houses.
SPEAKER_00: You see even a little contrast here with David.
SPEAKER_00: Saul dies on a mountain.
SPEAKER_00: David will be enthroned on the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: Saul dies on Mount Gilboa.
SPEAKER_00: David's going to be enthroned on Mount Zion.
SPEAKER_00: Saul is indeed the anti-hero.
SPEAKER_00: Second, king without a crown is defeated.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, he's disgraced.
SPEAKER_00: It's not enough that the Philistines moved in the city.
SPEAKER_00: It gets worse.
SPEAKER_00: The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, which is something you do, you go into the battlefield and you'd find everybody who was defeated, and you rip off their armor and take anything of value.
SPEAKER_00: The Philistines came to strip the slain.
SPEAKER_00: They found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Goboah.
SPEAKER_00: They stripped him.
SPEAKER_00: They took his head.
SPEAKER_00: They took his armor.
SPEAKER_00: They sent messengers throughout the land to the Philistines to carry the good news to their idols and to their people.
SPEAKER_00: So why do you think the Philistines cut off Saul's head?
SPEAKER_00: Well, do you remember what Saul did to Goliath?
SPEAKER_00: It was David who did it.
SPEAKER_00: But David cut off Goliath's head and it got passed around.
SPEAKER_00: It got put on the wall.
SPEAKER_00: So this is revenge time.
SPEAKER_00: These guys, these guys are just stealing armor from people that random people that fell in the battle.
SPEAKER_00: They can't believe they're good.
SPEAKER_00: Look, here's Saul.
SPEAKER_00: He had kingly armor, of course.
SPEAKER_00: He was easily recognizable.
SPEAKER_00: So they chop off his head.
SPEAKER_00: This is Philistine evangelism here at the end of verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: They're carrying the good news to their idols and to the people.
SPEAKER_00: That is a pathetic end to a life.
SPEAKER_00: When he is over, it is the idols who are celebrating.
SPEAKER_00: It's meant to be profoundly profane.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't say that you evangelize an idol.
SPEAKER_00: You gave good news to an idol.
SPEAKER_00: Idols don't have ears.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the Philistines did.
SPEAKER_00: They're showing, they're holding up Saul's head in front of the idol of Dagon.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember this happened not too long ago when they put the Ark of the Covenant in front of Dagon?
SPEAKER_00: Remember Dagon fell over and all of his fins and arms fell every which way?
SPEAKER_00: They duct taped him back together again and propped him up and sent the Ark back.
SPEAKER_00: So now, what's this, 20 years after that?
SPEAKER_00: Something like that?
SPEAKER_00: 40 years?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the people remember.
SPEAKER_00: They bring in Saul's severed head and boast before Dagon.
SPEAKER_00: Duct taped Dagon gets to set eyes on Saul's head.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10, they put his armor in the temple of their gods.
SPEAKER_00: Before they had the ark there, and Dagon fell over.
SPEAKER_00: Now they put Saul's armor there and they fastened his head on the wall in the temple, verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: This is sad.
SPEAKER_00: Notice this whole section is loaded with desecration imagery.
SPEAKER_00: These words that imply desecration.
SPEAKER_00: He was stripped, exposed, mocked, and dismayed.
SPEAKER_00: Saul's armor.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that David refused to wear Saul's armor, by the way?
SPEAKER_00: When David fought Goliath, Saul told him, Wear my armor, and David tried it on.
SPEAKER_00: He was like, this does not work.
SPEAKER_00: Can hardly throw any slings at all in this thing.
SPEAKER_00: Now that same armor is in front of Dagon.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
SPEAKER_00: What Saul trusted in became a parade of the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: The true king will defeat God's enemies.
SPEAKER_00: David will defeat the Philistines, and The true king, Christ, will defeat his enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 2 says he'll be enthroned on Mount Zion.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 110 says he'll put his, make his enemies a footstool for his feet.
SPEAKER_00: The antihero, the antitype here.
SPEAKER_00: He's made a footstool in Dagon's court.
SPEAKER_00: He's disgraced.
SPEAKER_00: A man-pleasing king comes to an end when he's defeated, when he's disgraced.
SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, replaced.
SPEAKER_00: He's replaced, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: First, Jabesh Gilead heard all the Philistines had done to Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Jabesh Gilead, sometimes their eyes just run over these city names.
SPEAKER_00: It's a city.
SPEAKER_00: Jabesh, it's in the city's name is Jabesh, it's in Gilead.
SPEAKER_00: This was the site, this was the city of Saul's first military victory.
SPEAKER_00: The first time Saul led a battle of Israelites to war, it was to rescue the people in Jabesh.
SPEAKER_00: They'd been hemmed in by the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites didn't have an army at this point at all.
SPEAKER_00: They had never had a king before who could rally more than one or two tribes together.
SPEAKER_00: But Saul comes on the scene.
SPEAKER_00: He's a brand new king, newly anointed by God, fresh out of the baggage, still got the oil dripping down him, and he hears that Jabesh is penned down.
SPEAKER_00: And he summons an army, and the twelve tribes rally together under King Saul, and he goes and liberates the people in Jabesh.
SPEAKER_00: Well, now you're, again, several decades after that, 20 plus years later, Saul's been humiliated, desecrated, beheaded, stripped down, defiled, and exposed.
SPEAKER_00: And the people at Jabesh hear about it.
SPEAKER_00: And they go get him.
SPEAKER_00: They go get him, verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: All the valiant men arose and took away the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons and brought them to Jabesh, to their own city.
SPEAKER_00: Samuel tells you the bodies were hung on the wall at Bethshan.
SPEAKER_00: And if you go to Israel today, you can go to Bethshan, and there's that hill there.
SPEAKER_00: My first time, I just want to share this real quick, my first time going to Betshan.
SPEAKER_00: Some American tourists, our tour guide had told us, which fits, had climbed up the big hill that overlooks Bethan and tied two scarecrows to a tree up there.
SPEAKER_00: So you could visualize what it would look like to see two bodies just hanging.
SPEAKER_00: The scarecrows had heads, though.
SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't the full picture.
SPEAKER_00: But just two bodies hanging over the wall of the city.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they did to Saul.
SPEAKER_00: And to Jonathan.
SPEAKER_00: But Jabesh Gilead rescues them, takes the bodies down, buries their bones under the oak.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually a tamarisk tree.
SPEAKER_00: It's what Saul would hang out under.
SPEAKER_00: It's where Saul went to think.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Saul was a terrible king, but not to the people in Jabesh.
SPEAKER_00: But that's one little town.
SPEAKER_00: One little town.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of pathetic, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Your president dies.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine an American president dying, and there is a little ceremony in, you know, Springfield, Kentucky, or whatever, some small town somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: That's the little ceremony.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: The rest of the country moves on.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happened for Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Saul died.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, key verse of this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Saul died for his breach of faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's the bottom line.
SPEAKER_00: Saul sinned against Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: He did not keep the faith.
SPEAKER_00: He broke faith, verse 13 says, with Yahweh, and that he did not keep the command of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: And this is going back to 1 Samuel 15.
SPEAKER_00: This goes back to when Samuel told Saul, don't offer the sacrifice, and he did it anyway.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: He died for that.
SPEAKER_00: Twenty years later, but he died for it.
SPEAKER_00: Also, he consulted a medium, seeking guidance.
SPEAKER_00: He could have prayed.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he could have prayed.
SPEAKER_00: As I said, it was the most strategic battle in Israel's history up to that point, and their king could have prayed.
SPEAKER_00: God would have heard, would have listened.
SPEAKER_00: That would have required Saul repenting.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, Yahweh put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David, the son of Jesse.
SPEAKER_00: It is a fitting conclusion to Saul's biography that it ends not with Saul's burial, this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: The chapter ends with David being king.
SPEAKER_00: The one thing Saul feared more than anything else is what happens the moment he dies.
SPEAKER_00: He was able to hold that off his whole life.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't last five seconds after he died.
SPEAKER_00: His life was wasted.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he did good things for God, but he wasted his life.
SPEAKER_00: All that he lived for, all that he fought for completely undone at his death.
SPEAKER_00: A quick contrast here between Saul and David.
SPEAKER_00: Saul grasped the kingdom, David receives the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss that distinction.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom came to David.
SPEAKER_00: Saul tried to clutch it, David received it empty and open-handed.
SPEAKER_00: Saul feared losing glory more than everything else, and David kept waiting for God to exalt him.
SPEAKER_00: Saul kills priests, whereas David organizes worship.
SPEAKER_00: Saul consults a witch, and David inquires of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: And so Saul's life is handed over to the one whom he hated.
SPEAKER_00: In the end, Saul's death becomes David's coronation.
SPEAKER_00: There is a New Testament application to Saul's life.
SPEAKER_00: There's several.
SPEAKER_00: One, I've seen this often play out in churches and with leadership where people put self-preservation over gospel unity or self-preservation over gospel effectiveness, where people look at a ministry they've been part of for 10, 20 years, and they confuse what God has called them to do.
SPEAKER_00: They think God has called them to maintain their ministry or keep their ministry above all else.
SPEAKER_00: That is Saul thinking.
SPEAKER_00: It's not David thinking.
SPEAKER_00: David wasn't trying to maintain anything.
SPEAKER_00: David was trying to seek the Lord and be used by him.
SPEAKER_00: Once elders, pastors, fathers, missionaries, or ministers start trying to preserve their ministry, they've basically already lost it.
SPEAKER_00: A broader conclusion.
SPEAKER_00: Nearness to God does not equal faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Being close to God does not equal being faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Just think of Saul again.
SPEAKER_00: Saul had the prophet Samuel.
SPEAKER_00: He had a mouthpiece directly to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Samuel was the one on the temple floor who heard the voice of the Lord calling his name.
SPEAKER_00: Samuel talked with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's who Saul had, but he didn't use him.
SPEAKER_00: He ignored him.
SPEAKER_00: Saul had the throne.
SPEAKER_00: He had the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit ministered to Saul repeatedly.
SPEAKER_00: He had victory after victory.
SPEAKER_00: And on top of all that, he had God's covenant.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't some Gentile king trying to understand the God of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He had God's covenant.
SPEAKER_00: God's victories, God's spirit, God's throne, and God's voice.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he died without any of it.
SPEAKER_00: He died without his throne, died without the spirit, died, of course, in a loss, not a victory.
SPEAKER_00: Died having broken covenant, broken faithfulness with God.
SPEAKER_00: You can stand this close to the kingdom and lose it all.
SPEAKER_00: David was quick to repent when he was confronted of sin, of course.
SPEAKER_00: When he was confronted by Abigail, David repented immediately.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Abigail, somebody David could have killed like that.
SPEAKER_00: Confronts David for being a foolish man.
SPEAKER_00: David repents so fast.
SPEAKER_00: Saul was quick to kill anyone that confronted him.
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, I think David and Eli, who Samuel's mentor, David and Eli saw Israel's enemies as God's enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Saul saw Israel's enemies as his personal enemies.
SPEAKER_00: That's the distinction.
SPEAKER_00: The response to 1 Samuel or 1 Chronicles 10 is not try to be more like David, but it is to have spiritual union with the one to whom David points, being warned against being like Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Saul clung to his crown and lost it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus laid aside his glory and received a kingdom forever.
SPEAKER_00: Saul spent his life trying to save himself.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, to whom David pointed, lost his life to save his people.
SPEAKER_00: In the end, Saul is so close to David and yet is opposed to everything the true and greater David, Jesus Christ, would be.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that Saul would be a warning.
SPEAKER_00: God, we're grateful that you put this chapter in the Bible to warn us of Saul's end.
SPEAKER_00: We see him disgraced.
SPEAKER_00: We see him displaced.
SPEAKER_00: We see him defeated.
SPEAKER_00: We see his whole life evaporate.
SPEAKER_00: It's gone in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we're grateful for David's life, which points forward to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The true son of David.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel, of course, is teaches us to gain our life, we lose it.
SPEAKER_00: Greatness is seen in being a servant, a slave.
SPEAKER_00: It's seen in covenant faithfulness, not covenant abandonment.
SPEAKER_00: It's seen in coming to Christ, not through holding on to whatever little corner of this world you've given us.
SPEAKER_00: Help us hold our lives with an open hand, but our faith with a closed hand.
SPEAKER_00: Make us quick to repent.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now, for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, iBc.church.
SPEAKER_00: If you want more information about the Master Seminary or our location here in Washington, DC, please go to tms.edu.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.
SPEAKER_00: But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_00: Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.