The Choice of One Without Life

Today is our last sermon on 1 Samuel. Over these thirty-three sermons we have carried the events of Scripture out into the world, and we have learned what the fullness of God’s grace is and how people of faith discern and decide. The Bible records things that really happened, so the same things can happen today. Keep that firmly in mind, and simply do as the people of faith did. These are not old tales. Everything is written in this word, both how to receive God’s answer and why we are rebuked, because the world turns on it.

People have a wealth of worldly knowledge, but what matters is that we have the true knowledge that comes from believing in Christ. Only with true knowledge can we receive new life, and by the bright, eternal light that this life gives we can choose to live rightly. The right choice matters because a fearful outcome awaits us, a parting of the ways between eternal life and eternal punishment. That is why I keep urging you to know the true knowledge, which is God’s word, and to make the right choice by faith.

When we began 1 Samuel, we saw that everything unfolded around Saul, as though Israel had been made ready for Saul rather than for David. When Israel rejected God and asked for a man to be made their king like the other nations, God himself appointed Saul. Chosen by God and made king, Saul was at first humble and shy, and obedient enough to keep every secret just as Samuel wished. He was a dutiful son to his parents, depended wholly on the prophet Samuel and obeyed him, and strove to rule the nation according to God’s will. He came from a good family and was strikingly handsome. The world respects such people and longs to be like them. But Saul quickly crumbled under a small trial, blessed though he was, because he knew God’s will and yet was never born again.

Before God called him and made him king, Saul lacked confidence and could not even put himself forward in front of people. It was Samuel who encouraged him, showed him God’s will, and shaped him into a king. But once he met David and jealousy took hold, Saul would no longer listen even to Samuel’s counsel; unable to master his temper, he began to turn wicked. He forgot that God had set him on the throne despite his shortcomings, and he lost sight of all the effort and love Samuel had poured out to help him live rightly as a king. In the pride of being king, he hunted David to kill him.

In truth, it was not pride and jealousy that changed him. From the beginning there must have been an immature character within Saul. So while Samuel was helping him he seemed to have changed, but in the end he went back to where he started. God made him victorious in many battles so that he would be a king the people would serve well, and filled his hands with power and wealth, yet Saul abandoned both God and Samuel. Once he had everything he wanted, he no longer needed either of them.

Some people cast aside God, his grace, their faith, and the people of God without a second thought the moment something does not quite suit their thinking. These are people of small caliber. When they walk with people of faith, even such people can see the world, weigh it, and deal with it through the help of the Holy Spirit. But when they live for themselves, as Saul did, they are swayed by their feelings, or their problems loom large, and they stumble. Saul was still immature, and when David seemed to be more highly regarded than he was, the hidden evil of his flesh came out. With flesh as weak as ours, it is not easy to keep our balance and hold fast to our faith, but if we are God’s children, we must not be shaken.

Whether he was on the throne or had come into the world in the likeness of sinful flesh, Jesus lived with one unchanging purpose. If we, too, live with a worthy sense of purpose, we will never waver. Without one, we are crushed by our circumstances, and even our faith is shaken by other people’s feelings and opinions. People like this weigh and decide matters by feeling rather than by faith, and that is why God cannot draw them into his great work.

Saul was just such a man. When he was called to be king he was fearful and humble, but as he came to regard that power as his own, he grew proud and stopped fearing God. When the people sang that Saul had slain his thousands and David his ten thousands, the evil in his nature, dormant until then, began to show. A person’s basic nature is that hard to change. However much Samuel taught and guided him at his side, Saul did not change, because he still held on to an evil nature that can be put away only when human self-righteousness dies. Only those who admit that they are sinners and frail human beings lay down their own righteousness and die daily so that they may live by the word.

There is something every one of us must cast off. Some live unhappily because they care more about how others see them than about what they can actually do. Some are gifted in every way, yet because they cannot control their emotions, they make even their strengths useless. Others rate themselves far above their real abilities. All of these things keep us from coming to God. When you deny yourself, taking up your cross to share in the sufferings of Christ, God will bless you with far more than you ever imagined.

Every time Samuel showed him God’s will, Saul tried to put away his own righteousness, ideas, feelings, and temper; through those efforts he would have changed a great deal and grown spiritually. But he would not let go of his greed, jealousy, and temper, and so he failed. As I have stressed again and again in preaching through 1 Samuel, only when we make life, Christ, and the saving of souls the heart of our lives can we find peace. Whatever problem we meet, if we work it out by putting life, Christ, and the saving of souls first, we can resolve it far more wisely than the world that threw it at us.

When the people exalted David with their ten thousands, Saul could have answered not out of his feelings but with the generosity a king can show, praising not only David but all his other servants as well. He would have gained much more. But King Saul built his life around his power, his pride, and a folly tangled up with his self-righteousness, and for that reason he was certain to fail in the end. The foolish thought that he was the king, so why should David receive greater praise, afflicted him and at last brought him to his death. As Saul’s life shows, people seem to think and act within the measure of their own capacity. Had he put away his human righteousness when Samuel showed him the spiritual world, he would have received the wonderful blessing of being enlarged by God’s wisdom and grace into a person of great stature. But Saul stayed true to his own feelings, and that was his undoing. The king who had held absolute power died a lonely death with his sons, with no one to grieve for him.

God did not make Saul wicked from the start in order to set David up as king. Called as king, Saul could have lived as king to the last day of his life and brought God great glory as king. But his greed, stubbornness, and temper brought him down. He said he was suffering because of David, but it was trouble he had brought on himself. How large is your faith? Is it large enough to embrace not only yourself but others too? Or are you full of desire, wanting to have it all and hold it all, and when that does not work out, only complaining and struggling?

The world is like a vast, open sea, and on such a sea it is not as though those who believe in God sit on calm water while the people of the world are tossed on rough seas. Anyone may meet rough waves, and anyone may meet a calm sea. Whether your circumstances are hard or peaceful, then, you must look to God alone. If you look at things this way, putting God’s word first, you will be able to tell whether the problems you meet are blessings or training to make you grow. Saul could not overcome himself, and though God had blessed him, he fell into eternal death.

Verses 3 and 4 tell us that Saul was badly wounded by the arrows of the Philistine archers. In terrible pain, he begged his armor bearer to kill him, since otherwise the uncircumcised might kill him. When his armor bearer would not, Saul took his own sword and killed himself. Listen closely, and his words may sound like faith: in fearing that these uncircumcised would come and thrust him through and abuse him, he seems to fear that God’s name would be dishonored.

But if Saul had faith, then, gravely wounded as he was, he should not have been troubled about the uncircumcised Philistines; he should have repented before God, the Lord of life, and prayed for help. Had he only prayed that God would forgive him just this once, promising never again to be such a fool as to sin against him, he would not have met so miserable a death. But because Saul had abandoned God, the Lord of life, he chose to take his own life. Whether we have received Christ into our hearts or still hold the spirit of the world decides whether we become Christians or beasts. So when we make Christ the heart of our lives, the answer will come at once, whatever problem we face.

Verse 6 records that Saul and his three sons died together. That means Jonathan was killed as well. Jonathan understood God’s will, and he loved and helped David like a brother to save his life. You may find it hard to understand how so upright a man could die alongside Saul, evil as he was. If we read the Bible without putting God, life, and the saving of souls at the center, we will find many passages as bewildering as this one. It is a deep sorrow when someone as good as Jonathan departs this life so futilely, yet all around us in this life we often see the wicked grow rich and live long, healthy lives.

When his father was hounding the innocent David, Jonathan thought that one day his father might be severely rebuked by God. Being a son who could not abandon his father, he entrusted his descendants to David. Though Jonathan met death alongside his father, his death was very different from Saul’s, because all his life he had lived by God’s word. To human eyes, Jonathan’s death may seem unjust, since he died miserably in the same place as a wicked man, and some may even wonder whether it was a judgment. That kind of thinking grows out of the idea that the righteous ought to prosper. But you need to understand that this world is a road we all pass along as pilgrims, and on such a road anything can happen to anyone. If we live holding only to the faith that those who live by faith go to heaven, there is nothing in the troubles of this life to confuse us.

The world grieves the death of its heroes and mourns them. Today, too, when respected people die, crowds mourn them, and some even follow them in death. They do this because they look only at this life. According to verse 11, the people of Jabesh Gilead heard of the evil the Philistines had done: they had killed Saul and fastened him and his three sons to the city wall. Ready to die, the people of Jabesh Gilead went all night and brought the bodies of Saul and his sons back from the wall of Beth Shan. They burned the bodies of Saul and his three sons, took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days, mourning the king and the princes. The king of a nation and his sons had been killed all at once, and the Philistines had defiled their bodies. Outraged at such evil, the men of Gilead ran through the night at the risk of their lives, and their loyalty deserves praise.

But even though they brought the bodies home at the risk of their lives, they could not save the souls of Saul and his sons. The people of Jabesh brought back the bodies of Saul and the princes and fasted and mourned for seven days, but beyond grieving there was nothing the living could do for the king and his sons. Here the living reach their limit, for however sorrowful or unjust a death may be, we cannot bring the dead back to life or bring their souls into heaven.

Jonathan, though he met the same wretched death in the same place, died a different death. Though his father wanted him to be king, he never became king, and he showed weakness in entrusting his descendants to David; yet because Jonathan had sincerely received God, he will have been saved. If you belong to God, you must no longer look at people’s deaths with the same eyes as the world. Look with the eyes of God’s people instead: put life at the center, and learn to tell those who have life from those who do not.

Those who have new life were neither unhappy nor wretched, even if they were sawn in two like Isaiah, stoned to death like Stephen, or crucified upside down like Peter, because all of them knew that after death they would live forever in God’s embrace. Having died for their faith, they are now, we may believe, sharing in God’s glory in heaven. It is not easy to look at the world this soberly. Such faith may even draw the world’s scorn, since the world weighs things and acts by what it sees. Still, the difference between having life and not having it is as vast as the distance between heaven and earth, so we must weigh things soberly and hold fast to our faith.

In this world a person may die for their own sin, as Saul did. Or, like Jonathan, a person may lose their life defending the nation alongside a father who is wicked, out of a child’s duty. Jonathan, who had to protect his father, would not have been able to leave his side. The unexpected can happen in the world we live in, and so even a child of God may leave this life in a way that seems meaningless. What matters, then, is how one lived before dying. If we lived by faith while we drew breath on this earth, we will have met God after death and will be enjoying eternal life, where death is no more. If Saul had held on to the faith he had at first, he would have lived as one approved by God, enjoyed many blessings, and not met such a wretched death. But once his heart was captured by the world, he no longer heard Samuel’s counsel, nor was he thankful for God’s grace. His offering the sacrifice in Samuel’s place shows that he looked on even Samuel as one of his subjects and held him lightly.

What is in your heart now? When a pastor, a fellow church member, or someone in your family counsels you for the good of your soul, do you believe they do it because they truly love you, and turn from the road you were on? Or are you thinking and deciding by your own feelings and impulses? Or are you flaring up because it is not what you want? Anyone can become a Saul, and anyone can become a David, so we must always be on our guard. If you have fully understood what I have said, you will have come to see that Jonathan’s death was not wretched, and that dying peacefully in bed is no proof of blessing. How you live now will decide what comes after death. For every living person, nothing could matter more. May you receive Christ and walk the way of truth by faith.

Now I bring our study of 1 Samuel to a close. There may be some of you who have turned to David’s way after hearing these sermons, and others who are on Saul’s way and still digging in their heels. But I believe God wants every one of you to turn back and be blessed. If you have heard these sermons on 1 Samuel and still remain where Saul stood, God would be sorry to see it.

Friends, although David made many mistakes, he turned back, and because he did, he was loved by God and received the blessings of this world in overflowing measure. Now you know both David’s way and Saul’s. Throughout your life, whether you discern and decide rightly is your own choice, and by that choice you will receive salvation or judgment. I believe that you who are living in line with God’s purpose receive and enjoy the blessings of heaven that God pours out.

May you always hold fast to your faith wisely and honestly, as David did. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.