Thoughts on Death and Sin
Text 1 Chronicles 10:1-14 Time 28 10 20 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church (Zoom)
I want us to look this evening at 1 Chronicles 10. The chapter is preceded by a final genealogy back in 9:35-44 but here things begin to look much more like what we are used to. Indeed, what we find in 1 Chronicles 10 is pretty much the same as what we find in 1 Samuel 31.
What we have here is an account of the death of Saul. The chapter concludes very clearly (13, 14) Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.
That final sentence sets us up then for the rest of the first book - Chapters 11-29 - which is all about David.
As for this present chapter, however, the subject is death and there are four main things to say
1. Consider how death tends to draws increasingly near
I believe that in some parts of the world the transition from day to night is quite sudden. Here we are used to it happening quite gradually. In the experience of most, death gradually encroaches. This was Saul's experience. We look first at the opening verses (1-6). We read
Now the Philistines fought against Israel; the Israelites fled before them, and many fell dead on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines were in hot pursuit of Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua. The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him. Saul said to his armour-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and abuse me." But his armour-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it. When the armour-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died. So Saul and his three sons died, and all his house died together.
Saul was a failure as a king. He sinfully failed to kill the Amalekites and sinfully had the priests killed. He also hounded David the Lord's anointed. Now his day has come, a day David foresaw (1 Samuel 26:10). Saul's death has both specific and more general lessons. More generally, we see how death often comes to us like an encircling predator.
1. We see others suffer and die
Now the Philistines fought against Israel; the Israelites fled before them, and many fell dead on Mount Gilboa. Why the Philistines were as successful as they were we don't know (superior numbers, better leaders, better tactics?) but the Israelites ran from them and were roundly defeated. Those who served Saul in life now preceded him in death. We usually first become aware of death when we hear of those around us dying - soldiers, as here, those who die in accidents, all sorts of others.
I think the first time I recall hearing of a death was when I was five and a neighbour, a man, died although I can also remember the death of Kennedy in 1963 and the funeral of Churchill in 1965. We have heard recently of the death of a owman who came to us occasionally. Apart from anything else, it reminds us that we too must soon die. In 1624 preacher and poet John Donne produced his famous Meditation 17, which, includes the famous line “never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee”.
2. We see those near to us die
The Philistines were in hot pursuit of Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua. Often it will be that we hear first of people we do not know well dying but then it will come nearer - an aunt or uncle, a parent, a child, a friend. Here we read how Saul's three sons who were alongside him died. What grief and terror that brought to Saul.
Among them is Jonathan. Despite his wisdom, valour and goodness, he dies. This is David's friend who was willing to make an enemy of his father for David's sake. In Job 4:7 Eliphaz asks Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? Who ever perished being innocent? Well, here is an example. No doubt it was part of Saul's punishment - to hurt him and to remind him that his house had no future. It made the path to the throne easier for David also, though the fact filled him with grief.
It also reminds us that the chief distinction between good and bad comes in the world to come not in this one. Death comes to the good and the bad and sometimes in exactly the same way.
When I was five my great grandfather died. When I was 17 my grandfather died. Recently, the last of my mother's siblings died. That whole generation is now gone. Just two of my dad's brothers remain. Deaths of others and especially those nearest to us remind us that we also must one day die.
3. We come near to death by injury or ill health
The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him. The next thing we learn is how Saul is injured by the Philistines. The archers hit him and he can no longer fight or run away. Saul comes to the point where he would prefer to die. He realises that he is going to die and he would prefer it to be at the hand of his armour-bearer than the uncircumcised Philistines. Instead of resigning himself to God, he wants to take the situation into his own hands. He had been proud and jealous in life and now he was the same in death, a terror to himself and to all about him.
When I had a heart attack a few years ago I really had to stare hard at death. Such things remind us death is on its way.
Increasingly today, we come across people who take the approach Saul takes. They want the right to be assisted to die at a time of their choosing. They are frustrated because they want to die but cannot. They believe they have the right to be helped to die. There is no sympathy for that view here.
4. We come to our own death
For all of us, death will come eventually to us too. Not necessarily at a time of our choosing. Saul here chooses suicide having been unable to procure assisted suicide. For some reason Saul would have preferred his armour-bearer to have dispatched him but when he refuses Saul is willing to commit suicide. The idea was that he would avoid shame but in fact he brought shame on himself by falling into the sin of self-murder. He could have run and been well clear of the Philistines by the time they came to where he was. His son Jonathan died honourably but not Saul. He died as a fool, as a coward, as one who neither feared God nor had any hope. There's no dignity or bravery here.
5. The influence of our death on others
This is not something we tend to think much about. His armour-bearer was right to refuse to kill him. He was wrong to commit suicide himself, however. He could still have served his master after his death and Saul wouldn't have been abused as he was, perhaps. The man was not thinking straight. In mitigation, the example of his master did not help. It is said that Saul's armour-bearer was Doeg, the one who was willing to carry out Saul's command to kill the priests. If so, there is a certain justice in what happens here perhaps.
I found an essay on evangelical dying. It included these lines
John Newton ... who died in 1807, observed with his old whimsicality: 'I am packed and sealed and waiting for the post'. But he was characteristically Calvinistic near the end in saying: 'My memory is nearly gone; but I can remember two things: that I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Saviour'. Asked if his mind was 'comfortable' he said 'I am satisfied with the Lord's will'. Like some other Evangelicals he composed his own epitaph to avoid fulsome tributes.
Rowland Hill, who died in 1833, was an eccentric in the pulpit but reticent about his personal feelings to the end. 'I have no rapturous joys, but peace - a good hope through grace - all through grace' - a very characteristic Calvinistic note. 'Modest words before God always become us best' he had often said, and his biographer added that he was 'better pleased with living evidences of an interest in Christ than a few dying expressions however pleasing they might be to survivors' - a salutary rebuke to the conventions observed by some of his younger contemporaries.
But some, while sharing the same theology, were more emotional, more pressing on the state of the soul, perhaps more touched by popular romanticism. Thus Legh Richmond, the author of the best-selling Dairyman's daughter, used the death-bed of his son in 1825 as an opportunity to urge a friend to catechise the boy on his 'hopes'. 'Can you pass through the valley of the shadow of death and say with David "I fear no evil?"' 'Yes, I trust so'. 'What is the ground of your hope?' 'My hope rests in Christ alone' and so on. ... He confessed at his own end in 1827 that he was 'in great darkness' and tempted to believe the gospel a delusion, so when all else failed 'I cast myself on the sovereign free and full grace of God ... there I have found peace'.
The main point though is that we ought to consider the effect the way we die will have on others. If we die well we can be a blessing.
2. Recognise that doers of evil rejoice in death
Next (7-10) we read When all the Israelites in the valley saw that the army had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their towns and fled. And the Philistines came and occupied them. The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. They stripped him and took his head and his armour, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news among their idols and their people. They put his armour in the temple of their gods and hung up his head in the temple of Dagon.
Nothing is said here of the souls of Saul and his sons. The secret things belong to God. What we read here, however, ought to be thought of in spiritual as well as physical terms. When we read then of how the Philistines abused Saul, we should recognise the malice and wickedness of the forces of evil in the light of death.
We read how the day after the battle the Philistines came to strip the fallen and found Saul and his three sons dead. Saul was distinguishable by his height as well as his clothing no doubt. They did four things to try and heap on the misery.
1. They cut off his head and hung it in their pagan temple
Just as David once removed Goliath's head so they now remove Saul's head, Saul who was once a head taller than everyone else. It was intended as an insult - decapitation generally does. Israel had thought that if they had a king they would be powerful but here is the their king without a head and the nation without its head. They hung up his head in the temple of Dagon. They wanted to give glory to the false god Dagon for their victory. The forces of evil long to see us severed from our head the Lord Jesus, if they can.
2. They stripped him of his armour and put it in the temple of their false gods
They put his armour in the temple of their gods. They believed wrongly that their victory was due to their false gods. Again, the forces want to strip us of our armour - of righteousness, of salvation, of the gospel, of faith, of prayer, etc,
3. They sent the news of their victory everywhere. They sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news among their idols and their people. How the forces of evil rejoice even when they know a supposed victory over God's people.
We know from 1 Samuel 31 that they hung the bodies on the wall of Bethshan, a town bear Gilboa not far from the Jordan. Birds of prey would then devour them. Saul's plan was a failure then. If you try and preserve your honour by sinful means don't be surprised if it fails.
What the Philistines did not realise, of course, was that God was about to raise up David who would be their nemesis. Fear not what the forces of evil can do.
3. Be encouraged that good men do what they can to ameliorate the sadness of death
Then (11, 12) we read of the redeeming work of the people of Jabesh Gilead When all the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all their valiant men went and took the bodies of Saul and his sons and brought them to Jabesh. Then they buried their bones under the great tree in Jabesh, and they fasted seven days. (1 Samuel says they first burned the bodies. We don't know why.)
Jabesh-Gilead was just across the Jordan from Beth-Shan and so valiant men went from there, crossed the river, took down the dead bodies and gave them a decent burial. They did it
1. Out of a sense of common decency. I was reading a book the other day that pointed out that human beings are the only species that show respect for their dead. It is part of being human.
2. Out of a sense of concern for Israel's honour. The land should not be defiled in that way, especially not where the royal family are concerned.
3. Out of a particular sense of gratitude to Saul, for his zeal in rescuing them from the Ammonites when he first came to the throne (see 1 Samuel 11:1-15). It was an appropriate act of kindness in light of what he had done for them while he was alive. It may be argued that they would have been more help to Saul when he was alive but at least they do this.
They buried the bones under a great tree, the tree acting as a memorial. They also fasted seven days. No doubt this was a day time fast only. They thus expressed their sorrow and no doubt as they prayed they began to hope for a better future. In this they are a good example to us.
4. Consider the consequences of sin
The final thing to consider is those last two verses, verses 13 and 14. Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.
That poem by Donne we quoted at the beginning also says this “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were.” We are all interconnected and we cannot and must not live to ourselves. This comes out in particular ways here
1. If leaders sin then the people suffer
This was not a good time in Israel's history when they were defeated by the Philistines and their towns were occupied by the enemy. They were not particularly guilty of idolatry at this time. Under Samuel some progress had been made. No doubt the main cause for their defeat was their godless king, Saul.
Those who are in power should realise that what they do affects the people. If they sin and are punished the people will suffer too.
It would seem that the loss in battle scattered the people and for a while the Philistines occupied these towns. What a mess Saul left the people in. If it were not for David coming after him what hope was there?
2. If parents sin their their offspring will suffer
When the day of Saul's death arrived, not only did he die but his sons too (except Ishbosheth) died with him, even gracious Jonathan. And so the sin of the father was visited on his children, and they fell with their condemned father. If we really love our families we will be careful not to bring them down by our own sinful ways.
3. If sinners sin they will suffer the consequences - sometimes even in this life.
Although it was a long time in coming, Saul was judged for his sins. Matthew Henry points out how the punishment fitted the crime
1 Saul had thrown a javelin more than once at David, and missed him; but the Philistine archers hit him, and he was wounded by them.
2 Saul had commanded Doeg to kill the priests and now, in despair, he commands his armour-bearer to draw his sword and kill him
3 Saul had disobeyed God's command by not destroying the Amalekites, now his armour-bearer disobeys him and does not destroy him though he desired it.
4 Saul the murderer of the priests is justly left to himself to be his own self-murderer. His family is cut off, he who cut off the city of the priests.
Will not the judge of all the earth do right?
