1 Samuel 31:5: “And when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword, and died with him.”

June 9th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

The immediate, terrible result of King Saul’s suicide was its influence on his young armor bearer, who followed Saul’s example and fell into the same sin. In this chapter we are left to assume that Saul was successful in his suicide. However, in 2 Samuel 1, we are told that Saul was not yet dead. A young Amalekite came to David with Saul’s crown, bracelet, and a story of how the king was leaning on his sword near death, but his life was still lingering. According to his story, Saul begged him to come near and kill him, and the young man obliged.

Suicide always presents a struggle for those left behind, as they have to wrestle with the many what if questions that are left unanswered. We believe that suicide is both the ultimate act of selfishness and Satan’s ultimate trap. The person takes matters into their own hands, making a choice that God has not given authority to any person to make. This self-directed act of final control comes after a thought process along the lines of “I can’t control anything else around me; so I’ll take control of it all, by shutting it all off.” How important it is for any person caught in this kind of thinking to go to someone in their life they trust, like a teacher, good friend, or relative, and tell them.

Saul’s suicide was the final expression of his faithlessness toward God. He should have called on God and fought on or at least surrendered, trusting God to get him through. David himself would later write the solution in Psalm 55:22: “Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.” When David wrote this he was depressed, having been betrayed by a close friend as well as having his own son seize his throne. Even though David was struggling, he recognized the only solution was to turn it over to God. By pushing our burdens or difficulties in life onto the Lord, we commit the ultimate act of faithfulness. We are saying that we trust God to give us the grace to get us through the struggle in front of us. And God will uphold the believer, giving the grace to persevere through the most difficult trials. Mountains will come into everyone’s life, but if we will submit and place our burdens at the foot of the cross, Jesus will either remove the mountain or give us the strength to climb it.

“LORD, You are the One we turn over our burdens to this day.”