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.”

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1 Samuel 31 KJV

¹ Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa.  ² And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, Saul’s sons. ³ And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was sore wounded of the archers.   ⁴ Then said Saul unto his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it.  ⁵ And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him. ⁶ So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, that same day together. ⁷ And when the men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley, and they that were on the other side Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities, and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them. ⁸ And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa. ⁹ And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to publish it in the house of their idols, and among the people. ¹⁰ And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth: and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. ¹¹ And when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul;  ¹² All the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there. ¹³ And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.