Samuel continues with his condemning report to Saul, going
on to tell him that “The Lord will hand you over to the Philistines!” (1 Samuel
28:19a) For good measure, this is reiterated and expanded upon just a few
words later, with Samuel declaring, “The Lord will hand the army of Israel over
to the Philistines!” (28:19c) The intermediate interjection is “Tomorrow
both you and your sons will be with me” (28:19b). Samuel makes it clear
that Saul understands that the full measure of God’s curse is going to come
upon him, in that he will be handed over to foreign subjugation, and that this
will be without rescue, as Saul is going to die along with his sons.
Secondly, Samuel reminds us of the nature of Israel’s kingship, in that the
king of Israel represents the people as a whole, and informs Saul that this
subjugation will extend beyond him and his sons, affecting the whole of the
people.
With all of these words from the mouth of Samuel, nothing
new is being introduced. Samuel is simply pointing to the covenant
faithfulness of Israel’s God, to perform according to His promises, and to
bring the justice of His righteousness (God’s justice fulfilling His covenant
faithfulness). Owing to Saul’s failure to carry out what he had been
instructed to do against Amalek, and with the culmination of that event on display
here at the residence of the witch of Endor, Samuel is informing Saul that “The
Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies” (Deuteronomy
28:25a). These words take on an even greater significance when it comes
to the death of Saul, in that he was not actually struck down by the
Philistines.
In the midst of the battle with the Philistines, “the
archers spotted him and wounded him severely” (31:3b). Following this
wounding, “Saul said to his armor bearer, ‘Draw your sword and stab me with
it! Otherwise these uncircumcised people will come, stab me, and torture
me’.” (31:4a) Here, we take note of Saul’s mention of “uncircumcised
people,” in that in his death, prophesied by Samuel, and done so in accordance
with covenant violations, Saul makes mention of that which represented God’s
original covenant with Abraham, which was circumcision. It appears that
Saul realizes that his death, proximately at the hands of those that were not
in covenant, was very much a movement of Israel’s faithful God, and stood in
accordance with the Deuteronomic curses. Saul’s death, however, was not
brought about by his armor bearers, nor by the Philistines, but rather, “Saul
took his sword and fell on it” (31:4c). Indeed, Saul was struck down before
his enemies, and this by his own hand.
Returning to Deuteronomy, and continuing with the previously
referenced verse, we read, “you will attack them from one direction but flee
from them in seven directions” (28:25b). We find this well represented
before the record of Saul’s suicidal death, as we read “Now the Philistines
were fighting against Israel. The men of Israel fled from the Philistines
and many of them fell dead upon Mount Gilboa. The Philistines stayed
right on the heels of Saul and his sons. They struck down Saul’s sons
Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-shua” (31:1-2). While noticing the
commensurate usage of “struck down in both Deuteronomy and Samuel, we insist
that this would not have been unexpected, because this was Samuel’s
prophecy---with the prophecy delivered as Samuel, even after his death, was the
representative spokesperson of Israel’s covenant God.
The final part of the verse from Deuteronomy speaks to what
occurred following the death of Saul and his sons. Following the
assertion of Israel fleeing from their enemies in every possible direction, we
read that Israel “will become an object of terror to all the kingdoms of the
earth” (28:25c). How is this reflected in Saul’s death narrative?
We read that “The next day, when the Philistines came to strip loot from the
corpses, they discovered Saul and his three sons lying dead on Mount Gilboa”
(31:8). What comes next is key in making the connection: “They cut off
Saul’s head and stripped him of his armor. They sent messengers to
announce the news in the temple of their idols and among their people
throughout the surrounding land of the Philistines” (31:9). It sounds as
if the Philistines were using Saul’s head and armor to send a warning to their
other enemies, hoping that what had become of him would terrify the kingdoms
surrounding them.
Beyond that, Deuteronomy speaks of the Lord forcing Israel
and its king “to go away to a people whom your ancestors have not known, and…
serve other gods of wood and stone there” (28:36). Most certainly, in the
ignominious treatment that he was receiving at the hands of his Philistine
enemies, though he and his sons were now dead, the Philistine announcement of
victory in the “temple of their idols” (31:9), and the placement of “Saul’s
armor in the temple of the Ashtoreth’s” (31:10a), seems to have Saul, in a
manner of speaking, serving other gods of wood and stone. Finally, as
Saul’s defeat and death relates to the whole of the people over whom he had
been appointed to serve as king and deliverer, what do we find happening to
them? Predictably, we learn that “When the men of Israel who were in the
valley across the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and
his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled. The Philistines
came and occupied them” (31:7). What happened was an exile, wrought by
the faithlessness of their king.
Israel was again subjugated to a foreign power, ultimately
because of the idolatry (self-idolatry and Samuel-idolatry) of their king,
which was, in the end, merely a reflection of the people’s rejection of their
God and their own self-exaltation manifested in their desire to have a
king. Such was the end of the ill-conceived desire to have a ruler in
their own image, rather than being the people ruled by the One in Whose image
they had been made.
No comments:
Post a Comment