Burning Bush Blogs
Equipping Men with Biblical Knowledge and Leadership Skills
Category: Personal Study
Thread: Game of Thrones
Post Topic: The King is Dead, Long Live the King
Post in Thread: #11
Previous: The Conjuring of Samuel
Scripture: 1 Chronicles 10:1-14
Key Verses:
I Chronicles 10:2-3
2 The Philistines were in hot pursuit of Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua. 3 The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him.
Observations
Context
King Saul had drifted far from God. The Philistines gathered an imposing force and marched northward to confront Saul’s armies. The previous night, King Saul, in desperation, had turned to a conjurer to ask the recently deceased prophet Samuel for advice. Despite God’s disdain for the occult, God allowed Samuel to appear and deliver a message of judgment.
Bravely, however, Saul goes forward against the Philistines at Mt. Gilboa, where he had experienced victory many years earlier. With Saul are his loyal sons, including David’s best friend, Jonathan.
The King is Dead
- In fierce fighting, the Philistines routed Saul’s forces and forced them to flee.
- In the pursuit, Saul’s sons, including Jonathan, were killed, and archers mortally wounded the king.
- Fearing torture or being made a spectacle, Saul begged his shield-bearer to kill him. The shield-bearer couldn’t bring himself to do it, so Saul fell on his own sword. The shield-bearer followed Saul’s example.
- The Philistines took command of the valley, overrunning all the Israelite towns.
Desecration of Saul’s Body
- The Philistines found Saul’s body the next day on Mt. Gilboa. They cut off his head, stripped his clothes, and confiscated his armor.
- They displayed his armor in the temple of their gods and hung his head in Dagon’s temple. They hung his body on the wall of the city of Beth Shan.
- King Saul was a hero to the people of the city of Jabesh, where early in his kingship, he had liberated them from the brutal Ammonites. Catching wind of Saul’s demise, the best of the warriors of Jabesh honored him by rescuing his body (as well as the bodies of his sons), and giving them a proper funeral and time of mourning.
Long Live the King
- The final verses of this passage sum up Saul’s failures as a man installed to the kingship by God.
- It decries the fact that he chose consultation with a medium rather than a man of God.
- The final verse declares that the Lord turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.
Interpretation
Setting
This story takes place in the Jezreel Valley and the mountains surrounding it.
Genre
Historical accounts.
Takeaways
Matthew Henry’s commentary sums it up perfectly: As he lived, so he died, proud and jealous, and a terror to himself and all about him.
- Saul had likely seen his three sons fall in front of him. And then he’d been struck by archers, disabled to the point where he’d be unable to flee or fight when the Philistines came upon him.
- Not wanting to die at their hands, he commanded his shield-bearer to take his life instead. Terrified at being known as the one to kill the Lord’s anointed, the shield-bearer couldn’t do it.
- Therefore, Saul ended his own life.
- Think how many brave men of valor Saul needlessly took to their demise because of his disobedience!
- The Israelite towns were overrun by the Philistines, who previously had been relegated closer to the sea.
- Saul’s once promising reign ended in disgrace, with his country overrun, his sons killed in battle, and his people scattered.
- It would take a strong new ruler to make Israel great again. That ruler had already been chosen by God.
Imagine
Click to open and read a very short story of what David’s friend Jonathan might have been thinking
Jonathan’s spy deftly swung back aboard his mount. Where Onan had found a horse, Jonathan had no idea.
“
The news reached Jonathan that his best friend David had left the Philistines to take on the Amalekites. Thank God he wouldn’t have to face him on the battlefield! Jonathan had no idea how he would have handled that. Furthermore, the loss of David’s men would weaken the Philistine forces. Even so, the size of the army opposing them was intimidating. The sheer number of campfires sprouting on the other side of the valley. The clangs of men sharpening their swords resounding across the battlefield. Their own commanders, slow to arrange the troops. It all struck a sense of foreboding into Jonathan and the men around him. If only his father would do the right thing, and turn to God…
Jonathan turned at the flickering of a torch. A hooded man, hunched over, headed for the trees with several others around him. Jonathan knew that stride anywhere. And the size of the man. His father. The king seemed to be hiding his identity. The look on his face was not comforting.
“Abba?” he called. But the king scurried around the bend with his aides. Jonathan had seen that expression before. Whatever the king was up to, it couldn’t be good.
Jonathan’s relief at not having to face David was short-lived. Somehow he knew tomorrow would be his last. He resolved to remain loyal to his father to the end. He’d die beside him if necessary. He dropped to his knees to pray for his friend David. For the future of the Chosen People.
Correlation
I Samuel 11:1-11
- When Saul became king, his first heroic act was to rescue the citizens of Jabesh Gilead from the brutal Ammonites. It was a resounding victory, and the people were thrilled to confirm him as king. Saul even gave credit to God for the victory (I Samuel 11:13)!
- In our story, so many years later, the men of Jabesh rescue his desecrated body that had been hung on the walls of a nearby city.
- The Jabesh Gilead story bookends the kingship of Saul, encapsulating his massive fall. From a hero to a disgrace. From a man who gave credit to God to a man who in his arrogant pride was stripped of his kingship. Finally defeated, his kingdom lay in ruins.
Application
Generic Applications
- Power and achievements can go to our heads. It is a good thing to achieve. But how can we stay grounded in the one who makes it all possible?
- Is it easier to remain close to God when we come from a more humble beginning, such as David did?
Personalize it
- Is there an achievement in my life for which I can stop, right now, and praise God?
- What would a young King Saul have thought if he could have seen the future and what would become of him?
- If my younger self could have seen what I’ve become, what would I have thought? Would I have been pleased?
- Looking forward, what do I hope my future self will be like?
Bible study methodology adapted from Searching the Scriptures with permission from Tyndale House:
Swindoll, Charles, Searching the Scriptures. Tyndale House Publishers, 2016.
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