Tag Archives: Saul

Bible Interpretation, Sunday School

Commentary on 1 Samuel 30-31 (Death of Saul)

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During the time covered in 1 Samuel 18-29, David built up a small army of 600 men from the outcasts of Israel, while Saul continued to hunt David down in order to kill him. When we finally get to chapters 30-31, David and Saul are both facing armed conflicts, but with separate enemies. The narrator places these conflicts one after another to contrast how different Saul and David, with respect to their relationships with God, truly are.

Chapter 30 opens with David and his army returning to their home base at the village of Ziklag (they had been away for some time). When they arrive, they discover that Israel’s ancient enemies, the Amalekites, have burnt down the village and taken everyone prisoner, including all of the wives and children of David’s army. David and his men are devastated at their loss, to the point that the men blame David and contemplate killing him for what has happened.

David, however, seeks God’s wisdom and asks the priest Abiathar to bring him the priestly ephod. He asks God whether he should pursue the Amalekites and God responds that he should. Note that David seeks God’s decision in the matter as prescribed by the Torah. David is consistently shown as obeying the commands of the Torah in contrast to Saul who seems to know nothing of the Torah.

David and 400 of his men pursue the Amalekites, without knowing exactly where they have gone. However, David happens across an Egyptian servant who was left behind by his Amalekite master because he was ill. He agrees to take David to the Amalekite camp if David will spare his life. The reader is meant to understand that finding the Egyptian is no accident. This is the hand of God ensuring David’s success in his mission.

David’s army finds the Amalekite camp where all the soldiers are intoxicated, celebrating their recent ill-gotten gains. His forces engage the Amalekites, who greatly outnumber him, and win decisively, with only 400 Amalekites escaping when the battle is over. Not only that, but all the women and children taken from Ziklag are rescued, along with all the possessions stolen by the Amalekites during their recent marauding campaign.

In stark contrast to David’s successful campaign, chapter 31 reveals the disaster that is Saul’s battle against the Philistines. Before we see what happens in chapter 31, let’s review chapter 28 briefly. Since Saul has no access to God (Samuel has died and God had rejected Saul’s reign as king years earlier), Saul instead seeks the guidance of a sorceress/medium, an activity which is clearly forbidden by the Torah. The medium summons the deceased Samuel who reminds Saul that God has rejected him and given the kingdom to David. She then ominously warns Saul that the Philistines will kill Saul and his sons the next day.

As we return to chapter 31, we learn that the Philistines have overtaken the Israelite army and pressed hard after Saul and his sons. Three of Saul’s sons are killed in battle, including Jonathan. Dale Ralph Davis, in 1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart, Focus on the Bible Commentary, writes:

Here then is Jonathan’s obituary. He remained a true friend to David and a faithful son of Saul. He surrendered his kingship to David (18:1–4); he sacrificed his life for Saul. In this hopeless fiasco Jonathan was nowhere else but in the place Yahweh had assigned to him—at the side of his father.

Saul is wounded by archers and asks his armor-bearer to kill him so that the Philistines will not have the opportunity to torture him. The armor-bearer refuses to kill him, so Saul commits suicide with his own sword. The armor-bearer then takes his own life. The results of this military defeat are disastrous for Israel. Several Israelite settlements near the Philistines are abandoned in haste because the army and their king has been defeated.

As if this isn’t bad enough, the Philistines remove the valuables from the bodies of Saul and his sons and then fasten their corpses on the wall of a city called Beth Shan. They also spread the word around their cities that Israel has been defeated. This defeat is profound. Here is how Dale Ralph Davis describes it:

Yahweh has been defeated. Saul’s armor is in the adversary’s temple; Yahweh could not protect his king. No question about how the media would construe it. If Yahweh’s king and people were trounced, so was their God. . . . The sadness of our text is due not merely to the fact that Israel is crushed. That is sad. But there is a deeper sadness in that Yahweh is mocked. Every true Israelite mourns over that. Worse than Israel’s defeat is Yahweh’s disgrace.

A daring nighttime mission by the Israelite soldiers of Jabesh Gilead reclaims the bodies of Saul and his sons, and they are cremated, except for their bones, which are buried.

How can we summarize the end of 1 Samuel? Robert Bergen, in 1, 2 Samuel, The New American Commentary, writes:

On the one hand, David was here fulfilling the mandate of the Torah regarding the Amalekites and receiving the resulting blessing of a restored family and the increase of possessions. On the other hand, at the very moment David was enjoying success and blessing, Saul was experiencing the full force of a Torah curse, including the loss of his family and possessions.

Both David and Saul were fighting traditional enemies of Israel in the events recorded in this section, and both men sought divine guidance in their respective undertakings. To the south, David consulted the only form of revelation sanctioned by the Torah before going forth to slaughter the Amalekites, who had temporarily dispossessed David and his men of their families and worldly goods during a lightning raid on Ziklag. To the north Saul sought insight from a medium, a revelatory means expressly forbidden by the Torah, before waging war against the Philistines. As a result of Saul’s sinful actions, the Lord used the Philistines as agents of divine judgment to bring down on Saul’s head the just punishment for his rejection of the Torah (cf. 1 Chr 10:13–14). When this pivotal series of events concludes, Saul and all his credible heirs to the throne are dead; David, on the other hand, is poised to become Israel’s king and to establish a dynasty as all of his heirs are restored to him.

Bible Interpretation, Difficult Bible Passages

Did Saul Kill All of the Amalekites?

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In 1 Samuel 15:3, Samuel commands Saul, “Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.” As we read the rest of the chapter, Saul tells Samuel, after the battle, “I have carried out the LORD’s instructions” and “I completely destroyed the Amalekites.”

Samuel’s only disagreement with Saul is that Saul kept some of the livestock for himself, a clear violation of God’s command. Saul was not to have financial gain from this battle, which was intended to be an execution of divine justice against an exceedingly vicious group of people.  Samuel seems to agree that Saul totally destroyed everyone, “men and women, children and infants,” just as God commanded. But how should we understand this command to “put to death men and women, children and infants,” coupled with Saul’s claim that he did indeed kill every Amalekite?

Did Saul literally wipe out every living Amalekite or is this command hyperbolic in nature, referring to a decisive military victory? We know that other ancient near eastern cultures used the same kinds of descriptions of military victories, such as “totally destroying” the enemy, or killing “every man, woman, and child.” But these are figures of speech which literally mean “we won a decisive military victory against our enemy.” What about in this case?

The easiest way to decide whether Saul literally killed every living Amalekite is to see whether the Amalekites are ever mentioned in the biblical record again. When we do that, we see that the Amalekites lived on!

In 1 Sam 27:8, we see that David fights Amalekites, so at least some of them are alive and well. Paul Copan and Matt Flannagan write in Did God Really Command Genocide?: Coming to Terms with the Justice of God:

This text affirms not only that the Amalekites still existed, but the reference to Egypt and Shur states that they existed in the very same area where Saul ‘utterly destroyed’ every single one of them (15: 8, 20). What’s more, David took sheep and cattle as plunder. Clearly, in terms of what the narrative says, the Amalekites were not all destroyed— nor were all the animals finally destroyed in Gilgal in chapter 15. Instead, many people and livestock from the region had survived Saul’s attack.

In 1 Sam 30, the Amalekites show up again! This time they attack the Israelite settlement of Ziklag, burn it to the ground, and carry off everyone as prisoners. Copan and Flannagan write:

So even though Saul ‘utterly destroyed’ the Amalekites (15: 8, 20), the text makes clear that many Amalekites remained so that David would not only— once again!— fight against them so that ‘not a man of them escaped,’ but after this battle, four hundred Amalekites fled on camels (30: 17 NASB).

Amalekites continue to be mentioned in the Bible:

Even beyond this, the Amalekites continue to remain, and we come across another Amalekite in 2 Samuel 1: 8, a passage where one of them takes credit for killing Saul— presumably a tall task if Saul had ‘utterly destroyed all the people’ of Amalek. And in 1 Chronicles 4: 43, the nation of Amalek is still around during the reign of Hezekiah. And then in the book of Esther, we encounter a descendant of the Amalekite king, Agag— Haman ‘the Agagite’ (8: 3), also called ‘the son of Hammedatha the Agagite’ (3: 1)— who was determined to wipe out the Jewish people. Amalekites were around well after both Saul and David.

It seems clear that Saul did not totally destroy all of the Amalekites, men, women, and children. Yet Samuel, and presumably God, were satisfied that Saul obeyed God’s commands, except for keeping alive livestock and the king of Amalek. Therefore, it seems that we should take Saul’s claim that he “completely destroyed the Amalekites” as a hyperbolic statement that would literally mean, “I won the decisive military victory that God commanded me to win.”

Bible Interpretation, Books of the Bible, Sunday School

Commentary on 1 Samuel 15-16 (God Rejects Saul and Anoints David)

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Between chapters 8 and 15 in 1 Samuel, Israel has received the king she requested in the person of Saul. From the beginning, we know that Saul was not a man “after God’s heart” and although Saul has some military successes against Israel’s enemies, especially the Philistines, his disobedience of God’s commands would eventually cause him to lose his kingship.

Chapter 15 is where this finally occurs. Samuel, the prophet who speaks for God, commands Saul to launch a military campaign against the Amalekites, the long-time enemy of Israel who attacked Israel as she left the slavery of Egypt (see Exodus 17). God had previously promised that the Amalekites would be punished for their wicked actions against Israel. We know that the Amalekites attacked Israel when she was weary from the trek out of Egypt. But even worse, they came up behind the Israelites and massacred the weakest members of Israel who were bringing up the rear of the Israelite caravan. Amalekite aggression against Israel continued for hundreds of years, right up to the present day.

Given that the attack on the Amalekites was to execute divine judgment, Saul was instructed to kill everyone in the battle and to kill all of the livestock. The Israelites were not to get any financial gain from this attack as they were merely the instruments of God’s justice.

Unfortunately Saul disobeys God in two ways: he keeps Agag, the king of Amalek, alive, and he keeps the best livestock from Amalek alive. God grieves over Saul’s blatant disobedience and He instructs Samuel to confront Saul. When Samuel asks Saul why the best livestock were kept alive, Saul blames the soldiers and then adds that the livestock will be used to sacrifice to God, hoping this will get him off the hook.

Samuel then utters profound words to Saul in verse 22:

“Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

Even if Saul was planning on sacrificing the livestock, which is debatable since it appears to be an excuse, God wants obedience first. Sacrifice without obedience is pointless. A person who follows the rituals of worship, but flagrantly disobeys God’s other commands, does not please God. The consequence of Saul’s sin is that God rejects him as king. Saul begs for Samuel to change his mind, but God has made His decision.

In a sad epilogue, Samuel must kill King Agag himself, since Saul failed to do so. Afterwards, he returns to his home, never to see Saul again. From that day on, God’s prophet will never again counsel Saul, as God has turned His back on Saul’s reign over Israel.

Chapter 16 opens with God telling Samuel to stop grieving Saul, as He is ready to select a new king. The king will be a son of Jesse of Bethlehem. In order to prevent Saul from realizing what is going on, Samuel takes a cow with him and tells the elders of Bethlehem that he is there to perform a sacrifice. Samuel also invites Jesse and seven of his sons to the sacrifice.

Before the sacrifice occurs, Samuel has each of Jesse’s sons stand before him to see which one God will anoint as the new king of Israel. Each of Jesse’s seven sons parade in front of Samuel, but God doesn’t choose any of them.

Samuel is surprised that God doesn’t select the oldest son of Jesse, Eliab, because he is both tall and handsome, and seemingly perfect for the role of king. God responds to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

This verse is the very heart of 1 and 2 Samuel and one of the most instructive verses in the entire Bible. Robert Bergen, in 1, 2 Samuel: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture (The New American Commentary), writes, “The Lord alone has the capacity to observe and judge a person’s ‘heart’ (Hb. lēb), that is, one’s thoughts, emotions, and intents. On God’s scales these matters outweigh all other aspects of a human life.”

After having dismissed seven of Jesse’s sons, Samuel asks if he has another son, and Jesse informs him that he does, but that he is the youngest and is tending sheep. They send for him and God tells Samuel that this boy, the youngest of eight sons, is to be anointed the new king of Israel. The boy’s name is David. In verse 13, we learn that the Spirit of the Lord immediately came upon David “in power.”

Verses 14-23 end the chapter with the story of how David comes to be an armor-bearer for King Saul, the very king he would some day replace. God has sent an angel of judgment to Saul because of his disobedience, and this angel torments Saul. Saul’s servants suggest to him that finding someone who can play the harp when Saul is tormented will make him feel better.

Saul agrees and the servants recommend David. One servant describes what he knows of David, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the harp. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the LORD is with him.” Thus David is brought into the royal household and becomes a trusted member of King Saul’s entourage.

Why was this young shepherd-boy chosen by God to be king some day? He wasn’t as tall or as good-looking as his older brothers. We know that God’s choices do not always line up with man’s choices, because God sees the heart and we do not. Think about David’s descendant, Jesus of Nazareth. He was an unlikely candidate as well. Dale Ralph Davis, in 1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart (Focus on the Bible Commentaries) writes:

Perhaps at no time did the living God disclose a more flabbergasting choice than in the case of David’s greater Descendant. The vote was in. The folks at home said, “He’s just one of us” (Mark 6:3). Others complained, “He has too much fun” (Matt. 11:18–19), and still others objected, “He’s not from the right place” (John 7:41–42). But the clincher for many was: “Messiahs don’t suffer” (Matt. 27:42–43). And what clout did this opinion pack? None. “The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner” (Ps. 118:22; see 1 Pet. 2:4). What should we deduce from that? We should realize Yahweh made his choice (Ps. 118:23a), and we should relish it (Ps. 118:23b). There is a delight we should have over Yahweh’s unusual, unguessable ways. It honors him when we revel in his surprises.