Poor Saul. What an end to his kingship. His decapitated body strung up as a trophy on the walls of Beth-shan. The bodies of Jonathan and his other sons strung up beside their father. It must have been an awful sight - like a vision from a nightmare. It puts me in mind of images from the Holocaust concentration camps of the Second World War. God's anointed King of Israel: dead and broken on a city wall. What a blasphemy. How Satan must have laughed at the sick sight. Like at the death of God's ultimate anointed one: the Messiah, Jesus a thousand years later. Thankfully the display of Saul's body was short-lived. There were righteous, valiant men in nearby Jabesh-Gilead who quietly removed the bodies by night and gave Saul and his sons a decent cremation and burial near their city.
David, meanwhile, is kept out of the situation totally because the Philistines don't trust him. They think that there is a chance of him throwing in his lot with Saul (if only Richard III had thought of that one). So, instead, David returns to his Philistine home to find that the city has been raided and the inhabitants carried off by the Amalekites. David then goes off with his men on a "Boy's Own" adventure to rescue his wives and the rest of the city. He then returns as the conquering hero, having saved everyone. It's like an episode of the A Team. If only he had been with Saul. If only it had been different.
I find myself reading about these unfolding events with my head in my hands. I imagine that this day must have broken the heart of God. Sadly, the day of Saul's death and David's pathetic marginalising had been long in the making. It started with Saul's jealousy and David's pride many years before. You see, when God's devoted servants refuse to get on, it can lead to all sorts of evil. The same is true today. Hard feelings in our hearts can lead to all sorts of things in the long term. Hopefully not in as dramatic a way as it did for Saul, but terrible things do happen. Whenever Christians refuse to live in love with each other, Satan gets an automatic foothold in the situation. When Christians do live in love with each other, then the results are very different. If you have had a falling out or are unhappy with your brother or sister in Christ, get it sorted.
Search you heart and pray with me:
Father I know that you love me unconditionally. Thank you. Help me to love my brothers and sisters in Christ too. If I have offended any of your children, please let me be reconciled. Give me the grace to accept my failings and repent of them. Give me the grace to forgive those who have upset and hurt me too. Lord I know that it is lovely when brothers and sisters dwell in unity. Let it be so in my relationships with your other children.
Amen
John Martin-Jones
Read the Bible in a year: Psalm68:28-35, 1 Samuel 29:1-31:13, John 19:28-20:9
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