Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20020714.htm

1 AND 2 SAMUEL: GOD'S SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS IN OVERSIGHT
Part XXXVI: Learning The Certainty Of God's Discipline For Unrepented Leadership Sin
(1 Samuel 31:1-13)
  1. Introduction
    1. God wants to bless those He places in oversight in a marriage, family, job, Church or other institution.
    2. However, He promises discipline for unconfessed sin, and is especially strict in holding overseers accountable to obey Him regardless if the overseer has been greatly used by God's power in the past.
    3. This fact is detailed for us in the death of Saul, and acts as a warning for overseers to sense their accountability to God for their oversight regardless how good has been their past track record (as follows):
  2. Learning The Certainty Of God's Discipline For Unrepented Leadership Sin, 1 Samuel 31:1-13.
    1. When Saul consulted the witch of Endor for advice from the deceased Samuel, God miraculously brought Samuel back to inform Saul he would die the next day, 1 Samuel 28:7, 11, 13-14, 19.
    2. The reason Saul would thus die was due to God's promise to discipline him for failing to eradicate the Amalekites as recorded in 1 Samuel 15:1-29 according to Samuel's word in 1 Samuel 28:17-18.
    3. To show the dreadful certainty of God's discipline for this leadership sin, Saul's death is detailed for us in 1 Samuel 31:1-10 to act as a warning for the accountability of overseers to God for their oversight:
      1. When the battle began to rage as Samuel had predicted, the people of Israel began to flee before the Philistines as the Philistines started to kill them on the sides of 1,696 foot high Mount Gilboa located in the Valley of Jezreel, 1 Samuel 31:1 with Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to 1 Samuel 31:1.
      2. This defeat revealed the Lord was not with Israel, for even as the Philistines had the normal human advantage on the plain with their chariots, it was unusual for them to defeat Israel on the sides of such a tall hill where Israel would have the advantage with their footmen, Bible Know. Com., O.T., p. 455.
      3. In the process, the Philistines chased Saul and his sons, and slew three of his four sons in Jonathan, Abinadab and Melchishua, 1 Sam. 31:2. (Ish-Bosheth, Saul's lame son, was absent, Ibid., 2 Sam. 2:8.)
      4. As the battle raged, Saul was hit by the archers and badly wounded, 1 Samuel 31:3.
      5. In response, he urged his armor-bearer to draw his sword and kill him before the Philistines captured and tortured him, 1 Samuel 31:4a. When the armor-bearer refused to kill Saul who was Lord's anointed out of fear of future reprisal, Saul fell on his own sword, 1 Samuel 31:4b.
      6. Possibly fearing execution for failing to protect his master (cf. 1 Samuel 26:15-16), the armor-bearer fell on his own sword, and so died with his master, Saul, 1 Samuel 31:5.
      7. All of Saul's elite fighting men ended up dying with him on Mount Gilboa, so Saul, his three sons, armor-bearer and elite fighting men were all lost in the battle, 1 Samuel 31:6.
      8. The people of Israel then fled from their cities in the plains, and the Philistines occupied them, 31:7.
      9. After death, the Philistines desecrated the bodies of Saul and his sons: as had been done to their own champion, Goliath, they decapitated Saul's head and displayed his armor in the temple of a goddess, Ashtoreth; Saul's body and those of his sons were impaled on the city wall of Beth-shan, a town on the slopes of Mount Gilboa overlooking the Jordan Valley to the east, 1 Sam. 17:51; 31:9-10, 12, Ibid.
    4. The redeeming event in this sad tragedy was the action taken by the Jabesh-gileadites to this event in response for Saul's past deliverance of them in God's power, 2 Samuel 31:11-13 with 1 Samuel 11:5-15:
      1. When the men of Jabesh-gilead heard of the desecration of the bodies, they came bravely by night and removed them from the city wall and carried the bodies back to Jabesh. There they burned the bodies and buried their bones, 31:11-13a. Then the Jabesh-gileadites fasted for seven days, 1 Sam. 31:13b.
      2. This edifying act expressed honor in appreciation for Saul's delivering them from the Ammonites in the power of the Holy Spirit's enabling many years before, cf. 1 Samuel 11:5-15. (Ibid.)
Lesson: Though he at one time had been marvelously used of God to deliver the men of Jabesh-gilead, Saul's departure from obeying God led to his terrifying, shameful death and his body's defamation, not to mention the loss of other notable and even good men and the loss of homes for the people of Israel.

Application: Regardless of being greatly used by God before, no overseer can escape God's discipline if he later sins WITHOUT repentance! We overseers must ALWAYS sense our accountability to God!