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Love Sin, Die Like Saul: A Lifetime Of Self-Destruction - 1 Samuel 31:1-10 Series
Contributed by Darrell Ferguson on Oct 16, 2025 (message contributor)
Summary: While David celebrated victory and family reunion, Saul's army crumbled in a bloodbath on Mount Gilboa. His unrepentant heart chained him to sin even in his dying breath. Discover why loving sin more than God seals a fate of eternal agony.
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Introduction: What happens to David happens to his men
It is an interesting study in psychology to observe the behavior of David’s men in chapter 30. When they lose everything to an unknown enemy they decide the most logical thing to do is to kill David. They came to David in the first place because they had nowhere else to go and since they joined up with David they have known nothing but success. They have never known defeat under David’s leadership. Then they are gone for a while, and come home to find their town burned and their wives and children kidnapped. So they assess their situation, and consider the various options, and conclude the best response would be to stone David to death. Just think how much that would improve their situation. If they could just eliminate him, then they would, still have no home, no possessions, no wife, no kids, no money, no place to go, no allies, no idea where the raiders went, but on the other hand, they would also have no leader, and no access to blessing or guidance or strength from God.
What kind of insanity would even make the thought of killing David cross their minds? David is literally their only way out of this mess.
That is the insanity of selfish anger. They were mad, and they thought it would make them feel better if they could just stone someone. But why David? Because it was David they were following when they were gone. It was David’s decision to go where they went when this happened. So there is a very real sense in which David did lead them into this disaster.
The fate of David is the fate of his men. If you hitch your wagon to David, when he is penniless and wifeless, so will you be. David’s road is a hard one. God has called him to a rough life, and there are a lot of ups and downs, and the downs are some pretty severe downs. And if you are going to attach yourself to David you are going to find that you are snubbed and insulted by people like Nabal, and hunted down by the king, plundered by the Amalekites, and you just may come home one day to find you have no home – or wife – or children. Just a pile of ashes. On the other hand, when he wins big, you share in the spoils (even if you were just guarding the supplies). If you are one of David’s men, what David gets – you get. But on the other hand – the same goes for Saul.
The last two weeks we saw David hunt down the Amalekites and wipe them out. He recovered all they had taken including all the women and children. He brings everyone back home to Ziklag, and they start the rebuilding process. And that is where the book of 2 Samuel picks up the story. David has been back in Ziklag for two full days. And it was a happy couple of days. During all the joy and happiness and laughter of David and his men being re-united with their wives and children, swimming in more riches and plunder than they know what to do with, at that very moment something horrible is happening to Saul and Jonathan and the Israelite army up north.
On the third day, in the middle of the rebuilding process, a guy comes running down from the north with some news from the battle between the Philistines and Saul. And it is not good news. Israel was routed and Saul and Jonathan are dead. Those two battles – David vs. the Amalekites and Saul vs. the Philistines took place at the same time.
The Death of Saul
1 Samuel 31:1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel
Literally it is “The Philistines were fighting…” The grammar indicates current, ongoing action. The writer is making a point to let us know that while David was fighting the Amalekites the Philistines were fighting against Israel.
1 … the Israelites fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa. 2 The Philistines pressed hard after 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 critically.
So here we are three verses into the chapter and Israel is already defeated, bodies are littering the mountainside of Gilboa, Saul’s sons are dead, and Saul is critically wounded. The writer spares us the agony of a detailed description of Israel’s loss and just picks it up at the point of interest for his purposes – the death of Saul.