1st Chronicles 10 THE END OF THE BEGINNING Sometimes we hear people say, "Forget the past and start over." At times there may be some reason to start over because of a mistake or failure, but to forget the past usually means that the mistakes and failures will be repeated. To have to repeat the same lesson time after time means the teacher is very inept, or the ones who should be hearing the lesson are asleep, ignorant, incapable of learning, not interested or are so occupied with other things they do not pay attention. The interest of the chronicler was to promote a continuity with the past in order to unify a new generation who had been living in a foreign land all their lives where the news and daily events had no real connection to them. They were slaves or indentured servants who depended on the foreign government or their slave-owner to make all decision. Now, suddenly, they became a small group of nation-builders who hardly knew where to start and what to do.
History is not redundant when recounting the motivation behind establishing and maintaining a unique identity. Our Lord Jesus Christ intends His people to be a "peculiar people, zealous of good works. One of the most important activities of God's people is to weekly review the most important event in our history as the people of God, by remembering Him in our minds and making a proclamation of His death. "This do in remembrance of Me," does not give us free rein to design a special program similar to a year's end program for the Sunday School classes and their parents. He gave us a uniquely simple practice in which we are to be engaged weekly to recall our history and the One who placed us in the middle of His-story. On a table is placed bread and a cup, symbolic of a Person and the greatest work He ever did for us. We do not put a blood-pressure cuff or a box of Band-Aids on the table to remind us our Lord worked miracles and authority There is not five loaves of bread and two small fish on the table to remind us that He can create something out of nothing or a lot out of a little.
As "a pilgrim band in a foreign land, who are marching from Calvary," we remember Him who is the Source of Life, the Sustainer of Life, the Giver of Life, the Essence of Life - and we are unified. By the practice of breaking the bread and drinking from the cup together, past history become real afresh to us today, and the center of our unity is a Person - God Himself. By this means we recall the event and learn the lessons from Him who lived and died for us, and lives again for us. We are raised to walk in newness of life favid's kingdom with an account of the first king, Saul, and how he died.
The Philistines were a strong tribe of enemies of Israel at the end of the book of Judges who captured Samson and physically abused him, humiliated him and mocked him before his final act of faith took place. He "slew more [Philistines] in his death than in his life." The failure of Saul, Israel's first king, who followed Samson, led to his death also by the Philistines. An arrow shot from a distance struck him and mortally wounded him. David in contrast is brought into public view first as a young person who got "up-close and personal, with Goliath and then dealt further with the Philistine enemies face to face. When God is with us we have to remember our hope and power is in Him, not ourselves. Our enemy will pursue unless we "resist the devil." The whole armor of God is given to us to be put on for protection. Then we have the sword of the Spirit to motivate us to move forward in faith to "victory in Jesus."
The point of recounting this brief history of Saul to those who never knew his leadership, was that they would pick up the reins of nationhood and start again in fellowship with God. They were to start right at the first of this new beginning by giving God the first place in leadership, and by not forgetting the consequences of self-will. Saul did not obey God nor did he turn to God when he should have. He was unfaithful to God's will and died in his transgression. He turned to the powers of darkness for needed wisdom because he knew he was a failure himself and the powers of darkness turned on him. Saul had not done what he was told by God when he stopped short of totally eliminating the Amalekites. He was unfaithful in that event. From that time on he was obsessed with getting rid of David. The chronicler knew as he was guided by the Holy Spirit that there was no unifying purpose in recounting a litany of failures.
To make the exiles understand the importance of divine guidance in their future, the end of Saul's willful reign is the object of focus. A battle with historic enemies - the restored ones would have to face enemies; leaders affect those who follow them in the way they live and die - they would have those followed them both for the good and bad; these were useful lessons. Defeat and dishonor has a similar effect of many when we take matters into our own hands. Those people would experience the same results if they did the same things without God. Wrong actions on the part of a leader will likely lead to wrong actions by those who follow them. Saul failed by doing what he knew was wrong, and he also failed by not doing what he knew was right. We will fail too if we do not pursue what is right as well as avoiding that which is wrong.
However, there is another thing for us to consider. Even though a leader may be a failure in his personal life, the position of leadership deserved our respect. There is no excuse for us to "speak evil of dignities." In order for unified continuance to be maintained, the office of leadership needs to be honored even if the person who holds the office fails. Valiant men took a valiant action to remove that which was dishonoring to their history as well as to their present nation. The men of Jabesh-Gilead did a very courageous thing when they got the mutilated bodies of Saul and his sons and buried them properly. Appreciation and gratitude are always appropriate in spite of failures. Bitterness or a "he got what was coming to him" attitude is never right.
Saul's fear and frantic pursuit of guidance from the witch of Endor are not recounted here at the place of a new beginning. It would have served no useful purpose in challenging God's people to go forward with confidence in God. We can't avoid the consequences of failure, but there is no reason to dwell on the past failure of other or to recount it. It becomes a problem when jealousy or animosity moves people to dig up dirt to make mud to throw at those who may affect a new generation of believers. It was enough for the chronicler to identify the reasons Saul died so they would not do the same things
Saul was unfaithful in not carrying through to the end the command of the Lord. Self-will is a form of stubbornness and stubbornness is as "iniquity and idolatry." When one chooses to do a work for God in the way they want rather than the way divine instructions are given, that is the serious sin of stubbornness. When Saul consulted with the witch, this act was rebellion, which is as "the sin of witchcraft." He didn't practice witchcraft but yielded himself to be influenced by the power of darkness. The is a dark attraction in the natural man to the allure of the unknown. That often is camouflaged by Ouija boards, tarot cars, crystal balls, horoscopes etc. and also the "spirit-guides'" of the New Age movement.
It is true that the keys of life and death are in the hand of the Lord, but the method or cause of death is not necessarily of His doing. "The wages of sin is death," and "death has passed upon all men, for all have sinned," so no one can avoid that consequence. God holds that key and it was used first to give life. However, the actions involved in the process of death is not removed from omens hands. In sickness the course of life, if not altered by medical help, leads to a short life. If that life is maintained for many years, that does not mean that death is conquered. Only that disease has been temporarily controlled by the intervention of mankind and medical practice. The Israelites were told if they obeyed the Lord and walked in His ways, "None of these diseases" would come upon them. That didn't mean they would not die, but that they would live longer in the same way as they would if they "honored their father and mother."
An archer's arrow started the death process, falling on his own sword in a suicide attempt to avoid torture, and finally the sword of an Amalekite, one of those Saul spared, were all involved in the death of the first king of Israel. The whole story of his life didn't need to be told to motivate the exiles to start a new beginning and move forward in faith. The national identity was now in their hands. All they had to start with were ruined building, natural resources, as history that revealed the God of Israel in the past, and the confidence that He would be the same to them as He was to their forefathers. The conclusion of a life of failure by Saul the first king, didn't mean there was no hope for the future. The Lord who in His own way arranged that Saul's death would not stop His sovereign plans, had already picked David to lead His people into a new day for the nation of Israel. The rest of the book of 1st Chronicles tells of the events that would be beneficial to guide those new people who were starting over.
Failures come in personal life, family life, assembly life and national life. This does not mean we should succumb to a feeling of hopelessness. Instead we should take a brief look back and learn. Then we should look around at our responsibilities and our assets so we can meet those responsibilities. Then we look up to our God and commit ourselves to Him to walk by faith in Him. following that we go to work and begin again to serve Him wholeheartedly with reverence and godly fear.