1 Samuel 31:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Samuel 31:1

Comments

Mount Gilboa – what a place of terrible memories that became! The Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled: a total collapse, a great retreat. In the final chapter of the book, we see the death of Saul and Jonathan in this great battle with the Philistines. For David, it has been a long wait for the kingdom. He has been allowed to experience painful lapses for our benefit, so that we can learn from them. Isn’t it better to learn the lessons of faith, from a giant of the faith? Doesn't it ram the lessons home to us much more solidly? If a David can fail, then I can fail. Therefore I want to see why he failed, by what route the devil got to him; what caused him to be despondent. The answer is that David played with despondency; he allowed it to come into his heart. Remember the time he went into the encampment of priests, and he lied. He didn't pray to God. Suddenly something seized him, and he thought he was on his own. If David can fall, I am ready to learn the lessons of David. We note that once, when David fell, it was because he stopped realising, the Lord was with him. Everything I do, I must commit to him; every problem I have, I bring before him. One of his falls was because he stopped doing that. Another was because he allowed this creeping, debilitating disease of despondency to drive itself into his heart. He had a long wait before he was restored. Jonathan dies and his two brothers, probably struck by an arrow, because it was an arrow in the following verse that injured Saul. Although Jonathan had behaved perfectly towards David, and loved him greatly, and shown himself willing to yield to him as king according to God’s revealed will, and to serve next to him (1 Samuel 23:17), it was not to be. The Lord chose to remove his servant from the earth. He was a godly man who was called home to be with the Lord forever at this point.

Application

Like David, we too have long waits. If God is going to build something significant, and he is going to privilege us with instrumentality, we will have long preparation, many pitfalls, many difficulties. What came out of it all? you ask. What came out of thirty years waiting plus? A long reign, great fruitfulness, and centuries and centuries of life, if you include the psalms: these great hymns of faith and experience, built into the very word of God, nourishing the hearts of believers, born-again people, for generations. You begin to think, ‘What? David only had thirty, forty years preparation for that?’ God is very gracious and very economical, and it may seem that we have hard trials and long waits at the time, but not really, not when you consider what God does with every effort.

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1 Samuel 31:1 Commentary and Bible Study