"Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord; he did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the Lord. So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse" (vs. 13-14).
Imagine the bitterness of Saul's final day on earth. It's described in I Chronicles 10 as a battle between the forces of Israel and those of the Philistines. The Philistines fought, but "Israel fled before them" (vs. 1). Many Israelites were killed and lay slain on Mount Gilboa. All around King Saul are the bodies of his countrymen. His army has suffered great losses and fled the battle.
The Philistines, however, press their advantage. They go after Saul, and end up killing three of his sons: Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-Shua (vs. 2). Not only has his side been utterly defeated in battle, but Saul has now lost everything of value in the death of his children.
He is then grievously wounded by archers: "The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him" (vs. 3) Everything is going wrong. The only thing Saul has left to lose is his life. And rather than have the Philistines come and "abuse him" and make sport of him before he dies, he commands his armor-bearer to do the job and run him through. But the king cannot even find obedience to his command here at the end; the armor-bearer is too terrified to kill his king. So Saul has to do it himself, and the first king of Israel ends his life as a victim of suicide.
All of this death, disaster, and defeat came to Saul because he chose his own way rather than God's. How he might have done things differently had he only known how things would turn out! What is our excuse, then, when we turn aside from God's path to pursue our own will? Let the tragedy of King Saul be a lesson to us. Do it God's way!
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