Was King Saul saved?

Between these two — both kings by divine appointment — there are great and important differences. Saul was not a converted man, though, after his anointing by Samuel, God gave him another heart, so that the aim of his life was changed, and his thoughts ran so far in another channel. (1 Sam. 10:9.) David was a saint of God, a man after His own heart. (1 Sam. 13:14.) Saul too, until he met Samuel, at the instigation of his servant, seems not to have known him. The servant, judging from his language, knew something of the man of God, whereas his master was in ignorance about him (1 Sam. 9:6); yet the prophet lived within the limits of the tribe of Benjamin, to which Saul and his family belonged. And the yearly circuit of Samuel to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh was all within the territory of little Benjamin. Kish was a mighty man of power, and the character of his son was evidently, in his native city, well known (1 Sam. 10:12); but to Saul, the man of God, the judge, the prophet was, it would appear, a stranger. Could that have been the case had grace previously worked on Saul's heart, and brought him to know God? With David, how different! Tending his father's flock by night, his thoughts turned to God (Ps. 8); and before he entered the lists against Goliath, he had experienced what the power of God could effect, and had known deliverance in the hour of peril. (1 Sam. 17:34-36.) Again, Saul comes before us as the responsible man, but David as the man of God's purpose, these two illustrating in some degree the first man and the second Man — Adam and the Lord Jesus Christ. As the responsible man, the continuance of Saul's dynasty depended on his obedience. (1 Sam. 13:13.) David received the kingdom unconditionally. One command only was given to Saul, namely, to wait seven days at Gilgal for Samuel, but that one command he failed to keep. (1 Sam. 10:8; 1 Sam. 13:13.) In this he resembled Adam. If he had been entrusted with a number of commands from the prophet, and had kept all but one; or if he had been commissioned to do some great thing, which had overtasked his powers to accomplish, his weakness would have been manifested certainly, and we might have regarded him as an unfortunate person; but no such lenient judgment can be passed upon him. All he had to do was to wait for Samuel, and it was just in this that he failed. The Philistines pressing upon Israel, Saul could not trust God; so he offered a burnt-offering, and forfeited, for himself and his posterity, the kingdom over Israel. How closely did he resemble Adam, first, in distrusting God, and next, in throwing the blame of his disobedience on the one who had given him the command! "I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash; therefore said I, the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord; I forced myself, therefore, and offered a burnt offering." (1 Sam. 13:11-12.) Adam charged his sin upon God, — "The woman whom thou gavest me to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." (Gen. 3:12.) Saul held Samuel accountable for his failure: "Thou camest not within the days appointed."

More than that, he tells him that the Lord would deliver Israel and Saul into the hands of the Philistines, and the next day Saul and his sons would be with Samuel (v.19). Saul knew that Samuel meant that Saul would die. He does not at all refer to the question of whether he and his sons would be in heaven or in torment. Saul had not shown any clear signs of being a believer, and no unbeliever will be in heaven. His son Jonathan was evidently a true believer. As well as Saul and his sons being killed in battle, God would cause the whole army of Israel to be defeated by the Philistines.

Saul's extreme deadness of conscience is one among many proofs that he was never really converted to God. He never received with meekness the implanted word, but was to the last a rejecter of it, turning at last to witchcraft and necromancy. When Samuel was grieving over him, and spending the whole night crying to the Lord because of his sin, he was setting up "a place" — that is some memorial of his victory — but like Absalom's pillar, a monument to himself (15:12, 2 Sam. 18:18, R.V.). So, when the prophet came to announce to him the judgment of God on his rebelliousness, he boldly met him with a blessing and said, "I have performed the commandment of the Lord" — "a benediction and a falsehood in a breath."

The Spirit came upon him as a prophet; but this in no wise proves that he was converted. At conversion a man is born of the Spirit, and then indwelt by the Spirit. But God may use a wicked man like Balaam as His mouthpiece (Numb. 24:2); and Saul was thus used, not only at the beginning of his career, but even after God had rejected him as king ( 1 Sam. 19:23). We read of many who will say in a coming day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you," etc. Matt. 7:22, 23. Mark, it does not say, "I knew you once," but, "I never knew you."

The word affords other instances of the Spirit coming upon a man as quite distinct from His presence where there is a broken spirit resting on redemption. When the conscience is in the presence of God, and bows to His judgment, then the Spirit of God acts in saving grace, not using the man as a mere instrument, but blessing his soul: in a word, it is salvation. But even where there is no conscience-work, and consequently no salvation, the power of the Spirit may be so great that for the time he who is under it becomes another man. After Saul was anointed, the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and he became another man (1 Sam. 10:6). The Spirit of God came again upon him (1 Sam. 19:23), and he prophesied as on the former occasion; but at neither time was there any work in the conscience, or change of heart. Indeed on the second of these two occasions his behaviour was such as to be evidence to the contrary. Yet on both he was so unlike himself ( — became another man) that the people amazed said "Is Saul also among the prophets?" So also another instance of this same power of the Spirit of God is seen in that the lying and seducing prophet, is made to pronounce judgment upon the disobedient prophet (1 Kings xiii). In all these the prophesying is the manifestation of the Spirit's power, not in saving efficacy, but as sovereign and selecting His instruments according to divine wisdom.

Balaam was a man thus controlled by the Spirit of God (Num. 24:2). He was forced to utter true and wonderful things. But he himself was an evil man, a lover of gain (Jude 11) and a corrupter of others (Rev. 2:14). Saul, afterwards King of Israel, was a man thus possessed on one occasion by the Spirit of God (1 Sam. 10:6, 10). He was "turned into another man" (that is, he was changed from a clumsy, country youth into a kingly man who could fill the throne with dignity) and made to open his mouth in prophecy. It was a wonderful "sign" (verse 7), every bit as wonderful as anything done by the claimants to a special endowment of the Spirit today; yet Saul remained an unregenerate man, going further and further from God, and dying under the sentence of His anger. The possession of "sign gifts," then, is no proof of holiness or real devotion.

In Isaiah 8:19 God asks indignantly why people should even wish to inquire of the dead, when they could, if they were willing, inquire of their Maker. "When they shall say to you: seek to them that have familiar spirits, and to wizards that chirp and mutter: should not a people seek to their God? For the living to the dead?" No one could have been more shocked and horrified than the witch of Endor when Samuel actually appeared. She had never had such an experience before. Ere she could commence her incantations the person named stood before her. The astounding fact suggested to her mind that her visitor could be no less a person than the king. Only for him would God be likely to disturb the repose of the faithful prophet. What could Samuel do but pronounce the doom of one who so persistently sinned against light and privilege? For this solemn purpose God was pleased to send His servant back to earth that day. There was nothing of pity or mercy in his words “Because thou obeyedst not the voice of Jehovah, nor executedst His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore has Jehovah done this thing to thee this day. Moreover, Jehovah will also deliver Israel with thee into the hands of the Philistines: and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me" (1 Sam. 28:18-19). The following day would thus be Saul's last on earth. What then? "With me" does not mean that Saul would share Samuel's bliss, but that he would he numbered amongst the dead even as the prophet. Even Saul and Jonathan parted company in the hour of death. Jonathan we shall meet in the presence of the Lord Jesus at His coming, but not Saul.

According to the word of God spoken by Samuel (1 Sam. 28:19) Israel falls before the Philistines on Mount Gilboa. The three sons of Saul — Jonathan is one of them — perish. Saul is the last one remaining. He had been very much afraid at Samuel's announcement of judgment (1 Sam. 28:20), he had been afraid and his heart had greatly trembled at the presence of the Philistine army in the presence of the bare preparations for judgment (1 Sam. 28:5); how much more so when judgment is being executed: “He was much terrified by the archers” (v. 3). Thus from the moment when the sinner finds himself before God's judgment all his strength leaves him and gives place to terror. “It is a fearful thing falling into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31), when having made a profession of faith one has then given it up. Saul wishes to die in order to escape this nameless anguish and he only hurls himself into an agony of a quite different nature, into the torments of the invisible realm where the worm never dies and where the fire is never quenched.

“Draw thy sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me” (v. 4). The words “these uncircumcised” express even at the point of death his outward religion based on his disdain of those who were not Hebrews.* As for Saul's circumcision, could it save him? Is it not rather circumcision of heart that God respects?

Saul and his armorbearer take their own lives in order to escape the enemy's abuse. The fear of God, had it been before their eyes, would have prevented them from doing so. A dead Saul does not feel the abuse but undergoes it nonetheless. The Philistines behead the king and may think that they have taken their revenge for the death of Goliath. Saul's armor is placed in the house of Ashtaroth (v. 10), apparently proclaiming the victory of their idols over the true God. A similar thing took place when the ark was taken. Israel flees, the enemy capture their cities and establish themselves there. Jabesh-Gilead, once saved by Saul (1 Sam. 11), shows pity upon the dead, but God remains silent as though indifferent to all this ruin; one might believe He had been overcome by man.

On the other hand, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. God had graciously given Saul His Spirit to enable him to properly function as a king, but Saul had rebelled against God's word, thinking he could rightly act independently of God. Therefore God removed His Spirit from him, to allow him to go ahead and act in his independent way.

Not only did God allow Saul to take his own headstrong way, but since Saul had refused the Spirit of God, he was left open to the opposite of this, an evil spirit. God allowed the evil spirit to trouble Saul in order to awaken him to the folly of his own self-will. Disobedience to God does not leave us in a merely negative state, but in a state of positive evil. This sobering fact ought to have driven Saul to seek the grace of God and to willingly give up his kingdom to the man of God's choice; but he stubbornly persisted in his evil course until his tragic death.

Here the Spirit is taken from Saul and transferred to David. After this Saul is as a man bereft of God's presence and help. He seeks satanic help by consulting the witch of Endor, finally in the battle on Mount Gilboa dying ingloriously by falling upon his own sword. So ended a life that once had some promise in it. This shows that the Spirit could be given and withdrawn according to God's pleasure. In the New Testament the Spirit once bestowed is never withdrawn, as we shall see plainly when we take up that side of the subject.