Saul’s Downfall

Juicy story

Depiction of King Saul

When I read the Bible, I do it in an unusual fashion. Many years ago, I committed to reading the Bible all the way through starting at the beginning of the year and I did that maybe seven or eight times. Now I do it differently. I have four Bible apps and what I do now is note what the verse of the day and then read the entire chapter. And sometimes I will embark on a project for many days. I will take one of the narratives and read it all the way through until the end, a chapter or two a day.

At present, I am in the midst of the saga regarding the prophet Samuel, King Saul, and King David. This is in the Old Testament, of course. I finished the first book of Samuel last week and I’m on chapter 8 in the second book.

From the minute Saul, king of Israel, disobeyed Samuel regarding the fate of the Amalekites and with the offering to the Lord - he tried to gaslight Samuel about both! – his descent was just crazy. And after Samuel told him that he would no longer be king, Saul just kept screwing up and screwing up over a period of many years.

The narrative says the spirit of the Lord left him and that an evil spirit had begun to torment him. From that point, stupidity was the defining quality of Saul’s life.

• When Samuel anointed David to be the next king, Saul tried to kill David. David fled and Saul hunted him for the next 10 years to the exclusion of all other matters.

• After Samuel died, Saul consulted with a witch to bring up the spirit of Samuel – an action which Saul himself had forbidden throughout his kingdom under the pain of death.

• Saul murdered a tribe of priests. These priests had helped David during David’s escape, but they did not know that Saul was after him. Saul killed them anyway, leaving only one alive. That one moved faster than the others.

• While Saul was laser-focused on David, the Philistines – Israel’s sworn enemies – grew stronger and by the time Saul noticed, they were too strong for Saul’s forces to defeat. He and three of his sons died in battle.

Saul had moments of clarity in between, but the crazy was too strong for him to hold back. He had passed the point of no return.

I wonder how things would have gone had Saul simply stepped down as king when Samuel told him that the Lord had picked someone else. But humility wasn’t part of Saul’s personality.

I think I like doing recaps of Bible stories! Might we call this a review?

Some who think they will spontaneously combust if they touch a Bible think it’s full of rules and regulations. But there are a lot of wild and very human narratives in it and this one is as good as any.