My father used to say, “Failure doesn’t have to be final.” It certainly wasn’t for Jabesh Gilead.
“Saul, his three sons, his armorbearer, and all his men died together that same day” (1 Sam 31:6). This caused such panic that local Israelites abandoned their towns “and the Philistines came and dwelt in them” (v 7). Then later, as the Philistines were stripping the slain enemies’ bodies of valuables, they came upon Israel’s royal family. Was it not ignominious enough that they had suffered such a crushing defeat? No, the enemy is never satisfied until he not only lays the Lord’s people low, but finds a way to attack their God as well. Like a postmortem court-martial, they stripped off the armor, and “sent word throughout the land of the Philistines, to proclaim it in the temple of their idols and among the people” (v 9). The armor they placed “in the temple of the Ashtoreths” (v 10). There seems to be confusion about “the Ashtoreths,” but for our purposes it matters not at all. Like “the Baals,” they are often used generally to refer to a family of deities who were all shams anyway. The Philistines then fastened the headless bodies of Saul and his sons to the wall of nearby Beth Shan. So there! But they didn’t stay so there for long. You remember Saul’s first and most stirring exploit? Nahash the Ammonite had offered peace to Jabesh Gilead if the men removed their right eyes (ch 11). Saul marshalled Israel and, with the Lord’s intervention, rescued the town. These “valiant men” didn’t forget Saul’s kindness, and returned the favor; they “traveled all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan…and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh” (31:12-13). I don’t want to be critical, but it might be nice if we returned kindnesses to our friends some time before their funerals. Just a thought.