Commentary - 1 Chronicles 10:13-14

Bird's-eye view

After narrating the grim details of Saul's demise on Mount Gilboa, the Chronicler provides a divine epitaph, a theological summary of the whole sordid affair. These two verses are not merely an observation; they are the inspired verdict of God. The fall of Israel's first king is not chalked up to Philistine military superiority or a tactical blunder. Rather, it is presented as a covenantal judgment. Saul's death was a direct consequence of his specific acts of rebellion against Yahweh. The historian here is functioning as a prophet, pulling back the curtain of ordinary providence to reveal the ultimate cause behind the proximate cause. Saul died because of his unfaithfulness, a deep-seated treachery against his covenant Lord. This unfaithfulness manifested in two cardinal sins which are presented as the grounds for his execution: disobedience to God's explicit command and seeking guidance from a forbidden, demonic source. The conclusion is stark and simple: God put him to death and transferred the kingdom to a man after His own heart. This passage serves as a crucial hinge in the book, closing the door on the failed house of Saul and opening it to the establishment of the Davidic dynasty, which is the central concern of Chronicles.

The logic is that of a covenant lawsuit. The charges are laid out (disobedience, necromancy), the verdict is given (death), and the sentence is executed (the transfer of the kingdom). This is not just history; it is redemptive history, teaching all of God's people in every generation that the throne belongs to God, and He gives it to whom He will. He demands absolute fidelity from His anointed representatives, and rebellion at the highest levels invites judgment at the highest levels.

Outline

Context In 1 Chronicles

The book of 1 Chronicles opens with nine chapters of genealogies, tracing the line of God's covenant people from Adam down to the post-exilic community, with a strong focus on the lines of Judah and David. This extensive family tree serves to establish the legitimacy and continuity of Israel, and particularly the Davidic line, as God's chosen instrument of redemption. Chapter 10 is the first chapter of historical narrative, and it begins, quite jarringly, with the death of Saul. The Chronicler is not interested in giving a full biography of Saul; Samuel has already done that. He is interested in explaining why the kingdom was transferred from the house of Saul to the house of David. Thus, he recounts Saul's death only to provide the theological explanation for it in our text. This event is the black backdrop against which the glorious reign of David will be painted. Saul's failure is the necessary prelude to David's success. The entire narrative that follows, which focuses so intensely on David and the establishment of the temple worship, is predicated on the judgment pronounced and executed in these two verses.

Key Issues

The King's Epitaph

An epitaph is a short text honoring a deceased person. But this is an epitaph written by God, and so it is an epitaph of perfect, unvarnished truth. There is no flattery here, no glossing over of faults. The history of Saul is a tragic one. He was the king the people demanded, a man who looked the part, head and shoulders above the rest. He began with a measure of humility but was hollow on the inside. His reign was a slow-motion train wreck of insecurity, jealousy, and religious compromise. Here, the Chronicler boils that entire disastrous career down to its theological essence. Why did Saul die? Why did his dynasty end before it began? The answer is not found in political science or military strategy, but in covenant theology. He was unfaithful. He broke the covenant. And the wages of sin, particularly for a king, is death.

This is a summary judgment, and it is absolutely crucial for understanding everything that follows. The Chronicler wants his readers, the returned exiles, to understand that God's kingdom does not advance through men who look the part but disobey the Word. It advances through men of faith, men like David, who, for all his manifest sins, was a man whose heart was oriented toward God. The contrast is everything. Saul's story is a cautionary tale that sets the stage for the gospel story of the true King.

Verse by Verse Commentary

13 Thus Saul died for his unfaithfulness, which he committed against Yahweh, because of the word of Yahweh which he did not keep; and also because he asked counsel of a medium, making inquiry of it,

The verse begins with the conclusion: Thus Saul died. The Chronicler then provides the reason, which is not the Philistine archers, but his unfaithfulness. The Hebrew word here is maal, which signifies treachery, a breach of trust, a violation of a sacred bond. It is the sin of a covenant member turning traitor. This was not a simple mistake; it was a profound betrayal committed against Yahweh Himself. His sin was not fundamentally horizontal, but vertical.

Then the text gives two specific examples that constitute this treachery. First, it was because of the word of Yahweh which he did not keep. This points back to the foundational sin of his reign, recorded in 1 Samuel 15. God had given him a direct, explicit command to utterly destroy the Amalekites. But Saul, in an act of pious-looking disobedience, spared King Agag and the best of the livestock, supposedly to sacrifice to the Lord. Samuel's rebuke was definitive: "To obey is better than sacrifice." Saul's failure was a failure to treat God's Word as absolute. He thought he could improve upon it, edit it, and subordinate it to his own sense of what was practical or popular. This is the root of all apostasy: the failure to keep the Word of the Lord.

The second indictment was that he asked counsel of a medium. This refers to the incident with the witch of Endor in 1 Samuel 28. Having rejected God's Word, Saul found that God was no longer speaking to him. The heavens were brass. In his desperation on the eve of his final battle, he turned to a source of revelation that God had explicitly and repeatedly forbidden. Necromancy is an abomination because it is a rejection of the living God as the sole source of truth and guidance, and an attempt to gain illicit knowledge from demonic sources. It is spiritual adultery of the rankest kind. Saul sought comfort and counsel from the devil's kingdom because he had forfeited his right to counsel from God's kingdom. These two sins, disobedience to what God has said and seeking revelation from sources God has forbidden, are two sides of the same coin of unfaithfulness.

14 and did not inquire of Yahweh. Therefore He put him to death and turned the kingdom to David the son of Jesse.

This clause provides the stark contrast to his sin. He consulted a medium, but he did not inquire of Yahweh. Of course, Saul had made some formal attempts to inquire, but God was not answering him (1 Sam. 28:6). This is because his heart was not in it; his disobedience had cut him off from legitimate communion. A man who will not obey the last command he was given has no right to expect a new one. His failure to inquire was not for lack of trying, but for lack of a repentant heart which is the prerequisite for all true inquiry.

The conclusion is therefore inescapable: Therefore He put him to death. Let there be no confusion. The Philistines were the arrow, but God was the archer. Saul's suicide was the means, but God was the ultimate agent. This is the doctrine of divine sovereignty in judgment. God is the author of the entire story, and He writes the lines for both heroes and villains. He ordains the free choices of men, including their sinful choices, and weaves them into His perfect and righteous plan without Himself being the author of sin. Saul chose to disobey. Saul chose to visit a medium. Saul chose to fall on his own sword. And in all of it, God was bringing about His righteous judgment. God executed the traitor king.

And the purpose of this judgment was not merely punitive; it was redemptive. God put Saul to death and turned the kingdom to David the son of Jesse. The word "turned" is a sovereign act. God is the one who establishes thrones and deposes kings. The kingdom is not a political prize to be won by the strongest; it is a stewardship to be received from the hand of God. Saul's sin created the vacancy, and God's grace had long before chosen the successor. The failure of the man-pleasing king gives way to the establishment of the God-chosen king, the man after God's own heart, whose throne would ultimately bring forth the Messiah.

Application

The story of Saul is a permanent warning against the religion of externalism and disobedience. It is possible to hold the highest office in the visible church, to look the part, and to be a complete traitor in the heart. The measure of a man is not his position, but his fidelity to the Word of God. Do we, like Saul, treat God's commands as suggestions, to be obeyed when convenient and rationalized away when they are not? Do we think that our religious performances can cover for a heart that refuses to submit to the plain teaching of Scripture?

Furthermore, when we find ourselves in a spiritual dead-end, where do we turn for counsel? When God seems silent, do we patiently wait on Him, examining our own hearts for sin, or do we, like Saul, desperately seek out forbidden sources of wisdom? The modern world is full of mediums. They are called self-help gurus, political ideologies, secular psychologies, and pragmatic business principles. To turn to these for ultimate guidance when the Word of God is clear is to play the part of Saul at Endor. It is to seek life among the tombs.

The final application is one of immense comfort. God is sovereign over the failures of human leaders. Saul's apostasy did not thwart God's plan; it fulfilled it. God used the faithlessness of Saul to establish the faithful line of David. In the same way, God works through the sins and failures that plague the Church in our own day to accomplish His purposes. He is never thwarted. He deposes the proud and elevates the humble. He is in the business of turning the kingdom over to the true David, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our job is not to fret about the Sauls of this world, but to ensure that we are found faithful to the Word of the living God, inquiring of Him, and trusting that He will give the kingdom to His beloved Son, and that of His kingdom there will be no end.