The Divine Autopsy of a Failed Kingdom Text: 1 Chronicles 10:13-14
Introduction: The Non-Negotiable God
We live in an age of cosmic indecisiveness. Modern man wants to have it both ways. He wants a God who is a benevolent grandfather in the sky, a celestial vending machine for blessings, but not a king on the throne. He wants the morality that Christianity produced, things like human rights and compassion, but he does not want the Christ who is the source of all morality. He wants to pick and choose his authorities, to sample from the world's spiritual buffet. He will consult his horoscope, listen to a podcast guru, read a self-help book, and maybe, if things get really bad, throw a desperate prayer into the void. This is the religion of the autonomous self, where man is his own magisterium.
But the God of Scripture is not one option among many. He is not a consultant you call in when your own plans have gone sideways. He is the absolute and sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, and He does not negotiate His terms. The story of King Saul is a stark and terrifying monument to this reality. It is not a tragedy in the Greek sense, where a good man is brought down by a fatal flaw. It is the entirely predictable and just end of a man who thought he could treat the living God as a manageable variable in his political calculations.
The book of 1 Chronicles opens with a long genealogy, tracing the line of God's covenant people. And then, abruptly, after this meticulous history, the Chronicler gives us the account of Saul's death. It is a very brief and brutal summary. The point is not to give us new historical information; the details are found in 1 Samuel. The point is theological. The Chronicler is performing a divine autopsy on a failed kingdom, and in our text, he gives us the coroner's report. He boils down the entire disastrous reign of Israel's first king to its essential spiritual sickness. This is not just history; it is a warning. It is a revelation of the character of God and the non-negotiable terms of His covenant. To ignore this warning is to set your own house on the same doomed foundation.
The Text
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, and did not inquire of Yahweh. Therefore He put him to death and turned the kingdom to David the son of Jesse.
(1 Chronicles 10:13-14 LSB)
The Charge: Covenant Treason (v. 13a)
The verdict is delivered without preamble:
"Thus Saul died for his unfaithfulness, which he committed against Yahweh..." (1 Chronicles 10:13a)
The word here is "unfaithfulness." In the Hebrew, it is a trespass, a betrayal. This is not about a simple mistake or a lapse in judgment. This is covenant language. Saul was in a covenant relationship with Yahweh, the God of Israel. He was the anointed king, God's vassal. His job was to represent God's rule to the people and the people's obedience to God. And in this, he was a traitor. He committed treason against his liege Lord.
This is the fundamental category for all sin. Sin is not primarily a failure to live up to your potential, or a violation of some abstract ethical code. It is personal betrayal against a personal God. It is looking your Creator, your King, and your covenant Lord in the face and spitting. Saul's entire reign was characterized by this infidelity. He was chosen by God, anointed by God, and empowered by God, and he used all of it to serve himself.
Notice who it was committed "against." Against Yahweh. Our sins are never in a vacuum. When David sinned with Bathsheba, he acknowledged, "Against you, you only, have I sinned" (Psalm 51:4). Of course, he had sinned against Uriah, against Bathsheba, against his family, and against the nation. But the ultimate object of his treason was God. Saul's failure was a direct assault on the throne of God. He wanted to be king on his own terms, which is the foundational sin of every fallen man.
The Evidence, Count One: Disregarded Revelation (v. 13b)
The Chronicler now presents the first piece of evidence for this charge of treason.
"...because of the word of Yahweh which he did not keep..." (1 Chronicles 10:13b)
Saul's unfaithfulness was not a matter of feelings or intentions. It was a matter of disobedience to a direct, spoken word from God. God does not leave us to guess what He requires. He speaks. And Saul had the plain word of the Lord through the prophet Samuel on multiple occasions. Two stand out as particularly flagrant.
First, in 1 Samuel 13, Saul was told to wait for Samuel at Gilgal for seven days before battle. But Saul, seeing the people scatter, grew impatient. He decided the religious formalities were less important than military expediency. So he usurped the priestly office and offered the sacrifice himself. He treated worship as a good-luck charm, something to be manipulated for his own ends. He did not keep the word of the Lord.
Second, and more decisively, in 1 Samuel 15, God gave him a direct, unambiguous command: utterly destroy the Amalekites, a people under God's holy ban for their wickedness. But Saul engaged in what we might call selective obedience. He destroyed what was worthless, but he kept the best of the sheep and oxen, and he spared Agag, the king. When confronted by Samuel, he had the audacity to claim he did it to sacrifice to the Lord. This was pious rebellion. It was disobedience gift-wrapped in religious language. Samuel's reply cuts to the heart of the matter: "Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of Yahweh? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice... For rebellion is as the sin of divination" (1 Sam. 15:22-23). Saul did not keep the word of the Lord. He edited it. He improved upon it. He thought he knew better. And in doing so, he rejected the Word, and so God rejected him as king.
The Evidence, Count Two: Illicit Consultation (v. 13c-14a)
The second piece of evidence demonstrates just how far Saul's rebellion had taken him. It was the final, desperate act of a man who had cut himself off from the only true source of wisdom.
"...and also because he asked counsel of a medium, making inquiry of it, and did not inquire of Yahweh." (1 Chronicles 10:13c-14a)
This is the bottom of the spiral. The story in 1 Samuel 28 is one of the most pathetic in all of Scripture. The Philistines are gathered for war, Saul is terrified, and God is silent. Why is God silent? Because Saul had systematically silenced Him for years. He had rejected His word through the prophet. So now, when he "inquires" of the Lord, there is no answer by dreams, Urim, or prophets. God had given him over to the consequences of his own rebellion.
So what does he do? He seeks out a witch, a medium at Endor. This is high treason. The law of God was explicit: "You shall not permit a sorceress to live" (Ex. 22:18). Saul himself had, in a fit of superficial righteousness, driven the mediums out of the land. Now, in his desperation, he disguises himself and seeks out the very thing he had outlawed. This is the hypocrisy of the unfaithful. He is looking for a word, any word, from any source other than God. He would rather hear from a demon impersonating a dead prophet than humble himself and repent before the living God.
The text makes the antithesis stark: he inquired of a medium, but "did not inquire of Yahweh." To inquire of the Lord is not simply to ask a question. The Hebrew word implies a diligent, humble seeking. Saul's earlier "asking" was a panicked demand for information. It was not the inquiry of a submissive son, but the demand of a frantic tyrant. True inquiry is an act of faith, a submission to God's authority and timing. Saul's inquiry was an act of faithlessness. He had abandoned the divine court and sought counsel from the demonic underworld. This was the final seal on his apostasy.
The Sentence: Execution and Transfer (v. 14b)
The verdict and evidence have been presented. Now the sentence is executed by the sovereign Judge.
"Therefore He put him to death and turned the kingdom to David the son of Jesse." (1 Chronicles 10:14b)
Let us be clear about the grammar here. The Philistine archers were the secondary cause. Saul's own sword was the secondary cause. The ultimate agent of Saul's death was God Himself. "Therefore He put him to death." This is not a passive allowance; it is an active, judicial sentence. God is sovereign over life and death, over the rise and fall of kings. Saul's death on Mount Gilboa was not a tragic accident of war; it was a divine execution.
And God's judgment is never simply destructive. It is always purposeful. As He executes judgment on one, He is advancing His redemptive plan through another. He "turned the kingdom to David the son of Jesse." This was not a political coup. It was a divine transfer of assets. The kingdom was never Saul's to begin with. It was always God's. Saul was merely a steward, and he was a faithless one. So the Master took the kingdom from him and gave it to a man after His own heart.
This is the sovereignty of God in action. While Saul was chasing David through the wilderness, consumed with paranoid jealousy, God was patiently weaving all of Saul's rebellious choices into His perfect plan to establish the throne from which the Messiah would one day come. God is never frustrated. The wrath of man, the rebellion of kings, the schemes of the devil, all of it serves His ultimate purpose. He turns the treachery of a Saul into the throne of a David.
Conclusion: Two Ways to Inquire
The story of Saul is a cautionary tale written in capital letters across the pages of redemptive history. It presents us with a fundamental choice that every human being must make. You will either inquire of Yahweh, or you will inquire of a medium. There is no third way.
To inquire of a medium is to seek wisdom, guidance, and power from a source other than God. You may not be visiting a witch in Endor, but the principle is the same. When you trust in your own wisdom, when you look to secular experts as your ultimate authority, when you build your life on the shifting sands of public opinion or your own feelings, you are inquiring of a medium. You are practicing divination. You are committing treason against the King.
The end of that road is always death. It is the death of meaning, the death of joy, and ultimately, eternal death, a final and total separation from the God you refused to inquire of.
But there is another way. God has not left us in silence. He has spoken His ultimate Word to us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Saul rejected the word of the Lord, but Christ is the Word made flesh. Saul was the unfaithful king who was put to death for his own sin. Christ is the faithful king who was put to death for our sin. He went to the cross, bearing the full weight of God's judicial sentence against our treason, our unfaithfulness, our idolatrous inquiries.
And because of His faithfulness, the kingdom has been turned over to Him. He is the true son of Jesse, the greater David, and His throne is established forever. To inquire of Yahweh today means to abandon all other sources of wisdom and to fall down before Jesus Christ in humble submission. It means to stop keeping His word selectively and to receive it wholly. It means to confess your treason and to trust in His atoning death. When you do this, you are transferred out of the failed kingdom of Saul, which is the kingdom of this world, and into the everlasting kingdom of David's greater Son. You move from death to life.