Day 108: The deaths of Saul and Jonathan

David’s success continues, Saul’s decline reaches the end of the road. Today, the inevitable happens: Saul hits the buffers.
Ziklag spoiled
1 Samuel 30:1-6
David pursues the Amalekites
1 Samuel 30:7-15
He recovers everything
1 Samuel 30:16-20
David’s distribution of the spoil
1 Samuel 30:21-31
Battle positions
1 Samuel 28:4
Saul consults the witch of Endor
1 Samuel 28:3,5-19
Saul’s terror
1 Samuel 28:20-25
Saul’s defeat and death
1 Samuel 31:1-13, 1 Chronicles 10:1-14

If we wanted a clear indication of the difference between David’s character and Saul’s, we find in 30 verse 6: “David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.” Having had their town attacked, their women and children carried away as spoils of war, David’s men nearly turn against him. This setback would have put Saul into a flat spin. But David finds strength in God.
Meanwhile Saul is unable to get in touch with God. In desperation, he turns to a medium, to conjure up the spirit of the dead Samuel. He knows full well this is forbidden behaviour - indeed he has done his best in the past to eliminate mediums and spiritists from Israel. Samuel tells him nothing he didn’t already know - he is losing.
In the end, he chooses to kill himself rather than be slain by the Philistines. The 1 Samuel account is slightly kinder to Saul than the Chronicles version - suggesting that Saul’s sons killed themselves to avoid the dishonour of being killed by the Philistines. Chronicles simply says they died in action. It’s a sad and perfunctory end to a man who promised so much, but was unable to deliver.