To Encourage You

1 Samuel 31:4-7 “Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him. Thus Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men, on the same day together.”

Have you ever thought about the day of your own death?  It’s not something too many people want to think about.  However, it’s something the God wants us to be thinking about for sooner or later it’s a day that every one of us will face.  He wants us to think about what that day will mean to us. He wants us to realize what will be at stake.  That’s why He has included accounts like the one above in His Word. It’s not just there as a story in a novel. It’s instruction that is vital for our own life. 

In this passage we have the account of Saul’s death.  We’re told about the end of a life of a man who, throughout his life, just would not listen to God.  He had it all. The Bible tells us he had been blessed physically – tall, dark, and handsome if you will.  He was an Israelite, a member of the one nation in all the world at the time whose God was the true God – a chosen people to be blessed by God and to be a blessing to others from God (Genesis 12:1-3).  As to Saul’s station in life, he was uniquely chosen of God to be a king.  With that position he had wealth, servants, and all the food and drink he wanted.  Spiritually, he had the guidance of the great prophet Samuel and the assistance of David, a man after God’s own heart.  Yet, Saul spurned it all.  Rather that serve the Lord who had so blessed him, Saul went his own way. He did his own thing.  And so, what was the result?  What did it all come to on the day of his death? 

Well, in the succinctness of the passage above, we are told that he lost it all.  He lost his own life – and he lost it at his own hand. He lost the protection of his armorbearer, who met the same fate. He lost his children, his nation, and all the men that served him. And he lost his own soul.  So, were all the blessings of his life worth it?  Was his condition in life of “having it all” of any value to him in the end? Tragically the answer was “no.”  In fact, all the blessings of his life just made his death all the more tragic. Here was an example of Jesus’ warning to us all, “For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away” (Matthew 13:12). And what is Jesus talking about. Who are the “haves” and the “have nots” in this proclamation from the mouth of God?

Well, it was the opposite of how we so often think about it.  You see, Saul, whom the world would see as one who had it all – the wealth, the physical attributes, the prestige – was actually a “have not” in God’s eyes, for he didn’t have a relationship with God.  It was because of this that on the day of his death, everything he had was suddenly, irreparably, and eternally taken away. 

Contrast this with the life of the apostle Paul. He had once “had it all” in this world. He described himself in Philippians 3 in this way: “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” But then Paul met Christ, and “whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Notice that Paul spoke of his loss of all things for the sake of Christ.  His life from the point that he placed his faith in Jesus resulted in the loss of everything that made him one of the “haves” in the eyes of the world.  Besides the loss of those things, Paul lived a life of further deprivation in the sense of his constant suffering and persecution at the hands of others for the sake of Christ.  But was it worth it all?  Was it worth it in the end? Listen to Paul at the end of his life and contrast it to the end of the life of Saul: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8). And that’s why Paul, who summed up his life with the words, “for me to live is Christ,” could as a result also say, “to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). It was in his relationship with Christ that Paul had all that there is really worth having. 

So, what about you?  Will the day of your death be like the death of Saul or the death of Paul?  It’s your choice – to have it all now and lose it, every bit of it, in the end, or to surrender it all now for Christ’s sake and gain the world, heaven, eternal life, and all that comes with it in the end.  It’s a choice we must all make and it’s a choice for which we will have no one else but ourself to blame