(a) Describe Saul's battle with the Philistines on Mount Gilboa [11 marks] (b) Give two reasons why the outcome of this battle could be blamed on Saul. [4 m...

Answer Details

(a) Saul's battle with the Philistines on Mount Gilboa (1 Samuel 31:1-13; cf. 1 Samuel 28)

The Philistines gathered their armies to fight against Israel, and Israel encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the great Philistine host, he was afraid and his heart trembled. Because the LORD did not answer him by dreams, by Urim or by prophets, Saul disguised himself and went to the witch of Endor, seeking a word through the medium. Through her, Samuel announced that the LORD had departed from him and become his enemy, that the kingdom would be given to David, and that on the next day Saul and his sons would be with him, and Israel would fall to the Philistines.

In the battle on Mount Gilboa the Philistines fought fiercely against Israel. The men of Israel fled before them and fell slain on the mountain. The Philistines pressed hard after Saul and his sons and killed Jonathan, Abinadab and Malchishua, the sons of Saul. The battle went heavily against Saul, and the archers found him and wounded him severely. Saul said to his armour-bearer, "Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and make sport of me." But his armour-bearer was too afraid, so Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. When the armour-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him. So Saul died, and his three sons and his armour-bearer, all on the same day.

When the Israelites on the other side of the valley saw that the army had fled and Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled, and the Philistines came and occupied them. The next day the Philistines found the bodies, cut off Saul's head, stripped his armour, and fastened his body and those of his sons to the wall of Beth-shan. But the men of Jabesh-gilead came by night, took down the bodies, burned them, buried the bones under a tamarisk tree, and fasted seven days.

(b) Two reasons the outcome could be blamed on Saul

• Saul had persistently disobeyed God, so that the LORD rejected him and departed from him, leaving him without divine guidance in battle.
• Instead of trusting and seeking God properly, Saul consulted a medium at Endor, a forbidden practice, showing his lack of faith and further sealing his doom.