Deeper Reflection
WHEN THE ISRAELITES living in the Jezreel valley area in Issachar and Manasseh “beyond the Jordan” saw that their king had died and Israel’s army had fled, “they abandoned their cities and fled”, which were then occupied by the Philistines (v.7). But the people of Jabesh-gilead in Transjordan Gad did not. More than that, when they “heard what the Philistines had done to Saul”, they “rose and walked all night”, taking a “difficult and dangerous”¹⁶ trek by fording the Jordan River and entered a territory held by the Philistines, about fifteen miles away,¹⁷ to retrieve the bodies of Saul and his sons (v.12). They found the bodies and “burned” them (v.12). Burning the bodies was not normal Hebrew practice, but it might have been judged necessary, for by then the bodies would have been considerably damaged by decomposition.¹⁸ They took their “bones” and trekked another difficult and dangerous fifteen miles back home. They gave Saul and his sons a proper burial, and out of respect for their fallen leaders they “fasted seven days”¹⁹ (v.13). The people of Jabesh-gilead did all this because they remembered how Saul had delivered them from Nahash the Ammonite king (1 Sam 11:1-11). 1 Samuel does not end with the disgrace of Gilboa that resulted in the glory of pagan gods. It ends with a “debt of gratitude”²⁰ expressed in an act of love. A love worth all the risks to be taken to show – even to one who has failed and fallen in disgrace.

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¹⁶ Robert D. Bergen, 283 ¹⁷ Robert D. Bergen, 283 ¹⁸ Dale Ralph Davis, 328, footnote 8 ¹⁹ Robert D. Bergen, 284 ²⁰ Dale Ralph Davis, 328