Second Thoughts on Saul
About a thousand years before the birth of Christ, “every stalwart man” (kol ish chayil) departed from the village of Jabesh Gilead late one afternoon, near sunset. Trekking westward as darkness fell, they arrived, after an hour, at the usual fording place at the Jordan River. Crossing over, the travelers turned south and continued their journey another dozen miles under cover of darkness. These men were on a secret mission, and the land about was full of Philistines.
Two days earlier, Israel’s King Saul, along with his sons, had been killed at the Battle of Mount Gilboa. Next day, the triumphant Philistines found their bodies among the slain. Beheading the corpse of Saul, they hung it in disgrace on the city wall of nearby Beth Shan. Then fell the night of the travelers from Jabesh.
At sunrise in Beth Shan, Saul’s body was nowhere to be seen, for the stalwart men of Jabesh had already carried it away. Subsequently, they reverently entombed the bones of Saul and his sons beneath a tree at Jabesh (1 Sam. 31).
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Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
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