The First Book of Samuel concludes with the ignominious death of King Saul. I started this book a little over a year ago. I knew very little about Saul prior to reading this book of the Bible and so it was a fruitful journey to see and learn from Saul's rise and fall. The structure of the First Book of Samuel is one of divergent story lines -- Saul on the one hand and David on the other. (Clearly the Second Book of Samuel will be devoted to David's continued ascent.) In so many ways, Saul turned away from the Lord. And that is his tragedy. He was given so much, chosen divinely to be Israel's first king, but he stumbled when met with challenges, specifically challenges to his inflated pride. Saul is in many ways an archetype of the proud king whose pride ends up being the death of him. The fact that he dies by suicide only confirms this defect in him. Saul couldn't bear to be humiliated, whether by the boy David or by the Philistines that were about to capture him. But a little humiliation could have been his salvation, if he would have welcomed it. This is a short write-up since Chapter 31 is pretty brief and straightforward. But I'm looking forward to moving on to a new book and diving deeper into David's kingship and seeing what kind of archetype he establishes. After all, King David was the model that medieval kings looked to. David's kingdom is also seen as the ideal Jewish kingdom on earth, one that Jews anticipate coming again in some form or another. The Saul experiment ended badly, but now it's time to see how David can salvage the wreckage.
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