The Valiant Men Arose
Standing Up for the Glory of God
Recently, I have been studying the biblical books of 1-2 Samuel. At the end of the first narrative (1 Samuel 31), after Saul and his sons are killed in battle, out trots "the valiant men" who secure Saul's and his sons' bodies from the enemy. These valiant men caught my attention and have proved to be thought-provoking. Why did they risk so much and travel so far to take back their king's body from the Philistines? Powerfully, they could no longer stand for their Lord to be mocked.
Here is how the narrative unfolds:
31 Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa.2 And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul. 3 The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badlywounded by the archers. 4 Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me." But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore, Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. 5 And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him. 6 Thus Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men, on the same day together. 7 And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled. And the Philistines came and lived in them.
8 The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 9 So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines, to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people. 10 They put his armor in the temple of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. 11 But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh and burned them there. 13 And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and fasted seven days.
What a sobering and heart-wrenching scene! The first two verses reveal the weightiness of the narrative. Israel has fallen. The king and his rightful heirs are dead. Their bodies stolen by the Philistines and spiked to the wall in Beth-shan. You ought to be feeling the sadness of the story. Israel has been crushed by her enemies. Yet, there is more…God is being mocked by the Philistines.
Surely, as the enemy messengers are going about their people telling of their victory over Israel, they are mocking the Lord. This isn't just a battle that has been waging between the nations of Israel and Philistia, there is a spiritual element to this story. Seemingly, YHWH (the LORD) has been defeated by the many idols of Philistia. The head of Saul, the Lord's anointed king, is being carried about the enemy nation for a gory show-and-tell. Saul's armor is placed in a temple built for the worship of false gods. All signs seem to be pointing to the final defeat of YHWH, and just to show as many people as possible, the bodies of Saul and his three sons are spiked to the wall for the world to see. It is a complete mockery of the Lord.
It is in the heaviness of God's name being disgraced when we see these "valiant men" who are determined to get these four bodies off of the wall. Their Lord will not be mocked any longer. So, they set out on an all-night journey from Jabesh-gilead to Beth-shan to retrieve these mutilated bodies. They bravely travel around twenty miles roundtrip into enemy territory, and they remove the bodies of their king and his sons. The strength, boldness, and courage on display here are impressive to see, and it is motivated by a dogmatic determination that their Lord will not be mocked any longer.
Some commentators like to focus on Saul's military intervention on behalf of Jabesh-gilead against the Ammonites as the motivating factor of these courageous men's actions. And surely, there was gratitude in their hearts for Saul's saving acts for them. Yet, the bravery displayed here is absolutely motivated by more than gratitude. The motivation is spiritual in nature. These brave men are determined to honor the Lord; they are jealous for their God's praise. The enemy will not deride YHWH, and they will not proclaim that their idols have trumped their Lord. Those bodies would absolutely come down off of that wall.
Believing that these men's actions were only motivated by gratitude misses the mark. Every citizen of the Kingdom of Israel would be motivated out of gratitude for their king; therefore, every Israelite was in utter despair hearing of Saul's death. But the narrator targets these valiant men and their actions because they knew there was something more egregious taking place: worse than Israel's military defeat is their Lord's disgrace. So, they acted.
In a way, the actions of the Philistines are not surprising. Of course, the enemy would mock God. They hate him. They hate his people. Of course, they would want to prove their victory and tell of their dominance over Israel. They would take great pleasure in holding the head of the Lord's king and proclaiming their idols' victory over the God of Israel. That's how the world works. The world is not neutral to the things of God. The world stands in utter animosity towards him. They despise him, his ways, and his people. They deride his name and ridicule his people. So, no, the actions of the Philistines should not catch you by surprise, but that doesn't mean that you don't have the duty to stand up for your Lord.
John Calvin has a great quote,
"A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent."
I know that we are often reminded in the scriptures that we are sojourners in a sin-filled land (1 Peter 1:17-23) and that the world will hate us because it hated Christ first (John 15:18-27), but does this mean that we are not to speak out when our Lord's name is disgraced? No. We are God's people who desire for his name to be hallowed amongst the nations. The Heidelberg Catechism, question 122, says that when we pray for God's name to be hallowed, we desire that God's name would not "be blasphemed but honored and praised."
Surely, the hallowing of God's name motivated the valiant men of 1 Samuel 31. God's name would not be further blasphemed under their watch. May we have the same motivation, not only to pray for the name of the Lord to be honored and praised but to courageously arise and work for that end among the nations.