There are two accounts of Saul’s death in the Old Testament. Both say he committed suicide (I Samuel 31:4-5 and I Chronicles 10:14) but the latter one also says that: “the LORD killed Saul because …” Why the difference?<\/p>\n\t
“So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the LORD, because he did not keep the word of the LORD, and also because he consulted a medium for guidance. But he did not inquire of the LORD; therefore He killed him, and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse<\/em>” (I Chronicles 10:13-14).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The works of I Samuel through II Kings tell us of the events that happened in Israel’s history. The focus is more on what happened. I and II Chronicles look at the same events and give us deeper insight as to why things happened as they did.<\/p>\n
Saul had several incidences where he did things his own way instead of following God’s commands (I Samuel 13:13; 15:22-28). This eventually led to God no longer guiding him. “And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets<\/em>” (I Samuel 28:6). Saul thought he could sneak past God by finding a medium to talk with Samuel who was by this time dead. Instead of waiting for God, Saul once again tried to force things to go according to his views and his schedule. Thus, we are told why Saul lost the Philistines, while David fighting on another front defeated the Amalekites.<\/p>\n
Saul was mortally wounded by an arrow during the battle with the Philistines (I Samuel 13:3), but Saul could not stand the thought of allowing the Philistines a chance to brag that they had killed him, so he ordered his armorbearer to kill him. The man refused, so Saul fell on his own sword. Saul was going to die in this battle. God had already told him that. Once again, Saul tried to force the situation where he had control and did things on his schedule. What he never realized is that he changed nothing.<\/p>\n
Thus, Saul did commit suicide. But it is also true that God slew him because God made sure that Saul lost the battle with the Philistines. God didn’t make Saul commit suicide, that was Saul’s own foolish idea of trying to control what could not be controlled.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: There are two accounts of Saul’s death in the Old Testament. Both say he committed suicide (I Samuel 31:4-5 and I Chronicles 10:14) but the latter one also says that: “the LORD killed Saul because …” Why the difference? Answer: “So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the LORD, because…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[793,1063,1062,461,39],"class_list":["post-45390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-apparent-contradictions","tag-i-chronicles","tag-i-samuel","tag-saul","tag-suicide"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11863,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-did-saul-actually-die\/","url_meta":{"origin":45390,"position":0},"title":"How did Saul actually die?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I want to know how Saul died. In I Samuel 31:4 the Scripture says that Saul fell upon his own sword and in verse 6 it says Saul, his three sons, and his armorbearer died that same day. Then in II Samuel 1:10. the Scripture says an Amalekite stood\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9909,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-was-saul-hiding-among-the-baggage\/","url_meta":{"origin":45390,"position":1},"title":"Why was Saul hiding among the baggage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In I Samuel 10:22 it says that Saul was hidden with the equipment. What do you think this indicates? Was he afraid and in hiding? Or maybe he was humble and not wanting to appear as too eager? Also in I Samuel 10:27, do you think the gifts were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43828,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/both-david-and-saul-sinned-and-admitted-they-sinned-so-why-was-the-kingdom-taken-from-saul-but-not-david\/","url_meta":{"origin":45390,"position":2},"title":"Both David and Saul sinned and admitted they sinned, so why was the kingdom taken from Saul but not David?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, Good day to you. I hope you are well. My question is about two men from the holy Scriptures: King Saul and King David. When Saul sinned against God, God took the kingdom away from him, but when David sinned, God did not take away the kingdom from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1583,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-suicide-a-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":45390,"position":3},"title":"Why is suicide a sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 17, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why is suicide a sin? Answer: At first, it seems to be a strange question because the answer is so obvious. But the young man who asked this is struggling with how to explain it to someone he knows. The difficulty is that you can't turn in your Bibles\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17922,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-having-trouble-dealing-with-a-murder-suicide\/","url_meta":{"origin":45390,"position":4},"title":"I’m having trouble dealing with a murder-suicide","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning brother, I am and have been conflicted with a serious and tragic event for about a month now. I would like some direction on how to deal with it if you could. Recently, a former elder of our congregation took the life of his wife and himself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1869,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-did-saul-reign-in-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":45390,"position":5},"title":"When did Saul reign in Israel?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 26, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When did Saul rule Israel? How long was his reign? Answer: While the information given in the Bible has been repeatedly proven accurate, dates have been a particular challenge because earlier cultures did not use fixed calendars as we do. Instead, time was measured based as elapsed from certain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}