Introduction

We have been studying the book of I Samuel for quite some time. Today we come to the last chapter of I Samuel and in this last chapter, we are going to study some very interesting information based upon something that happened to Saul. You will remember that the Philistines had encamped against Saul, and Saul had gathered his men on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines, according to the prophecy of God, were successful in their battle, and while David was rescuing his wife from the hands of the Amalekites and rebuilding the city of Ziklag, which the Amalekites had destroyed, the Philistines defeated Saul, killed his son and brought about Saul's death.

David was not there. The message had to be brought to him. So our lesson today concerns the death of Saul and lessons on suicide, sepulcher and sorrow that we are going to learn from this particular portion of the Word of God. We have chosen these words suicide , sepulcher and sorrow to describe the lessons because they will pinpoint the truths that we want to leave with you in connection these lessons.

Chapter 31 of I Samuel is the last chapter in I Samuel in our English text, and for that reason, we say that we have come to the last chapter; but we can't study I Samuel, chapter 31, without considering II Samuel, chapter 1, because in the original Hebrew Bible, I Samuel and II Samuel were all one book. The subject matter of I Samuel, chapter 31, would not be properly handled if we did not consider what we find in II Samuel, chapter 1, so we want you to keep that in mind.

In our last study, we considered what we could learn from Saul's death related to the subject of suicide, for Saul, we have determined from our study of the Word of God, was a suicide. Today we want to consider what we might learn from Saul's death as suggested by the word sepulcher.

The word sepulcher describes a burial place, and we use the word sepulcher in our title for the study for the sake of alliteration. It helps you to remember some of the things that we are talking about and it also makes a point of summary for the things that we want to teach.

Disrespect For The Dead

The word sepulcher, a place for the burial of the dead, summarizes what we want to teach concerning respect for the dead. We are talking about the body of the dead, and when we speak of respect for the dead, we must also consider the other possibility, and that is disrespect for the dead.

Disrespect for the dead, as far as our lesson is concerned, is described for us in I Samuel, chapter 31, verses 8-10:

I Samuel 31:

These verses describe disrespect for the dead as it is illustrated in what happened to Saul. This disrespect for the dead that we are talking about at the moment is related to what they did to the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons. They cut off the head of Saul. That in itself shows a great deal of disrespect, for there was no need to do it from the standpoint of defense. They stripped the bodies of the slain; that is, they robbed the dead. Then to add insult to injury, they took the body of Saul and his sons and nailed them to the wall of the village nearby.

Surely you can see without a great deal of comment from me that there was no respect for the dead at all. This was all disrespect. They had no regard for the bodies of the dead. From time immemorial, the minds of men have been geared to showing respect to the dead. That is the reason in our immediate locality when we see a funeral procession, we pull over to the side of the road. We show respect for the dead. That is the reason anybody who goes into a cemetery and overturns tombstones and does anything to defile the dead, such as robbing graves, find themselves committing something that is against the law.

Respect for the dead is something that we should all keep in mind, so I suggest that we look now at the respect for the dead as it is seen in the actions of the men of Jabesh-gilead in I Samuel, chapter 31, verses 11-13:

I Samuel 31:

Here is an illustration of proper respect for the dead. Word had come to the men of Jabesh-gilead that Saul had been beheaded and his body had been nailed to the wall. They made a long journey, a journey that lasted all night, for the express purpose of taking down the bodies of Saul and his sons and burying them.

You might wonder why, just as a matter of interest, they would do this. Why them and no one else? You may call to mind that back in chapter 11 of I Samuel, when we were studying that portion of the Word of God, the men of Jabesh-gilead were sorely beseiged. Their village was about to be taken, their people slain, and Saul, young king anointed but had not yet taken the throne, sent word to all the tribes of Israel to come and defend the city of Jabesh-gilead. Though Saul had departed from the faith, though he had done things that we have learned in our study were not all that they ought to have been, these people showed proper respect for the dead by getting the bodies of Saul and his sons and burying them there.

However, if you were listening closely as we read the paragraph, you probably noticed that in I Samuel, chapter 31, verse 12, the subject of cremation is introduced to the matter of dealing with the dead, because we read in verse 12:

I Samuel 31:

Notice the phrase, “they burnt them there.” That suggests the idea of cremation. We are often asked if the Scripture forbids the cremation of the dead. Christians are usually the ones who ask this question because they particularly are anxious to obey the Word of God. It would appear from this particular verse that cremation was practiced in the Bible, and being practiced in the Bible in the right context, there would be nothing wrong with it. However, before we settle on that definitely, it would be wise for us to recognize how this passage of Scripture is commented on in other passages of Scripture. So we would remind you that in I Chronicles, chapter 10, verses 11-12, which is the historical record—-that is, the bare fact record—- of this incident, the statement is made that they were buried. There is no reference at all made to the cremation of these individuals. Of course, that presents problems. Is there some error in the Word of God? Why in one place would it be said that they were cremated, and in another place it was not mentioned?

As I have suggested to you many times, there is nothing in the Word of God that contradicts itself. When we have all the Scriptures together, then we know exactly where we stand. So when we ask the question, is cremation taught as a respectful way to handle the bodies of the dead in the Word of God, we would say to you that on the basis of what you read in Leviticus, chapter 20, verse 14, there is no indication at all that men are cremated at the time of death. Rather, we learn that this particular practice was something that was reserved for those who were guilty of very terrible crimes in the sight of God. That is, individuals who were guilty of terrible crimes were cremated.

This was not to say that everybody who commits some terrible crime should be cremated, but it is simply saying, to put things in the proper perspective, that the dead, as a rule, were not cremated in the Bible. Cremation was reserved for individuals who were guilty of some terrible crime.

Someone says, “Well, how do you explain the statement there in this portion of the Word of God that they burned the bones of Saul and his sone?” I think the answer will be found by examining the practice of burning in such passages as II Chronicles, chapter 16, verses 13-14:

II Chronicles 16:

Here the burning is explained. It was not the burning of the bones, it was not the burning of the body, it was the burning of spices as a mark of respect for the dead. Again in Jeremiah, chapter 34, verse 5:

Jeremiah 34:

If you stop with the word fathers, you would think it was teaching cremation, but you go on in the verse and you read:

Jeremiah 34:

So you see, the burnings which are referred to here in I Samuel were actually the burning of incense and spices as an act of respect for the dead. So what do we arrive at from this discussion? Simply this: Burning or cremation of the dead is no where practiced in the Bible as a form of scriptural disposition of the body of the dead.

I know that many sincere folk have been cremated at their request. There have been others who have cremated their loved ones for various reasons. We would not want to leave you with a burden of guilt because of such a thing as that. We are simply trying to answer the question, which we are often asked, what does the Bible say about cremation, and that is what it says.

Speaking of the proper way to handle the bodies of the dead, if cremation is not the method, what disposition of dead bodies should we observe? Once again we say to you there is no definite command in the Word of God as to how the dead should be taken care of, but we do have preceptive example. In I Chronicles, chapter 10, verse 12, you will notice the historical record of how they handled the body of Saul:

I Chronicles 10:

You will notice they buried their bones under the oaks. In II Samuel, chapter 21, verse 14, something else was done in relation to the bones of Saul and his sons. There was a reburial. There we read:

II Samuel 21:

It would seem, and we will see more in detail later, that God was withholding the blessing of prosperity on the land because, even though the bodies of Saul and his sons were buried under an oak tree, they were not shown the proper respect of the king and the king's sons, and when they were properly reburied, God blessed the land. One or two things come to my mind from all of this, and that is that God is interested in how we treat the bodies of the dead. There is no question about that. God is interested.

Then another thing that comes to my mind is the interesting fact that they buried the dead under an oak tree. In almost every instance, a sepulchre, a burial place was under an oak tree. I think the reason for that is the oak is a sign of resurrection. I think these Old Testament saints buried their dead under oak trees to symbolize the fact that they believed in the resurrection of the dead. There again, it is not something that we should write down as a rule or a law, but it is something that is interesting when we ask what the Bible says about showing proper respect of the dead.

Expressions Of Sorrow For The Dead

I would now like to think with you about the third word in our title. You remember we said that we were going to learn lessons concerning suicide, concerning the sepulchre, and concerning sorrow. We want to look with you at what the Scripture is teaching concerning sorrow as it may be expressed in relation to the dead. We will find the Scripture for this discussion II Samuel, chapter 1. The sorrow that might be expressed for the dead—exactly what kind of sorrow should that be? In verse 17, we read:

II Samuel 1:

In this lamentation, which goes through verse 27, David expressed true sorrow for those who have gone on. This brings to mind the fact that grief, when it is properly expressed is always in order. There are different opinions concerning the propriety of the expression of grief or sorrow at the time of the death of a loved one. There are some stoic souls who refuse to cry. There are some souls who refuse to do anything but simply recognize that the individual who has died has gone on, and that is all. There are others, of course, who express grief in an uncontrollable fashion, sometimes even losing control of themselves completely. There are others, not necessarily in our culture, who hire mourners who will come to the service and weep and wail to show what they think is proper respect for the dead. These are all extremes, and I believe that David's eulogy recognizes the propriety of expression of sorrow at the death of loved oens. When you have time to read this eulogy in its entirety, I would like for you to notice more from your own viewpoint the things that I am going to suggest to you now.

A Proper Epression Of Grief

I would suggest to you that sorrow that life has ended too soon is a proper expression of grief. In verses 19, 25, and 27, David expressed that sorrow concerning Saul and Jonathan. He expressed it in the phrase, “how has the mighty fallen.” That phrase, considered in its context, expresses a feeling that many of us have had at different times when individuals have died, that sometimes life can be ended too soon. We recognize sometimes when a young baby dies, when a young man dies, when a man dies in the full vigor of his manhood, sorrow because life has ended too soon.

There are some folk who would say that you should not feel that way, that what is to be will be. Here in this eulogy expressed by David, there is genuine sorrow that life ended too soon. I might say by way of an aside that the sorrow that we have because life has ended too soon finds its comfort in the truth of the sovereignty of God. That ends, though from our viewpoint the life was ended too soon, and from our viewpoint we have a perfect right to be sorry. We take comfort in the fact that God, who is sovereign, knows what is best.

There is another expression of sorrow that is suggested in this eulogy that is certainly permissable at the time of the departure of a loved one, and that is that a loving relationship has come to an end. Oftentimes when individuals meet at a funeral service of a loved one, people will come along and say, “You are not really weeping for them; you are weeping for yourself. You are not really being sorry for them; you are being sorry for yourself. How can you be sorry for someone who has gone to Heaven?” That is begging the question. I think that we are all glad that individuals who depart this life and are assured of Heaven have gone there. Certainly no one would want to deny them that privilege, but David, setting the example for proper expression of grief at a time like this, admittedly said that his heart was broken because the loving relationship he had had with Jonathan would no longer be continued.

So, my friends, when you weep after a funeral service because the loving relationship of your loved one is over, don't feel guilty about it.

Proper Grief Remembers The Good

I would suggest one other thing and that is, proper grief remembers the good and forgets the bad. It is interesting to notice there in this eulogy which David uttered on the part of Saul, David did not say one word about Saul, about the mean things that Saul had done and all the evil things Saul had done. He did not say one word about it. All he could talk about was how wonderful Saul was. For example, he said to the women of Israel, “You need to weep. Saul has done more for you than anyone could have possibly done.”

I wonder if that is not a good suggestion. I wonder if a funeral service where we show our respect for the dead might be a good time to bury all the bitterness and all the hate and remember only the good. Walk on in life with that thought in mind. Let's remember that God does love folk while they are living and after they have left this life.

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