Then the text says, “So he got up.” But why?
What made him get up and go out onto the battlefield? It's true that the people who were with him encouraged him to eat, and in that way he regained his strength. But he could have fled, then, or gone over to the enemy to save his life. Saul did neither. Still afraid, Saul got up and tried his best to do the job at hand: to defeat the Philistines. “So he got up.”
It seems to me that Saul needed food for his soul more than his body. Other than the words of those around him, who else might Saul have heard at this crucial moment? I think that, as Saul was lying on his face, he may have finally heard God speaking to him. Perhaps at that moment when Saul’s pride was ripped away, he was finally able to hear the God who Saul felt had turned away from him. “So he got up.”
I once had such a moment. I now refer to it as my “Saul moment.” I, like Saul, was searching for answers that just did not come. Things were closing in on me, and I had all I could do to hold myself together. Then I allowed God to intervene—something God had been trying to do all along! Only I hadn’t heard. There were no lightning bolts, no clear pronouncements—just a new willingness to accept whatever happened. So I got up and gave it all to God.
When Saul got up to fight the Philistines, he may have thought about another battle, when—because of his pride—he disobeyed the voice of God. On Mount Gilboa, then, I would like to think that Saul redeemed himself. Stripped of his pride, perhaps Saul accepted his fate, faced the enemy, fought valiantly, and accepted death. “He got up” and gave it all to God.
