So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance. (I Chronicles 10:13 ESV)
Life
Saul failed on two accounts, and really three. First he was disobedient, and God punishes disobedience with death.
Second Saul sought other counsel. Not satisfied with God’s Word, Saul took the avenue of the world at that time, seeking help from the occult. And God punishes wrongly aimed ears with death.
And we, you and I, deserve the same thing. We are disobedient… a lot. Perhaps you might think you are not as horrid as Saul, but every disobedience is rebellion against the maker of the universe, the giver of the Law, deserves, in God’s eyes, the same death Saul received.
And while we, you and I, might not be attending seances, or talking to witches, we seek advice and counsel from voices other than God’s Word. We seek (and praise) what we call common sense, instead of God’s sense. We seek (and follow) public opinion, instead of God’s opinion. We seek socially acceptable answers to life’s problems, instead of following and loving the clear guidance of God’s Word. And in God’s eyes, that purposeful deafness also deserves death.
But we have something Saul also chose to ignore. We have the Christ. Saul did not obey or seek the coming Messiah (symbolized perhaps by Saul’s rejection of David), which would have given Saul what Christians today have.
God punished Jesus for our disobedience. God punished Jesus for our bad ears.
And so, unlike Saul, we do not face eternal death. And temporal death, for Christians is not the punishment it was for Saul. Instead, it is the pathway Jesus leads us on to heaven itself.
Saul could not avoid his punishment. And we could not avoid our punishment, either. But Christ takes the punishment we, like Saul, deserve.