I Samuel closes with the death of Saul and his two sons at the hands of the Philistines on Mount Gilboa.  According to the last chapter of I Samuel, Saul was hit by an arrow by one of the archers of the Philistines.  It did not kill him, but it was a bad wound.  He felt he was going to die of it, and so he asked his armor bearer to go ahead and kill him because he was afraid that if the Philistines would capture him, that they would torture him, that they would probably mutilate his body and even carry him alive back to the cities of the Philistines, that they might gloat over their victory.  The armor bearer was afraid and hesitant to lay his hand upon Saul, and so Saul put his spear out in front of him, and fell upon his spear, and he died. 

    As we get into chapter 2, we get just a slightly different account of Saul’s death as told by this young man who brought the news to David.  There are two possibilities: the first possibility is as Saul fell upon his sword, it is possible that he missed his heart.  The idea was to set your sword by your heart, then you throw yourself against it.  It could be that he missed his heart and that he still remained alive, and when this young fellow, the Amalekite came by, that he called unto him to come over and finish the job because he did not want to fall into the hands of the Philistines; and the Amalekite finished the job.  That is the story the Amalekite told. 

    However, what probably happened is that this young Amalekite was trying to make himself sort of a hero in David’s eyes: knowing how Saul had been pursuing David, and the rough time that Saul had been giving David, as David actually fled for his life from Saul.  He probably figured that David would reward him if he had been the one who had killed Saul.  He was definitely looking for a reward.  That we get from a further chapter in II Samuel, as David talks about this young Amalekite coming and telling of the death of Saul.  He said, “He thought that I would reward him for his story, for what he had done.” 

    The Amalekites were a fierce nomadic tribe.  God said that he had this thing against the Amalekites, and they would be an enemy throughout all the generations: for they had attacked Israel when Israel first came out of Egypt and was coming towards Mount Sinai, they were attacked in the rear by the Amalekites, attacking the elderly people, the feeble; and it was a sneak attack against Israel.  Joshua lead the troops of Israel into victory over the Amalekites.  As they were getting ready to come into the land of promise, God said to Moses, “When you have settled in the land, and you become strong, and you have peace from your enemies round about; then I want you to go down and settle the score with Amalek.  I want you to go down and wipe them out because of their dastardly attack against Israel when you first came out of Egypt.”  So, ‘you got a score to settle, in time to come; when you get strong and you are living peacefully in the land.’ 

    So when Saul had established the kingdom, and they were living peaceably in the land, Samuel came to Saul, and said, “The LORD has said that you are to go down and utterly wipe out Amalek.  Don’t leave anyone alive.  Totally destroy them: all of their animals, everything they have; just utter devastation.”   God was bringing His judgment against Amalek, and Saul was to be the instrument of judgment.  Saul went down.  God gave him victory over the Amalekites.  However, he did not obey the command of God.  As you remember, he kept some of the animals alive and he let a lot of the people remain alive; so that the Amalekites became a problem to Israel.  They, as I said, were nomadic people.  They were more or less as Bedouins.  In fact, the modern Bedouins are, many of them, sort of descendants of the Amalekites. 

    After a battle, these people would go into the field of battle to strip the bodies of fallen soldiers: picking up whatever loot they could.  They would then sell it.  They would sell the swords, the spears, the arrows.  They would pick up all of the things that were left in the battle field, and especially when a battle would move on.  When you were pursuing the enemy, you wouldn’t have stopped to pick up things; you’re too busy pursuing the enemy.  So these people would come on in, and they would strip all of the bodies. 

    And this Amalekite who came to David with the news of Saul’s death, was no doubt, one of these fellows who moved into the battle field after the battle had moved on, and the Philistines were pursuing the fleeing Israelis down toward the Jordan river: they moved into the area, and this fellow happened to cross king Saul.  He recognized him probably because of his stature, his size, and then there was a golden band around his helmet, signifying the king’s crown, and then also his bracelet.  And so, he seeing Saul, seeing Saul’s body, stripped it, and probably made up the story that Saul was still alive: figuring that it would sort of elevate him in David’s eyes; and ‘here, he has destroyed David’s enemy,’ and figured that he would get some kind of a reward from David for his bringing the loot to David -- and then sort of a double reward for his story of his killing Saul.

    Those are the two possibilities.  I personally feel that the Amalekite was a liar, but you can’t prove it.