1 Samuel 31: Honoring the Dead<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"11\u00a0But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12\u00a0all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/2013\/01\/1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"1 Samuel 31: Honoring the Dead\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"11\u00a0But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12\u00a0all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/2013\/01\/1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Holy Writ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-08T11:36:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-08T17:42:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dillon Burroughs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dillon Burroughs\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/2013\/01\/1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/2013\/01\/1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead\/\",\"name\":\"1 Samuel 31: Honoring the Dead\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-08T11:36:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-08T17:42:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/#\/schema\/person\/669844d33ee3d514a9a43e03beb33263\"},\"description\":\"11\u00a0But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12\u00a0all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/2013\/01\/1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/2013\/01\/1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/2013\/01\/1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"1 Samuel 31: Honoring the Dead\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/\",\"name\":\"Holy Writ\",\"description\":\"Dillon Burroughs on copying the Bible by hand, one chapter a day\u2026\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/#\/schema\/person\/669844d33ee3d514a9a43e03beb33263\",\"name\":\"Dillon Burroughs\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/653264cf4a082e19075cc75da75b8b17?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/653264cf4a082e19075cc75da75b8b17?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dillon Burroughs\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/author\/readdb\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"1 Samuel 31: Honoring the Dead","description":"11\u00a0But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12\u00a0all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/2013\/01\/1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"1 Samuel 31: Honoring the Dead","og_description":"11\u00a0But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12\u00a0all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/2013\/01\/1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead\/","og_site_name":"Holy Writ","article_published_time":"2013-01-08T11:36:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-08T17:42:56+00:00","author":"Dillon Burroughs","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dillon Burroughs","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/2013\/01\/1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/2013\/01\/1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead\/","name":"1 Samuel 31: Honoring the Dead","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-01-08T11:36:59+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-08T17:42:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/#\/schema\/person\/669844d33ee3d514a9a43e03beb33263"},"description":"11\u00a0But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12\u00a0all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/2013\/01\/1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/2013\/01\/1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/2013\/01\/1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"1 Samuel 31: Honoring the Dead"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/","name":"Holy Writ","description":"Dillon Burroughs on copying the Bible by hand, one chapter a day\u2026","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/#\/schema\/person\/669844d33ee3d514a9a43e03beb33263","name":"Dillon Burroughs","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/653264cf4a082e19075cc75da75b8b17?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/653264cf4a082e19075cc75da75b8b17?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dillon Burroughs"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/author\/readdb\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":1602,"date":"2013-01-08T06:36:59","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T11:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/?p=1602"},"modified":"2013-01-08T12:42:56","modified_gmt":"2013-01-08T17:42:56","slug":"1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/2013\/01\/1-samuel-31-honoring-the-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Samuel 31: Honoring the Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

^{11\u00a0<\/sup>But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, ^{12\u00a0<\/sup>all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh and burned them there. ^{13\u00a0<\/sup>And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and fasted seven days.<\/em> -1 Samuel 31:11-12<\/p>\n}}}

Saul\u2019s life ended as a victim of war. He died at the hands of his enemies, was beheaded by the Philistines. His death was celebrated by his enemies, marking the demise of Israel.<\/p>\n

In contrast, we are told men from Jabesh-gilead traveled at night to claim the body of Saul as well as his sons from the wall of Beth-shan. They returned to their city, burned the decayed flesh, and buried their bones appropriately. They ended this honorable burial with seven days of fasting or abstaining from food.<\/p>\n

These men could have stayed home, remained comfortable, and allowed the bodies of Saul and his sons to rot under the control of their enemies. Instead, they chose to do the hard thing and honor them with a proper burial.<\/p>\n

Honoring the dead involves more than where a person is buried; it involves treating life with respect, with honor, with dignity. After all, we are each created in God\u2019s image (Genesis 1:27). The implication of this creation includes the way we honor the dead.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about it on Facebook<\/a>! Share your thoughts, pictures, or videos on handwriting Scripture.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

+++<\/p>\n

Dillon Burroughs<\/strong><\/a> is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at\u00a0HolyWritProject.com<\/a>. Find out more about Dillon at\u00a0 Facebook.com\/readdB<\/a> or\u00a0 readdB.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"