1 Sam 31:6, Thus Saul died with his three sons, his armor bearer, and all his men on that day together.
We are at a point in Scripture that shows just how mercifully and completely God works in the history of His nation. There is nothing left to chance or happenstance, even within the ruling powers of a nation that, at times, failed to present to the surrounding peoples the difference that it makes to love and obey The Lord God Jehovah. Yahweh has everything well in His hands to bring forth that which is always to His glory in the manifestation of His perfect will in operation.
This morning, we have the account of the end of the lives of Saul and those sons who were with him in this battle. Basically the lineage of Saul as a man and as a king was brought to an end at this point. This was sadly necessary because of the manner in which mankind will cling ferociously to the tradition and the heritage that puts forth self against the will of God. 
In this battle against the Philistines, the royal line of Saul was ended. There would be very few near relatives to set forth a claim on the throne of Israel by blood relationship. The ones who could have legitimately tried to sit on the throne of the nation were all killed by the Philistines in this battle. These enemies of Israel were the very instruments of God to make way for the new kingly lineage that will fill the eternal ages of ages, that of David as the forerunner to the Messiah, the Christ, Our Lord Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God.
This was not the first time that God would use the Philistines to bring order back to His people. Please refer back to 1 Sam 4:10-18 where we have the account of the ending of the lineage of Eli as the priest of the Lord over the nation. This was before there was a king in place. The priest was the manner of God bringing His Sovereignty unto the nation. Therefore, in a similar manner, Eli, and then his sons, had that mantel of responsibility before God and the nation to rule the land as the mouthpiece of God. 
However God was preparing another to have that mantel of authority unto His people. He was raising the young Samuel and training him to be both the prophet and the priest who would set the course for the walk of the nation before God. 
Samuel would never take that position by force. Eli and then his sons, corrupt as they were, stood as the priests of the Lord before the entire nation. Some means of divine intervention would be required before Samuel could take the place, rightfully and authoritatively. 
That was the contextual emphasis of what happened in the account we are about to read together. God made the path clear through His perfect and divine judgment and justice carried out by the Philistines. This was upon the priestly heritage which had forsaken the love and the commitment and the reverence for Jehovah as His representative voice to the people. 
1 Sam 4:10-18, So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent, and the slaughter was very great; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died. Now a man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes torn and dust on his head. When he came, behold, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road eagerly watching, because his heart was trembling for the ark of God. So the man came to tell it in the city, and all the city cried out. When Eli heard the noise of the outcry, he said, "What does the noise of this commotion mean?" Then the man came hurriedly and told Eli. Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were set so that he could not see. And the man said to Eli, "I am the one who came from the battle line. Indeed, I escaped from the battle line today." And he said, "How did things go, my son?" Then the one who brought the news answered and said, "Israel has fled before the Philistines and there has also been a great slaughter among the people, and your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been taken." And it came about when he mentioned the ark of God that Eli fell off the seat backward beside the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for he was old and heavy. Thus he judged Israel forty years. 
This purging of the lineage of Eli left the void that Samuel would fill with all his heart after the Lord. It would be with the manifest honor of serving God rather than man. Samuel was not perfect, but his heart was to show the people the honor and the righteousness and the holiness and the reverence that was to characterize all who belonged to God. Samuel’s ears were attuned, not to what men whispered and lauded with their tongues of fire and dissention. He tuned his heart and his mind to honor and obey the voice of Jehovah to the full measure of his every ability. He wanted the people to desire to please God in the course of their walk before Him as His chosen nation. 
Therefore he did not hesitate to declare the full measure of the heart of God against any and all who would oppose the place that God had on the throne as Sovereign over the nation. He served God and not the whims and fancies of the people who were so fickle in their allegiance and their worries and their fear. 
When it came to the place that the people were demanding to have a king just like all the nations surrounding them, Samuel stood against it with all his human might and reason. He told the people exactly what would happen if they chose this sinful path, placing their trust and their allegiance in a man instead of in the Lord God Almighty as their Sovereign. 
The prophet mourned the crying out of the people to have a human king and even wept before the Lord on behalf of God’s heart after His people. But the Lord told Samuel to anoint Saul as the king, which Samuel did in obedience to God and not to the dictates of the nation.
However, even as Samuel was doing this, he set before them the foolishness and the consequence of what they demanded from God. Samuel never hesitated to declare the full measure of that which God put before him. He was the voice of God to the people. That voice was one of utmost clarity as to the paths which the people were taking, no matter how much grief it would bring to the heart of Samuel, and to those upon whom the judgment of God would fall.
Consider the episode at which the earthly king, Saul, was installed upon the throne. 1 Sam 12:12-25. Samuel, even then, warned the people and the king of what would happen if they chose to follow the dictates of the human heart and mind over the wondrous and perfect will of Jehovah, The Lord God Almighty, The Creator of the heavens and the earth. This was punctuated by the thunder and rain that pounded the fields and crops at the time of harvest, as pronounced by God through this prophet, Samuel. As well note the prophetic word concerning what would happen if the king were to fall away from following Jehovah, as was in fact the result in this morning’s reading.
1 Sam 12:12-25, When you saw that Nahash the king of the sons of Ammon came against you, you said to me, 'No, but a king shall reign over us,' although the Lord your God was your king. Now therefore, here is the king whom you have chosen, whom you have asked for, and behold, the Lord has set a king over you. If you will fear the Lord and serve Him, and listen to His voice and not rebel against the command of the Lord, then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God. And if you will not listen to the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the command of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you, as it was against your fathers. Even now, take your stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call to the Lord, that He may send thunder and rain. Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the Lord by asking for yourselves a king." So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. Then all the people said to Samuel, "Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king." And Samuel said to the people, "Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And you must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which can not profit or deliver, because they are futile. For the Lord will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for Himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way. Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, both you and your king shall be swept away." 
Samuel was not the only one to give voice to what actually happened to Saul. If you will recall, David, when he was hiding from the tenacious efforts of Saul to hunt him down in the wilderness regions, had several opportunities to reach out and kill Saul. 
However, as we read in 1 Sam 26:8-10, David would not do so and would not allow his men to do such a wicked deed. David held the king in high regard as the anointed one of God. Therefore he would not do anything to reach out and take the throne by his own hand. He knew that God would do what needed to be done in a way that would keep David’s hands clean from any usurpation of the throne that was to be his at the appointed time.  
1 Sam 26:8-10, Then Abishai said to David, "Today God has delivered your enemy into your hand; now therefore, please let me strike him with the spear to the ground with one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time." But David said to Abishai, "Do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be without guilt?" David also said, "As the Lord lives, surely the Lord will strike him, or his day will come that he dies, or he will go down into battle and perish. 
That is exactly what took place in this morning’s passage without any interference or influence by David. It was the Philistines who were the instrument of the destruction of the entire lineage of Saul from the throne of Israel. 
This had been foretold to Saul, in 1 Sam 28:15-19, at the point where he used the medium to call the spirit of Samuel from the grave. Saul was utterly desperate to know what was going to happen. With that same utter clarity of the voice of God’s judgment, Samuel pronounced the full measure of what was going to take place in this upcoming battle. It would result in the removal of the entire immediate male line of Saul, thus putting David on the throne over the nation of Jehovah.
1 Sam 28:15-19, Then Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" And Saul answered, "I am greatly distressed; for the Philistines are waging war against me, and God has departed from me and answers me no more, either through prophets or by dreams; therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I should do." And Samuel said, "Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has departed from you and has become your adversary? "And the Lord has done accordingly as He spoke through me; for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, to David. As you did not obey the Lord and did not execute His fierce wrath on Amalek, so the Lord has done this thing to you this day. Moreover the Lord will also give over Israel along with you into the hands of the Philistines, therefore tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Indeed the Lord will give over the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines!" 
The prophet Hosea, in Hos 13:9-11, gives a concise summary of what took place concerning the placing and the removal of Saul upon the throne of Israel. The people demanded this human king as the supposed means of protection from the surrounding nations that were harassing and haranguing them. Therefore the Lord gave them the king, but did so with the precise warnings of what that sinful demand entailed. Then, God also took away that king, when Saul’s heart and mind turned aside from honoring the Lord ultimately seeking to circumvent the plan and purpose of God.
Hos 13:9-11, It is your destruction, O Israel, That you are against Me, against your help. Where now is your king That he may save you in all your cities, And your judges of whom you requested, "Give me a king and princes"? I gave you a king in My anger, And took him away in My wrath. 
Finally, lest we forget the entire manner of the perfect will and purpose of God in this manifested working of His plan of salvation, the Apostle Paul brings it into complete and full perspective in Acts 13:16-39. At Pisidian Antioch, Paul declared the full measure of what God accomplished even through the demands of the people for a king. Paul just briefly mentions king Saul, but puts the full weight on how the kingly lineage of David was subsequently established and then eternally fulfilled by the work of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man. He recounts how God has worked through the entire establishment of the nation of Israel to the culmination of it all in Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God. 
Acts 13:16-39, "Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen: "The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it. "And for a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness. "And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance — all of which took about four hundred and fifty years. "And after these things He gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. "And then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. "And after He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, 'I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.' "From the offspring of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, after John had proclaimed before His coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. "And while John was completing his course, he kept saying, 'What do you suppose that I am? I am not He. But behold, one is coming after me the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.' "Brethren, sons of Abraham's family, and those among you who fear God, to us the word of this salvation is sent out. "For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. "And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. "And when they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. "But God raised Him from the dead; and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. "And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm,' Thou art My Son; today I have begotten Thee.' "And as for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no more to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: 'I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.' "Therefore He also says in another Psalm, 'Thou wilt not allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay.' "For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers, and underwent decay; but He whom God raised did not undergo decay. "Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses. 
So be it and Amen.

This morning’s benediction is 1 Peter 1:3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead… Amen.