In Jeremiah, chapter twenty-five, verse twelve, “And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.” Jeremiah prophesies that God would repay Babylon for its cruel and sinful deeds. Babylon was defeated by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus, as in Daniel five, verses thirty to thirty-one. “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.”
Robert Lowth expressed this saying, “God often punishes the persons whom he makes instruments of his vengeance upon others for those very things which they did by his appointment, because their intention was merely to carry on their own ambitious and cruel purposes, and not at all to fulfil God’s will, or advance his glory. So that the evil they did was altogether their own, and the good that was brought out of it was to be ascribed solely to God.” Proverbs sixteen, verse twelve, states, “It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness.”
King Saul, who started well, did not finish well. He was the First king of Israel in the Old Testament, who was on the rise but fell into temptation of not following the instructions God gave through Nathan. Saul rose out of obedience but fell into disobedience, went from being godly to ungodly, and went after unfamiliar spirits, which made him leave God to seek godless people. In Mark eight, verse thirty-six, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? A king who risked everything.