There is a young brother in my church who frequently comes up with good questions. One of his recent questions was whether King Saul and King David are in heaven. He rightly said that they both fell into sin. Having been raised with a rather strong focus on the Ten Commandments, I understand his question.

My young brother’s question is an interesting one in that the two people he mentioned are closely connected: Saul was the first king of Israel; David was the second. Furthermore, they had a relationship, starting with the time that David killed Goliath, the Philistine giant. Let’s start with the “easy” case, King David. Acts 13:22, quoting 1 Samuel 13:14, tells us, “After removing Saul, he [God] made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.'” David was indeed a man after God’s own heart. However, he was sinful, like everyone else; as king, he became an adulterer and murderer. In fact, I have heard several sermons over the years that focus on David’s great sins. However, as I emphasized to my brother, David repented; in fact, he wrote an entire Psalm (51) confessing his sin to the Lord and asking Him for forgiveness. David still suffered grave consequences for his sin, but the Lord forgave him.

Now let’s look at King Saul, who was chosen by the Lord as Israel’s first king. After anointing Saul as king, the prophet Samuel instructed him in 1 Samuel 10:8: “Go down ahead of me to Gilgal. I will surely come down to you to sacrifice burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, but you must wait seven days until I come to you and tell you what you are to do.” However, in Chapter 13: 8-14, Saul becomes impatient and offers the burnt offering right before Samuel arrives. Samuel rebukes him for not obeying the Lord’s command and says that Saul’s kingdom “will not endure.” (verse 14) In Chapter 15, Saul again disobeys the Lord by not completely destroying the Amalekites and everything that belonged to them. Saul admits he has sinned (he says it 3X, in verses 24, 25, and 30) and asks for forgiveness, but Samuel tells him in verse 26, “You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!”

After David kills Goliath, Saul becomes angry and jealous (1 Samuel 18:8-9) because David is esteemed more by the people than he is. In verses 12 and 29, we are also told that Saul is afraid of David. Things go only downhill from there; over the next several chapters, Saul tries multiple times to kill David, who bears Saul no ill will; in fact, David has more than one opportunity to kill Saul, but does not. Saul hits a new low when he consults a medium (witch) in Chapter 28, and the spirit of the prophet Samuel says this to him in verse 19: “The Lord will hand over both Israel and you to the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me.” (I should add that Saul killed himself rather than fall into the hands of the Philistines.) When I reread verse 19 recently, I thought, “Wow, in spite of Saul’s repeated disobedience, he was saved when he died.” However, when I dug deeper and consulted commentaries, I discovered that “you and your sons will be with me” did not necessarily mean that Saul went to heaven after death. Before Jesus’ resurrection, dead people went to Sheol (also known as Hades), which had two parts: the place of comfort (for believers) and the place of torment (for unbelievers). We see this, in fact, in Luke 16:19-31, where Jesus tells us the story of the rich man (in the place of torment) and Lazarus (in the place of comfort) following their deaths. Various commentators have written that “you and your sons will be with me” means that Saul and his sons went to Sheol, or the place of the dead, without specifying which part of it. The consensus seems to be that Saul was probably not saved and thus went to the place of torment. However, as I thought about this, I thought of Jonathan, one of Saul’s sons, who we have ample evidence for as a believer. It’s possible that after death, Jonathan went to the place of comfort and Saul to the place of torment; it’s also possible that they both went to the place of comfort and that we will see both of them, not just Jonathan, in heaven.

As I thought about my brother’s question regarding the salvation of King Saul and King David, I thought of a broader question, which is the title of this post: How were Old Testament believers saved? If we’re not careful, we may come to the mistaken conclusion that they were saved by obeying God’s law. Interestingly, at my church, we studied Romans 4 in Sunday school four days ago; the apostle Paul makes it very clear that Abraham was justified by his faith in God, and in fact, that is true of all Old Testament believers. They had the promise of the Messiah who was to come, although they didn’t know His Name, and they probably had some of the same misunderstandings that even Jesus’ disciples had, thinking that He would be a political savior. Regardless, for those in the Old Testament who believed and demonstrated it by their obedience–and their repentance when they sinned!–they were saved, and we will see them in heaven.

Sometimes when I read the Old Testament, I find myself making certain assumptions about people. One of them is Lot, who was Abraham’s nephew. Way back in Genesis 12, we are introduced to both of them. In verse 4, we read, “So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him.” Good start! Then in Chapter 13, Abram tells Lot that they should separate because they both had so many possessions, and their herdsmen were quarreling with each other. Lot chooses the well-watered plain of the Jordan (verse 10) and settles near Sodom. However, verse 13 says, “Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.” A good land with wicked people! Maybe you’re familiar with what happens a few chapters later; two angels come to visit Lot, and “all the men” of Sodom (Chapter 19:4) surround his house and tell him, “Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” (verse 5) In verses 7-8, Lot says, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.” At this point, I’m screaming at Lot (at least inwardly) and saying, “What are you doing?! Don’t you care at all about your own daughters?!” The story continues: the angels blind the men; they then tell Lot to take his family and leave the city because the Lord is going to destroy it. In verse 16, however, Lot hesitates, so the angels grasp his hand, as well as the hands of his wife and two daughters, and they lead them out of the city. The Lord destroys Sodom and Gomorrah; Lot’s wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt; later, Lot’s two daughters get him drunk and sleep with him so that the family line will continue. Oh, and the sons they bear become the forefathers of the Moabites and Ammonites, who later become Israel’s enemies.

Was Lot a believer? Doesn’t sound like it, does it. But wait! Peter tells us in 2 Peter 2: 7-8 that Lot was “a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)”. Peter calls Lot “righteous” 2X, saying that he was distressed and tormented by the “lawless” (2X) men and their deeds. Regardless of some poor decision-making, Lot was declared righteous, just as Abraham was. We will see both of them in heaven.

Believers in the Old Testament were saved the same way that we are: by their faith in God. They demonstrated that faith by living in obedience, and they repented when they sinned; that is how we also demonstrate our faith.