David’s Victory, Saul’s Ruin & Misery

Transcript

GRS 2-73
6/17/2007
David’s Victory, Saul’s Ruin and Misery
1 Samuel 27-28
Gil Rugh

We are in First Samuel and the 27th Chapter, First Samuel Chapter 27. We look First Samuel is coming to a close, 31 Chapters and that means we are coming to the conclusion of Saul’s life. First king of Israel begins with great potential and ends in great tragedy Chapter 26 talked about the fact that David again spared Saul’s life, he could have killed him, but he would not lift up his hand against God’s anointed. The Chapter concluded with Saul acknowledging his sin, verse 21 of Chapter 26 of First Samuel. Then Saul said, "I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will not harm you again because my life was precious in your sight this day. Behold, I have played the fool and have committed a serious error." And he acknowledges down in verse 25, Then Saul said to David, "Blessed are you, my son David; you will both accomplish much and surely prevail." this is part of Saul’s cycle of life and that is he hits these emotional points where he thinks he is going to make a change and accept what god has reviewed as his will, but that soon passes and he reverts to his old ways.

Back in Chapter 24 you remember, there was a similar incident and David spared Saul’s life, Saul acknowledged the righteousness of David, verse 16 and following of First Samuel 24, verse 17 he said you are more righteous than I addressing David. He acknowledges that he had dealt wickedly with David, you have done good to me, verse 20 Behold, I know that you will surely be king, the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand and yet when we came to Chapter 26 and verse 2 Saul was on the hunt for David again to attempt to kill him. So you have this cycle, no transformation in Saul, just remorse that soon goes away and he returns to his old self. So as Chapter 27 begins David realizes that what Saul has said just previously won't last, so in verse 1 David said to himself, "Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the Philistines. Saul then will despair of searching for me anymore in all the territory of Israel and I will escape from his hand." David has played this cat and mouse game with Saul, the land in Israel is not that big of land and on a couple of occasions the enemies of David, the supporters of Saul had betrayed David hoping to have Saul capture and kill David so it’s not even safe moving around in the land because there is always the possibility that someone will go and tell Saul where he is and David has a force of several hundred men and Saul marshals an army of thousands.

David has come close on previous occasions to being overtaken by Saul, so his thought is I will leave the land of Israel, Israel’s territory and go into the land of the Philistines, the enemies of Israel and Saul won't come into the land of the Philistines chasing after David and once David is out of the land, then he feels comfortable that David is out of the picture. Verse 2, David arose and crossed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath, Gath one of the major Philistine cities. And he lived their with his men, household, so these men, remember, had to travel with their families because they can't leave them at the mercy of Saul to take revenge on them or use them as hostages so to speak to get David’s men. So David has his wives hear and so on. So here you have this entourage if you will, come to the Philistine city of Gath. David has been here previously, back in Chapter 21 he fled to the Philistine city of Gath. Remember, there for a time he pretend to be a mad man to keep the Philistines from being threatened by him or attempting to do any harm to him.

This time he doesn’t seem to be viewed as a threat by the Philistines in the city of Gath perhaps because enough time has gone by where it is known by all that Saul the king of Israel hates David and desires to kill him, well any enemy of Saul can be a friend of the Philistines as for as the Philistines in the city of Gath are considered. And besides David brings an army of six hundred, so this armed force who have to come and seek refuge among the Philistines could now be an asset in helping the Philistines fight against their enemies, so these thing seem to mean the Philistines are open to David and helps explain why they accept him. Verse 4, it was told to Saul that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him, so you see the remorse of Saul recorded t the end of Chapter 26 had already passed. What caused Saul to break off pursuing after David again was the fact David had flood from the land of Israel, now living in a Philistine city.

Now it gives Saul some source to think well, now David is part of the enemies of Israel. I don’t have to worry about him becoming king of Israel because he is identified now with the enemies of Israel. Just to note her, many commentator think that David was out of the will of God because he left the land of Israel and went and sought refuge in this pagan city of the Philistines beside being he should have stayed in Israel and allowed God to protect him as God has up to this point. It’s always easy, but not always correct to try to be the person who decides the will of God for someone else. I don’t think there is any indication here that David is out of the will of God. God can choose to protect his servants in a variety of ways, no doubt he protected David while he was in the land of Israel, but now on this occasion he could also keep him safe by moving him to a Philistine city and several good and profitable things will happen while David is living among the Philistines. Number one, during his time and it is going to be a time of fourteen months and we told that in verse 7, David is there he is able to fight and destroy some of the enemies of Israel and we will say more about that as we move on. David is able to wage war against Israel’s enemies without the Philistines knowing what he is doing. So his position in Philistine territory is advantageous to Israel.

Secondly, he also is able to provide spoil from those enemies that he defeats, animals and so on that he distributes among the people of Israel who support him over in Chapter 30 verse 26, when David came to Ziklag and that will be the city in the Philistine area that he will be resident as we will see. He sent some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, "Behold, a gift for you from the spoil of the enemies of the Lord, these enemies of Israel that David has gone out in these battles and defeated and he does this throughout the land of Israel to those who were in Bethel, to those who were in Ramoth of the Negev and so on going on of the different areas that are listed, places that had been friendly to David when he was in Israel . So he is establishing support and also helping those would be on the godly side in Israel if we can put it that way. And also a third thing that happens during this time, it provides an occasion for David’s army to multiply greatly. Remember, he went into the Philistine territory with six hundred men, during his time here his army is going to grow into the thousands.

Turn over to First Chronicles Chapter 12. You are in Samuel, go through Kings and First Chronicles covering much of the same material that we are covering and in First Chronicles Chapter 12, remember we haven’t gotten to this, but you getting an overview, when David is in the Philistine territory, he is going to settle in the city of Ziklag and note how Chapter 12 of First Chronicles begins. Now these are the ones who came to David at Ziklag, so while he is out of Israel, he has an opportunity for his army to grow tremendously. So all of Chapter 12 of First Chronicles tells you where people came to him, from Israel who came to join David’s army, now it would had been very hard for this army to grow like this within the land of Israel when Saul was looking for David because obviously the larger his force gets, there is an advantage to that, the disadvantage is it’s harder to keep it secret and it’s not God’s intension that all out war on a major scale take place between David and his forces and Saul's forces.

So David being outside the land of Israel enables these men to come from all over Israel and join them self to David without being put in a situation of having to go to war with Saul. The Lord uses this as a good time and nothing is indicated by God that David is out of the will of the Lord here, in fact come back to First Samuel and we if you jump over to Chapter 30, verse 8, during his period of time, we are told David inquired of the Lord, saying, "Shall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them?” And He said to him, "Pursue, you will overtake them, you will surely rescue all.” So David seeks the Lord’s will on the matters during this time and the Lord does answer him. There no a rebuke here and he does give David great victory, so it’s just a time of preparation for David as God further prepares him for the time he will rule in Israel and he is being in the land of the Philistines as part of his commitment, to not do anything to personally be responsible for the death of Saul and it’s going to come to a point of either him or me if he stays in the land and keeps this going around, going around and he keeps fleeing Saul, go, but Saul ever gets the opportunities, David won't be able to go.

Alright that's the kind of setting we have, come back to Chapter 27, David said to Achish who is the ruler of the Philistines city of Gath, if I have found favor in your sights, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country that I may live there for why should your servant live in the Royal city with you? So Achish gave him Ziklag that day, therefore Ziklag has belonged to the Kings of Judah to this day. Ziklag is about 11 miles southeast of the Philistines city of Gath and if you look on a map or an atlas, you will see the five major Philistine cities. 11 miles southeast of Gath where David had fled, the ruler of Gath and these sounds reasonable, David does it with an expression of humility. Why should I live in the Royal city? Again David is careful not to set up any kind of threatening situation with the ruler of Gath. I mean I shouldn’t be living in the Royal city, not anywhere on your level. So just give me a city where my men can set up, so the city of Ziklag becomes David’s city and headquarters. This also gives him out from under the scrutiny of the Philistines because while in Gath they can observe everything he does, when he leaves, when he comes back, but when he is down in Ziklag nobody is watching David and so David will go out with his men on a series of raids attacking those who are the enemies of Israel, that his army is growing during this time.

Remember, we read in First Chronicles 12, so they have go from six hundred to thousands of men in his army, so when it comes time for him to become ruler over Israel, he is already well established as the future king. We are told the length of time he is there, a year and four months, in verse 7 and then verses 8 to 12, you are told about how David carried out his raids, David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites and the Girzites and the Amalekites; for they were the inhabitants of the land from ancient times, as you come to Shur even as far as the land of Egypt. David attacked the land, so what he is doing now is going out, he is not attacking the Philistines of course who are enemies of Israel because then that would make it known his true colors, but he is attacking these other people that are the enemies of Israel, but they're not Philistines. So they can do that without word getting back to the philistines.

That’s brutal, verse 9, David attacked the land, he did not leave a man or a woman alive, and he took away the sheep, the cattle, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothing. Then he returned and came to Achish. So what he does is kill everybody, men and women alike because you can't have anybody who can be a witness to go back and tell the King of Achish that David came out and destroyed our city, killed our people. He would say wait a minute, I thought was David was alive with us and any allies we might have that would oppose Israel. So everyone has to die, he brings the spoil, then when the king of Achish, he comes back to Achish, he have that regular contact there and Achish would say "Where have you made a raid today?” David said, "Against the Negev of Judah so what he really said is I have really made raids against Israel and their allies and David did not leave a man or women alive to bring to Gath saying otherwise they will tell about us in. So has David done and so has been his practice all the time he lived in the country of the Philistines.

So Achish believed David’s, saying, "He has surely made himself odious among his people Israel; therefore he will become my servant forever." it would never be possible now for David go back to Israel because he has gone and attacked the cities of Israel and attacked the cities of Israel’s allies like the Canaanites. Now the Israelites will hate him, he is establish and you see what this Philistine king’s thinking is, now he will be my servant, he will have to do what I want because he has no place to go, but David is really doing God’s work and destroying the enemies of Israel.

A couple of things, ethical questions here that come up. Now we think David kills man and women alike? Young and old? No human survivors? You know I thought he was a man after God’s own heart and here you sees a man capable of great cruelty, but these are acts of war and they are carried out on Israel’s enemies and so it’s part of the judgment of God on these people just like when Israel went into the land of Canaan, what were they to do? Destroy the people, it was time for God’s judgment. So here David becomes an instrument of God’s judgment carried out as acts of war on God’s enemies. Well then what about the lies to Achish? Then you come back to the king of Achish and you lie about what you have been doing. Are these justifiable lies? Well this is in the context of war and war is all about lies and deceit and tricking your enemy, right? I mean you don’t send the note your enemy, I wouldn’t want to catch you by surprise, just to let you know we plan on attacking you on such and such a date, you try to deceive your enemy, right? Part of what goes on in war, it is part of war, in this context that’s what David does. Keep in mind, the Philistines are the enemies of the Israel. David is here, but he is a servant of the living God. The Philistines are the enemies of the living God, they are the enemies of the people of God. That makes them the enemies of David. David is God’s representative and so here this is done in the context of acts of war and David will become in later time God’s instrument in bringing further judgment on the Philistines.

Chapter 28, you know if you are going to pick certain Chapters in the Bible that are strange, that contain strange events, Chapter 28 of First Samuel would have to be on the list because this is the witch event or you call Samuel back from the dead and Samuel comes back and talks about things. So one of those Chapters of the bible that is unique in having an event like this where here you have a pagan medium who should have been put to death in Israel by her own admission bringing about the resurrection or the return of Samuel from the grave, so to speak, to bring a message to Saul. Remarkable occasion, these verses are about the Philistines, their preparation for going to war against the Israel and this will be Saul’s final battle that we are preparing for because in this battle Saul and his sons will die. It starts out, it came about in those days that the Philistines gathered their armed camps for war, the fight against Israel, so Gath is one of the major Philistine cities, now you have all the Philistines coming together and deciding that they are going to assemble their armies, the king of Gath brings his soldiers, the kings of the other cities bring their soldiers and they are going to play an all out attack on Israel.

Achish said to David, "Know assuredly that you will go out with me in the camp, you and your men.” David said to Achish, "Very well, you shall know what your servant can do.” So Achish said to David, "Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life. And Achish has full confidence in David because he thinks David has made himself odious to Israel by his actions and secondly he has seen the effectiveness of David by bring him back spoil that he has been able to destroy enemies, he thinks it’s the enemies of the Philistines and the friends of Israel and Israelites themselves. So he is willing to have David in a very trusted position, now, well the story breaks off here with verse 2, and it doesn’t resume till Chapter 29. Verse 1, now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek, and what we have with verse 3 down through the end of the Chapter, verse 25 is a change of venue and we are into break off the account of the Philistines and David’s involvement with the Philistines and transfer over to Saul and talk about what's going on with Saul and then after we work through that, we will go back and pick up the account, the Philistines and the battle.

Verse 3 relates two important facts here, now Samuel was dead. Chapter 25 verse 1 had recorded the death of Samuel. That becomes important on what it is to the events that are to take place in the following verses. Samuel is dead, all Israel had lamented him and buried him in Ramah his own city. Secondly Saul had remove from the land those who were mediums and spiritists, you know if you just read that, you would say well now what is all this have to do with the fact that we have been talking about the Philistines getting ready to go to war with Israel and David going to be part of that war? I would like to know what's going to happen here, well first you have to understand what's going to happen with Saul because we are preparing for the death of Saul, king of Israel in the battle with the Philistines. The Philistines gather their armies in verse 4 and Saul gathers the armies of Israel. Verse 5 when Saul saw the camp of the Philistines, he was afraid, his heart trembled greatly. The Philistines have assembled an overwhelming force here and Saul realizes he is in trouble. The armies of Israel are not going to be able to affectively do battle here, unless there is divine interventions this is going to be a crushing defeat. So verse 6, Saul inquired of the Lord, you would say, well isn’t that good? But remember the pattern we have of Saul, he is not a man interested in what the Lord wants, but he wants the Lord to be available whenever Saul wants to use him. He has no problem in going all out to try to kill David because God has anointed David to be the next king of Israel. I don’t care, I will do whatever it takes to try to stop the plan of God, but now I am in trouble, I think I will call on the Lord again. We have seen in the previous occasions here where Saul has expressed remorse and acknowledged he had been in sin, declared what the right thing is and that he knows the plan of God, but he has no quorums about getting over that remorse rather quickly, going back to his old ways. God is not available at the back end call of Saul and so there is no response in verse 6. He inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets. In other words, none of the ways that God communicated to his people, Saul tries them, but there is no response. So what does Saul do? Saul is a man that is very pragmatic, if I don’t get an answer from the Lord, then I will go elsewhere. I will go to the enemies of the Lord, if I can't get an answer from the Lord, I will go to the devil. It’s something of the character of Saul, some of his statements taken in isolation, you think well, I think he got converted, he is now a godly man, but in emotional experience and a time of remorse, a foxhole conversion is not necessarily genuine and in Saul’s case, the pattern of his life is he is not genuine.

Verse 6, he inquired of the Lord, don’t get an answer. Verse 7, Saul said to his servants, "Seek for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go and inquire of her." so literally they will go to the devil if he can't get an answer from God. So now we were told in verse 3 Saul had removed from the land those who were mediums and spiritists. Saul knows that mediums were to be destroyed, verse 3 tells us Saul had removed the mediums from the land. Down in verse 9 the woman that they do find who is a medium says do not knows what Saul has done? He has cut of all those who were mediums and spiritists in the land. So you see Saul has gone through these times where the law says you shall not allow a medium or a spiritists, a witch to live. So he has done what he could to rid the land of mediums and spiritists, but that doesn’t come from any kind of godly conviction, it just comes from that time I am going to do the right thing now, but now the pragmatism overtakes him again. There is got to be one I didn’t get because I need to find out, a medium is someone who can communicate with the dead, they are the go between, between the land of the living and the land of the dead. So Saul disguised himself, his men tell him there is a medium at En-dor. So we usually refer to her as the witch of En-dor because En-dor is where she resided.

So his men are aware where they can find one of these witches, you know you may rid the land of most of them, but you never know when you will need one. So even though they know where she is, they haven’t got rid of her, but you will never know, they know Saul pretty well and you ever know when the king is going to change his mind and want a witch, so we have got one on tap. Saul disguised himself, you can't just go in there as Saul because you will scare everybody out. He is going to go in disguise, so he took two men with him, he doesn’t come with all his force because he comes just like he is, a traveler coming and came to the woman by night and said "Conjure up for me, please, and bring up for me whom I shall name to you." the woman is afraid because you don’t know it just could be a trap. Behold you know what Saul has done, he has cut off all those who were mediums and spiritists in the land, why then are you laying a snare for my life to bring about my death?

Saul vowed to her by the Lord, saying, "As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing." she doesn’t know its Saul, but here is a person who swears before the Lord that he will do anything to bring about punishment for her if she does what he says. The woman says whom shall I bring up for you? He said bring up Samuel for me. You know I would think you are mature and say well you know how am I going to do that? But this woman had no problem, okay I will do it. Now we don’t know what's going through our mind, how did she do this? Did she do it by the activity of demons that deluded people? Trickery? We don’t know because the next verse, verse 12 says when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, "Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul.” But we don’t know what happens here. Saul says bring Samuel back from the dead, next thing you know Samuel appears to this woman and she is in horror and she knows that Saul now is the one here in disguise.

Now, how does she know that? Did Samuel appear and say what does Saul want? We don’t know, these accounts that we find so fascinating, we would have the Lord do a whole sidetrack on the details, but he doesn’t. She knows its Saul. Now Saul hasn’t seen Samuel, but the woman has and she is terrified, that may indicate that she realizes this is something beyond what she has done before, we are just not told anything here. This is truly Samuel, there is no trick here, this is not a demon playing Samuel, this is the real Samuel back from the dead.

Her horror maybe all tied to this that I have got the real Samuel back and also she knows it’s Saul. Verse 13, the king said to her, "Do not be afraid; but what do you see?" the woman said to Saul, "I see a divine being, a god coming up out of the earth.” He said to her, "What is his form?” And she said, "An old man is coming up, he is wrapped with a robe." And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and did homage. The Samuel is here, so he bows in respect before Samuel; what do we have here? You are going to worship Samuel? You brought him back from the dead, now you are going to show respect to Samuel as God’s spokesmen? You have just used a medium, this is a strange section. Now it’s not strange that Samuel could come back at the bidding of God, remember on the mount of transfiguration in Matthew Chapter 17 verse 3 where Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ and the disciples recognized Moses and Elijah. So they comeback in a formatted appearance that they recognized to be these individuals, Saul forgot to send Samuel back from the dead, it’s not hard to do and there is president under a different setting, but to Old Testament person, just who had been dead for a longtime comeback on the mount of transfiguration and appear in a visible way, so Samuel is here and Samuel speaks to Saul. Verse 15, 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 no longer answers me, either through prophets or by dreams; therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I should do." Ungodly men do strange things, I mean when Samuel was living, Saul wasn’t going around trying to be sure that he knew would Samuel said that God wanted him to do and then do it, but now in a panic situation I need to know what to do. Samuel said, then "Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has departed from you and has become your adversary? Could there be any more frightening verse? Anymore awful thing to hear than this prophet who comes back from the grave to tell you that the Lord has become your advisory? Your problem is not the Philistines, they are not you are worried as advisory. The Lord has become your advisory, there is no out. With the Lord as your advisory you are doomed.

Verse 17, "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. You will be dead, you will be in the grave.

Indeed the Lord will give over the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines!" you wanted to know what the Lord had to say, this is what the Lord has to say, you are a dead man, your sons are dead men. The armies of Israel are a defeated army. Samuel is gone, the account is over, he relates it back to Saul’s unfaithfulness. Verse 18, you did not obey the Lord and did not execute His fierce wrath on Amalek. So the very thing the Lord said would happen, now is coming about.

Turn back to Chapter 15, because I want you to see the context of what is said there to refresh your mind. The First Samuel 15, remember Saul was told by Samuel he was to go and kill all the Amalekites, not let any alive and he spared Amalek and he was to destroy the animals, but he spared the best of the animal and so one, verse 9 of First Samuel 15, Saul and the people spared Agag, the best of the sheep and all of that and down in verse 22, Samuel said, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. Rebellion is as the sin of divination and where has Saul swung to? His rebellion against the Lord has continued down, so where do we find him in Chapter 28? Involved with a medium, that whole realm of divination, insubordination as iniquity and idolatry because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. Verse 26, you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king.

We come over to Chapter 28, it’s time now for Saul’s reign to be over and how sad rebellion is as the sin of divination. We like to think today, well this is this sin, some time you know you watch these programs where they solve crimes and someone comes to trial, their argument is I don’t think he was capable of murder, let’s see it on the news program. Well I don’t think they would be capable of murder, now he was committing idolatry, cheating on his wife, embezzling at work, lying to all those who knew him, deceiving, but he couldn’t do murder. I mean you can do all these bad things, but this one you wouldn’t be – now realize, here sin consumes a person and for Saul, what seemed he couldn’t know that that rebellion, I spared Agag and the best of the animals, but you know I was 99% obedient. That failure to be obedient God use in the same category as divination because he revealed his character, a man who didn’t do what god told him to do, so we are surprised we come the Chapter 28 and find him going to a medium to call up someone from the dead so he can find out what he should do, rebellion is the sin of divination, scary thing about sin. Sin is sin and you can talk about different sins, but sin is sin. Remember, the corrupt mind we talked about on our study in Corinthians, the deprived mind, the worthless mind, all of this comes from that source.

So Saul, what an unhappy end is his. Israel will be defeated and Saul and his sons will be dead, this line of Saul was over because those who could be the heirs in your family will die with you on the battlefield, twenty four hours from now, it would all be over, you will be in the grave, your sons will be in the grave and the armies of Israel will have suffered a crushing defeat.

Verses 20 and following, is Saul now relieved, I have got a word from the Lord? He is more miserable than he has been. He fall on the ground, he is very afraid because of the words of Samuel, there is no strength in him and he hadn’t eaten all day. The medium, the lady comes and counsels him, you need something for your strength and this woman and Saul’s servants are successful in getting him to eat some food, the woman prepares a good meal. Verse 25, they brought up before Saul and his servants, they ate. They arose and went away that night.

Now we will be ready for Chapter 29 verse 1, we can be go back to where we left off in Chapter 28 verse 2. The Philistines getting ready, because now we have been prepared, we have the other side here. We have Saul and his condition and what a miserable wretched condition it is. Let me just draw a couple of lessons from these two Chapters regarding Saul and then we will be done.

First lesson, God takes care of his children even in the land of the enemy. David can go into the land of the Philistine, I take it, he is under the watchful care of God, so he is just safe in the land of the Philistines. In fact he becomes God’s agent for the accomplishing of his purposes and beginning the destruction of the enemies of Israel from within the land of one of the major enemies of Israel and it’s part of God’s plan in molding and shaping David and preparing him to take over the reign of Israel because during this year and four months, his army will grow from six hundred and multiply to thousands.

Secondly, disobedience can be masked by obedience. In Chapter 28, verse 3 Saul had removed the mediums and the spiritists from the land, but Saul didn’t obey the Lord. So you have this contradiction in Saul’s life and an act of obedience really maybe blur the picture, so you don’t see the disobedience going on. In Israel they look around and say, boy now Saul is jealous for the Lord you know the law says you shall not allow a medium to live and Saul has cleaned out the land of mediums, he is a man jealous for the Lord, but Saul was a man disobedient to the Lord, these isolated acts of obedience just mask the disobedience that is the consuming characteristic of his life.

A third observation, God does not respond to the call of the disobedient, in Chapter 28 verse 6, Saul inquired of the Lord, but the day of opportunity has passed for Saul. You need to call upon the Lord while he is near, we do it on the Lord’s timetable, not ours. I had an individual say, Oh yeah I think I will we trust the Lord probably on my deathbed. We don’t tell the Lord what we will do. We need to be careful, even our self and know this isn’t the right thing, but I will make it right. There were time in Saul’s life were there was opportunity, God said he had opportunity, Samuel reminded Saul of wasted opportunity and you if you have done this, God would have blessed you. I think that is a terrible thing for us to delude ourselves into thinking, well I can ignore the Lord, I can do what I believe, but I call upon the Lord and he is obligated to answer me. We don’t put the Lord in a box and just because Saul decides in Chapter 28 verse 6, I am going to call on the Lord, now I want to hear what he has to say, he is not at our backend call and I had never to lose the proper reverence for him, I must never, but he is the Lord, he must be obeyed all the time. It’s only because of his grace and mercy that I can go to him, that I can come to a throne of grace and find help in time of need, but God forbids that, we think that that puts us in charge and Saul is a sad case and a case I believe of an unbeliever who has rejected the opportunities the Lord has given him.

A fourth observation, pressure reveals character. You know we need pressure in our life, we are told that trials and difficulties and so on develop our character and we got to give thanks to God for trials and difficulties because they help to prefect us, but trials also reveal our true character, they reveal us for what we are and under this pressure Saul’s character is revealed, verse 7 he is willing to go to the devil if that’s what it takes. I will go to a medium if that’s what it takes and he reveals his true character, as we have noted the fifth point, there is no little disobedience down in verse 18. Samuel reminds Saul, you did not obey the Lord and did not execute his fierce wrath on Amalek and we noted that might have seem like a minor disobedience, you kill all the Amalekites, you saved the king and you destroy everything that’s not good and you just keep the best of the flocks and your excuse is we are going to use it for sacrifice even if that was so it wouldn’t cover the disobedience because God said destroy it all. He didn’t say accept the best of the animals and then if you sacrifice, then the meat will make it okay and we never know the impact of our disobedience to the Lord. Well if I sin here, it won't be major, I may make the decision to sin, but I don’t determine whether it’s major or minor. I don’t control the consequences, so here Saul lives years later, now you pay the penalty, we need to be careful about deluding our self and thinking something’s are little acts of disobedience, well it’s not that big a deal. Sin is always a big deal before God and Saul could not have conceived that his whole position as king was thrown away by that one act of disobedience and lastly sin reduces us the misery and ruin. Look at verse 20, Saul immediately fell full length upon the ground, was very afraid, there is no strength in him, what a miserable end to a man who is a king? The man that God said he would do such great things for him if he would obey, sin always catches us by looking like it will give us something good and it always destroys us. You see the picture sometime in the news of someone who is gotten into drugs, meth or something like that, you know they show this picture of a handsome man or a beautiful girl and then they show her or him, is that the same person? Look at them, all drawn and sunken eyes and – did they start out like that? No, you take it, it makes you feel good, I am better at what I do when I have this and that was the deal.

That’s the way sin is, the wages of sin is a better life, death, ruins, destruction. With what we know why would anybody choose sin? Sin always has the pattern and here Saul now pays the price for his rebellion, what a sad end. Well, he began well, seemed to have humility, remember he was hiding in the baggage when it was time for him to be presented as king, but you know it’s not enough to start well, you have to finish well. And we could say Saul started well, great potential, but he didn’t finish well. The word of the Lord will be fulfilled. And now we come to consider the battle, we come to Chapter 31, Saul will die as God said, his sons will die and Israel will be destroyed, what the price sin demands of us. The consequences it brings. Let’s pray together.

Thank you Lord for your grace, we are saddened at the history that records the life of Saul, a life of wasted potential, of opportunities discarded and lord, we would take to heart the lessons that are there, the ugliness of sin, the awfulness of sin, the eluding of sin. How sad we would delude ourselves into thinking our sin would never be that serious, our sin would never bring those kind of consequences. Lord, we need to see sin as you said is the awful, the horrible thing sin is, that even what we would think of this minor sin is an act of rebellion against you a holy and living God, we might hate sin and despise it and run from it. Lord, we thank you for your grace toward all, but you are raising up David to be the servant that you will use in great and mighty ways. Thank you for the trials and difficulties in his life that strengthened him to be more the man after God’s own heart. Lord may we take those lessons to heart, desire that that would be true of us. Thank you for your great blessings upon us for every provision for us. Lord may we take advantage of those blessings, commit ourselves to even greater faithfulness in our lives. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.