When We Don't Listen to God
Notes
Transcript
Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land. The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, there is a medium at En-dor.” So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments and went, he and two men with him. And they came to the woman by night. And he said, “Divine for me by a spirit and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you.” The woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the necromancers from the land. Why then are you laying a trap for my life to bring about my death?” But Saul swore to her by the Lord, “As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.” Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” He said, “Bring up Samuel for me.” When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul.” The king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What do you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.” He said to her, “What is his appearance?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped in a robe.” And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage. Then Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul answered, “I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams. Therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do.” And Samuel said, “Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me, for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. Moreover, the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.” Then Saul fell at once full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. And the woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, “Behold, your servant has obeyed you. I have taken my life in my hand and have listened to what you have said to me. Now therefore, you also obey your servant. Let me set a morsel of bread before you; and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way.” He refused and said, “I will not eat.” But his servants, together with the woman, urged him, and he listened to their words. So he arose from the earth and sat on the bed. Now the woman had a fattened calf in the house, and she quickly killed it, and she took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread of it, and she put it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.
As he is the star of the history, we have spent a few months of this series now looking at all that has happened from the point of view of David.
We have moved from Samuel’s life and ministry, to Saul’s kingship and sin, to David’s victories and struggle with Saul and with sin.
And the story now returns to Saul briefly. And what we see in this chapter is Saul hit rock bottom. In fact, after this chapter, we only see Saul again when he is killed in battle.
Last week we looked at the trajectory of David’s life and how he has been presented in the book. We saw that up and down of his life that is typical of sinful humans saved by grace.
So I’d like to start this week, by looking at the trajectory of Saul’s life. It is far more unidirectional than David’s.
And I will tell you upfront: Saul is not an example for us to imitate. He is the total opposite of what we are supposed to be.
Let’s look at what we know about him.
Saul enters the narrative after Israel demands a king like the nations around them. In itself, this was a turning away from God on the part of the nation. Remember, Samuel tries to warn them of what it would mean if they had a king. He told them that the king would be pretty horrible and take whatever he wanted and treat them like slaves.
He told them that they would even cry out to God because of the oppression of their king.
But the people insisted. In particular, they wanted a king who would fight for them - who would lead them into battle against the enemies of God.
And we know that God chose Saul as their king. God gave the people of Israel exactly what they wanted. A king like the nations around them.
And when we meet Saul, he is rich, tall, and handsome. He’s a regular Prince Charming.
And then he’s anointed king, and we are told the Spirit of God came upon him. And he prophesied with the prophets.
And when it comes time for his public revealing as king, he hides. That should have tipped everyone off right there that Saul had some issues. The biggest of which is ignoring what God told him.
But he eventually accepts the role, as kings were expected to do, he leads his people in battle, and defeats the Ammonites, and he takes the throne.
And right after that, he has to battle the Philistines, and Saul gets impatient while waiting for Samuel, and he unlawfully offers a burnt offering - which only a priest is supposed to do. Once again, he ignores what God has said.
He wants to try to gain God’s favor by doing things his own way. And then, of course, Samuel tells him:
And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
That didn’t take long. Saul disobeys God so Samuel tells him God is going to look for a new king - an obedient king. A king that listens to what God says.
Oh, and Israel loses the battle to the Philistines.
And in response, Saul makes that stupid vow that nobody could eat until he gets revenge on the Philistines. Who he calls, not God’s enemies, but his enemies.
And because of his rashness and his commitment to his stupid vow instead of God, his own son, Jonathan, is actually condemned to death by Saul.
But the people save Jonathan. They forbid Saul to kill him. The people tell the king what to do. Not so good, Saul.
Then, Saul goes against the Amalekites, and he is told by God to kill every last person and animal. And, surprise, surprise, Saul doesn’t listen. He decides to do things his own way. He leaves the king of Amalek and the best of the animals alive.
And Saul even convinces himself that what he did should have pleased God.
But it didn’t. And Samuel tells him:
And Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.
And that’s when David is introduced, and we know it just gets worse for Saul from there.
And as we saw, as the king goes, so Israel goes. So it got worse and worse for Israel from there.
And we saw last week how so much of the land was under Philistine rule at this point. The problem is that Saul was so intent on keeping his throne, that he completely ignored his role as king. He completely ignored his calling, and his responsibility to God’s people.
He ignored all that God said.
So we see: there is no up and down for Saul. There’s just down.
He ignores God’s Law. He ignores God’s explicit command to him. He ignores his responsibility as king. And in the process, he ignored God’s people.
And that’s how it works. There is a definite order to how this type of failure works. There is an order to how someone gets on this downward trajectory.
First, we ignore what God has already said. We ignore God’s written Word. Like Saul ignored the established Law. Like Saul ignored God’s explicit commands. We ignore what God has clearly said and we do things our way. And we might even convince ourselves that we are pleasing God. But we’re not.
Then, we ignore our responsibility, like Saul ignored his responsibility as king. When we ignore God’s Word, we inevitably lose sight of who we are supposed to be, and we fall further and further away as we get used to doing what we want, how we want.
And in the process, we ignore the community of faith. Like Saul, we ignore our responsibility to not just God, but to each other.
And eventually… well, here are our options: either we repent and stop that downward trajectory, or we prove that we were never really part of the family of God.
And, if we don’t repent, we will hit rock bottom. And we will be judged.
And that is what we see in our passage today. Saul has been on that downward trajectory, and he becomes so desperate and he sinks so low, he earns the judgment of God.
Again, not a model to emulate.
OK, sorry for the rehashing of the history here, but I wanted to refresh our memories of Saul and what he’s done.
Plus, this passage begins with its own retelling of history.
1 Samuel 28:3 (ESV)
Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city.
This is a reminder of what has already happened in order to set up what’s about to happen. Back in chapter 25, we were told that Samuel died. We got a quick mention of it - almost in passing:
1 Samuel 25:1 (ESV)
Now Samuel died. And all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah.
And we saw that burying someone in their house was a pagan custom, not the norm in Israel. The pagans of the land believed that burying someone in their family home kept them close by and allowed them to be contacted even though they were dead.
Here in chapter 28 we’re reminded of Samuel’s death and burial.
But we are given some more history:
Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land.
Now, this wasn’t told to us previously, but this is speaking of a past event. Saul had already put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land of Israel. This is also setting us up for what’s about to happen.
But the question is: why? Why were the mediums and necromancers put out of the land?
Well, because God forbade Israel from taking part in such practices:
“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.
God told His people not to be like the people around them. The people who Israel was to drive out did this kind of thing, but God’s people are supposed to be different. They are not like the world around them. So they are not to do the abominable things that pagans do.
And what is abominable about doing these things?
Well, go read my blog from this past week about the fallen angels if you want more information, but for today, realize that all of these things God forbids here are demonic.
Those that believe in fortune telling and mediums and contacting the dead, are being deceived by the powers of darkness. Yes, aside from the con-artists, mediums actually learn things from and speak to spirits. Because they are communicating with demons.
And who are the demons? The angels that disobeyed God and became wicked. The elohim of the nations. The false gods. Those who had authority over every nation except for - who? - Israel.
When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
So at its heart, taking part in these things, was choosing to be like the world instead of living like one of God’s chosen people. Taking part in this black magic was choosing the false gods over the true God. It was saying, I don’t want YHWH, I want the other gods.
And this was a problem with God’s people until Israel ceased to be a nation. In fact, its why Israel ceased to be a nation.
And if we’re honest, we struggle with this at times. Not necessarily directly playing with the demonic. Though I warn you, toying with things like mediums or Wiccan magic is doing just that.
But usually, we do struggle between listening to God or the ways of the world. Living like one of God’s chosen or living like those around us.
Especially when the world is so different from what the Bible tells us we should be. And especially when the ways of the world are forced on us at every turn.
But realize who is in charge of this world. Realize who is behind worldly wisdom. I warn you, living by the world’s wisdom and ways is, though indirectly, still toying with the demonic.
And that’s what Saul is about to do.
We are told in our passage today about Samuel’s death and the lack of mediums in the land. These are about to come together.
Now remember the trajectory that Saul has been on. He has turned his back on God. He has turned his back on his responsibility. And he has turned his back on the people of God.
He has not listened to what God has said at all.
And as we saw where we ended last week, the Philistines were about to attack Israel.
And we read here:
The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.
Wait, the guy who hid when he was about to be crowned king is afraid? The guy who shook in his boots at the sight of Goliath and needed a young shepherd boy to bail him out - he is afraid of going into battle here?
Yeah, that checks out.
So what does Saul do? There’s no David to save him this time. Saul chased him out of Israel, remember.
So what does the guy who has ignored God and His commands - the guy who has done everything according to his own will instead of God’s will - what does someone like that do when his back is up against the wall?
He seeks God.
1 Samuel 28:6 (ESV)
And when Saul inquired of the Lord...
How pious. How holy. Saul turned to God.
But not really.
When God commands something, Saul ignores God. But when Saul needs something… God’s important all of a sudden. Now Saul wants God.
When Saul needs guidance, now all of a sudden what God says starts to matter to him.
This is what a lot of people do. God and His Word are nothing but hindrances to what they want to do - God is not part of the equation in any aspect of their lives… until they need something they can’t get for themselves.
And when they need something, they pray. They remember the “give us this day...” part of prayer, but the “Your will be done” part is completely ignored.
How does God respond to that kind of prayer?
He doesn’t.
And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets.
God doesn’t respond to Saul. Just like Saul never responded to what God said.
When people use prayer as nothing more than a wish list, God doesn’t answer. When you spend your life not listening to Him, why would you expect Him to listen to you?
And even as Christians, we can fall into this. And many do. We seek God so He can give us guidance in this or that particular matter, but we ignore what He’s already said about everything else.
And then we wonder why God doesn’t just supernaturally answer our prayer.
We ask God to guide us on the big decisions, but when it comes to the day to day, we don’t consider how God has told us to live.
Or we ask God to increase our faith, but we don’t act in faith by obeying His Word.
Or we ask God to provide Godly Christian friends, but we act like the ungodly world around us most of the time.
Or we ask God to provide for this or that need, but we have never in faith sacrificially met other’s needs.
That’s what Saul does here. And he’s done it before. There’s a pattern. He ignored God and ignores God and ignores God, and then when he needs something, he asks God.
We are told only one other time of Saul seeking God, way back in chapter 14. After he ignores God’s Law and offers the burnt offering himself. After he makes his rash vow instead of seeking God.
And we’re told God didn’t answer him then either.
And here, God doesn’t answer Saul, and what does Saul do? Repent? Start to obey God’s written Word?
No. He violates the clear Law of God. He once again ignores what God has already said.
Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, there is a medium at En-dor.”
Saul does not hear from YHWH, so he decides to do what a pagan would do. He is indeed a king like the nations around Israel.
Saul is saying: YHWH won’t do for me what I need, then I’ll seek other “gods” to do it.
Even Christians need to be careful not to do this, because it is very easy and awfully tempting to do. God’s way is often difficult. The world’s way is often easy.
And we may even feel justified in taking the easy way out because God’s way is so hard.
Saul may have felt justified in doing this. After all, he was not just one of God’s people, but he was the king! God chose him. So God should answer his prayers. God has a responsibility here, doesn’t He?
But Saul has spent very little time living like one of God’s chosen. As we saw, he has shirked his responsibilities, both as king and to the people of God.
Should he expect God to answer him?
Well, Saul needs an answer, so he seeks out a medium. And his men tell him to go to En-dor - different place than where the Ewoks live. And if you got that reference, your as big a nerd as me, good for you.
But where was this En-dor? It was near Mount Tabor. In the tribal inheritance of Issachar. It was in Israel. Even with the smaller borders we saw last week, this medium was in Israel.
Think about this. Saul had previously - we don’t know when, but I’m guessing near the beginning of his reign - he had thrown all the mediums out of the land. We were just told that.
Here, he is told of one in the land. And not only that, but his servants know of her, seemingly pretty readily.
We see how bad things were in Israel at this point. The mediums Saul had thrown out have returned, completely unnoticed by him, because he was so focused on David. Demonic activity was going on right in Israel.
As the king goes, so Israel goes.
So Saul puts on a disguise so that he doesn’t get noticed, and he goes to this woman. And he tells her that he wants her to work some magic and bring up a spirit from the dead for him.
And her response is to say “hey man, Saul has removed all the people who can do that from the land. Why would I do that? You’re just trying to get me in trouble.”
It’s the same speech you’d get from that guy Rob who stood on the corner by my high school when you wanted to make a “transaction”, but he didn’t know you. “Nah, dude, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t sell any of that. That’s illegal.”
So you’d have to convince him you weren’t working with the cops if you wanted his services.
And Saul does that here. He swears to this woman by YHWH - as if that means anything to him - that he’s no narc. And she’s convinced.
Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” He said, “Bring up Samuel for me.”
Now let’s think about this. Think about how desperate Saul is.
Back in chapter 15, when Saul fails to destroy the Amalekites, Samuel tells him that God has taken the kingdom from him, and we’re told that the two of them didn’t see each other for the rest of Samuel’s life.
In chapter 19, Saul is hunting David who has gone to hide out at Samuel’s place, and as Saul approaches the town, the Spirit comes upon him, he strips down naked, and falls to the ground in some ecstatic prophetic state so that he can’t hurt David. God protected David and Samuel from Saul.
And here, Saul is so desperate - he has run out of other options. And he wants Samuel’s help. They guy who, by the way - the last two times Saul has seen him - has told him God has judged him and is taking the kingdom from him.
This is literally Saul’s last option.
So the woman tries to contact Samuel, and:
When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul.” The king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What do you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.” He said to her, “What is his appearance?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped in a robe.” And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage.
Now a few things to note here. First off, we aren’t told how this woman summoned Samuel. We’re just told that she did. Usually, she and her clientele would be fooled by demons into believing they were speaking to the dead.
Here, we are told this is actually the spirit of Samuel. We aren’t told how this happens - whether God was the immediate cause or He allowed her “magic” to actually work apart from demonic power.
Second, we aren’t told how the woman recognizes Saul. We are just told that she does.
Third, she says that he sees a god coming up out of the earth. This is the word elohim - the same word used for the gods of the nations, like Dagon of the Philistines. Normally, this woman would see a false god - an actual entity. She was used to dealing with demons.
Fourth, notice that when Saul is told Samuel is there, he bows and pays homage to him. Don’t miss the subtlety of what the author is describing. The woman who deals in the demonic says a “god” is coming up out of the earth, and Saul bows to that “god.”
And the reason mediums are called mediums, is because the dead would speak through them. So here, it is likely that the woman is physically speaking the words of Samuel in this conversation.
Then Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul answered, “I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams. Therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do.”
Notice that this is the second time Samuel is referred to as coming “up.” The woman saw a god coming up out of the earth. Samuel wants to know here why Saul has disturbed him and brought him up.
And this give us a glimpse into the Jewish idea of the afterlife. Both the good and evil went to Sheol - the place of the dead. And it was under the earth. The Jews - like all of the ancient world - believed the earth was flat, and that under it was where the dead went.
Also notice that Saul tells Samuel that God has turned away from him. Is that what happened? Or might Saul be leaving out a major part of the story here?
The fact of the matter is that Saul turned away from God. While God is sovereign in electing the saved to life, nobody is condemned who doesn’t willingly turn their back on God.
God chooses who will receive His grace, yet He only forsakes those who forsake Him.
And here, Saul - in typical Saul fashion - doesn’t think he did anything. He is telling Samuel that God has turned away from him. Like God has wronged him in some way.
So Samuel says:
And Samuel said, “Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy?
Samuel isn’t agreeing with Saul that this is on God. He’s saying that if God is against Saul, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
And then, he explains to Saul what has really happened:
The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me, for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. Moreover, the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.”
Samuel reminds Saul - you made yourself God’s enemy because of what you did. And, of course, because of what he didn’t do.
And Samuel reminds Saul of his prophecy from when he was alive. God has torn the kingdom from him and given it to his neighbor - the same wording as in chapter 15.
Only now, the neighbor is named. It’s David. We all knew it. So did Saul.
But now God was about to bring this all to completion.
And why? Because of Saul’s disobedience. Because he ignored God and His Word. Because he chose his way over God’s way.
And because of that - because he turned from God - Saul was going to be judged. And Israel would be judged with him.
As the king goes, so Israel goes.
And the Philistines would defeat Israel, and Saul and his sons would die.
Down, down, down.
And it is important to note that the reason Saul was going to die - the reason for his judgment - was not just because of his previously ignoring God in the incident with Amalek. Not just because he disobeyed God in that.
We are told in 1 Chronicles the full reason why Saul was judged:
So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance.
Saul was also judged because he sought guidance from the medium. He sought to be like the world around him who sought false gods.
Saul died because he chose worldly wisdom over God’s wisdom.
Saul died because he refused to listen to God but expected God to listen to him.
Saul was judged for his faithlessness.
So, as I said, there was a consistent trajectory for Saul.
Ignore God’s commands, ignore his own responsibility, ignore the people of God, and eventually, in today’s passage, Saul’s life ends in false worship, separation from God, and death.
But it all started when Saul decided to ignore what God had already said.
So even though in this chapter Saul sought God, he sought God for the wrong reason and in the wrong way. Remember, the why and how matter.
Saul asked for God to fulfill his need without himself fulfilling his responsibility
Saul sought guidance from the wrong places - he didn’t get what he wanted from God - not caring about what God wanted from him - so he sought the wisdom of the world and lived according to the ways of the world
And, yes, Saul was desperate - this was his last-ditch effort to avoid what he feared. He asked Samuel “what shall I do?” But Samuel’s answer was to point him to what he should have already done and been doing.
Samuel says this is because Saul didn’t listen to God starting all those years ago.
Saul ignored his responsibility to God. From his disobedience to God’s Word, to ignoring God’s direct command in favor of his own way, to not being who he was called to be, to turning his back on his own people, all the way to ignoring his responsibility for his poor relationship with God.
And I ask: If Saul would have taken his responsibility as God’s chosen more seriously at any point - if he hadn’t ignored the Law and unlawfully sacrificed, if he had obeyed God in the incident with the Amalekites, if he had paid more attention to his calling instead of trying to hold on to what he had his own way… what might have been different?
And we can all ask the same thing, can’t we?
I mean, we’ve all agreed before that it is far easier to look back and see God’s grace and God’s provision after we come out the other side of a trial.
But I wonder - if we took our responsibility to God more seriously, if we took what He says in His Word more seriously and obeyed even in the small things, if we paid more attention to our calling as God’s chosen instead of doing things our way…what might have been different?
Now, it my not mean that God wold have spared us from the trial, but those that we place ourselves into would have certainly been avoided. Or we may have been able to see God’s grace during the trial and learned to rely on Him more through it.
Maybe you’re in a trial right now. Maybe you are in the midst of a storm and you can’t see God’s good and gracious providence at work through it.
Maybe you’re dealing with an illness - for you or someone you love. Maybe you are struggling financially. Maybe you are having trouble with a relationship, romantic or otherwise.
Well then now is the time to realize that God has not turned His back on you. He has not moved away from you. Not an inch! He doesn’t forsake those who do not forsake Him.
But maybe we need to think about how we have included God in what we’re going through.
Maybe we need to seek what He has to say and obey Him right now more than we need anything else.
If we would just seek Him, hear Him, and listen - what would be different?
How much more confident could we be that God will hear us? That He will preserve and provide for us? That He will use us to achieve His glorious purpose in our world?
And more importantly:
If we will seek Him, hear Him, and listen - what will be different?
Seeking God, God’s way. Hearing what God has to say. Obeying God in what He has said - doing all of this now is not just about now. Saul's failure to do so in each incident was not just about those incidents. It affected everything he did after that for his whole life!
If we will seek God His way, hear what He has to say, and obey Him - each of us and all of us together - it will affect everything we do for the rest of our lives.
It will put us and MCC on a trajectory towards doing great things for God - more than we can even imagine.
Seek God where He can be found. Get in the Word. Not to get through it. Not to check an item off your to-do list. But to meet with God. To know Him as He has revealed Himself.
To hear Him. To hear what He has to say to us as His chosen people. To know what His great love has done for us and what our responsibility to Him is.
And while it may not change what you do tomorrow or what God does through you this week - if we start to listen to what God says - it will affect everything we do one, two, five years from now.
And we will see God do great things.
We know what happens when we don’t listen to God. We have Saul as a warning.
But I can’t wait to see what happens if we do.