Spiritual Realities

Prayer

The Final Fall of Saul

So today we finish the book of 1 Samuel, which is the story of the first kings who reigned over Israel, namely Saul and David. We’ll be covering the last chapters, 25-31, with a focus on chapter 28, which is a really strange story.

We’ve been looking at how their stories have been going in completely opposite directions - Saul has been in a free fall - though his reign began well, things got worse and worse as he continued to disobey God. He went deeper and deeper into that fear and paranoia and jealousy, to the point where he continues to hunt down David in order to kill him.

Saul recognizes the threat that David is, as God has already chosen and anointed David to replace Saul as king. And continually we’ve been reminded that the Lord is with David. And David needs it, because he is now on the run from David, his life in constant danger. Last week we saw that though David had a prime opportunity to kill Saul - and would have been completely justified to do so - he chose instead to return good for evil and show mercy on Saul. That was 1 Samuel 24.

Now very briefly - and I encourage you to read through these chapters themselves, I want to let you know what happens in 1 Samuel 25, 26, & 27. Through a strange set of circumstances David finds a second wife, a woman by the name of Abigail. That story is in 1 Samuel 25 - in chapter 26 we get a story that’s very similar to what happened in chapter 24. Once again the Lord puts Saul in David’s hands, and once again, David refuses to put Saul to death. In spite of Saul being humbled, recognizing his wrong, he does not give up the chase. So in chapter 27 we see David making his way into the territory of the Philistines with his 600 men, knowing that Saul will not come after him there. If you remember, the Philistines are the primary enemy of the Israelites.

Which brings us to 1 Samuel 28, our main focus today. Speaking of the Philistines, we learn this, vs. 1 - In those days the Philistines gathered their forces to fight against Israel. Not just that, but Israel’s spiritual leader, Samuel, dies, and the nation mourns him.

This leaves Saul in a terrible predicament, 1 Samuel 28:4-6: The Philistines assembled and came and set up camp at Shunem, while Saul gathered all Israel and set up camp at Gilboa. 5 When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart. 6 He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets. Again, we see Saul responding in fear, terror filling his heart. In his moment of panic, he seeks the Lord, but the Lord has left him and will not respond to him, which panics him further.

Saul moves toward desperate measures, vs. 7: Saul then said to his attendants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.” “There is one in Endor,” they said. Saul decides to seek out a woman involved in the occult, who tries to communicate with the dead. Now, I skipped over this part, but earlier in the text, we learned that Saul had banished all the mediums and spiritists from the land - likely at the encouragement of Samuel. Consider the irony of this - in his desperation to get a word from the Lord, he seeks out unlawful ways to do it - the Mosiac law made it crystal clear that occult practices were expressly forbidden.

In spite of that, his attendants know of one in the town of Endor, so Saul puts on a disguise and with a couple of his men, goes to visit the woman, and asks that she consult a spirit for him. Now she is suspicious, she’s doing illegal work and she’s afraid this is a trap. Saul assures her, again, ironically, with a vow to the Lord, that she will not be punished. Saul asks her to bring up Samuel. And this is where it gets really strange:

1 Samuel 28:12-16, When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!” 13 The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?” The woman said, “I see a ghostly figure coming up out of the earth.” 14 “What does he look like?” he asked. “An old man wearing a robe is coming up,” she said. Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. 15 Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” “I am in great distress,” Saul said. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has departed from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do.”

Hard to know exactly what’s going on - biblical scholars are all over the map here. We’re going to take it at face value, as it’s presented to us, which seems to me to be the most faithful way. Notice that the woman is surprised that it’s actually Samuel coming up from Sheol, the realm of the dead. She realizes that it’s Saul who’s right there in front of her, asking her to do this. As Samuel appears, Saul throws himself to the ground before him. Samuel is not happy - why are you bothering me?! And Saul tells his sad tale of God abandoning him. He’s desperate for answers.

But he’s not going to get answers from Samuel, Samuel reminds him of why the Lord has departed from him - because of his disobedience. He then gives him this ominous word, still serving as the Lord’s prophet, vs. 19: The Lord will deliver both Israel and you into the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.

As you might imagine, Saul does not take this news well - can you blame him? He’s just been told that the next day he and his sons and the army of Israel will be given into the hands of the Philistines. They are going to their death tomorrow. He collapses, “filled with fear because of Saul’s words.” The woman, the medium and the two men who came with Saul convince him to eat something then the men go on their way.

Just quickly, the last three chapters of 1 Samuel. In 1 Samuel 29 & 30, we get stories about David and his men, who’ve been living in Philistine territory. They’re great stories that reveal both David’s faithfulness to God, as well as how astute he is as both a military and political leader (so take time to read them!).

We’re going to spend just a moment on 1 Samuel 31 - because here we get the end of Saul and his reign. As Samuel foretold, the battle takes place between the Philistines and the Israelites does not go well, vs. 1-3: Now the Philistines fought against Israel; the Israelites fled before them, and many fell dead on Mount Gilboa. 2 The Philistines were in hot pursuit of Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua. 3 The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him critically.

Saul, wanting to ensure that the Philistines do not overtake and abuse him - orders his armor-bearer to kill him, but his armor-bearer refuses. So Saul falls on his own sword, killing himself. Here’s where the Israelites find themselves in a bad situation, 1 Samuel 31:7, When the Israelites along the valley and those across the Jordan saw that the Israelite army had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their towns and fled. And the Philistines came and occupied them. So that’s how the book of 1 Samuel ends.

We’ll pick things back up when we start with 2 Samuel next week, and then take a break from our journey through the story of the Old Testament as we enter the season of Advent. But today we’re going to focus on, 1 Samuel 28, and the crazy story of Saul going to seek guidance from the medium at Endor.

What do we do with this? Saul has become so desperate to get a word from the Lord - he tried casting lots, listening to him in dreams - that finally he resorts to going to this medium, a spiritist, asking her to raise up Samuel from the dead, to see if Samuel will intercede on Saul’s behalf with the Lord, as the Lord has abandoned Saul, and Saul is terrified.

What’s happening here is that Samuel is in what the Old Testament refers to as Sheol. The place of the dead. Sometimes its translated as the pit, or the depths. You’ll see that language throughout the Old Testament. To be clear, Sheol is described more as a place of waiting, this nebulous region where the dead resided. It’s not distinguished as a place of reward or punishment.

Let me give you an example from Scripture that paints this picture, this is Psalm 88, a lament of a person crying out to God, feeling abandoned, feeling as if they’re already in Sheol, even though they’re still alive, vv. 9-12 - I call to you, Lord, every day; I spread out my hands to you. 10 Do you show your wonders to the dead? Do their spirits rise up and praise you? 11 Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction? 12 Are your wonders known in the place of darkness, or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

And it was believed that a medium knew the location of what was called a ritual pit, a portal through which spirits could pass between the realms of the living and the dead, and knew the procedures necessary to summon the dead. So the woman raises up Samuel, his spirit - though she is as surprised as anyone when he actually appears. She may be surprised, but Samuel seems annoyed to have been called up.

Now, biblical scholars have a variety of views on what’s happening here - some believe it’s actually God doing this, sending Samuel as a way of judging Saul. Some suggest it’s a demon being raised up. That last view doesn’t make because one thing that the story makes clear that it is actually Samuel who appears, his spirit, that comes up from the realm of the dead to give a final word of prophetic doom to Saul.

Reason I think it’s essential that we take this story seriously, no matter how exactly it’s interpreted, is because it speaks to the reality of spirits. Of our spirits. That in the same way we have bodies, we are therefore physical beings, we have minds, we’re mental, thinking beings, we have relationships, we are social beings - we have spirits - we are spiritual beings. And this is what I want to focus on - what does that mean, that we are spiritual beings.

One of the things we learn from this story is that our spirits are eternal - after all, Samuel is dead. His body was buried, decaying, gone. But his spirit remains, that’s what the medium is bringing up from Sheol, the realm of the dead. Now, to be sure, we hold the hope that one day we will have resurrected bodies, just like Jesus (and these bodies will be eternal, as 1 Corinthians 15 teaches). How and when that happens the Bible is little unclear on - but my main point is simply to say that we have spirits, and they are eternal.

It’s vital we take this seriously because out of all the elements of who we are - physical, mental, social, spiritual - it is the spiritual that should take priority. Here’s why - it sets the course for everything else. If we don’t get this correct, we don’t get life correct. Spiritual is our connection with God, the spiritual is how we know who we truly are, what our purpose is, our true significance.

As Graham Standish teaches, is we neglect the spiritual for the one of the other three - physical, mental, social - our whole focus is life is twisted. We can see that in our culture, we are culture whose focus is on the physical. We’ve made it the most important. Why we’re consumed with our appearance, for some people health and fitness is a religion in and of itself. We’ve obsessed with staying young.

Now, to be sure, we should seek to take good care of our bodies, to pursue health - as we should our minds, seeking truth and wisdom - growing in relationships, our social connections. All important aspects of who we are. But the spiritual puts all of those in proper perspective. It guides them in right direction. Because our ultimate purpose in life is to be in eternal love relationship with Jesus. To glorify and enjoy him forever. That means the level of my attractiveness really doesn’t matter much, thank goodness.

And it’s not just that we take being spiritual beings seriously - but make sure we’re connected to the right spirit. To the one true God, the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

You know, it’s fascinating, as much as we have tried to deny spiritual reality in the modern era, trusting only in the material, truth is found only in science, people continue to seek the spiritual. A YouGov poll revealed that 27% of Americans, of all education levels and from all walks of life, believe in astrology, including 37% of people under 30. A Pew research poll revealed that about 60% of Americans believe in at least one of four New Age beliefs - one of those being astrology, the others three being belief in reincarnation, psychics, and spiritual energy being located in physical things. That 60% includes Christians, by the way.

All those stats reveal that as much as we may try to deny it, we are deeply spiritual beings - and that aspect of who we are is going to be manifested in some way. Problem is that those stats reveal is that it’s often pointed in the wrong direction. One of the ways that people will often identify themselves as - they’ll say they are spiritual, but not religious. Which is one of those things that sounds good, but what does it really mean? What does it mean to say you’re spiritual but not religious? To be religious is simply to have a belief in and reverence for God or for some deity. My guess is that most people mean that they’ve rejected organized religion, the church.

But here’s the big problem with that. I heard this great quote the other day - you can’t stop being religious. You will simply embrace something else as your religion. As spiritual beings we were made to connect with God, made for worship, to give ourselves over to something bigger than ourselves - made to give ourselves over to him.

If you think about it, that was the case for Saul. His religion was his kingdom. Everything he did was to keep reigning as king - it’s why he tried to kill David over and over again. It’s why in this moment of desperation he’s doing whatever he can to get God back on his side as his faces a battle against the Philistines, including consulting this medium. Tragically it never occurred to him to turn to the Lord, to humble himself, to repent before the Lord. To believe and revere the Lord.

Even today, if we don’t give ourselves over to God, we will make ourselves another religion - it might be climate change, life of wealth and leisure, politics, identity politics, ourselves. There is no exact quote we can found, but GK Chesterton made the following point, “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.”

This is why, as a church, one of our main focus is on spiritual formation. On engaging in, incorporating spiritual disciplines in our lives. We do so because it means that one, we are taking very serious that we are spiritual beings who were made to be living relationship with Jesus Christ, connected to him - that two - that it’s him, Jesus, that we are connected to. That he is our Lord. He is the one teaching us, showing us how to live. It’s not another god - another religion - that has become the way we express our spirituality.

So one of the things I want to leave you with this morning is the idea of soul care. What are you doing on a day to day basis to care for your soul, your spirit, your being centered in Jesus Christ and his love?

In the same way that we incorporate habits to care for our physical bodies - our diets (what we eat, what we try to avoid eating), exercising, our personal hygiene. We nurture our minds - reading, doing word and math puzzles (my mom calls these things her “homework”, working to keep her mind active). Certainly our social connections as well, friends and family.

What do you do for our soul? Saul ended up in a sea of paranoia and jealousy, murderous hatred because he neglected his soul - he would not center his life in the Lord. Only looked to him when he was in desperate need. David was the complete opposite - Psalms are filled with the rich record of a life rooted the Lord, praising him, crying out to him, always looking to him.

We talk about these disciplines are the time - discipline of solitude, daily time alone with the Lord. Of confession. Of praise (Sunday morning worship). True Sabbath keeping - not just a day off, but a day where you stop, rest - in order to be with Jesus. I want to encourage you this morning to spend time this week just reflecting on that question - how is it with my spirit? Is is centered in Jesus? If there’s something lacking there, prayerfully consider one step you can take, one “soul-training exercise” you can begin to incorporate to take for your soul by intentionally being with Jesus.