Saul's Faith
Sermon #415
Who is Coming?
1 Samuel 28; 2 Kings 20:1-5
Intro:
Two chapters previous to the one we are studying today, David, early in his life, is on the run from king Saul. Saul knew that if David lived he would take the kingdom away from him in time, and so chased him around the country. After years of hiding, David learns that Saul’s army is just around the corner, but instead of running this time he goes at night to the edge of Saul’s camp of 3000 men, sees where the king is lying, and turns to two of his closest advisors: Ahimelech the Hittite (a non-Jew) and the other the military commander Abashai, and says [“I’m going to go down there to Saul, who wants to come with me?”] A camp of 3000 men, who are there for only one purpose: to hunt David and anyone with him. The king was easy to find: he is in the middle of that camp, surrounded in all directions. Who is coming? Not a rational decision, one that involves some faith that God is going to do something special. In fact if God does not, something terrible will certainly happen. Who is coming? Did David have some kind of internal prompt from God? Maybe. But nothing is ever certain, it still had to be responded to.
* So what is faith? A knowledge of something we have never seen. A relationship with someone we have never met face to face. A life lived in the hope of promises we only get sips of.
The book of First Samuel in the Old Testament is a book of history – stories of faith, and sometimes lack of faith that teach us about God and ourselves. Key to that history is the life of king Saul, the first king of Israel, a man anointed (chosen) by God to rule the land. A man who started well but seemed to lose his resolve as time went along.
* Saul’s current situation
* The Philistines Invade!
* Now near the end of Saul’s life he was called into an emergency: The Philistines had assembled a great army and were preparing to invade. Not that he heard rumours that in a year or two the Philistines might invade, nor that they were starting to amass – they were already amassed and at the doorstep. In response he hastily gathered his own army and camped at a town opposite the enemy. The idea of a standing, professional army did not come about until recent times. Saul just literally ‘gathered’ whoever was around and willing to come. The Philistines were ready for a fight, were the Israelites?
* No Reply from the Lord
When he saw the other Philistines he was afraid – literally his heart ‘fluttered’, and he sought the advice of God to know whether they would win or not. But…
* 1 Samuel 28:6
6 He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets.
SO there was no reply. God was not answering in any of the usual methods.
So, what to do….?
* Abraham and Hagar
* Genesis 16:1-2
1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar;
2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
Well, it seemed a good idea. God isn’t working, so it is time to take matters into your own hands. Sarah felt that she was running out of years, Saul must have felt he was running out of hours.
* Saul Visits the medium
* SO not finding any reply from God Saul seeks a spirit medium to conduct a séance for him. (Now he had himself driven all such people out of his kingdom, yet when he asks for one, his servants have no trouble finding someone.)
So he and two of his most trusted men sneak out of camp at night in disguise and go to this woman’s home. The woman, however, objects that Saul has outlawed such practices and anyone caught doing them will die. Saul himself swore to herby the name of the Lord, that no harm would come to her (no doubt further displeasing God), and then asks that she specifically raise the prophet Samuel to give advice.
* Now whether such a thing is allowed by God to ever happen or not is somewhat in debate. The woman tries her stuff, and loudly cried out in surprise, turns to Saul and accuses him of being the king! Why? Because something really happened – it looks to her that Samuel is actually coming up, and how could this be possible unless this man in front of her was the Lord’s anointed king. In other words, when she saw Samuel, she didn’t say “Yeah, that was what I was expecting. I get paid for this, this is what usually happens.”
* The king sees his old advisor and bows his head to the ground.
* 1 Samuel 28:15-17,19
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 turned away 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.”
16 Samuel said, “Why do you consult me, now that the Lord has turned away from you and become your enemy?
17 The Lord has done what he predicted through me. The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbours—to David.
19 The Lord will hand over both Israel and you to the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also hand over the army of Israel to the Philistines.”
The knowledge of his relationship with God
So God has indeed turned away from him. He knew it, and Samuel confirmed it. O the blessing of knowing where you are at with God. How useful this is to the heart, and how dangerous the lack of such knowledge is. To Saul this seemed all bad news, yet knowing where you are with God is a great blessing. * This knowledge could have been used as a spur to repentance, and seeking God, yet it was wasted on Saul.
How could we find this out? Even seeking to know it usually is a good sign.
God is always willing to have us come back to Him.
* The reasons for God’s departure
* 1 Samuel 28:18
18 Because you did not obey the Lord or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this to you today.
So he did not in general obey the Lord, nor complete a specific task as an example of that disobedience.
Lack of obedience in general
Going through the life of Saul, perhaps one could pick out a number of specific incidents where he was faithless and disobedient. But he is first accused in a general accusation of not obeying the Lord. The everyday prayer, faithfulness, love, and mercy that the Lord calls us all to. Living our lives with purity, even if that seems a little boring sometimes. Here is a good example of faith: doing what is right in everyday life, even if there does not seem to be anyone watching.
* Lack of obedience in specific tasks
1 Samuel 15:7-9
7 Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, to the east of Egypt.
8 He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword.
9 But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.
SO it was a half-way obedience. A disobedience that seemed to be convenient at the time, a way to have your cake and eat it too. But it wasn’t right, and everyone knew it, but no one wanted to admit it.
At first Saul tells him that he has indeed carried out God’s mission and destroyed te Amalekites, except for the king. Samuel asks what is that lowing of cattle he hears, and Saul says that is just the best of the animals, but I intend to sacrifice them to the Lord as soon as we get to the altar place. Samuel replies that because of this disobedience God is taking the kingdom from Saul, and then Saul tells the truth:
1 Samuel 15:24
24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them.
* God gives us special tasks
* Like Saul, and all of the saints of the Bible, God sometimes gives us special tasks to carry out. Even though we do not have a prophet to clarify these for us, we usually know when He is calling us to really stretch out in faith to accomplish something. It might come about as a special burden dropped into your lap, someone in particular who needs some special help, or maybe a personal challenge: like witnessing to someone, or being somewhere or doing something for God that kind of takes you outside your comfort zone. In any case, there will be these times where we are called to do something a little extraordinary or unusual. How boring the world would be for us if we ignored those challenges.
* Saul’s Reaction/repentance
1 Samuel 28:20
20 Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, filled with fear because of Samuel’s words. His strength was gone, for he had eaten nothing all that day and night.
AT the end of the episode he indeed seems to accept Samuel’s judgement that he will lose the kingdom and even his own life. He falls on the ground, full length, filled with fear. The witch offers him food, which he refuses at first, but eventually takes. After a while he gets up, has supper and then goes on his way. SO what is the difference between the fear that Saul felt and the repentance that Hezekiah did when confronted with his own death? Hezekiah wept and cried out to God, and God recognized those things. Saul indeed seemed to accept Samuel’s words as true, yet his acknowledgement was not enough. * It had no faith action to it. It was full of feeling but not full of faith
Did he feel sorrow? I think so, though it says he more felt fear. But the whole incident seemed to result more in an embarrassing situation for him. It had all the usual embarrassing parts (remember David naked before the Lord?) but none of the good results repentance otherwise brings.
* Halfway to repentance is nowhere
* Now this kind of half-repentance was part of Saul’s pattern. In the Amalekite passage, he indeed seemed to repent, but he didn’t go far enough. He falls at Samuel’s feet and tears his robe in an attempt to get him to stay and ‘worship the Lord with me.’ Samuel refuses at first, but Saul then insists again, but adds the real reason:
* 30 Saul replied, “I have sinned. But please honour me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me,
He could have continued to pursue God and insist Samuel help him, but he never really did. There was an initial twinge of repentance, and then he sort of went back to his life.
* Hezekiah’s repentance
* 2 Kings 20:1-5
1 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,
3 “Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him:
5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord.
* Set your house in order
You are going to die.
He seemed to take this in the deepest way possible, not just making a will but in setting things right with God.
* Sincere and private prayer
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,
Why is turning his face to the wall significant?
M Henry feels that it was done to seek privacy. Not being able to go to a private place, h did the best he could to talk to God privately. Ray Duerksen told me that corporate prayer has its place but the real work with God happens one-on-one.
* Prayer and weeping
3 “Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Not done in an attempt to manipulate God through emotions, as though tears could shame him into doing something, but that this was an authentic feeling of repentance that overwhelmed king Hezekiah.
* God heard his prayer and saw his tears
That in the eyes of God, not a drop of those tears was wasted. It is interesting that God notices this.
* Anointing not permanent protection/approval
I suppose what strikes me is that even though he was anointed, that anointing did not in and of itself guarantee the continual blessing of God. It needed to be complemented with a life of faith.
The thing is that he lived a normal life outside of this. No one would have pegged him as particularly faithless, but these times of testing seemed to reveal his true colors. It reminds me of that illustration of the church where a bunch of guys with guns break in and start lining people up against the wall. They say that only the true Christians have to stay, ad so a big part of the congregation leaves, fearing the worst. The gunmen then take off their masks and say “Great, brothers, let’s have church!”
Conclusion
Faith is the victory
1 John 5:4, "This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith."