1 Samuel 28-31 Saul’s Last Resort And David’s Hard Reset

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Transcript

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All right, First Samuel Twenty Eight. First Samuel twenty-eight. Wow, I need something to keep my page steady here. Oh, like this. All right. First Samuel twenty-eight. Now, we are focusing on the life of David. Could call it the making of the man of God. But we found over and over again that God is more interested in working in us than he is in working through us. And he's been working in the life of David over 12 to 13 years in this being chased by Saul through the wilderness. Now, with any luck, we'll we'll finish the book of 1 Samuel because so much of what's here is the life of Saul. Now we could consider the life of Saul, but it's a depressing thing, right? Because Saul is on his way out, he's on his way down. He's resisted God's work in his life. He's disobeyed, and God's spirit has departed from him. He's chosen another uh king, that's David. And so it's really a sad story when we look at the life of Saul. We'll see that a little bit today. But as far as it concerns the life of David, where are we at? Uh last week, um David took a little turn to Gath. Uh, you'll remember he relied on his own understanding of what would work and what would be beneficial, and he he ran to Akish, the king, there in Gath, and there's zero inquiry of the Lord. He spends no time asking God what he thinks, he just does it. And it's not good. He's living a lie, right? He's deceptive, we saw last week. He's not trusting God because he hasn't even considered God, as we can tell, in the equation. And today it will come back to bite him a little bit. Um, and God's gonna get his attention. Um, today we'll see God bringing through discipline, bringing David back to that place of faith. Um, well, let's look at chapter 28, starting in verse 3. We're gonna start with the life of Saul a little bit. Notice in verse 3 now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented for him and buried him in Ramah in his own city. And Saul had put mediums and spiritus out of the land. Then the Philistines gathered together and came and encamped at Shunim. So Saul gathered all Israel together and they encamped at Gilboa. Um, when Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled. Wow, for the wind. Miss Deb, what happened? And Saul and 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, neither by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets. So here we go. The life of Saul, it's the downward slope. He's gathering to fight the Philistines there. And Samuel, we see in verse 3, Samuel has died. Samuel is no more. So Saul, maybe at one point in his life, would inquire of the Lord. Then he kind of just stopped that altogether. He started depending on Samuel for the leading. But Samuel had died, taken out of his life. And as the Philistines gather, Saul is afraid and he's wondering what to do and trembled. Notice in verse 5, trembled. And Saul inquired of the Lord, but the Lord didn't answer him, right? Um, given many chances to inquire of the Lord, many chances to obey the Lord, and uh he disobeyed. And God was was not there for him after this. Um, now notice verse 7, where he turns. Saul said to his servants, Find me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her. And his servant said to him, In fact, there is a woman who is a medium at Endor. So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night, and he said, Please conduct a seance for me, and bring up for me the one I shall name to you. Then the woman said to him, Look, you know what Saul has done. Why do you lay a snare for my life to cause me to die? And Saul swore to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing. And the woman said, Whom shall I bring up for you? And he said, Bring up Samuel for me. So here Saul doesn't have anywhere else to turn. He doesn't know where to turn. And so he turns to um a medium, right? Someone to summon the dead. Now, the Bible is very, very clear. Things like mediums and seances and spiritists, fortune tellers, all these things, God said, get them out of the land, utterly annihilate them. You're not to have anything to do with that. And Saul did to some degree, but this woman was left by choice. I don't know, um, maybe by just happenstance. But Saul finds out that she's there and goes to her. Now, I just want to put out there real quickly, the same is true for us. Uh, I have known many Christians who turn to things like Ouija boards and and seances and fortune tellers and all sorts of things like that, and go, well, you know, it's just good fun. It's not, right? If there's anything that is in it, it's demonic, and you ought to know it and you shouldn't mess with it. Um, now, a one-time shot here for Saul, um, this is the only time we have in record of anything real happening outside of demonic. Because as he comes, as he comes to her, he says, Bring up for the one I bring up the one I asked for. Well, who's that? Interesting. If you're a fortune teller, well, shouldn't you know that? I'm just telling. If you really know anything, shouldn't you know who he wants to bring up? She doesn't. He says, Bring up Samuel. Notice verse 12. 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. And and so it actually works. Why does she scream? Perhaps because she actually saw Samuel. Now, this is a one-time shot. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 9, verse 27, it is appointed in a man once to die, and then the judgment. Can people come back from the dead like this? Not according to the Bible. When you're dead, you go to heaven or you go to hell, and that's it. Uh, there is no coming back. But here, bless you, here it says it was Samuel. Now, I'll take that as it was Samuel. But it's a one-time shot. And what he speaks, as you look on here, what he speaks is actually true. So interesting. Let's skip to verse 19. Samuel is is giving Saul a little bit of um information. Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons will be with me dead, right? The Lord will also deliver the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. And and so Saul gets this information. How's the battle gonna go? You're gonna die. You and your sons. Now that's exactly what happens as we read on in chapter 31. You can look at that yourself. Saul goes to fight and and he's hit by an archer. Uh, so in despair is Saul that he calls for his armor bearer to help him kill himself. And that's the end of Saul. Now, his sons, Jonathan included, also die there on that mountain with Saul. And it's a sad, sad story. And that's the end of Saul. Now, we're studying the life of David, so let's head into chapter 29. A little bit of a meanwhile here for David and his men in chapter 29. So you'll remember David is living with the Philistines at this point. And notice in verse 1, then the Philistines gathered together all their armies at Aphakh, and the Israelites encamped by a fountain, which is called Jezreel. And the Lord of the Philistines passed by in review by hundreds, by thousands, but David and his men passed in review at the rear with Akish. Then the princes of the Philistines said, What are these Hebrews doing here? And Akish said to the princes of the Philistines, Is this not David, the servant of King uh the king of Israel, who has been with me these days or these years? And to this day I have found no fault in him, since he is defected to me. I trust him. Verse 4. But the princes and the Philistines were angry with him. So the princes of the Philistines said to him, Make this fellow return, that he may go back to the place which uh you have appointed to him, and do not let him go down with us to battle, lest he the battle become uh he become our adversary. For with what would we reconcile himself to his master if not the heads of these men? Is this not David, of whom they sang to one another in dances, saying, Oh man, Saul has killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands. I hate that song, David said, right? And and so you get it, right? David's there to fight along with the Philistines against Saul, that's his intent. And the Philistines go, hey, wait a second. This guy killed Goliath. Man, that's song. Saul's killed his thousands, David's killed his tens of thousands, he's gonna turn and kill us. You can't take him to a battle against Israel. That's a bad idea. And so David is sent back there. Uh, he's sent back to his home. Now, check it out. I think this is important. We've seen God lead David in so many different ways through his convictions, through circumstances, all these different things. I think this is once again God leading David. You look at it and go, well, it's not what he wanted to happen, right? He wanted to go and fight the battle and be faithful in what he was at. It was a closed door. Achus says, You're not coming with me. Now, references, keep this in your mind as a reference in the leading of God. Um, open doors are great, right? Oh, an open door, an opportunity, maybe God's leading. That's great. Closed doors are actually even better. If the opportunity is non-existent, there's your answer. That's what God wants. Man, God's able to open and close doors. I often pray, girl, God, if you don't want me to do this, if you don't want me to get into this investment or whatever it is, if you don't want me to go this way, close the door, close it hard, right? And here, it's a hard close for David as Aker says, I'm sorry, you can't come with us. Now, this is the Lord, this is God's grace in David's life. Because check it out. What if he had gone with the Philistines against Israel? There is no way that Israel would have taken him as their king. He would have been against Jonathan, perhaps, in the battle, his good friend. Imagine if he had been in that circumstance, how hard that would have been. And so God led him, I think, by his grace. Now, the story's just getting interesting here. Notice chapter 30. Now it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag. Now that's where he was staying amongst the Philistines, the city that he was given, Ziklag. On the third day, now watch this, that the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag and attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great. Now they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. So David and his men came to the city, and there it was burned with fire, and their wives, their sons, their daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep. Look at verse six. Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of the people was grieved, every man for his sons, his daughters, but David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. So we find David as they come back to their camp, there at Ziklag. It's a mess. It's burned. Everybody is gone. And the evidence, the Amalekites have attacked, taken away our families and everything that we had. Picture that as they come back and they and it says here they wept until they had no more strength to weep. You can imagine that, right? Something so hard as your family being taken away. They they weep. And notice there in verse um six, uh David was distressed. Why? Because they wanted to kill him. You're our leader, our faithful leader. What? Our families are gone. Let's kill him, right? Kill this guy. And David is distressed. And the idea there behind uh distressed is that he's he's frustrated and and and well, distressed. You get it, right? David feels responsible. Aside from them wanting to kill him, he feels responsible. Check it out. When you're a leader of anybody in any kind of way, you ought to feel responsible. David, I think, feels very responsible for his people. As a husband, there was something that clicked when I got married, and I felt very responsible for my wife, right? And there's this thing over you. You know, when you become a parent, you just you should feel very responsible for your children, their well-being. But anybody, right? Whoever it is, the people that you have influence over, if you're if you're just a young person and there's a younger child that you have influence over to be an example to, you ought to feel responsible for how you represent God and how they do and all these things. It's like being a shepherd. A shepherd feels responsible for the sheep, and we all have those ways that we feel responsible. And here, David, man, he feels it. I mean, not only they want to kill him, but man, these are his men, these are his people, and they're all gone and they're sitting there crying, and David is in distress. We can say that about David at this point. He's in distress and we can feel it, but what does he do? Look at verse six. It was so quick, but look at verse six at the very end. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. And I feel like we should put the word finally in there. I'm not gonna like add to the Bible or anything like that, but I feel like we should put in there, and David finally strengthened himself in the Lord as God, right? As they're sitting there ripping their clothes and tearing their hair out and crying out. Finally, David goes, Oh man, I gotta get out of here for a second. And it says he strengthened himself or encouraged himself in the Lord as God. Interesting, that word strengthened is the same word that's used for Pharaoh in the book of Exodus. You know, where Pharaoh hardens his heart, ugly thing, theological debates about what that means that Pharaoh hardened his heart, you know. But we can get the idea that Pharaoh just determined more and more stubbornly, I am not letting these people go. And he hardened his heart, and then God hardened his heart, and then God smashed him, right, at the Red Sea. But but but there's that idea of solidifying what's going on in your heart. And that's what David did with his relationship with God. It says here that he strengthened himself in the Lord his God. And we just want to say, yes, that's it. That's what we've been waiting for over these chapters, that David would strengthen himself in the Lord his God. And I think there is a determination, isn't there, in that? A determination when you decide, I want to strengthen myself in the Lord my God, right? It's like exercise, something I know absolutely nothing about, but I know it's like exercise, right? Check it out. You can determine at the beginning of the year, I'm gonna get healthy, I'm gonna get fit, I'm gonna exercise. But listen, if you don't do it, it doesn't mean anything, right? We know that. That's what happens to most of us, right? We just don't do it. Good intentions, no action. Well, spiritual exercise is the same way. Let's turn because I think turning would be good. 1 Timothy 4 7. Way to the New Testament. 1 Timothy 4-7. So Paul's writing a letter to his little friend Timmy and encouraging him in the Christian life and in ministry and all these things. 1 Timothy 4, 7, he says this to him but reject profane old wives' fables and exercise yourself toward godliness. That's the part to underline. Exercise yourself toward godliness, for bodily bodily exercise profits a little. And this is almost a life verse to me. Bodily exercise profits a little, right? But here he says, but godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of life that now is, and of that which is to come. So here Paul tells Timothy, hey Tim, exercise yourself to godliness. Oh, yeah, do your sit-ups, do your crunches, whatever you want to do, but exercise yourself to godliness. Take some, you know, some stock in your spiritual fitness. Now, again, the same way exercise takes action, so does spiritual fitness. We really have to determine, God, I want to know you more. God, I want to have a right perspective on life. It will not just happen. It absolutely won't happen. It's entropy, you know. Things go from order to disorder, you know, things fall apart. If you just let your spiritual life go, it's gone, right? And I suppose that's why most of us are here this morning, because we want to exercise ourselves in godliness. But here David in some ways strengthened himself in the Lord. And I just picture, I picture him walking off, you know. He's like, hey, before you guys stone me, give me just a second. And he goes off, maybe he takes his harp with him, you know, and he starts to just sing psalms, you know, uh, like he used to, right? Maybe like Joshua before the battle of Jericho, he goes off by himself and he's like, God, what do I do? And there you'll remember before the battle of Jericho, uh, it's the captain of the Lord's armies meets him. I think Jesus and gives him directions. Um and whatever way it was, Joshua, David, us, we strengthen ourselves in the Lord. Some godly exercise. Now that's what he did, and that's what he purposed. And we're given one specific thing here. Come back to 1 Samuel chapter 30, verse 7. Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, please bring the ephod here to me. And Abiathar brought the ephod to David, uh priestly garments to inquire of the Lord, right? And David said, Uh, let's see, so David inquired, verse 8, good important. So David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them? And God answered him, Pursue them. Uh, you shall surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. So David did this one thing. He inquired of the Lord. Now, check it out. I wish I could get some real detail on that word inquired, but it just means ask, right? It just means ask. It doesn't mean you know, grab some incense and offer it to the Lord and a sacrifice and turn around three times. There's nothing like that. You just ask. And that's what the Bible, that's what God does. He says, you know what? It's simple, David. Just ask me. You don't have to go through a whole process. Just talk to me. I love our definition of prayer. If you ask any Sunday school class, what's prayer? Talking to God, right? And you go, that's so simple. But that's all it is. David brought God into the equation and said, God, what do you want me to do today? And and God, believe it or not, answered him. Now I love in this that there's no probation in this. God's not like us, right? When somebody lets us down, we're like, I'll forgive you, but give me some time. I'm gonna need some time to get over this. God says, It's been a while. Why don't you just ask? And David goes right back into a relationship with God. There's no hoops to deal with. Now he probably had to confess, right? In order to get to that place, he probably had to confess. Confess just means to agree, to say the same thing. So David had to say, you know what, God, I've been wrong. I didn't ask you a single thing. I have been absolutely wrong these last few months, these last few years. And John says, 1 John 1 9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, right? We just say, God, I was wrong. And then it's repentance, right? He had to have repentance because you got to go the opposite direction. That's all that repentance means is to go, you're going one way, you turn around, you go the other way. David had to inquire of the Lord, which is totally different than what he had been doing. So confession, repentance, and then boom, God's right there. And look at what God gives him, right? David's so frustrated. They want to kill him. What's going to happen to my family? What's going to happen to all these people that I love? And God says, You're going to recover all. All? Yeah. Every single one of them. And if we look forward as we can, verse 18. So David recovered all. And it happens, right? Because God said it. Now, at the point that David inquired of the Lord, and God said, David, go for it. You're going to recover all. Imagine. I mean, I can imagine it was difficult, but imagine if you took God at his word and you said, It's going to be okay. You're going to recover all. Peace. Boom. Peace. Right back to that place where it's just resting in God and God saying, God, I got this. David, I'll do it. Just trust me. And David's right back where he needed to be. But how hard is it? Confession can be difficult. Say, God, I've been really wrong in my attitude. Confession with a person is maybe even harder, right? I've been really wrong in the way I treated you. Sorry. Repentance, well, we just got to start going the right direction. If we're going the wrong direction, we turn around and we start going the right direction. And then the peace that passes all understanding can guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, you know. God can change a very distressful situation. That doesn't mean that the problem goes away. He had a little bit of gap time there, right? To deliver them. I think the problem's still there, and that was probably still hard. But back in that place of just trusting the good shepherd and God, whatever comes next, you show me. Uh, the best place to be. So, God, uh it's one thing to know stuff, but it's another thing to do it. God, I just pray that you give us the grace that we need to turn back to you with all of our heart. If that's us, God, maybe we've been distracted in our lives. Um, maybe we just felt overwhelmed. And you know our weakness, you know my weakness. It is so hard to trust you, but it's so good. God, I just pray that you would help us to apply these things to our life. God, we confess that we need you. There's not a single part of life we can take care of ourselves. God, we absolutely need you. Um help us to trust you this week. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.