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1 Samuel 27:1-28:25 Key verse 28:17 A lesson from David and Saul ¡°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 neighbors - to David.¡± Last time we saw David spared the life of his enemy King Saul for a second time. David confessed his faith saying, ¡°The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and faithfulness¡¦may the Lord value my life and deliver me from all trouble.¡± David believed God would continue to bless and protect him. In this passage, David has been depressed in his life of faith. He falls into fear and forgets to trust in God. At the same time we also find Saul fallen into fear which lead him to the witch for foretelling the future. Through today's message, may we learn how to deal with our times of fear and doubt. I. When David was down in spirit and faith (27:1-12) Read v.1. ¡°But David thought to himself, ¡®One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.¡± David had great spiritual victories in the previous chapters. He did not revenge on the wicked Nabal (ch.25) and he let go of king Saul without revenge two times. David was learning God who protects him from his enemies. But now we find David down in spirit and faith. Even Saul promised not to harm him (26:21). But David knew he couldn¡¯t trust Saul. David was sick and tired of living a fugitive life hiding out in the mountains. Though God had already protected him in many ways, he was becoming fatigued, exhausted and fatalistic. He said the ¡°best thing¡± he could do was to escape to the Philistines. Probably escaping to enemies of Israel was not the best thing. David tried to depend on his reasonable plan. In actual, during this period of time, we could not see him inquire of the Lord to seek God¡¯s guidance as he had in the past (23:1-5). We can be like David at times. We experienced God¡¯s great help in our life in the past, even recently. But in the face of a new trial or a continuing trouble, we doubt. In spiritual exhaustion we become low in faith. We look for some human answer to the problem at hand, but it is the time to pray. Jesus said, ¡°Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.¡± (Mt 26:41) In any way, David and his 600 men took all their family members and moved into the land of the Philistines- to the land of Gath where king Achish was ruling. This was not the first time David came here. The last time was in Chapter 21 when David pretended to be insane due to his inner fear. This time, Achish is pleased to take David into his land (probably he might be pleased to see David recovered from insanity). He felt David would be an asset as the enemy of Saul. Like someone quoted it as saying, ¡°The enemy of my enemy is my friend.¡± When Saul found out David was in Gath, he gave up searching for him (4). David was able to obtain the town of Ziklag for his people- about 32Km south of Gath, so they lived somewhat isolated from king Achish and other Philistines. Altogether, David would live there for a year and four months (7). David¡¯s plan seemed to be working so far. In v.8-10 we see that during his time in Ziklag, David and his men raided people named the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites. The Amalekites were God¡¯s enemy and the Geshurites and Girzites may have been related to the Amalekites or other Canaanites of the past. Saul had failed to kill all the Amalekites out of his disobedience to God. It was the last straw in his disobedience which led to David being anointed his replacement as king (1 Sam15-16). David and his men got rich off raiding all their animals and clothes and other possessions. Achish saw David acquiring so many possessions and he asked where he had gone raiding. David answered, ¡°Against the Negev of Judah¡± or some other such place. David made it sound like he raided side areas of Israel. Actually, however, he was attacking the Israel¡¯s enemies because he wanted to show Achish that David was not a threat to him. David did such a good job misleading Achish. Look at the verse 12, ¡°Achish trusted David and said to himself, ¡®He has become so odious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant forever.¡¯¡± By lying to Achish, David had slipped into a trap. The king trusted him so much that he considered David as his servant forever. David seemed to be doing good at first when he went to the king. But he had not inquired of the Lord. We don¡¯t see David inquiring to God at all in this chapter. He depended on himself and depended on the king. As a result, he was considered as the servant of the king of Philistine, which was clearly against God¡¯s will for David because he should be the servant of God as king of Israel (28:17). In 28:1-2 we see Achish order David and his men to fight with him against Israel. He called David as his bodyguard for life. What a terrible mess David was in! This resulted from playing with sin. We call ourselves children of God and try a little sin. But later it grows until without realizing it we lose our faith and are trapped under the devil¡¯s influence. David had the promise of God to be Israel¡¯s next king. When he trusted God, he had God¡¯s protection. When doubted, he forgot God and fell into a lot of trouble. How important it is to hold the promises of God. II. When Saul fell into despair (28:1-25) In Chapter 27, we find David fallen into a mess when he forgot the promise of God. In Chapter 28, we find Saul fallen into an even worse place due to his life of disobedience to God. The Philistines were gathering for war against Israel which had happened many times before. But for Saul he sensed this conflict would be worse than before. Verse 5 says when he saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart. In the past, Saul faced the Philistines courageously and valiantly defended Israel. But now he is full of fear. He had abandoned his relationship with God through his disobedience. Especially he had spent so much time in trying to kill David. Saul also knew that God appointed David to succeed him as king. However, he had been rebelling against the will of God in his life. Especially he had no personal relationship with God. If we have a right relationship with God, we can face problems with faith and courage. But with a broken relationship with God, we face the same problems with fear because we know God is not with us. In verse 6, when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets. God refused to answer Saul because Saul never repented of his sins and kept hardening his heart before God. God also rejected Saul. Saul felt alone and fearful and desperate. Even Samuel his one time shepherd had died. Saul felt he had no where to turn. So in verse 7, we can see he resorted to inquiring of a medium. A medium is someone who is used to communicate with the dead. A female medium is also called a witch. They were used in ancient times and are still used today. Verse 3 mentioned that Saul had expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land. This was because they were enemies of God as it says in Lev20:6 ¡°I will set my face against any person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them. I am the Lord, who makes you holy.¡± But now Saul himself was seeking out a medium even disguising himself. He was actually a hypocrite. We thought about why Saul want to seek out a medium. When we are seperated from the fatih in God's promise, we become fearful of our life and want to know what will happen to us. "Can we graduate? Can we get a job? Can we get married? To whom are we married? Can we be rich? How long will I live? and so on. However, God wants us to trust his promises by faith. That¡¯s why Abraham is always a good example for us. God told Abraham to go to the place he would show him, though Abraham did not know where he was going. Abraham did not demand to know his future from God. He went by faith believing God¡¯s promise. So Hebrew Chapter 11 verse 1 says, ¡°Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.¡± When we live by faith, we are free only depending on God¡¯s promises. When we don¡¯t believe God¡¯s promises, we live in constant fear of our future. So we need personal faith in God - personal relationship with God by trusting him. God is looking for our personal faith in our life. And then the mysterious and controversial things were followed. Saul came secretly to the woman and persuaded her to bring up the spirit of Samuel from the dead. We don¡¯t know if this was Samuel¡¯s own spirit or some other manifestation. One way or another, God allowed it and Saul received the message he was seeking. The woman probably made some chanting noises and then she saw Samuel. At that point, she came to know Saul and she screamed at the top of her voice, ¡°Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!¡± It was a very weird scene. Saul fell prostrate to the ground and said to Samuel, ¡°I am in great distress. 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.¡± In Verse 16, Samuel replied, ¡°Why do you consult me, now that the Lord has turned away from you and become your enemy?¡± Let's read the verses 17-18 together. ¡°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 neighbors- to David. Because you did not obey the Lord or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this to you today.¡± Samuel says all that is happening is the fulfillment of God's word(1 Samuel 15:28). Then Samuel said in conclusion, ¡°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.¡± Saul hoped for some assurance to mitigate his fear. But Samuel concluded by pronouncing the judgment. Saul and his sons would die at the hand of the Philistines and the army of Israel would be defeated as well. What a terrible thing to Saul, so he fell full length on the ground, paralyzed by fear. Finally, at the urging of the medium and his men, he got up, ate and left. Saul¡¯s downfall was his stubborn ambition. He should have repent when God¡¯s will was revealed. Likewise we should not stubbornly stay fixed on our own plan, but be willing to give up for God¡¯s sake. Jesus said, ¡°Whoever saves his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.¡± (Mk 8:35) From last Monday to Friday, I have been on a business trip to Singapore & Hong Kong. Last year Typhoon Kompasu hit the Korean Penninsula which resulted in huge insurance loss of our company. So I had to present something related to the Typhoon loss. Everyday, I had to make a visit to meet our partners even four times in a day. Also I should have to make business presentations to them. However, as my ability to speak it in English was not good enough to persuade the partner to understand our position, I have always been concerned over before the meeting. That is why I had to pray and ask for God's help before going to the meeting room. Thankfully, God help me to make myself understood at each meeting without any problems in communication. As time passed by, fear in my mind continued to diminish and God allowed me to learn a valuable lesson. The faith in God is the most reliable strength and ability in our life under any circumstances. Without faith, I would always fall into fear and could nothing at all. The Bible says in Proberbs 1:7 that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the key to all of treasures in our life which includes salvation and wisdom and knowledge.(Isaiah 33:8) In conclusion, people fall when they leave God out of our lives. Nations fall when they ignore or rebel against God. However, God bless us when we trusted God. Through today's message, God have learned the important things from the bad examples of David and Saul. God is looking for personal faith and commitment to him, without which we will fall into despair and foolishness in our daily life. However, if we have faith in God's promise, we can be on guard against falling into the same traps. May we believe God's promise to bless us and be our God. |