“Why the Defeat?” – FBC Morning Light (4/10/2024)

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. I hope your week is going well, and here we are in the middle of it already, and middle of this week, we're approaching the middle of April, and time marches on.

Well today, in our Bible reading, we're in 1st Samuel 31, so we're ending the book of 1st Samuel, and then beginning 2nd

Samuel, 2nd Samuel 1, but then we're also jumping to 1st Chronicles chapter 10, and getting a review, if you will, of what happened in 1st

Samuel 31, and then reading Psalm 5. I want to zero in on what the

Lord tells us in 1st Chronicles chapter 10. As I said, 1st

Chronicles 10 is like a review of 1st Samuel 31.

1st Samuel 31 tells us the account of the death of Saul, how the

Philistines had overcome the Israelites in this battle, and Saul ends up getting wounded, and he ends up dying, and so does

Saul's son Jonathan, and other son as well, and it's just a tragic, tragic ending.

And if you're just reading the account of this battle between the

Israelites and the Philistines, you would likely conclude that, well, you know, the

Israelites, they were just overpowered. The forces of the Philistines were just too strong for them, and that's why

Saul died, that's why he was defeated in battle. But that would be really a misunderstanding of what happened here.

It's a logical conclusion, but as is often the case in these biblical passages of battles and so forth, we're given some behind -the -scenes looks at what really happened here.

Why did Saul lose this battle? Why did he perish? Ah, for that we get the answer in 1st

Chronicles chapter 10 and in verses 13 and 14. Here it is. It says, so Saul died, not because the

Philistines were too strong for him, Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the

Lord, because he did not keep the word of the Lord, and also because he consulted a medium for guidance.

Now we didn't talk about that, but back in 1st Samuel, the end of 1st

Samuel, we have that account of Saul going to the witch of Endor, trying to, you know, find out what's going on, how can

I get, you know, how can I get victory over the Philistines and so forth, and that's, you know, the witch brought up the spirit of Samuel, she thought, and it's the way it seemed, and the spirit of Samuel told

Saul, you're gonna die tomorrow in the battle, and that just sent Saul in a tailspin, understandably.

And that's exactly what happened, exactly what happened. But that was horrible transgression against the

Lord, to go visit a medium to try to bring up the dead. So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he committed against the

Lord, because he did not keep the word of the Lord, on the one hand, and secondly, because he consulted a medium for guidance.

And verse 14 gives us some further explanation about that seeking of the medium.

It says he did not inquire of the Lord. So rather than repenting for his sin and getting right with the

Lord and seeking the Lord's forgiveness and the Lord's guidance and favor, Saul persisted in his disobedience, he persisted in his animosity against David, he persisted in defying the will of the

Lord, and therefore when he did try to get

God to give him some answers, God wouldn't give him. There was no repentance on Saul's part, so there were going to be no answers.

So Saul turned to a medium, to a witch, for guidance. This was the basis for Saul's defeat in battle.

And the end result, the last part of verse 14 says that the Lord turned the kingdom over to David, the son of Jesse.

The very thing that Saul was working so hard to prevent, the

Lord guaranteed that it would come to pass. So Saul's death was not because of an overwhelming army, but because of woeful spiritual weakness and sin.

Oh, let's again, even as we ended yesterday's challenge, let's be sure that we keep short accounts with the

Lord. Let's not allow sin to root itself in our minds and our hearts and fester and grow and hold on to it tenaciously.

There's no good end to that. So Father, again, challenge us with this today and encourage us, encourage us to have a heart that is eager to turn from sin and to be right with you, we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.