1 Samuel 28:3-24, What Does Fear Make You Do?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church

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July 28, 2024

1 Samuel 28:3-24 What Does Fear Make You Do?

1 Samuel 28:3-24, What Does Fear Make You Do?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

00:01: 1 Samuel chapter 28, starting in verse 3 to the end of the chapter, hear the word of the Lord. Now Samuel had died and all
00:09: Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land.
00:16: The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem. And Saul gathered all
00:21: Israel and they camped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly.
00:29: And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets.
00:36: Then Saul said to his servants, Seek out for me a woman who is a medium that I may go to her and inquire of her.
00:44: And his servants said to him, Behold, there's a medium at Endor. So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night.
00:55: And he said, Divine for me by a spirit and bring up for me whomever
01:00: I shall name to you. And the woman said to him, Surely, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums of the necromancers from the land.
01:09: Why then are you laying a trap for my life to bring about my death? But Saul swore to her by the
01:16: Lord. As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing. Then the woman said,
01:21: Whom shall I bring up for you? And he said, Bring up Samuel for me. When the woman saw
01:27: Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman said to Saul, Why have you deceived me?
01:33: You are Saul. The king said to her, Do not be afraid. What do you see?
01:38: And the woman said to Saul, I see a God coming up out of the earth. And he said to her, What is his appearance?
01:45: And she said, An old man is coming up and he is wrapped in a robe. And Saul knew that it was
01:51: Samuel and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage. Then Samuel said to Saul, Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?
02:00: Saul answered, I am in great distress. For the Philistines are warring against me and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams.
02:10: Therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do. And Samuel said, Why then do you ask me?
02:16: Since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy. The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me, for the
02:23: Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David, because you did not obey the voice of the
02:29: Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek. Therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day.
02:36: Moreover, the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons will be with me.
02:45: The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell at once full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel.
02:55: And there was no more strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. And the woman came to Saul and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him,
03:06: Behold, your servant has obeyed you. I have taken my life in my hand and I've listened to what you have said to me.
03:12: Now, therefore you also obey your servant. Let me set a morsel of bread before you and eat that you may have strength when you go on your way.
03:22: He refused and said, I will not eat. But his servants together with the woman urged him and he listened to their words.
03:29: So he arose from the earth and sat on the bed. Now the woman had a fattened calf in the house and she quickly killed it and she took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread of it and she put it before Saul and his servants and they ate.
03:44: Then they rose and went away that night. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word.
03:54: What does fear make you do? Well, it makes you decide between fight or flight.
04:01: The fight or flight response is a physiological reaction that occurs when we perceive a danger, a threat, it's a survival mechanism that helps us react quickly to a dangerous situation that results in a release of adrenaline, increased heart rate and muscle tension, dilated pupils, all to help you respond quickly.
04:21: Once when I was driving to this building from Danville, right where you turn off from 86 on to old 86, there were two cars,
04:28: I wish I could describe it better, but I don't even remember that clearly, but the two cars coming in opposite directions, both of which look like they were gonna hit me.
04:34: For that second, this is gonna be an accident. I'm gonna get hit. There's almost no way out.
04:40: So I immediately veered right to miss one car and then immediately left to miss the other one, managing to weave in between them.
04:47: If not for that jolt of fear, I probably couldn't have done that. In that case,
04:54: I had no choice but to do something. In some situations, you have a threat and you have a choice between, you know, fight or flight.
05:00: If you have an escape and the threat is overwhelming, well, you flee, you know, if you're wise.
05:07: Part of what made George Washington a good general is that he knew when not to fight. When he was faced with overwhelming odds, he wouldn't just throw his forces against against them for just to kind of make a stand.
05:18: When he had to retreat, rather than lose his army in a hopeless battle, he retreated and retreated and retreated.
05:23: Some people criticized him for that at the time. He just stand and fight. But he retreated and included from New York City.
05:29: He was biding his time until the factors were in his favor, and then he fought. Well, that's why he won.
05:36: Some, unlike Washington, fight when the odds are overwhelmingly against them and then they lose, like Hitler at Stalingrad.
05:43: In World War II, one of the differences between the Germans and the Japanese is that if the Germans were surrounded and out of ammunition, and so it was hopeless for them, they would usually surrender, come out with their hands up, and it was over for them.
05:56: But the Japanese would fix their bayonets, the officers would unsheathe their sabers, and they would charge desperately, yelling bonsai.
06:05: And I'll get gunned down. That left the Americans flabbergasted, asking themselves, why don't they surrender?
06:12: And that was a major factor in the decision with what to do with the new weapon the Americans had that no one could fight or flee from.
06:22: Are you a fight person or a flight person? Do you stand and fight, or do you look for a way out?
06:30: Of course, that depends on the threat. A few weeks ago, I was riding my bicycle just south of Yanceyville, and a lady was driving by in the other direction.
06:37: She stopped waving at me. I didn't know what it was about. I thought she wanted to ask directions. Turned out, she was warning me that just a mile or two up the road was a bear.
06:44: She spotted a bear, and maybe she thought, well, I was a flight person, so I was going to turn my bicycle around and go the other way.
06:50: Instead, I thought, good, I'd like to see a bear. A black bear probably isn't going to attack you unless you startle it.
06:58: It has also flight and fight responses. You make it afraid, it might fight you. I was disappointed, though.
07:04: I didn't spot the bear. Whether we fight or flee depends on the threat. About two weeks ago, we saw startling examples of both flight and fight responses at the attempted assassination of Mr.
07:16: Trump. At first, he ducked as soon as he realized that he was being shot at. That bunting in the front of the stage, you notice it, it's not just decorative.
07:24: It's not just like thin banner there. It's supposed to be, there's some kind of barrier, some armor there protecting it.
07:30: And so, it's for that very reason, to duck behind. And so, he went to flight. He ducked behind that barrier.
07:38: There's no use trying to fight a bullet. You can't win without a bulletproof vest, and the shooter wasn't shooting at his body anyway.
07:44: And then, when the shooting was over, he immediately went into fight mode.
07:49: Telling the crowd famously, fight, fight, fight. What does fear make you do?
07:57: Last week, it was what does faith make you do? And now, it's fear, which can be the opposite of faith.
08:04: If faith makes you daring, fear can make you cowardly. If faith makes you appeal, fear can make you quiet or complicit.
08:16: If faith makes you fight, fear can make you flee or surrender or freeze.
08:23: Here we see what fear can lead to in four parts. First, desperation.
08:28: Second, divination. Then, declaration. And finally, devastation.
08:35: First, fear leads to desperation. Last week, in the first two verses of chapter 8, we saw that the Philistines were preparing for their invasion of Israel, and Saul gathers all
08:44: Israel in response to repulse the invasion. But then, in verse 5, he sees the army of the
08:49: Philistines, and he knows he's outmatched. They cannot win this battle. And so, he was afraid.
08:56: Not just a little anxious. It says his heart trembled greatly. He was terrified.
09:02: What does fear make him do? Well, he understandably wants to hear from God.
09:09: He wants the Word of God. Now, the problem is that he hasn't been listening to God for the years of his life before, when he was not afraid, when he wasn't under pressure.
09:20: You know, when life was good, he ignored God's Word. That's what a lot of people are like.
09:26: They're a lot like Saul up until this point. They don't read the Bible. They don't go to church. They don't listen to sermons. They don't sing and meditate on God's Word.
09:32: When life is easy, when they're comfortable, when they don't have anything to fear. What they do know about God's will, they don't obey.
09:41: They don't seek first the kingdom of God. They don't worship God. But then, something happens.
09:48: They're diagnosed with cancer. Someone in their family is given only a few months to live. The business is threatened.
09:55: Maybe the government's gonna shut it down, or the customers have just disappeared, or the relationship is on the rocks.
10:01: Family's falling apart. You know, there's a crisis. And suddenly, now, they're desperate to hear from God.
10:09: Then, they're quoting Scripture, and they're going to church, or reading the Bible. Fear leads many to desperation.
10:17: And that's Saul. The prophet Samuel had died sometime back. He used to be the way that Saul heard from God, even though Saul didn't always obey what
10:26: Samuel had told him God had said. But now, he's dead, and he's buried. They've had his funeral.
10:32: Everyone mourned. And now, Saul is in his desperation. He's mourning again, because he had really liked to have
10:39: Samuel back, to get a word from God. Without Samuel, he desperately sought to hear
10:44: God through, it says, through dreams, through Urim. We really don't know what that is exactly, or through prophets.
10:50: But it did work. There was no answer. He hadn't listened to God before when life was easy.
10:57: And now, when he's desperate, God won't speak to him. So, don't be surprised that if you don't listen to God during normal life, if he's silent and distant when you're desperate.
11:14: Now, when you're not so pressured, when you apparently have many more years to live, when the money's coming in, relationships in the family, they're all fine.
11:23: Now, make sure that you are listening to God. You read his Word. Make a practice of immersing yourself in God's Word.
11:31: It's what we try to do in this service. Then, do what you know. Be a person of integrity who says you believe
11:38: God's Word. And so, because you believe that, you regularly spend time reading it, and you're thinking about it.
11:44: And then, who does what it says? Do it now, when life is easy, assuming it's all easy for you.
11:52: Because if you don't, if you blow it off now, if you don't listen to it, and don't do what you know it says, then when one day you're desperate,
12:04: God may be silent and as distant from you then, as you are from him now.
12:11: Well, finally, Saul, in his desperation, is willing to seek guidance by mediums and necromancers.
12:18: That is, those who claim to speak to the dead. But he had, some time ago, he had done his job earlier as Israel's king, and he's driven them out of Israel, cut them off from the land.
12:26: I'm not sure whether that means he's made them leave, or he executed them, whatever. But now, at the end of his rope, he asked his men, in verse 7, seek out for me a woman, almost always women for some reason, who is a medium, literally a spiritist.
12:41: And there's there's one not far away, they say, one indoor, which is not far from where they are. And this shows how desperate fear has made
12:48: Saul. He actually is thinking about going to a spiritist, even though Exodus chapter 22, verse 18 says, you shall not permit a sorceress to live.
12:57: Even though Leviticus chapter 19, verse 26 says, you shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.
13:02: Even though Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 10 says, there shall not be a found among you, talking to Israel, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or anyone who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the
13:20: Lord. Pretty clear, right? Saul knows this is against God's law. He had enforced that law himself.
13:28: But his fear is now driving him to desperation. Fear can drive you to do what you know is wrong.
13:38: Part two, his desperation drives him to divination. Starting in verse 8,
13:44: Saul disguises himself, changes his clothes. I assume that means he takes off his royal regalia and went with two other men to the medium, traditionally called a witch, at Endor.
13:55: They came by night. The whole thing is done in darkness because it is of the darkness. His refusal to walk in the light of God's Word has resulted in him here literally walking in the dark.
14:04: He tells the witch in verse 8, divine for me by a spirit and bring up for me whomever I shall name for you.
14:11: But the woman is leery. You know, she sees three men she doesn't know show up, you know. Understand in those days you could know there's a man named
14:18: Saul who's the king, but you'd never see a picture of him. No newspapers, pictures or television. So you wouldn't know this is
14:26: Saul. Suspiciously three men show up whom she doesn't know asking for her to do divination. It was just this a sting operation.
14:33: These agents coming to check, agents of the government from Saul coming to check for he's breaking the law trying to catch me.
14:39: And so she says in verse 9, surely, you know what Saul has done. How he has cut off the mediums and the necromancers from the land.
14:46: Surely you've heard the news, right? You're trying to trap me. So they figure this is a trap. Why are you laying a trap for me?
14:53: She says, for my life to bring about my death. I'll be executed. Apparently the order was to either leave Israel or stop doing seances and if you stay and conjure the dead, you'll be executed, right?
15:03: Now these three men look like they're trying to smoke her out. But Saul swore using the name of the
15:09: Lord, the name of Yahweh, promising in God's name not to enforce God's law, which is taking the name of the
15:15: Lord in vain. This is what desperation is leading him to, fear is leading him to. He's broken the third commandment in verse 10.
15:22: As the Lord, as the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing. Okay, she's willing to do it.
15:30: Now she asks for the order. You know, welcome to Mother Indore's seance house.
15:37: How can I be of service to you? What would you like? Whom shall I bring up for you? In verse 11, Saul says,
15:43: Samuel, if he can't hear from God, he'll conjure up the one man whom he knows speaks for God.
15:52: And so then she does whatever she does. The passage gives us no idea what that was.
16:00: Likely because it doesn't want to teach anyone how to be a witch, right? So it just skips over what she does. But she did something, an incantation, double double toil and trouble, abracadabra, hocus pocus, whatever it was.
16:11: Some kind of magic, maybe like a crystal ball, magic hat to look into, something like that. You know, like Joseph Smith said he had seer stones, put them in a hat, looked at.
16:19: Now Joseph Smith was just a con man. Understand, he's just a fraudster. That's all he was. I don't think she's that bad.
16:25: But she did something like that. Then to her surprise, she sees something she's not used to.
16:31: She is used to seeing something. Just not this. It's not as though she's a con woman.
16:39: The Bible doesn't prohibit these things, you know, seances, mediums, witchcraft, because it's all bogus.
16:45: The Bible's prohibition is not based on naturalism. That is the idea that there's just nature. There's nothing supernatural.
16:51: And so obviously mediums can't contact the dead. There aren't any spirits that you can talk to or talk to you back who appear to be dead.
17:02: There are no spirits or supernatural powers. There's only the laws of nature. No, the Bible absolutely does not teach that.
17:08: It's opposed to that. It admits that mediums like this woman, witch doctors, psychics, shamans, tanqui, is that how you say that word?
17:17: They might have real power. They might be able to do supernatural things to cast spells or heal people or curse people or live curses or talk to spirits.
17:28: The biblical view is not that these things are all fake. But like Pharaoh's magicians, that they can do supernatural things.
17:37: But when they come up against God's power and there's what they call a power encounter, the power of the demonic or of other gods encounters
17:45: God's power, well, they always lose. The notable Christian missiologist, that is a professor of missions,
17:54: Paul Hebert, whom both Mary and I knew, said that modern western Christians have what he called a flaw of the excluded middle.
18:03: Especially when encountering other cultures. Western missionaries go to Africa or Asia. They'll talk about God, right?
18:10: Salvation, eternal things, theology. That's the top level. And they may bring science, especially medicine, to deal with physical things.
18:20: That's the lower level. But they have no category for spirits, for demons or curses or evil eyes or ancestors, spiritual forces.
18:31: But those are exactly the kinds of issues that many people in non -western cultures are, some of them at least, are obsessed by.
18:37: How to deal with a spirit, a curse, a big curse. How do I get that relieved? How do I appease a hungry ghost?
18:44: Or help an ancestor overcome a demon? They're thinking about things like that. And the western missionary, well,
18:50: I don't know what you're talking about. Westerners could give revelation about the ultimate issues of theology and they can give help for practical things, physical issues like medicine for a disease.
19:01: But nothing for this in -between category. What Hebert called the excluded, excluded by us, middle.
19:09: And that's the kind of thing that medium shamans, clairvoyants, they deal with. Here, we see that that realm is real.
19:19: But if it's real, why is the medium startled when she sees Samuel? In verse 12, when the woman saw
19:25: Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. Fear makes her scream.
19:33: So what she sees isn't what she's used to. It's something much more powerful. And I think
19:38: Paul explains that in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 20, where he says that what pagans worship, the powers that they tap into with their incantations, their rituals, their magic, all that stuff, that those powers are demonic.
19:51: What pagans sacrifice, they offer to demons and not to God. So the Bible prohibits us from the occult, from seances, tarot card readings,
19:59: Ouija boards, that kind of stuff. Because they may not be fake.
20:06: They may have real power, but it's demonic. You might contact a spirit through them, but that spirit may be a demon.
20:16: And so this medium, the witch of Endor, apparently is used to seeing something through her rituals, through her seances, contacting something.
20:25: Something that always made her think that she was conjuring up the dead. But it was really demons.
20:32: And now suddenly, probably for the first time, she sees the real thing. The real person, and in this case
20:39: Samuel, the prophet, a mighty godly man, and she's afraid because this is real.
20:46: And she's not in control. And another reason why we're prohibited from the occult, besides the fact that may lead to contact with demons, is that the occult, things like this, is always about us trying to have control, us trying to control.
21:00: It's about us trying to use supernatural power or get knowledge by supernatural means, because we don't trust
21:07: God's control. If something is natural, it's in the realm of nature, like the temperature in the air, or like medicine or technology, well, then we can study it.
21:20: You can use it. We can use natural things to control it. We control the natural world. The natural is given to us to study and to control.
21:30: Have dominion over, in Genesis 1. We can figure out, you know, how to cool the air so that we can sit comfortably in church when it's in the mid -80s outside.
21:40: But if something is supernatural, is beyond our nature, that is not given to us to study or to control or use, unless by God Himself.
21:54: It's revealed by God Himself, like in the Bible. It's not given to us to try to use supernatural power or to get supernatural knowledge outside of the
22:04: Holy Spirit. And to do that is to try to take God's place.
22:10: It's to try to put ourselves, to try to put me in control, for us to be the sovereign with this power that controls supernatural things.
22:19: And that's rebellion against our place under God and a refusal to accept
22:25: God's sovereignty. It's without faith. And so is sin.
22:32: Here, this witch is used to demonic apparitions, apparently, that she can control or at least let her think she can control them.
22:39: And she's frightened when she sees something else, something she's not used to. And first, somehow in verse 12, she realizes that the man paying for the seance is actually
22:48: Saul himself. And Saul assures her in verse 13, Do not be afraid. I'm trying to calm her down.
22:56: In other words, I'm not going to prosecute you for necromancy like I did all those others. What do you see? Somehow, again, it's purposely, here the
23:04: Bible is purposely not telling us what she, what she's doing, how she did this. She's able to see
23:10: Saul and they are not. And she says, I see a God, literally an
23:15: Elohim in Hebrew, which could be used, Elohim could be used not only of the God, but also of any powerful, mighty person or a spiritual being.
23:25: He's impressive, in other words. He's something really powerful. This is much more powerful than I'm used to seeing in my visions, trances or whatever she's going through.
23:34: Saul asks in verse 14, what is his appearance? And she says, an old man is coming up and he is wrapped in a robe.
23:41: Saul knew that it was Samuel. And he bowed with his face to the ground. Saul bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage.
23:48: He did obeisance as if Samuel were the king. This is divination. The witch of Endor has successfully conjured up Samuel, the great prophet and judge, to her fearful surprise.
24:01: This was different than what she normally sees. This isn't a demon faking to be one of the dead. This is really
24:07: Samuel. Now some people question that about this. Is this really Samuel? But the narrator, who's inspired by the
24:12: Holy Spirit, the writer here, writes that what she saw was indeed Samuel. Doesn't say he looks like Samuel.
24:17: It says the woman saw Samuel. Not just a spirit imitating
24:22: Samuel. And then repeatedly in the next paragraph says, Samuel said. So this is really
24:28: Samuel. And this is the only place in the Bible where a spirit of a dead person comes and communicates to the living.
24:37: Here. And it tells us not to do it. Some religions tell us that we can pray to the dead and we can hear, they can hear us and they can come and they can talk to us.
24:45: But that is a violation of the first or at least the second commandment about having another god before the
24:51: Lord and worshiping falsely. To pray to someone is to worship them.
24:58: Right? You're assuming things about their presence, their power, that only belong to God. Whether you call it veneration or not, that doesn't change that.
25:07: You know, some people, they pray to a saint or someone, a spirit, say, oh, I'm not worshiping. I'm venerating.
25:13: So it's totally different. Well, inventing a new word for the same activity doesn't make the activity different.
25:18: If you say, well, we didn't commit adultery. It was lovemaking. Well, you committed adultery. I didn't steal.
25:24: I reappropriated. Well, you stole. If you worship something else besides God, it's still worship, even if you call it veneration.
25:32: Praying to someone assumes that they are either omnipresent, that is everywhere at all times, or they are omniscient, that is, they have all knowledge so they can hear us.
25:42: And they can hear many other people all over the world also praying to them at the same time. Right? You pray to someone, you're assuming they have those attributes, which is worshiping them.
25:51: But those are only attributes of God. So to pray to a person like Mary or a saint or here,
25:59: Samuel, is to treat that person like God. It's idolatrous. It's divination.
26:06: Then why did God allow it here? Well, to let Samuel give one more, one last declaration.
26:13: Thought he was gone and off the scene. Well, he comes back for an epilogue. Here he is. Part three, the declaration starting in verse 15.
26:21: Notice the very first thing Samuel says. You hear the only time a dead person appears in the spirit and talks to someone in the
26:30: Bible, the only time and the first thing he says is why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? In other words, this is wrong, you know.
26:38: You shouldn't have done this. I've heard stories from Protestants of supposedly Mary appearing to people who were praying to her and then
26:45: Mary telling them don't pray to me, pray only to God. Now first, I doubt those stories because I doubt
26:53: God lets Mary go tell Mary worshipers to not worship her when they could easily find that out by reading scripture.
27:01: But if God did allow it, that is exactly what she would say.
27:07: That would be, why are you praying to me? What's wrong with you people? Right? She would say that. This one time though,
27:12: God allowed a medium to really bring up the dead and the very first thing she says is he says you shouldn't have done this.
27:21: You bothered me. Well, Saul, undeterred, says I am in great distress. Fear is leading him to do this.
27:29: Fear is leading him to do what he knew was wrong. The Philistines are warring against me. This is against him.
27:35: You know, it's against Israel, but whatever. It's kind of narcissistic, isn't it? It's all about me. And God has turned from me and answers me no more either by prophet or by dreams.
27:46: Therefore, in my desperation, I've summoned you to tell me what
27:51: I shall do. As though he's going to tell him something God didn't. Now, notice
27:57: Saul refers to God, to Elohim. It's sort of the generic term just for God.
28:03: It can be used for the true God or for other gods. God has turned away from me. And then Samuel answers him repeatedly, seven times, the number of completion significant.
28:13: And at seven times, he refers to the Lord. Here in our English Bibles, all capital letters means the name, the personal name,
28:22: Yahweh. Why then did you ask me? Otherwise, I, God's not going to talk to you.
28:30: Why do you think I'm going to tell you anything different? I can't overturn the Lord's declaration.
28:36: Since the Lord, one, has turned from you and become your enemy. I can't change that.
28:42: You should have dealt with that a long time ago. The Lord, two, has done to you as he spoke by me.
28:50: For the Lord, three, has torn, notice the verb tense, has torn the kingdom and out of your hand and given it to your neighbor,
28:58: David. Notice, God has already given to David the right to rule, even though he's not the official king yet.
29:05: Verse 18, because you did not obey. And literally the word there is in Hebrew is listen to.
29:11: You did not listen to. Saul, was it listening? When times were good, you did not listen to the voice of the
29:19: Lord, four, and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek. Saul rebelled against the word of the
29:24: Lord. And when he thought he had a better idea, God said, go, you know, wipe them out and solve that.
29:30: Why should we waste all this stuff? I have a better idea. And he didn't listen. And Samuel told him then in 1
29:36: Samuel chapter 15, verse 23, rebellion is as the sin of divination or witchcraft.
29:44: And now Saul is literally doing divination. Therefore the
29:50: Lord, number five, has done this thing to you today. This thing, everything that's going on right now, even the
29:57: Philistine army, which they don't confess God, they don't know God, but they've they've massed their forces, they've invaded
30:04: Israel, and the Lord's done it. He's in control of them. And he's not spoken to you.
30:10: Moreover, in verse 19, the Lord, number six, will give
30:15: Israel also, in other words, besides you, it's not all about you, Saul, into the hand of the
30:20: Philistines. Even that pagan army is under his control. He's giving them Israel into their hand and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me.
30:31: And I don't think Samuel means, well, they'll all be in heaven together, singing joyfully. I think he means, no, you'll all be dead like me.
30:38: We'll all be in the realm of the dead. Sheol, whether heaven or hell, it's beside the point. You'll all be dead.
30:44: Finally, the Lord, number seven, will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the
30:50: Philistines. Notice the verb tense there too, will. Samuel's final declaration is that,
31:00: Saul, you're going to lose the battle and you're going to die. The Lord will do it.
31:07: Do it. Not might do it. Not, this is what is tending to war, but you can change it if you do thus and so.
31:13: No, he will give you into the hand of the Philistines. It cannot be changed. The declaration has gone out from God.
31:21: Israel is to be defeated and you, Saul, are to die. That declaration leads to Saul's devastation, part four.
31:35: Devastation, starting in verse 20. Saul immediately fell prostrate. It says full length and the word length there refers to his stature, his height, full height.
31:47: That reference to that same word, remember when he was first chosen as king, first noticed this guy could be king.
31:54: He got, look at that height, look at that stature. Got him the recognition. It got him the kingship because the people of Israel looked at him and thought, wow, this is what a king looks like.
32:05: Everything they look to is regal. Now here, it's flat on the ground.
32:12: Fear had driven him to desperation and divination and that resulted in him being prostrate and filled with fear.
32:22: What does fear make you do? If it's not fear of the right thing, it will often make you do things that will result sooner or later in getting more of what you fear.
32:40: Saul feared what this upcoming battle might bring. That made him seek divination and the result is he is now filled with more fear.
32:49: Maybe you fear being alone and so compromised with an immoral relationship or relationship with an unbeliever. The result, eventually, you're more alone.
32:58: You fear being poor and so you hoard your money and the result is the money stolen or is reduced a little by inflation or you live like you're poor.
33:08: So you might as well be poor because you don't use it. You fear death like we saw a lot of during the pandemic.
33:14: Remember? And the result, you live only for the goal of not dying.
33:20: That's what some people's goal was to the pandemic. I'm just not going to die. You live for that.
33:26: Which isn't living at all. Fear can chase you into getting more of what you fear.
33:33: Now Saul, this impressively tall man, is flat on the ground filled with fear. No strength. He hadn't eaten all that day and now he has no appetite.
33:41: The woman, the witch of Endor, sees that and literally in Hebrew, it says he's great. He says that Saul is greatly terrified and notice in verse 21 that she can see his terror.
33:52: He's so fearful it's visible on him. And she has mercy on him. First she reminds him that she did the seance at his behest.
34:00: Behold, your handmaid that's me has literally listened. It says in ESV there's obey but literally it's listened.
34:09: I listened. I've taken my life in my own hand by breaking the law. You know, you were enforcing that law before.
34:15: I've listened to you and done what you said to me. She listened. Now Saul's problem was that he wouldn't listen.
34:22: He listened so often that finally the Lord wouldn't listen to him. And so there's no more hope for him.
34:29: When people don't listen to God, he can give them over to their hopelessness even while they're still alive.
34:36: And then when death is coming they'll desperately look to hear from God, but it's too late because they didn't listen for so long.
34:45: If you don't listen now, you'll be afraid later. The witch asked him to listen to her in verse 22, you know, to eat.
34:54: Let me give you some strength. You need to eat to give strength for the journey and for the battle tomorrow. He refuses, of course, still not listening.
35:02: But his two servants and the woman finally prevailed upon him. He got up from the ground, sits on the bed, prepared, she prepared a meal, not just a morsel of bread.
35:12: She offered first a morsel of bread, but she she goes gets the fat and calf, the finest she has, some juicy veal, some unleavened bread, puts it before them.
35:20: She's a hospitable witch. And they ate it. It was likely his last meal.
35:27: And they went on their way that night. They're still in the dark.
35:34: What does fear make you do? Well, of course that depends on what you fear.
35:41: If the only thing you fear is not having enough money, you're First of all, you're probably not here.
35:47: You won't be here for long. And eventually, like Jesus's parable of the rich fool, you think life is all about getting and getting and hoarding more and more stuff.
35:57: You'll have to face what you cannot fight or flee from.
36:04: Fear can be the opposite of faith when it's the fear of the wrong thing, fear of anything, anyone other than God.
36:10: But when we have faith in God, one of the things that faith makes us do is fear
36:17: Him. And fear of the Lord makes us believe
36:22: His promises and believe His warnings. Warnings against worshiping or venerating any other
36:30: God, against trying to serve Him and money. And so we fear being told, you fool.
36:39: Tonight your soul will be required of you. We want to flee from that.
36:48: And we'll believe the warnings against not listening to Him. So we'll listen.
36:54: And one of the things we'll hear is Him say, like when
37:00: Jesus appeared to His disciples, not as a ghost, not as a mere spirit, but in the resurrected body, if we listen now, we'll hear
37:07: Him say like He did to them then. Fear not.