Necromancy, Blood and Deception

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Okay, let's pray. Lord Jesus, again, as we open up your word, we pray that you would send your spirit, open up our hearts and minds, because your word is rightly understood by the work of the spirit, so that we may always believe what we ought to believe as revealed in your word, especially as it relates to our hope of the forgiveness of our sins, the hope of eternal life, as well as how to walk out our faith in love and mercy and grace to our neighbor.

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We ask in Jesus' name, amen. All right, let's begin. Questions, were there any questions that percolated up because of the sermon?

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Okay. Yes, Mr. Rose. Yes. How about disciples of Satan, whose sole purpose of getting out of bed in the morning is to -

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Destroy you? Yeah. You know, where is it forgiveness, and then where is it -

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That is a great question. So what do we do when I forgive the person, but this person still, his every waking moment is designed to destroy me?

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We're actually gonna deal with that today in our text in 1 Samuel. So what I would ask,

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Mike, is just hold the thought, because it's almost the first thing we're gonna deal with as we look at the story of David today.

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And we're gonna note what David does, even though Saul has once again said,

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I'm sorry, you're in the right, I'm in the wrong. He's gonna actually kind of talk in those terms, but David isn't gonna go back to work for Saul and go back to Jerusalem as if everything's hunky -dunky.

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And so we have to make careful distinctions, careful distinctions like this.

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There's a difference between forgiving somebody and then setting yourself up to be harmed by them again.

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Forgiveness does not require you to put yourself back into the same circumstances under which you were being harmed.

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Forgiveness does not mean trusting that the fellow is going to stop.

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In fact, forgiving is the thing you do and then protect yourself.

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You get it? The other thing it doesn't apply to is, for instance, is that if somebody actually committed a crime against you, it is not sinful or contrary to forgiveness to go to the police and report the crime and work with the government for justice to be done and for somebody's evil to be punished.

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That's not contrary to forgiveness. In fact, as Christians, we must look at the left -hand kingdom as instituted by God for the punishing of evildoers.

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And in that case, even if the person's a Christian, then we understand that oftentimes, although somebody is forgiven, there are still temporal consequences for their crimes.

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All right, again, I will point to and remind you of Pastor Gerke. Pastor Gerke, after World War II, was an

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LCMS pastor who was asked to stay on in Europe and to pastor the

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Nazi war criminals who had committed atrocities and were on trial in Nuremberg.

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He pastored six of them. Six of them actually repented and were pastored by Pastor Gerke.

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And so he had kind of the unenviable job of preaching the gospel to these Nazi war criminals.

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Most of them had nothing to do with him, but there were six of them he was able to pastor. And on one particular fellow, one particular fellow, in fact, they all went to the gallows, but one particular fellow, as he was going to the gallows, it's kind of a fascinating thing.

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So there you have the church represented by his pastor, Pastor Gerke, who has absolved him, given the

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Lord's Supper, and assured him of the mercy and forgiveness of Christ, and yet escorts him to the gallows.

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And this fellow ascends the gallows and literally says to his pastor, I'll see you later.

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So we see the right -hand kingdom and the left -hand kingdom working in their proper function. So the idea is that oftentimes people confuse the two kingdoms, and as a result of it, they put a burden on themselves, and the burden goes something like this.

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Well, this person committed a crime against me, but Jesus says I have to forgive them from the heart so I can't go to the police and report the crime.

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No, forgiveness is not contrary to actually reporting a crime, because you report the crime for their sake.

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For their own soul's sake, they have got to come to grips with the evil that they've committed, and there could be temporal consequences for it.

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For instance, I'll give you another example, and we can actually see this play out in the life of David a little bit later in the story.

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We're all familiar with the story of David and Bathsheba. It's a terrible story. It involves adultery.

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It involves, well, a surprise pregnancy. It involves murder. It does, all of these things.

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David, a man after his own heart, committed adultery and murdered a fellow. Wow. So what ended up happening?

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Nathan the prophet confronts David with his sin. David has not let on to anybody that he's committed this sin.

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This is just between him and Bathsheba. But God tells Nathan the prophet, and Nathan the prophet confronts him, and what does

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David do when confronted with his sin? He confesses that he has sinned, and Nathan says to David, God has put your sin away.

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You are forgiven, but were there temporal consequences for David's sin?

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Yes, there were, and they were severe. The death of his son.

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Yeah, son, so you think about, then the usurpation of Absalom, that was all part of the consequences.

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I mean, there were severe temporal consequences. You sit there and go, but God forgave him. Yeah, indeed, of course.

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David is in the presence of Christ right now. So we have to keep the left and the right -hand kingdom separate in their functions.

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Does that make sense? That's kind of the short answer to it. Now, hold the thought, Mark. Janet, next.

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Uh -oh. Okay, do you need to let the other person know that you forgave them, or is this just between you and your

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God? Ah. I'm not done yet. Have you heard? Or is it the way that you treat the person after you yourself have forgiven them because you always hear kindness, treat anger with kindness?

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Okay, so I'm not done yet. Yeah. Okay, now, if the other person doesn't realize that they have sinned against you, so is that just a grudge against that person because they did something that you just don't like?

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There you go. All right, so let's work it backwards. Oftentimes, we mistake irritants for sins.

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You know, and let's be blunt. Sometimes, there are just people who, personality -wise, we just don't click with.

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But some people don't realize that they're being nasty and dirty. Oh, I agree. I completely agree.

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You know, I can think of a particular relative of mine, okay, that she was, when she was alive, she was abrasive.

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She spoke her mind. And despite efforts to get her to not speak her mind and put some kind of a filter between her tongue and her mind, that never happened in this lifetime.

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As a result of it, she lost some friends. Now, did she sin by speaking her mind? Oftentimes, no. But sometimes, yes.

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But sometimes, yes. But it was more irritating than not. But the topic of today, though, really has to do with when people sin against us.

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When somebody is just irritating you, like maybe they snort when they laugh. You know, and you can't stand that.

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You know, that's not a sin. That's just irritating. Or you remember, you remember the

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Seinfeld comedy? You know, what was the major character that was a woman character?

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Elaine. When you saw her dance. You know, it was just, you know, that's just irritating.

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It's stupid. But so we just kind of give mercy to the understanding that there are different types of people on the planet.

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But when somebody sins against you, that's a different thing. And I'm gonna, we're gonna make, we're gonna come back to your original question.

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When somebody sins against you, do you just forgive them between you and God? All right, now this is where we make an important distinction.

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And I need you to hear very carefully what I'm gonna talk about here. And we'll bring it back to Christ.

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Has Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world? Yes or no? Yes. For the sins of the whole world.

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Is everybody saved? Ah. Will everybody, will hell be empty?

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No. Okay, so now you get it. Okay, hell is not empty. And it won't be empty.

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So how is it then? Oh, don't do it. He did that to me last week.

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Feeling the indigestion levels rising here. So how is it then that Christ has bled and died for the sins of the world and yet there are people still in hell?

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Answer, there's a difference between what we call objective justification versus subjective justification.

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And this category then plays out in our forgiveness to the people who've sinned against us.

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So the idea then is this, is that when somebody sins against you, objectively, you forgive them in your heart and you tell the

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Lord, Lord, I forgive that person. This is what you do in your prayers. Now, does that mean you go to that person and you say,

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I forgive you? Yeah, that's, yeah. You see, you don't apply the gospel when the law is needed.

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So here's the idea then. You've forgiven them, but they don't know that they needed to be forgiven. So you don't bring them the gospel, which is,

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I forgive you. You bring that person the law. And the law, so you come to that person and say, listen, you sinned against me.

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Here's what you did. Yeah, indeed.

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You do the non -Norwegian thing. Okay, yeah. You do the non -Norwegian thing.

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You actually go to them and say, listen, you sinned. You hurt me. Here's how you did it. And if they say,

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I'm sorry, you say, I forgive you. You can even say, not only do I forgive you, I forgave you when it happened. And the reason

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I'm here is for your sake. This is not about revenge. This is about trying to help you see something, trying to help you.

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So then the idea then is that you forgive the person objectively, but they don't, it get to experience your forgiveness subjectively until they apologize.

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This works really well in marriage. Three most important words in a marriage are, I forgive you, not

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I love you. I forgive you. Have you, you know how volatile it is when you put, have you ever seen those like betta fish?

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They're really pretty. And you know, they're always by themselves in those tiny little fish bowls. If you put two of them together, bad things happen.

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A marriage is a lot like that, putting two betta fish together. It just be, you know, explosive at times.

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That's two words. That's two words. Yeah. What's for dinner? No. No, no.

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You'll be going to David's marriage counseling class when it comes up in the winter. But the most important words in marriage are,

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I forgive you. When your spouse sins against you, feelings run hot, do they not?

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And you think to yourself, how long is it going to take doofus to understand just how stupid he is?

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How long is he going to, he keeps saying, I'm sorry. And he keeps doing the same dumb thing. Notice I'm putting the blame on the fellow here.

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Cause just remember, boys are born with dame bramage. So, it depends on if you're trainable or not.

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It takes a long time to train a husband, a really, really long time. And sometimes they regress in their training.

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So when they sin against you, I forgive you. And you got to train him to say,

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I'm sorry. So the thing that helps really keep marriages, you know, from festering and going south is that confession.

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I've messed up. I'm sorry. And then the absolution from the person, the offended spouse,

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I forgive you. That's how you keep things from going toxic and sideways in your marriages.

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It's kind of important. All right, you had a question, Mark. I was going to say, like you said in the sermon, forgiveness is freedom.

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Yeah. It's really for the person who was victimized. Yeah. And it releases, relinquishes the anger.

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No, I mean, there's, remember the movie, The Wrath of Khan? Star Trek II, okay, with Ricardo Montalban.

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He played Khan and he has this great line in there. There's a Klingon proverb.

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And the Klingon proverb goes, revenge is a dish best served cold. Maybe I'm the only one who's seen it.

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Okay, I'm a Trekkie and I'm a nerdy. Everyone else is looking at me like, huh? Yeah, that's the opposite.

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That's the opposite. You don't want to be a Klingon. You want to be like Christ, so. All right, let's go back to 1

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Samuel today. We're in 1 Samuel. We're going to go back, finish 26 again, just to kind of see what's going on.

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If you remember, King Saul is at it again. He's hunting

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David down again. The last time that he was doing that, it ended with David catching

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Saul with his pants down and not killing him, although he could have died there on the toilet while reading the

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Jerusalem Times and he didn't. So David, at this point, he and Abishai have crossed over a ravine where the army of Israel is.

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They're out to get David. It's the middle of the night and they have taken from Saul his spear and a jar of water and slinked out of the camp.

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When they get to the other side of the ravine, rather than kill

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Saul, David then speaks. Here's what it says, verse 13. David went over to the other side, stood far off on the top of the hill.

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With a great space between them, David called to the army and to Abner, the son of Ner, saying, will you not answer,

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Abner? Now, remember the Pippi Longstocking movies, the old ones from the, yeah, I was watching.

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There was a, you know, Oscar. You know,

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I kind of picture David crying out, Abner. From across the ravine, right?

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So, Abner, will you not answer, Abner? Abner answered, who are you who calls to the king?

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David said to Abner, are you not a man? Who is like you in Israel?

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Why then have you not kept watch over your lord, the king? For one of the people came to destroy the king, your lord.

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This thing that you have done is not good. Notice he places the blame for his ability to sneak into the camp on poor

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Abner. And it was his job to keep watch over the king. As Yahweh lives, you deserve to die because you have not kept watch over your lord,

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Yahweh's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is and the jar of water that was at his head.

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Saul recognized David's voice and he said, is this your voice, my son,

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David? So here we go again. David said, it is my voice, my lord, the king.

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And he said, why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What evil is in my hands?

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Now, therefore, let my lord, the king, hear the words of his servant. If it is Yahweh who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering.

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But if it is men, may they be cursed before Yahweh, for they have driven me out this day, that I should have no share in the heritage of Yahweh, saying, go serve other gods.

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Now, therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of Yahweh, for the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains.

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And then Saul said, I have sinned, I have sinned. Return my son,

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David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day.

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So, Michael, coming back to your original question then, you're gonna note here, here we've got Saul, once again, getting caught with his cookie in the cookie jar, a hand in the cookie jar, trying to kill

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David again, hunt him down and kill him. And this time he says, I've sinned, I'm sorry, I'm wrong.

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And watch, I won't do it again. You can return, I'll cease from trying to harm you.

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Do you think David believed him for a second? Not on your life. But David, you're gonna notice, from the very beginning of this conversation is still treating

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Saul with respect, still treating him with love, and still actually by his actions demonstrating that he is being merciful and forgiving towards him, which is tough to do when you've got a crazy man out to kill you, which is what

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Saul was. So note that little part here. Here Saul has apologized, but this does not require

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David to head back to Jerusalem and continue his job of working for the king in his presence in Jerusalem.

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So, behold, I've acted foolishly, I've made a great mistake, it's called a sin. And David answered and said, here is the spear, oh king, let one of the young men come over and take it.

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Yahweh rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for Yahweh gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against Yahweh's anointed.

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Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of Yahweh, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation.

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So then Saul said to David, blessed be you, my son David, you will do many things and will succeed in them.

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So David went his way, Saul returned to his place. The text then continues. Then David said in his heart, now

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I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul, there's nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the

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Philistines. So David isn't questioning Saul's apology, he's questioning his ability to remain penitent.

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And there are folks who are like that. And so he's saying, Saul's gonna kill me if I stay here, so what's he gonna do?

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He's gonna remove himself from the situation altogether, not allow

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Saul to do him harm. Although did we not hear Saul just say, I've sinned, I've made a mistake,

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I'm in the wrong. How many times have you had somebody in your life who's done you wrong, who says, you're right,

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I'm wrong, I'm right, you're right, I'm wrong. And then they turn right around and hurt you again in the same way.

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Keep that in mind. So David's solution is to head to the land of the Philistines and then he says this,

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Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel and I shall escape out of his hand.

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So the whole purpose of fleeing to the land of the Philistines, pagan country, the pagan enemies of Israel, is so that Saul will basically give up.

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Watch what the text will say in just a minute. So David Rose went over, he and the 600 men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maok, the king of Gath.

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David lived with Achish at Gath. He and his men, every man with his household,

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David and his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, Naval's widow.

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And when it was told Saul that David had fled, he no longer sought him. So notice,

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Saul had every intention of pursuing him again. Every intention of it. And it wasn't until David says,

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I'm out of here, and he's removed himself from the situation in a way that Saul can't get to him, the fall finally,

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Saul gives up. Does that help answer your question then, originally? Yes. Sometimes the situation will require you to forgive and remove yourself so that you'll no longer be in harm's way.

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Because the person who's apologizing or whatever has no intention of turning things around and stopping their behavior.

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And so for your own sanity, for your physical safety, other reasons, you might have to find a different thing altogether.

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I think about the woman who is literally being physically abused in her marriage.

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The church does them wrong when the church says, you gotta stay and continue to take the beating.

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He apologized. No, he may have apologized, but he has no intention of repenting and stopping.

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In a situation like that, you might have to actually help that woman and her children out of the situation so that they don't be, so they're not killed, so they're not physically beaten.

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David did the same, did he not? So notice it also doesn't say anything about David giving his two weeks notice.

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I'm just saying. I have just a quick question. Yeah. Well, if you remember the last time he was there, the last time he was there, he pretended to be crazy.

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David, you're gonna, now, this is where we're gonna have to pay real close attention to something. I'm gonna note this before we get into this next part, because you asked a really good question.

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David was known for killing his Philistines. And remember, the bride price for McCall was 100

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Philistine foreskins. And he gave him two. Guys just don't give those up willingly. This is so bad.

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Anyway, so yeah, David is known. He has a reputation in the land of the Philistines. So what's gonna come next?

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Augustine, the church father, says to us that we are to note that here

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David is acting sinfully, and we are not to follow his example here.

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And there's gonna be consequences we'll see as the story unfolds. There are going to be consequences for what

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David is doing right at this moment. And they're gonna be severe, but God will turn things around.

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We'll explain in a minute. So he's going to engage in an extremely elaborate lie, put on a false pretense.

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He's going to win, literally, the Academy Award for the year 650

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BC for what comes next. But we are not to model this. This is not an example in this particular case of doing, of the catch 22 per se.

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This, he's engaging in real lies, and they cross the line into evil.

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And so we're gonna see David, man after God's own heart, coming up woefully short.

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So the story continues. David said to Achish, if I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be given to me in one of the country towns so that I might dwell there.

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For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you? So Achish gave him literally the town called

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Ziklag. Therefore, Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.

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It ends up becoming part of the inheritance of Judah because of this gift. And the number of the days David lived in the country of the

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Philistines was a year and four months. So he's there for 16 months. David and his men went up, made raids against the

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Gershites, Gershurites, the Gerzites, and the Amalekites. These are all allies of the

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Philistines. So there's David in his own town, Ziklag, gifted to him by King Achish.

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And what does he do? He goes out and he attacks and sacks the towns that are all allies of the

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Philistines. How you think that's gonna go over with Achish if Achish finds out? Not so good.

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So he did this with the Amalekites. These were the inhabitants of the land from of old as far as sure to the land of Egypt.

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David would strike the land and would leave neither man or woman alive, but would take away the sheep, the ox, and the donkeys, and the camels, and the garments, and come back to Achish.

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And notice, he killed everybody. This goes back to that famous pirate saying, dead men tell no tales.

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So he left no one alive who would rat on him. And so Achish would say, where have you made a raid today?

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And David would say, oh, against the Negev of Judah. We attacked

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Judah today. Or he would say, against the Negev of the Jehameleites, or against the

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Negev of the Kenites. These are allies of Israel. And David would leave neither man nor woman alive to bring news to Gath, thinking lest they should tell about us and say, so David has done.

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Such was his custom, all the while he lived in the country of the Philistines. And Achish trusted

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David, thinking that he had made himself an utter stench to the people of Israel. Therefore, he shall always be my servant.

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These are the days before the internet. Yeah, I, yeah, so, okay.

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So David is raiding, he's raiding and killing the enemies of Israel, all the while telling

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Achish he's attacking Israel. Lying through his teeth, getting away with it too.

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Why? Because all these people are dead. And you have to wonder, I mean, if you remember later, when

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David wants to build the temple of God, what's the reason

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God gives that he will not build the temple? Because he has too much blood on his hands.

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So there's nothing moral in what David is doing here at this point.

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He is literally putting on a pretense. He is lying to Achish's face.

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And this is going to literally endanger the lives of David, his men, and their wives and children, all because of this big ruse.

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So he's, again, total Academy Award -winning performance, total lie.

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So Achish is thinking, oh, he's made himself an utter stench to the people of Israel. He's always gonna be my servant. Oh, this is the best thing ever.

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And everyone's sitting there going, Achish, you are an idiot. Why are you believing this fellow?

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So then, chapter 28. In those days, the Philistines gathered their forces for war to fight against Israel.

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Uh -oh, uh -oh. If the

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Philistines are gathering for war against Israel, what's that gonna mean for David and his men?

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Can they fight Israel? No. Now, can you say conflict of interest?

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So Achish said to David, understand that you and your men are to go out with me in the army.

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David said to Achish, very well, you shall know what your servant can do. And Achish said to David, very well,

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I will make you my bodyguard for life. You see

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David leaving, he's going, oh, boy. Oh, man, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? This is getting awkward.

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Now, a little bit of a pause. The story's gonna take a slightly different direction for a moment. So Samuel had died.

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All of Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, in his own town. Saul had put the mediums, the necromancers, out of the land.

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Now, this is something that Saul did actually right. Saul should have put the necromancers and the mediums and the spiritists out of the land.

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That crime requires capital punishment in the theocracy of Israel. So he's done well here.

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And this is where it gets interesting. So the Philistines assembled and they came and they encamped at Shunem.

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Saul gathered all of Israel. They encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the

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Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly.

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You ever have one of those moments you were so scared your blood ran cold in your body? It actually feels that way, doesn't it?

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Yeah, I've had that happen, right? So he's literally, and he's trembling. He's like freaking out.

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So when Saul inquired of Yahweh, Yahweh did not answer him. Either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets, that's not good.

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God ain't talking to him no more. Doesn't matter what his inquiry is, God will not answer him directly.

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So then Saul said to the servants, seek out for me a woman who is a medium that I may go to her and inquire of her.

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Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is a sin punishable by the death penalty in Israel.

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He's gonna seek out a medium, a spiritist, a necromancer. So his servants said to him, behold, there is a medium at Endor.

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You ever heard of the witch of Endor? We're about to meet her. So Saul disguised himself, put on other garments.

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He and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night. Wow. So he's in costume.

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They're slinking out to see her at night. By the way, if what you're engaging in requires you to do something to hide who you are and to walk about at night in the shadows, you are up to no good.

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Now me, I'm a ninja. So, you know, I, you know, nevermind. It's a joke.

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You'll never even see me coming, just saying. This particular case, this is not ninja stuff.

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This is hide myself stuff because he knows what he is doing is absolutely forbidden by God's word.

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So Saul disguised himself, went, they came to the woman by night. And he said, divine for me by a spirit and bring up for me, whomever

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I shall name to you. The woman said to him, surely, you know what

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Saul has done, how he's cut off the mediums and the necromancers from the land. Why then are you laying a trap for me, for my life to bring about my death?

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So she thinks this might be a sting operation. The police are waiting in the other room.

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And as soon as she does her medium spiritist mumbo jumbo, they're gonna spring on her and arrest her and put her to death.

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So Saul swore to her by Yahweh, as surely, oh my goodness, this is terrible.

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Surely, can you believe he's done this? As Yahweh lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.

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This is blasphemy. I swear by Yahweh, nothing bad will happen to you.

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This is straight up rebellion against God, straight up rebellion. This woman,

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Saul, I mean, do you think for a second that Yahweh's not gonna punish this woman for this sin? If she doesn't repent?

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He's invoking the name of Yahweh, said nothing bad's gonna happen to you. Notice the piety by which he's now excusing sin.

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So Saul swore to her by the Lord, as Yahweh lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.

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Then the woman said, whom shall I bring up for you? He said, bring up Samuel for me. And then the most interesting thing happens.

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When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman said to Saul, why have you deceived me, your

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Saul? Now, a little bit of a note here. You all have cable, right?

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Flip channels at night. And you come to those paranormal television programs on reality

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TV. What do you make of that? Keep flipping, yeah.

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If your curiosity gets the best of you and you look at those paranormal television programs, they kind of weave stories like this about human spirits that are wandering the earth.

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Nowhere in scripture does it say that human spirits wander the earth. It does describe demonic spirits wandering the earth.

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Okay, now, keep this in mind. How long have demons been with us? Since the beginning.

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They've been with us since the beginning. And do you think the demons know us pretty well?

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Do you think the demons know who was living here and what happened here 100 years ago, 150 years ago?

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Now, remember the movie Poltergeist? I mean, the whole concept of the movie Poltergeist is that there were all of these spirits who hadn't, quote, crossed over yet.

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Remember Carol Ann and don't go into the light and all that kind of nonsense? Yeah, and then this house is clean.

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If you haven't seen it, I'm describing something you don't understand, but the general theory in regards to ghosts or spiritual activity is that they are human spirits who haven't crossed over into the light.

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And apparently everybody gets to cross over into the light. Does this sound biblical at all to you? This is straight up heretical theology created by spiritists and mediums.

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Now, when a spiritist or medium is doing their thing, there are literally only one of two options in dealing with a spiritist or a medium.

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Have any of you seen that Long Island psychic woman? Yeah. I don't think she's actually talking to spirits because if you watch the games she plays, she plays it very well.

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She reads people perfectly and she begins by throwing out kind of vague ideas.

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And if she gets a hit based upon the person's response, like bad poker players, then she sees what she got a hit on and then she starts to kind of go down that path.

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And she'll say things like, does the name Rebecca mean anything to you? And the person says, yes, that was my aunt.

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Ah, yes, Rebecca, right. She liked dogs, didn't she? And it was like, 60 % of the population, they like dogs.

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Oh yeah, she was a big dog lover. And if they say no and it's like, okay, well, maybe

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I'm not hearing it right. And so she's playing this game. She's not actually talking to your dead aunt Rebecca. What she's doing is basically fishing with vagaries and then as you respond to the vagaries, narrowing it down so that she can create the impression that now when she's got you convinced that she's hearing from aunt

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Rebecca, she'll say things like, aunt Rebecca is wanting me to tell you that everything's okay and that you can let go.

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Oh, I can finally have closure. Yeah, it's a game. It's a game.

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It's parlor tricks. However, there are some who legitimately are getting in contact with the demonic.

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They are not talking to aunt Rebecca. That's a demon dressed in aunt

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Rebecca drag. Do you see what I, you understand what I'm saying? Is that you aunt

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Rebecca? Yes, it's me. I mean, yes, it's me, darling. I love you so much.

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Yeah. Now in this particular case, you're gonna note that the witch of Endor is shocked.

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Shocked. Samuel shows up, which kind of lends to the possibility that she was of the type of medium that was really good at the parlor tricks.

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But when Samuel really shows up, she's really in contact with Samuel. That's the scary thing for her.

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So she says, why have you deceived me? You're Saul. The king said to her, don't be afraid. Do it. What do you see? And the woman said to Saul, I see a

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God coming out of the earth. He said to her, what is his appearance? She said, he's an old man.

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He's coming up. He's wrapped in a robe. Saul knew that it was Samuel. And in this case it is.

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He's come up from Sheol. And he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage to the spirit of Samuel.

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Samuel said to Saul, why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?

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Saul answered, I'm in great distress. The Philistines are warring against me.

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God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophet or by dreams.

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Therefore, I've summoned you to tell me what I shall do. Samuel said, why then do you ask me since Yahweh has turned from you and has become your enemy?

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Whoa. I can think of only one person in all of the universe you do not want as your enemy.

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And that's God. Hard words. Yahweh has done to you as he spoke by me for the

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Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and has given it to your neighbor, David, because you did not obey the voice of Yahweh, did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek.

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Therefore, Yahweh has done this thing to you this day. Moreover, Yahweh will give

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Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow, you and your sons shall be with me in Sheol.

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Yahweh will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.

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Wow. What do you do when you are confronted with your sin in this way, in God's wrath and his judgment?

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Saul fell at once, full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel. There was no strength in him for he had eaten nothing all day and all night.

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And the woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, behold, your servant has obeyed you.

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I've taken my life into my hand and have listened to what you have said to me. Now, therefore, you also obey your servant.

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Let me set a morsel of bread before you and eat that you may have strength when you go on your way.

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And he refused, said, I will not eat. Servants together with the woman urged him, and he listened to their words.

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So he arose from the earth and sat on the bed. Watch this. Woman had a fattened calf in the house, and she quickly killed it, took flour, kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread of it.

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And she put it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.

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Here's the real tragedy of it. Fatted calf killed. Unleavened bread.

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This should have immediately recalled to mind the sacrifice of sins and the bread of the presence at the tabernacle.

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The right thing for Saul to do at this point would be go to the tabernacle and throw himself at the mercy of God, repent of his sin, his rebellion, his wickedness, and plead for God's mercy.

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Rather than kill a fatted calf for the forgiveness of his sins, he has some barbecue and some bread the night before he dies.

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Yeah. No. Okay, this is a one -off event in all of Scripture.

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And this is a one -off event as a sign of God's judgment and wrath against an unbelieving and rebellious king.

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Anybody who breaks the commandment and speaks to the dead, or thinks they're speaking to the dead, they will not call up somebody from Sheol.

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Only the damned are there now. Where are those who die in Christ presently?

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They're before the very throne of God in heaven. They're in the presence of Christ himself.

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They ain't coming down until he returns. This particular event is unique.

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It's a one -off and it will never happen again. And I will note this,

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I've seen it happen, that those who lose a dear loved one are often tempted by mediums and spiritists in the midst of their mourning and grieving to try to communicate with their dead relatives.

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Do not fall for that temptation. That is a demonic hook.

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I've seen it over and again. Somebody's grieving and somebody says, I know a person who has a friend who can talk to the dead.

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Don't go down this road. It is an abomination before God and you are literally opening yourself up to demonic oppression and deception.

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All right, we'll keep going for just a few more minutes. So Saul, rather than offering a sacrifice, eats a sacrifice.

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Ridiculous. So let's return with David. David has found himself in the awkward position that he has put himself into of having to march out with the armies of the

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Philistines against Israel. He's been putting on an elaborate ruse regarding Achish and the question before us is, how on earth is he gonna get out of this?

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This is quite the pickle he's found himself in. Well, let's see what happens. Again, I think

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Augustine's warning here that we are to note what David is doing but not follow this example.

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The Philistines had gathered all their forces at Aphek and the Israelites were encamped by the spring that is in Jezreel.

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As the lords of the Philistines were passing on by hundreds and by thousands, you kind of think kind of military parade at this point,

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David and his men were passing on in the rear with Achish. The commanders of the Philistines says, what are these

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Hebrews doing here? Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, is this not David, the servant of Saul, the king of Israel who's been with me now for days and years and since they deserted me,

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I've found no fault in him from this day, he says. So it's David, he's the king, but he's been with me.

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You know, it's like no big deal. The commanders of the Philistines were angry with him and the commanders of the Philistines said, send the man back so that he may return to the place which you've assigned it.

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He shall not go down with us into the battle lest in the battle, he become an adversary to us for how could this fellow reconcile himself to his

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Lord? Would it not be with the heads of the men here? Is not this

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David of whom they sing to one another in dances? Saul has struck down his thousands, David, his tens of thousands.

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So here Achish believes David and he thinks, oh no, no, I'll vouch for him. He's okay, he's good, he's good. It's not a big deal.

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And everyone else is going, are you nuts? Are you crazy? What are you thinking here?

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So there's a little bit of turmoil among the Philistines at this point. This goes back to your earlier question.

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How could David pull this off? Notice he's not pulling it off with everybody. He's got Achish snowed, but none of the other

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Philistine lords, they're not having any of this. So Achish called

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David and said to him, and this is ridiculous. This is almost melodramatic.

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As Yahweh lives. Here Achish is saying to David, as Yahweh lives, you have been honest to me.

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It seems right that you should march out and in with me in the campaign. No, he has not.

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David has been lying to you the whole time. And there's Achish going, you have been totally honest with me.

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I trust you. And he's, from his heart, he really believes this. I mean,

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Achish is just, oh, deceived like he wouldn't believe, right?

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I found nothing wrong with you from the day of your coming to me to this day. That's because he killed all the witnesses.

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Nevertheless, the lords of the Philistine, they don't approve of you. I do. So go back now.

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Go peaceably so that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines. So heartfelt words from Achish, even invoking

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Yahweh. So David said to Achish, but what have I done?

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What have you found in your servant from the day I entered your service until now that I might not go and fight against the enemies of my

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Lord, the King? Does he mean a word of this? No.

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You could almost do this melodramatics. What have I done? What have you found in me that I can't go and fight the

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Israelites? I am your servant. So notice he's not quick to go. Thank God we got to get out of here, guys.

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So he continues the pretense at this point. And Achish answered

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David and said, I know that you are as blameless in my sight as an angel of God.

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This is so bad. And by the way, David is endangering the life of his mighty men at this point, risking having to fight against Israel at this point.

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And by even being there, he's not where he should be. And this is gonna come back to bite him. Nevertheless, he shall not go up with us.

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Achish answered David, I know that you are as blameless in my sight as an angel of God. Nevertheless, the commanders of the Philistines have said, he shall not go up with us to battle.

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Now then, rise early in the morning with the servants of your Lord who came with you.

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Start early in the morning and depart as soon as you have light. So David set out with his men early in the morning to return to the land of the

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Philistines, but the Philistines went up to Jezreel. And you can almost hear

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David's men going, that was close. That was really, really, really, really, really, really, really close.

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We almost had to fight our own countrymen, our own brothers, our own kin. You almost got us,

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I mean, so that's the close call. Next week, we'll see the consequence of this whole fiction and ruse that he put on.