October 22, 2023
When Desperation Rules
1 Samuel 28:3-20
Desperation is a horrible feeling. It’s a feeling of being at the end of your rope and not knowing what to do. We all find ourselves in this kind of situation in our lives. When we find ourselves in those situations we tend to embrace the old adage, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” This is not how a child of God should ever approach times that feel desperate. This morning I’d like to look at one of the very last events in the life of King Saul. In desperation he sealed his fate before a just God and we can see learn as New Testament believers from the broken life that was King Saul.
Saul Was Desperate - 1 Samuel 28:3-5
3 Meanwhile, Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him. He was buried in Ramah, his hometown. And Saul had banned from the land of Israel all mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead. 4 The Philistines set up their camp at Shunem, and Saul gathered all the army of Israel and camped at Gilboa. 5 When Saul saw the vast Philistine army, he became frantic with fear.
The passage opens with a restatement of two facts that have been mentioned before in this book. Samuel was dead and had been dead for a while. Saul had been faithful to carry out Mosaic Law by banning all of those who acted as mediums or tried to speak with the dead. These two facts need to be remembered because they will both play major roles in the last day of King Saul's life.
Starting in verse 4 we see that King Saul was now faced with his real enemy - the Philistines. To say he was unprepared was an understatement because he had spent all his time sinfully chasing David out of fear of losing his position. Now he was face to face with his real enemy. He was terrified, panicked, and desperation was starting to reign in his life.
There are many times in our lives that we can find ourselves in the same place. We are so focused on the wrong things we can miss who our real enemy is. We know from scripture that he is always on the prowl seeking whom he may devour. In these situations we need to embrace the truth no matter the situation or our feelings about it. We must be facing these situations biblically. Many times we think these situations just leap upon us by surprise and we feel that we never saw it coming. In actuality many of these situations were there all along. We just noticed it when it was too late. When this happens it can send us into a panicked and desperate state of mind. This can be a dangerous reaction for a child of God because we have a tendency to react rashly.
Saul Was Looking for Answers - 1 Samuel 28:6
6 He asked the Lord what he should do, but the Lord refused to answer him, either by dreams or by sacred lots or by the prophets.
Saul cried out to God and God did not answer. It seems like a cruel thing that God wouldn’t answer the king of His chosen people in his hour of crisis. God didn’t answer because God already answered many times and Saul never listened. Back in Chapter 13 and Chapter 15 of 1 Samuel, Saul disobeys God when God was clear with Saul about what he was supposed to do when he found himself in similar situations. In Chapter 13 he found himself in an hour of desperation and fear. Saul refused to wait upon the Lord to send Samuel to make an offering before battle. He decided he would do it himself in disobedience to the Law of God. Due to this act of disobedience to God, God told Saul that his kingdom wouldn’t last forever, rather it would end and the kingdom would be given to another. In Chapter 15 God had told him to totally destroy the Amalekites, instead Saul was only partially obedient to God’s command. He was obedient to the parts of God’s command that he felt would benefit him. He decided to spare the king and all the “good” stuff the Amalekites had. When confronted, Saul said “We were planning on sacrificing all this to God”, but he was still disobedient. It didn't matter his intentions and Samuel delivered a message to Saul that he had fallen short of the call God had placed on his life as the King of God’s chosen people. During Samuel’s address of Saul’s disobedience he delivers the very important line of, “Obedience is better than sacrifice and submission is better than offering.” God had told Saul for years how to walk in total obedience to make sure God would be with Him in everything. However Saul decided that he would do things his way and in his own timing and God said “I have rejected you as king.” God had answered him for years, but Saul had ignored God. Saul had made his bed and it was almost time for him to lie in it.
Saul Entertains Evil - 1 Samuel 28:7-10
7 Saul then said to his advisers, “Find a woman who is a medium, so I can go and ask her what to do.” His advisers replied, “There is a medium at Endor.” 8 So Saul disguised himself by wearing ordinary clothing instead of his royal robes. Then he went to the woman’s home at night, accompanied by two of his men. “I have to talk to a man who has died,” he said. “Will you call up his spirit for me?” 9 “Are you trying to get me killed?” the woman demanded. “You know that Saul has outlawed all the mediums and all who consult the spirits of the dead. Why are you setting a trap for me?” 10 But Saul took an oath in the name of the Lord and promised, “As surely as the Lord lives, nothing bad will happen to you for doing this.”
Desperation had swallowed Saul whole. The enemy was right at his doorstep and God was not seemingly answering him (although He had). Saul seemed to have no hope. Therefore Saul made a rash decision and fell back into his old ways, which was to do things his own way. God had made it very clear in His law that practicing anything to do with the occult was strictly forbidden and was punishable by death (Leviticus 20:6, Deuteronomy 18:9-14, Exodus 22:18). Saul didn’t care. He was desperate so he sought after a medium, someone who could speak with the dead in order to ask Samuel for help. At this point it becomes very evident why it was mentioned that Samuel was dead and Saul had banned all mediums in the land. It was because Saul’s hypocrisy needed to be pointed out. Not only was he disobeying God, but he was being a hypocrite about it. What was not ok for everyone else because of God’s law suddenly became ok for the King due to the situation He found himself in. We can see all throughout scripture what God’s view of hypocrites is (Isaiah 29:13; Ezekiel 33:31; Matthew 15:7–9). God wanted to make it clear to everyone who would read 1 Samuel the path Saul was going down. However the hypocrisy of King Saul didn’t stop there. He asks someone to find a medium and although they were banned, his men knew exactly where to find one (there’s a lesson in there about what happens when you outlaw something). Once one was identified Saul would have to cross into the territory that the Philistines were camped at in order to get to her. He had to go through the ones who scared him and brought this situation upon him in the first place and he doesn’t hesitate. Instead he strips off anything that would identify him as the King of the Israelites and disguises himself to go and see her. It’s funny how we can sometimes balk at obedience to God, but when it comes to sinning we don’t hesitate to run headlong into it especially when we are desperate. When he arrives at the women's house, the woman feels it’s a trap. Saul then performs his greatest sin by swearing on the Lord that nothing bad will happen to her. Saul uses the covenant name of the Lord to indulge in a sin that God had forbidden - one he knew he shouldn’t be involved in. Saul used the Lord’s name in vain. Saul had entertained the evil in his heart and the evil that was present in the world because he didn’t know what else to do. He was desperate so he turned to things that he thought would provide him answers.
We must be extremely careful when we find ourselves in the same position. When we find ourselves desperate, in a panic, hurting, scared, or looking for answers, we must not turn to this world for answers. We must turn to God and be obedient to the answers He provides and wait upon His timing. When we turn to the world's ways as Christians instead of God’s we become just like Saul - we become hypocrites. There are plenty of sources in this world that we can turn to in our desperation, especially when we are looking for help and answers. When we seek those things we are being disobedient to God and disobedience will ultimately bring us pain. When it comes to some of the things and methods the world proposes for answers there is even a little bit of curiosity that can make it hard to say no. Just to try, tarot, astrology, Ouija boards, psychic, seances, following one's heart. The list goes on and on but when it’s not of God, it’s something that God has called us as His children to stay away from. We can even say “oh it’s just for fun, it’s not for real”, but just like Saul you will soon find out that it is very real.
Saul Faces the Consequences - 1 Samuel 28:11-20
11 Finally, the woman said, “Well, whose spirit do you want me to call up?” “Call up Samuel,” Saul replied. 12 When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed, “You’ve deceived me! You are Saul!” 13 “Don’t be afraid!” the king told her. “What do you see?” “I see a god coming up out of the earth,” she said. 14 “What does he look like?” Saul asked. “He is an old man wrapped in a robe,” she replied. Saul realized it was Samuel, and he fell to the ground before him. 15 “Why have you disturbed me by calling me back?” Samuel asked Saul. “Because I am in deep trouble,” Saul replied. “The Philistines are at war with me, and God has left me and won’t reply by prophets or dreams. So I have called for you to tell me what to do.” 16 But Samuel replied, “Why ask me, since the Lord has left you and has become your enemy? 17 The Lord has done just as he said he would. He has torn the kingdom from you and given it to your rival, David. 18 The Lord has done this to you today because you refused to carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites. 19 What’s more, the Lord will hand you and the army of Israel over to the Philistines tomorrow, and you and your sons will be here with me. The Lord will bring down the entire army of Israel in defeat.” 20 Saul fell full length on the ground, paralyzed with fright because of Samuel’s words. He was also faint with hunger, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night.
The next part of the text can be a very confusing one. Let’s focus on the truths located here. One thing we know for sure is that God allowed the dead to speak just this one time. It scared the medium who either was a fraud (like those we see came to prominence in the late 1800’s in Europe and America) or she knew the spirit that appeared was not the “familiar spirit.” She was used to communing with when she practiced divination via the dead. God had allowed Samuel to return to pronounce His judgment on Saul and his family one last time. Saul asked his question of Samuel and the response was one he had heard before - “Why are you asking me, remember the Lord has left you because of your disobedience”. Samuel then tells him that it’s over. Tomorrow both Saul and his sons will be with him. The time to face the consequences of his actions had come.
We must remember there are always consequences for our actions even under the new covenant. There might be an alcoholic or abusive parent that comes to Christ and is forgiven, however that will not negate the damage done to their families and their children. God can heal all those wounds over time, but there are always consequences for our actions, both to ourselves and others. That is why it is so important for us to understand that we must be obedient to God’s word in all parts of our lives - no matter where we find ourselves in life. It would have saved Saul a lot of suffering if he had only obeyed what God had told him in the first place. This is true for us as well. When you are in a moment of desperation, don’t look to the world for help, look to the Word.
How can we make sure we don’t find ourselves in the same situation as King Saul - desperate and willing to do anything to fix our problems? First we must make sure we are focused on the right things in life. We have plenty of small unimportant things that can distract us, we must focus on what God says to focus on in our lives. We do live in a fallen and broken world so we are going to find ourselves in a situation that will provoke thoughts of desperation, when that happens we need to keep our eyes on the King. He is not shaken or worried. When we focus on Him, His Word, and our obedience to His Word, we will find ourselves in a situation very different than the one that Saul found himself in.
