A FAITHFUL, PATIENT, EXPECTANT WAITING

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In Christ, Mark

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In those days, the Philistines gathered their forces to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, "You must understand that you and your men will accompany me in the army."

David said, "Then you will see for yourself what your servant can do."

Achish replied, "Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life."

Now Samuel was dead and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in his own town of Ramah. Saul had expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land.

The Philistines assembled and came and set up camp at Shunem, while Saul gathered all the Israelites and set up camp at Gilboa. When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart. He inquired of the Lord but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets. Saul then said to his attendants, "Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her."

"There is one in Endor," they said.

So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. "Consult a spirit for me," he said, "and bring up for me the one I name."

But the woman said to him, "Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?"

Saul swore to her by the Lord, "As surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this."

Then the woman asked, "Whom shall I bring up for you?"

"Bring up Samuel," he said.

When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, "Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!"

The king said to her, "Don't be afraid. What do you see?"

The woman said, "I see a spirit coming up out of the ground."

"What does he look like?" he asked.

"An old man wearing a robe is coming up," she said.

Then Saul knew it was Samuel and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.

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

"I am in great distress," Saul said. "The Philistines are fighting against me and God has turned away from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do."

Samuel said, "Why do you consult me, now that the Lord has turned away from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done what He predicted through me. The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbors — to David. Because you did not obey the Lord or carry out His fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this to you today. The Lord will hand over both Israel and you to the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also hand over the army of Israel to the Philistines."

Immediately, Saul fell full length on the ground, filled with fear because of Samuel's words. His strength was gone, for he had eaten nothing all that day and night. When the woman came to Saul and saw that he was greatly shaken, she said, "Look, your maidservant has obeyed you. I took my life in my hands and did what you told me to do. Now please listen to your servant and let me give you some food so you may eat and have the strength to go on your way."

He refused and said, "I will not eat." But his men joined the woman in urging him and he listened to them. He got up from the ground and sat on the couch.

The woman had a fattened calf at the house which she butchered at once. She took some flour, kneaded it, and baked bread without yeast. Then she set it before Saul and his men and they ate.

That same night they got up and left.

1 Samuel 28

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we have read in the last two chapters of 1st Samuel, David and his men decided to join Achish, king of Gath and the Philistines, to keep Saul from searching for him, a plan that was successful.

Now as chapter 28 opens, we see the Philistines gathering “their forces to fight against Israel” and King Achish tells David that both he and his men were to “accompany (him) in the army. To which, David replied:

"Then you will see for yourself what your servant can do".

Pleased with his eagerness to fight alongside, we read where Achish pledges to make David his “bodyguard for life” which was nothing but wishful thinking for we know that David has been anointed and was destined to be Israel’s next king.

And so with the Philistines readying to go to war with Israel, Saul was getting his forces prepared as well, gathering “all the Israelites” and setting up “camp at Gilboa”. It was there that the scriptures tell us that he was struck with a paralyzing fear as terror filled his heart over the prospect of fighting the mighty Philistine army.

Surely adding to his frightened mindset was that he had been unsuccessful to connect with the Lord after inquiring of Him. He received no answer despite seeking God by way of “dreams or Urim or prophets”. And so desperate for some comfort and assurance, we see Saul turn elsewhere for guidance.

I wonder how often we do this as well. We call on the Lord for some direction in a life circumstance and then lack the patience and trust to wait for Him to deliver. The problem is that we expect God to operate within our expectations when we don’t have any right to dictate anything to Him. Rather, He will always conduct His business in accordance with His perfect way and in His perfect time…and this can include making us wait so to produce patience, one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

In Saul’s case, he allowed his fear of the mounting opposing forces to drive him toward a reckless, compulsive quest for anything that might soothe his anxieties. He had an opportunity to get right with the Lord again, despite being rejected prior, but he once again repeated the mistakes from the past, choosing to follow his own misguided wisdom. In this case, he turned to whoever he could to try and get what only God could give him.

Sadly, Saul becomes a biblical case study of someone who was never willing to completely surrender all of himself to the God who gave him the privilege to lead His people.

Again, we’re also like this way too often. For when we start to face impending troubles, we have a tendency to panic and quickly pivot to anyone but God to try and get what only He can provide. Like Peter stepping out of the boat onto the wind-whipped waves of the lake, we start to walk on the water towards the Lord only to let fear and doubt creep in…and when that happens, we begin to sink into the depths below.

When we get there, we, like Peter, come to the stark realization that only God can save us…and so we cry out to Him before He reaches down and pulls us out of trouble, rescuing us from harm and drawing us into His protection (Matthew 14:22-32). All this should teach us to never doubt or lose faith in the first place because we serve a Lord who is always with us, ready to lead and guide us through our life’s circumstances…whether good or bad. We just need to fully trust Him, adopting a faithful, patient, expectant waiting.

Well, back to the scriptures where we see Saul asking his men where he might find a medium to consult since the Lord wasn’t answering him, a request that actually contradicted his order after he had “expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land” following Samuel’s death. We read where Saul’s men tell him about a medium in Endor and so he disguises himself before going to her at night saying:

“Consult a spirit for me…and bring up for me the one I name."

Well, this obviously upset the woman because she was being asked to violate the king’s decree, not knowing of course that she was speaking to Saul himself. We see where she was most afraid of being put to death if she honored the request.

Speaking into this situation, we see Saul turn to sin yet again, being so brazen as to invoke the name of the Lord for his wicked purpose, posing as if speaking on the Lord’s behalf when we know God wasn’t speaking to him at all.

After all, this is why he was seeking the medium in the first place.

So Saul tells her:

“As surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this.”

And with this reassurance in hand, the woman obliges Saul’s request, asking:

“Whom shall I bring up for you?"

To which, Saul tells her Samuel, sparking what had to be an unexpected response from the medium. For as she saw Samuel, she immediately knew that the man speaking to her was none other than Saul, asking him:

“Why have you deceived me?”

With his cover now blown, Saul tells the medium to not be afraid, inquiring about what she was seeing. And after she telling him she had seen “a spirit coming up out of the ground” that looked like an old man wearing a robe”, Saul “knew it was Samuel” and “bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground”.

Well, the scriptures show us that the summoned Samuel was not pleased with Saul’s behavior and rebukes him, asking how he could have done such a thing. In response, Saul tries to explain himself saying:

“I am in great distress…The Philistines are fighting against me and God has turned away from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do."

In other words, Saul was placing Samuel on the same level as God for after all, hadn’t Samuel been a prophet and had brought God’s Word to him before?

Well, through Samuel’s response, we see Saul reminded of his prior actions and how God had responded to them. We also see Samuel let him know that he had already told him what was going to happen before when he was living. Look at his words again here:

"Why do you consult me now that the Lord has turned away from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done what He predicted through me. The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbors — to David. Because you did not obey the Lord or carry out His fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this to you today. The Lord will hand over both Israel and you to the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also hand over the army of Israel to the Philistines."

In sum, the end was near for Saul. He had wanted to know the future so badly that he sought counsel outside of God and so his fate became set for he would not survive the coming battle.

Well, as you would expect, Saul did not handle the news well. We read where he “fell full length on the ground, filled with fear because of Samuel's words” with his strength gone because “he had eaten nothing all that day and night”. Interestingly enough, we see the medium go to Saul and try and encourage him to eat which he does after receiving further encouragement from his men. And after eating the meal prepared by the woman, Saul and his men left…with Saul knowing the end was near and probably wishing he had not went to the medium in the first place.

In the end translation, Saul had gone to the wrong person in his time of trouble…not just in this instance but in many instances throughout his life. And now, he had unfortunately gone to the well one too many times for the Lord will not tolerate blatant disrespect and/or willing disobedience. He had commanded this so to make it clear but Saul decided to pick and choose when he would comply. And while he was the king, he wasn’t greater than THE King of kings (capital “K”).

Friends, we need to keep this in mind as we go through our lives and learn from the mistakes of Saul. For there’s no doubt that we will find ourselves in the midst of difficult and challenging circumstances in life…and these circumstances may force us to feel a sense of urgency as trouble begins to mount, just as the assembling Philistine army began to pressure Saul. Our enemy uses that mounting sense of urgency to get us to stop waiting on the Lord with patience and trust…with faith and hope knowing He is a God who cares for us and will work things out for our good (Romans 8:28). We have no one in life like Him for there is nothing beyond the work of His almighty Hands.

So how will we respond to this message today?

Will we go after guidance and truth from others who can in no way give us what the Lord can?

Will we trust the wisdom of man over the wisdom of our Heavenly Father who loves every one of His children so dearly?

If we do, then we, like Saul, are only asking for trouble. For if the Lord doesn’t speak to us right away when we call on Him, then there’s a good reason why…and we should continue to pray and wait on Him…faithfully…patiently…and expectantly, knowing He will always bring His help to us in the right place and in the right time.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

THE DANGER OF DECEIT

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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But David thought to himself, "One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel and I will slip out of his hand."

So David and the six hundred men with him left and went over to Achish, son of Maoch, king of Gath. David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him and David had his two wives: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal. When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him.

Then David said to Achish, "If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be assigned to me in one of the country towns, that I may live there. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you?"

So on that day Achish gave him Ziklag and it has belonged to the kings of Judah ever since. David lived in Philistine territory a year and four months.

Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. (From ancient times these peoples had lived in the land extending to Shur and Egypt.) Whenever David attacked an area, he did not leave a man or woman alive but took sheep and cattle, donkeys and camels, and clothes. Then he returned to Achish.

When Achish asked, "Where did you go raiding today?"

David would say, "Against the Negev of Judah" or "Against the Negev of Jerahmeel" or "Against the Negev of the Kenites." He did not leave a man or woman alive to be brought to Gath, for he thought, "They might inform on us and say, 'This is what David did.'"

And such was his practice as long as he lived in Philistine territory.

Achish trusted David and said to himself, "He has become so odious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant forever."

1 Samuel 27

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Quick question: Would a person lie if they are really after God’s heart?

It’s question we need to ponder as we study from 1st Samuel, chapter 27 where we pick up after David warded off Saul for the second time in chapter 26, an event where Israel’s king admitted his sinfulness while vowing to stop trying to harm David right before they went their separate ways.

As this chapter opens, we see where David doubts that Saul would keep his word. After all, he had promised things before only to break those promises. What would keep Saul from doing it again?

And so David decided to “escape to the land of the Philistines”, a move that led to Saul giving up his search for him. He (David) took his “six hundred men…and went over to Achish, son of Maoch, king of Gath”.

Now you may remember this wasn’t David’s first foray into Gath. While fleeing from the murderous Saul, David fled to the Philistine territory. Afraid that Achish might betray him to Saul, David pretended to be crazy which allowed him to get out of Gath and continue his escape (1 Samuel 21:10-15).

Also of interest, Goliath, the Philistine giant that terrorized the Israelites before the young David killed him with a well placed stone from his sling, hailed from Gath. This reminds us how connectional the Word of God can be as we study it.

Well, as David and his men went to Gath this time, they chose to settle in Philistia. We read where they also took their families this time and David went to Achish with the following proposition:

“If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be assigned to me in one of the country towns, that I may live there. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you?"

And with that, “Achish gave (David) Ziklag” where he lived for “a year and four months”…but afterwards, the land “belonged to the kings of Judah ever since”.

Up to this point, all seemed well. David was free from Saul’s pursuit and had his own town to live in with his people. But then something began to happen to David for we see where he began to allow deceit to take root in his heart.

For as David and his men settled into Ziklag, they weren’t just satisfied with having a town to live in for the scriptures tell us that they “went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites”, people who had “lived in the land extending to Shur and Egypt”…”from ancient times”. And since these areas were under Philistine rule, David would attack an area and then not allow “a man or woman alive” because he couldn’t afford anyone telling Achish what he was doing…attacking the king’s towns for plunder as he “took sheep and cattle, donkeys and camels, and clothes”.

Then, falling further into sinfulness, we read where David would be asked by Achish:

“Where did you go raiding today?"

To which, David would deliberately share falsehood saying:

“Against the Negev of Judah" or "Against the Negev of Jerahmeel" or "Against the Negev of the Kenites."

In other words, David led Achish to believe that he was attacking his fellow Israelites when he was really attacking Philistine territory. We see where these lies were very convincing for “Achish trusted David” and believed what he said, so much so that he believed he had actually made David an enemy of his own people, something that would make him the king’s servant forever.

Now, on the surface, this lie might seem innocent enough.

David had attacked and destroyed the Philistines…a people who God had already condemned…a people who were the enemies of Israel. But we need to note here that God didn’t tell David to do what he did…nor did David, the man after God’s own heart, ask God whether He wanted him to attack and destroy the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. Rather, David took it upon himself to wipe out three groups of people under Philistine rule, committing total genocide so there would be no witnesses to his sin…and then doubling down on his wrongs by lying to the king about his actions…the first of many future acts of deceitfulness we’ll see from David.

The truth of the matter is that lying is rarely just a one-time affair. Instead, once a person is successful in lying once, they too often allow the seeds of dishonesty to be sown into their character where it begins to take root and sprout into more incidents of deception. And if one isn’t careful, lying can become as common as telling the truth, particularly if being dishonest can help them get what they want or cover up a wrong they committed.

The enemy, the father of lies as Jesus called him (John 8:44), seeks to convince people that a little lie here and there isn’t all that wrong. After all, everyone does it, right? Thank goodness our Lord doesn’t feel the same way. For we only need look into His holy Word to see that deceit isn’t acceptable to Him in any form.

Consider these passages:

There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. Proverbs 6:16-19

The Lord detests lying lips, but He delights in men who are truthful. Proverbs 12:22

You see, when a person chooses to lie, they allow sin to enter their heart and devise the wicked deceitfulness that soon comes from their lips, an act that’s detestable to the Lord.

In other words, we disgust God when we deceive others and there can be no more dangerous place to be than in the presence of an almighty, infinitely powerful God who is disgusted?

Just the very thought of this should stoke fear in our hearts and deter us from ever speaking a single word of falsehood. For bad things are destined to come upon anyone who willingly chooses to lie.

How do we know?

Again, we go to the scriptures.

A man of perverse heart does not prosper; he whose tongue is deceitful falls into trouble. Proverbs 17:20

Indeed, God does not bless sinfulness. Instead, as we’ve seen in the last two messages, He rewards righteousness and faithfulness (1 Samuel 26:23).

A perverse heart…a heart that decides to disobey God and lead the tongue to deceive others…will lead the liar into trouble. For a person who willingly decides to turn away from God’s will and way will not find prosperity…only His disfavor.

One thing we need to always keep in mind. We might be able to easily deceive human beings we will never deceive the Lord. No one gets over on Him.

So what can we do while living within a world filled with so much deception…a world that would try and convince us to do likewise in our own lives?

God’s Word gives us the answer loud and clear for we only need to turn to Him.

I call on the Lord in my distress, and He answers me. Save me, O Lord, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues. Psalm 120:1-2

The truth of the matter is that we serve a God who is always there for us…always there to help us from being deceived…and always there to keep our hearts and tongues from being deceitful. We only need to call on Him and He will answer because His Word is always perfectly trustworthy. God doesn’t lie.

So as we consider this passage from 1 Samuel 27 and David’s actions within, let our plea be like that of Agur in his inspired utterance found in the 30th chapter of Proverbs:

“Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.” 30:7-8

Indeed, let us give thanks for the Bible, the very Word of God given to us this day…a Word that has opened our eyes to the dangers of deceit…and a Word that has served and will always serve as our daily bread…feeding us and nourishing our spirits and souls so to live in right and righteous ways, every time we turn to it.

And that’s the truth.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.