Saul's Slip & Slide - 1 Samuel 28
Prayer: Lord I pray that as we come to study your word we would each have hearts that desire to draw closer to you, hearts that desire to live in purity because of our passionate love for you, hearts that are offered up in sacrifice to you so that you may do the work of purifying our minds & our lives. Lord your Word warns us that there are evil forces at work in this world that desire to draw us in; help us to understand these forces in order to resist them, but not to be so curious as to be drawn into their seductive traps.
At the end of the last chapter David has been living in Philistine territory for 1 year & 4 months. During this time David has been reporting to King Achish (Philistine) that he's been raiding Israelite territories when in reality he's been attacking & obliterating the non-Philistine enemies of Israel. Because of these reports Achish thinks he has David under his power, and David is happy to let him think this.
1 Samuel 28 v1-2: Since Achish thinks he's got David under his power, he commands David & his men to go into battle against Israel. Indicating that if David lives up to his reputation in the battle Achish is going to make David his personal bodyguard. This sounds like it could undermine what God has in mind for David to do.... but God has different plans in mind, and we'll see what God does when we get to chapter 29; however, for the remainder of this chapter Saul is going to be the focus as we see how he responds to the approaching Philistine forces.
Quickly Form Groups and answer the following questions:
1. Discuss the following list of activities, for each do you think they are harmless or dangerous? Why?
a. Playing Cards or Board Games
b. Reading Your Horoscope
c. Playing with a Ouija Board
d. Having a Tarot Card, Palm, or Tea Leaf Reading
e. Consulting a Psychic
f. Consulting a Medium
g. Attempting to contact the Dead
h. Attempting to contact or control Spirits
2. What alternatives are available to believers instead?
v4-6: The Philistines have gathered, Saul sees their forces and is terrified. Saul cries out to God but God is silent. Saul basically had 3 means of receiving direction from God. God could speak directly to Saul through dreams or visions, but God was not speaking to Saul directly. God could send a messenger, an Angel or a Prophet, to speak to Saul on His behalf but God is not sending Saul messengers. God could direct Saul through the use of the Urim & Thummim, instruments contained in the Ephod of the High Priest, but Saul had been slaughtering Priests. In chapter 23 we learned that the one Priest who escaped the slaughter had sought refuge with David, bringing the Ephod with him, so the Urim & Thummim weren't available to Saul.
What are the Urim & Thummim?
We're going to take a little sidetrack - I was looking into these a bit and realized I had made assumptions about what they were, and my assumptions are probably wrong. The truth is we don't really know exactly what they are, what we do know is that they were associated with the breastplate of the High Priest, located over the heart of the Hight Priest, and that they were used to discern the will of God.
Urim: the meaning is believed to be a plural version of "ur" which means: light.
Thummim: the meaning is believed to be a plural version of "tōm" which means: perfection or completeness.
For both words Jewish tradition holds that the plural form of these words doesn't involve numerical plurality - it made me think of the unusual plural tense used in Genesis 1:26 where God says "let Us make man in Our image" & the original language pluralities are odd - indicating multiple beings but the grammar used is that for a singular being.
Urim & Thummim: literally means lights & perfections or lights & completenesses - whatever types of objects they are we can think of them as revealing God's will (or God's perfect light) into the affairs of man.
Some things they could be, and are believed they could be:
- Something like lots or dice - this is what I had assumed and from what I've read is probably wrong.
- One dice-like object with Three outcomes: Positive/Yes, Negative/No, Neutral
- Three stones, pulled out of a bag (or other sort of thing), each with a word indicating: Positive, Negative, Neutral.
- Stone(s) in the breastplate itself (or on the shoulders of the ephod) which changed color and/or glowed to indicate Positive, Negative, Neutral or to indicate impending Victory or Defeat.
- Stone engraved with the name of God on which the priest meditated in order to become capable of prophesying or hearing the voice of God.
That was the long answer, the short answer is that we don't know what the Urim & Thummim are. Apparently what they were was well known to Moses and the Israelites of old, with no need for explanation, but that information is lost to us now.
Back to our narrative. Saul has repeatedly refused to submit to God's will, repeatedly refused to listen to God's prophets & priests, repeatedly refused to repent, and repeatedly sought to kill God's chosen man David. If Saul had listened to God previously, bowed to God's will, Saul likely would have heard from God. (Isaiah 59:1-2) Saul had chosen not to listen to God, now it appears God has chosen not to listen to Saul. Saul's compromises started out small & grew, that is how sin works, it snowballs. Eventually he got to the point where he was completely unwilling to accept defeat, acknowledge his sinfulness, and submit to God. What small seemingly harmless compromises are you making in your life (Media, People, Places, Objects, Substances)? Are you exposing yourself to things that could potentially draw you in to sinful behavior? Even worse are you exposing yourself to things that have been stumbling blocks for you in the past?
God uses His silence for a purpose, sometimes He simply wants us to wait, other times He is attempting to get us to repent and get our lives back on track with His will. God wants us to submit our hearts, our minds, and our wills to His in intimate relationship - sometimes it's His "No" answers and His silence that spur us to that greater intimacy. Is God saying "No" to you? Is God being silent? What will you do in response to God?
Deuteronomy 18:10-12; Exodus 22:18; 1 Samuel 28 v3 & 7-10: At some point in the past Saul had obeyed God's laws by expelling the mediums and spiritists from the land, perhaps by having them executed; however, because he's not hearing from God he is now in desperation seeking out a medium. Saul knows he shouldn't be doing this, that's probably why he's disguising himself and sneaking around, though he may be disguising himself since he's considered an enemy of mediums. The medium is also being careful, she knows she could be killed because of her actions, and this is a stranger.
God had forbidden any divination, sorcery, witchcraft, or the like. God did this because these are occult practices, they rely on demonic forces for insight or power. God specifically called the people of Israel to be pure, set aside for Him, and as part of that they were never to be contaminated by these occult practices. That list we looked at earlier is seen by some as completely harmless - but as Christians we've also been asked to be Sanctified, set aside for God's purposes. Of the things on the list only the 1st item is harmless, and there are exceptions there as well (gambling for addicts & games that aren't innocent).
v11-14: Ok, something interesting is happening here because this medium cries out at the top of her voice. This is a woman familiar with the dark arts, probably speaks to spirits on a regular basis, so there's something about this that has her very upset. Perhaps she recognizes Samuel, perhaps the manner in which Samuel appears is quite unique from what normally occurs, we don't know, but we do know it startles the woman and she immediately realizes that Saul is the one who sought her out. Saul also knows, by the description, that this is Samuel who has come. We don't know why or how this happened, but we know that God allowed this to happen, God is finally going to answer Saul through Samuel.
A Warning: demons are deceiving and very powerful, much more powerful than we are if we're acting in our flesh. It's possible that mediums really can contact people who have died, it's also possible that the mediums are encountering demons masquerading as people who have died, we don't know. What we do know is that God forbids this outright, and no matter how bad we might miss a loved one (my Daddy) we are never to seek to contact the dead.
v15-19: Saul tries to justify his rebellion, crying to Samuel about how God isn't speaking to him anymore. What excuses do you make when you rebel against God's ways? Samuel has nothing but bad news for this rebellious king, God has had quite enough of Saul and his antics. Samuel in essence says "I told you so", that God is doing what He said He'd do, that the kingdom is getting taken away and given to David, and that very soon Saul will be joining Samuel among the dead.
v20-25: Saul collapses, he has to be convinced to eat something to regain his strength - after all he's got the Philistine army to face. I wonder what the medium thought as she witnessed all this, I wonder if it caused her to change her ways, I'd like to think that it got her attention & caused her to repent. If it did it's not recorded in scripture, so I think its unlikely. That should be a lesson for us, some people will refuse God no matter how much He reaches out to them, that doesn't mean we stop trying to reach people for God, but it does mean that it's not our fault if they reject Him. Look at all the exposure Saul had to God, yet Saul rejected God.
Closing Prayer: Lord there are many mysterious things in this passage, things that need careful study but even more careful discernment. Please help us to study enough to understand the mysteries of your ways and the forces of evil impacting this world, at the same time keep us from getting tempted to put faith in objects or to seek out insight through the ways of demons. Finally Lord, keep us from taking the little steps of compromise that lead to our downfall, guard our hearts / minds / and wills and keep them focused on You. Amen!
Quickly Form Groups Again, and answer the following questions:
3. Think of a time when God was silent in your life or God said "No" in response to your prayers, share it with your group. What did you learn from this time in your life? What do you think God was trying to accomplish?
4. If you have a friend who is struggling with God's silence how might you be able to encourage them?
5. Is there an area of your life where you've taken a step of compromise? Share it with the group (use generalities if concerned about privacy) and have them pray for you.
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