The Spirit, Descending and Departing (Part 1 of 2)

There are many examples in the Bible of God using unlike people to accomplish unlikely tasks by unlikely means. Today on Truth for Life, we'll examine what is absolutely necessary for someone's service to God to be effective. Alistair Begg takes us to a defining moment in the kingdom of Israel. I invite you to turn with me to 1 Samuel and to chapter 16, and we'll read from the thirteenth verse through to the end of the chapter. 1 Samuel 16 and reading from verse 13. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him, that is, David, in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward.

And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the LORD tormented him. And Saul's servant said to him, Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you.

Let our LORD now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well. So Saul said to his servants, Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me. One of the young men answered, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the LORD is with him. Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, Send me, David, your son, who is with the sheep. And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread, and a skin of wine, and a young goat, and sent them by David his son to Saul. And David came to Saul and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight. And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand.

So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him. Amen. We bow down before you, our good God, acknowledging that the words to which we now turn proceeded from your mouth, that this is your Word. And we believe that it is your Word that does your work by the power of your Spirit in the lives of men and women. So accomplish your purposes, we pray, and help us. For Jesus' sake.

Amen. Well, if you do open your Bible, then if you turn, probably, if it's like mine, back just one page, you will find yourself at the twenty-eighth verse of chapter 15, in which we have a defining moment in the events that we've been considering most recently. And there, in verse 28, Samuel addresses Saul, and he says to him, The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. It's a dramatic moment. Saul, devastated by it inevitably, could not know who this neighbor was.

We're about to find out. But it wasn't simply that Samuel's robe had been torn in that departure. Something far deeper than his robe had been torn, and that was his heart. Relationships matter, and the relationship that he had formed with Saul was such that even though it had been bumpy at times, to say the least, nevertheless he loved him. And so the chapter ended, that is, 15, with a grieving Samuel—a grief that could not be assuaged with the passing of time, it would seem. And so it is that at the beginning of chapter 16, as we saw, God comes to him, and he says, How long are you going to grieve over Saul?

After all, he says, I have rejected him as king. Now, neither Samuel nor Saul could really have been aware of the extent of the impact of this. It was to prove to be just not only a life changing but a turntable event. If you are ever in San Francisco and you go down by the water there where those trolleys come, it's quite remarkable the way they come in, and then they manage to go out in an entirely different direction. And if you're not paying attention, it seems a mystery as to how they managed to get turned around. Well, of course, they have come in and settled on a turntable, and as the turntable has moved, they've gone out on another track. Their direction has been radically altered.

And in this incident here, that is essentially what is happening. And it's happening both for Samuel and for Saul. Samuel, as we saw last time, was immediately mistaken in his judgment about a replacement.

If Saul was gone, who was going to take his place? Well, the sons of Jesse were assembled, and Samuel made his first pick and got it wrong. And as the other brothers had emerged, as we saw, none of them was an obvious candidate. And then the one who became the candidate was not an obvious candidate either. And as we find so many times in the Bible, God chooses to use unlikely individuals in unlikely ways to do what is often unlikely things.

And this final pick has to be extracted from the hillsides, where he has been keeping the sheep. It hasn't even occurred to his father to invite the boy, the ruddy-faced boy, to be part of that, because after all, we're looking for a king, and nobody is less likely to be a king than this fellow. And yet, in actual fact, here he is, and he is anointed, verse 13, in the midst of his brothers. It's just a small ceremony.

There's no big palaver, there's no indication that they invited a lot of friends and neighbors in, but this is what had taken place. And we discover, then, that the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David, and then, in verse 14, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. It should be already clear from the songs we've been singing that our focus this morning is on God the Holy Spirit, as we have him revealed to us in this particular section. And if you want a title for this morning, it could simply be The Spirit Descending and Departing. And we will look in turn at the way in which the Spirit comes, and then in the second instance, in the way in which the Spirit goes.

It's a crucial transition, as I say, between the collapsing kingdom of Saul and the emerging kingdom of David. Now, let's just pause and acknowledge that although the Holy Spirit is often mistaken and referred to in terms that are other than personal, the Bible makes it very, very clear that from the very beginning of the Bible, God the Holy Spirit is at work. In the second verse of Genesis chapter 1, it is the Spirit of God, the ruach of God, or the wind of God that breathes over the waters, so that the Spirit of God—God the Holy Spirit—is present there at the very threshold of creation. And when you read on through your Bible, you discover, again, that the work of God the Holy Spirit is establishing, providing, establishing, and enabling those who will lead the people of God—calling out, for example, Abraham or Moses, or you can go through the list, Joshua, Elisha, Elijah, and so on—all the way right up to where we are.

And the Spirit of God, who rushes upon David here, is God himself. This is something that I think is important for me just to restate. Every so often we have to do a little theology check. We have to make sure that our orthodoxy is not only stated but it is understood. So let me give you just four straightforward statements concerning God that help us keep on track. Because in our next service, we will share together in the dedication of one of our children, and I will quote from there the Hebrew shema, shema being here, here, O Israel, shema, O Israel, here, O Israel, the LORD your God, the LORD is one. Now, what are we saying?

What is being said there? Number one, there is one and only one true and living God. There is one and only one true and living God. As you read on in your Bible, you discover that that one God eternally exists in three persons—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit—that these three persons are completely equal in their attributes, and each share the same divine nature. And fourthly, while each person is equally and fully God, the persons are not identical.

And indeed, the role that is given to the Son is distinguishable from the role that is exercised by the Father, and the role that, as we see here, is present in the activity of the Holy Spirit. Why does this matter? Because we live in a culture that is increasingly confused concerning this issue. And it is very, very routine for people to suggest that the gods of the world have an equal standing in these things.

What are we to do with that? Well, the Bible is very, very clear. There is only one true and living God—the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is God, the Spirit, that is at work in these events—first of all, as we will see, in his presence revealed in David and in his absence as seen in Saul. So, verse 13, let's take a moment and notice that the Spirit of God rushed upon David.

Rushed upon David. That fits, incidentally, with the whole notion of the wind—that the Spirit of God, the wind of God, the rush of God, if you like. It's not unfamiliar to us. We saw it in relationship to Saul already. There are three occasions, we've noticed, where the Spirit of God is said to come upon Saul in this way.

However, it is in Saul's case intermittent. We mentioned it in passing but didn't pursue it in terms of going back into the judges, and particularly in relationship to Samson, where again it is said of Samson that the Spirit of God rushed upon him. And here, the Spirit of God now rushes upon David, notice, from that day forward. In other words, it is not going to be intermittent in David's case. This is going to be the defining feature of the kingship of David—which, of course, raises the question of Psalm 51, where David says, Please don't take your spirit from me.

I don't want us to divert on that. We can say something of that this evening. But it is for David the defining feature of his entire kingship, that the Spirit of God in this moment has come upon him. Now, the thing we need to notice, both in the presence and in the absence, is this—that the picture is not of an individual mustering up their inner strength. In other words, it was a sort of propensity that was already present in David, and something happened, and he looked into himself, and he said, You know, really, I am a mighty person of valor, and I am this and I am that, and I can play the guitar and so on.

No, it is not that. It is the clear picture of a power that comes from outside—from outside of himself. And it is in a context that is very, very limited, as I pointed out. It's not a big crowd. It's amidst his brothers that the anointing take place. Although it's not a big crowd, it is a big deal.

It is a big deal. And if anybody had had a cage to hear of it or to have happened upon it, bystanders, and looked at it, it is unlikely that they would have attached any significance to it at all. They would have gone on their way and said, I don't know what's going on in there. There's something going on with the family of Jesse, and there's one of the old boys is there. He's got a horn of oil, but it's… who knows what it is? It's the exact same thing that people say today about Jesus of Nazareth and the cross of Jesus. They say, I don't know what it is. There's something about Jesus on a cross or whatever.

It's really not very important at all. The same thing in Bethlehem when in the arrival of Jesus. There's no big banner in the street, no crowds of people coming out to see what's going on.

No, the people would have walked past and said, I don't think there's anything of significance happening here at all. I mean, there are many babies being born. It's quite wonderful, isn't it, the way that God does this?

Continues to do it. That's why, as we said last Sunday, it is imperative that we view our culture and we view our world and we view our history through the framework of the Bible, rather than viewing the Bible through the framework and perspective of our culture and of our preoccupations with history. It is the Bible that adjudicates in the unfolding story of the world. It's not a world that has the privilege of announcing or denouncing the unfolding story that God has provided in his Word.

Now, you may believe that, you may not believe that, but you can at least consider it. He was anointed, which gave to him his authority, and he was rushed upon by the Holy Spirit, which gave to him his ability. Anointed, now the king, and empowered, now the king in action. From there, we go to verse 14. You say, Please hurry up.

There's a long way to go. I understand. In verse 14, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.

I spend time on 13, because we never dealt with it really last Sunday, either in the morning or in the evening. Now, by way of contrast, there's a seesaw in this—what you call, I think, a teeter-totter—so that down comes the Spirit on David, and the Spirit departs from Saul. And in this dramatic moment, a huge shift in the purposes of God is taking place. The departure of the Spirit from Saul accounts, then, for his loss of authority and for his diminishing ability. He's not left, though, with a vacuum, as you can see, because we're told that the Spirit of the Lord departed—capital S, God—and a harmful spirit, lowercase s, from the Lord—capital L, O-R-D—from God, tormented him. And this was such that the events were observable, because you'll notice in verse 15 that the servants were able to say to him, Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. In other words, this was not something that he was just experiencing in the isolation of his bedroom or when he was just going about his business on his own. No, something observable had now happened to Saul.

People would now look at Saul in these instances and say, Something dramatic has happened to this character. And the writer tells us exactly what it was—that the Spirit of God has now departed from him, thereby diminishing his abilities and impacting his authority, which will become apparent as we go on. He's still ostensibly the king. He still has a throne.

But it's all really over. And so the people look on, and they understand this. Now, notice the source of the harmful spirit. And a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.

This comes twice. Again in 15, the servants say the same thing. Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. Well, in what sense can this be the case? Because we know that God is not the author of evil, nor does he tempt anyone to evil. Well, it is surely in this respect that God sweeps that which is opposed to him and opposed to his people—and opposed, in this case, to his servants—that which may be in the exercise of chastisement or full-on punishment in order to achieve something that would not be achieved otherwise.

So the source is clear. God reveals himself through the prophet in Isaiah when he says, I bring prosperity, and I create darkness. Job responds in the early chapters of that amazing book. He says to one of his inquirers, Shall we accept good from God and not trouble? God is either sovereign or he isn't sovereign. Therefore, he is sovereign over the good, the bad, and the ugly. If in doubt, read Calvin.

And let me give you just a couple of sentences to help you if you immediately find yourself stumbling over this. That Satan's agency is used to urge the wicked on whenever God in his providence would bend them this way or that is plainly shown in one part of Scripture. And the one part of Scripture to which he goes to illustrate this is the part of Scripture we find ourselves in right now. We learn that the unclean spirit was appointed by God in the sense that it answered to his purpose and power. It was an instrument of his will and not an actor in its own right. Nevertheless, there is an enormous difference in one and the same event between what God does and what the devil or the wicked do. The evil instruments which lie in God's hand and which he can bend in any direction he chooses are made by him to serve his righteousness. The devil and evildoers, being wicked, actively beget and bring forth whatever evil their minds have devised.

And so this is exactly what is unfolding here. There's nothing in the text to suggest that what we now have by way of description in the balance of the story concerning Saul is simply his predisposition. There is nothing to indicate that this shows up, if you like, a flaw in the emotional or the psychological framework of Saul as an individual. There's nothing to suggest that. No.

What is being said is very straightforward. Saul is confronted by a power outside of him—a power outside of him that is harmful. It may not be… When it's translated evil in some translations, we don't necessarily need to view that in a moral context. Evil in the sense that it did despite to the one whom God loved and had set in this position. So it deprived him of his peace of mind.

It came and went, as we will see. It stirred up feelings inside of him—ideas, imaginations—that drove him at times to the border of madness. And this was external to him. It was in the absence of the present activity of the divine Spirit that, in that vacuum, he faced this reality. Any one of us can be effective in serving God but ultimately will only be truly effective if we're empowered by his Spirit. You're listening to Truth for Life and that is Alistair Begg with a message he's titled, The Spirit Descending and Departing.

We'll hear more tomorrow. No matter how long you've been studying the Bible, there's always more to learn. Even taking a fresh look at a single word or phrase can bring new light on the meaning of a passage. That's why we teach the Bible verse by verse here at Truth for Life so that you can gain a comprehensive understanding of God's Word and then apply what you've learned to your daily life.

And our prayer is that as a result of teaching God's Word, unbelievers will be converted, believers will grow in their faith, and local churches will be strengthened and encouraged. In addition to teaching from the Bible, we also carefully select books to recommend to you to help you grow in your faith. The book we're recommending today takes a close-up look at the redeeming work of Jesus. It's titled, Man of Sorrows, King of Glory. It's a book that explores the atoning work of Jesus from various perspectives, including his roles as prophet, priest, and king. There is much to learn in this insightful book, including how Jesus' whole life was lived for us and for our salvation. You can ask for your copy of the book, Man of Sorrows, King of Glory. When you give a donation to the Ministry of Truth for Life, go to truthforlife.org slash donate or click the image you see on the mobile app.

I'm Bob Lapine. Things were not looking good for King Saul. God's spirit had departed from him and an evil spirit was beginning to torment him. Tomorrow we'll hear the ironic solution for Saul's problem. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.