The Last Meal, Part 1

The woman said, well, whom shall I bring up for you? He said, bring up Samuel for me. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. That's a long way of saying she screamed, which is almost comical. She evidently wasn't expecting anything. And by the way, Samuel is going to emerge before she starts any incantation, before she throws a frog into the kettle or whatever, before she, you know, draws something on the sand and then gets in the middle of it and begins to moan and chant.

None of that took place. Here comes Samuel. There are times in life when we pray and God's answer is no, simply because he has a different plan for us. However, it's also possible that the reason God seems distant from us is because of a problem in our own hearts. The sin we pursue creates a barrier between us and God. It's not that God has changed toward us, but when we pursue sin instead of God, we're excluding God from our life. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen's going to look at this principle from the life of King Saul. As he does, it's an opportunity for all of us to examine our own hearts. This lesson is called The Last Meal. If I were to ask you what was one of the most important factors that led to the downfall of a thousand year old Russian monarchy, the murders of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, and the rise of a man named Lenin and Russian communism, you'd probably be thinking right now in your minds, what did I forget in the 10th grade? That's okay. Let me remind you, if I were to ask you of one significant factor, probably more than any, you would probably not include in your answer the mention of a man named Grigory Yefimovich.

I had to practice pronouncing that a few times before this morning. While Grigory was still in his teens, he gained a reputation for two things. He claimed to be able to tell the future and he said a few things that seemed to come true and so gained some notoriety because of that. And the second thing was he was very immoral. In fact, the local villagers gave him a nickname that means debauchery. The name Rasputin.

Some of that ringing a bell now. When he was 22, he made a spiritual pilgrimage to Mount Athos in Greece and there he came under the influences of a heretical religious sect. They believed that sinning was necessary for salvation.

It's convenient, isn't it? The more you sinned, the more secure you were. And so they just kind of lit it up and sinned as much as they could. Two years later, Rasputin reappears in his Russian village, only this time he appears as a religious man. He's wearing black robes and the collar or cloth of a holy man. He now has incantations, he has formulas, he has the use of hypnosis, he claims to heal the sick and it seems that he does with a few of them. And he continued his immoral lifestyle too. He eventually wandered into the city of St. Petersburg where, at this particular time, society was just all a flutter with mysticism and the occult, the elite sections of society, you know, were going to seances and it was all just the rage. And he of course gained some reputation among them as a priest who could connect with the spirit world and even bring healing to some. The imperial family of Tsar Nicholas II heard of him and invited him into their home to try and help treat their son who suffered from hemophilia. Through hypnosis it seemed that he was able to alleviate some of the suffering of their son. Because of that he was welcomed with open arms into the family without much question.

He became a close and trusted friend. Alexandra, the wife of the Tsar, came to revere him as a holy man sent by God to help save their son. Even after Alexandra was confronted with Rasputin's immoral and financial scandals in and out of court, she refused to act on it.

She defended Rasputin as a holy man with power from God. When World War I broke out, Tsar Nicholas took personal command of the army leaving Alexandra and Rasputin behind with even greater power. It wasn't long before key leaders were exiled, institutions disrupted, the economy and public morale reached the bottom, strikes, rioting erupted in the capital city, rumors began circulating of a relationship between Alexandra and Rasputin. A group of cabinet members decided enough was enough and they conspired to kill Rasputin. One night they invited him to a state dinner but they poisoned his wine.

When they realized what was afoot he tried to run and escape. He was shot, caught, bound and thrown into the river where he died. The damage to the Russian monarchy was irreparable. Wicked friends of Rasputin were still in power. The Tsar had lost all credibility along with his queen Alexandra and the time was ripe for revolution. Just three months after Rasputin's murder, Tsar Nicholas and his family were brutally murdered by the Russian rebels called Bolsheviks and their leader Lenin. His rise to power would throw the nation into three years of civil war and even then the Russian people never got his promises and they struggle to this day.

One historian wrote, if there had been no Rasputin there would never have been a Lenin or a Stalin and there never would have been the propagation of atheistic communism throughout the empire of the Soviet Union for now nearly 100 years. A contributing factor behind it all is a demonically empowered man with evil ambition. Now I know I'd be preaching to the choir to tell you that Satan is a mastermind. He is determined to influence and deceive and destroy and divide. So often it requires one individual in history at the right place at the right time but with the wrong theology connected to the wrong world and a wayward heart and even a nation can be led astray. Some of Israel's darkest days are about to begin. We're going to see the collapse of tribal territories, defeat in war, a nation ruined and then civil war breaking out with brother against brother. And behind it all is a king whose final days are marked by a desperate attempt to connect to the occult world. If King Saul's record was not only already deeply tarnished, what he will do in the last 48 hours of his life will seal his doom. So why don't you go ahead and turn to 1 Samuel. Saul is going to add injury to insult.

He's going to seek counsel from a witch, we would call her, a medium, a woman supposedly able to contact the dead. Saul is only going to further rebel against God in this effort as he turns to spiritism. Now since Saul's life and death are intricately woven into the rise of King David, I want us to pause on another passage I've never preached from and it's going to be dark, it's going to be a bit gloomy and discouraging and you're glad you came today, aren't you?

But we're going to turn the corner at the very end about the time I run out of time, okay? What I want to do is learn some final lessons from his biography because it sets the scene for David's coronation. Let me break down the last few hours of Saul's life into three points of reference.

First, the tragedy of an unrepentant life. Now in order to pick up the study in chronological order, we need to go back to 1 Samuel chapter 28. You may remember that the opening verses, which we read in our last study, opened the narrative to tell us the Philistines are gathering their forces for war against Israel. What has happened, you need to understand, is that Saul's murderous passion and preoccupation with David has effectively neglected the growing threat of the Philistine nation. He's been so intent on killing David that his own kingdom and the safety of his own nation has sort of fallen off his radar. The Philistines have been sharpening their swords, by the way, and Saul hasn't noticed, but the Philistines have noticed him.

They've watched him become vulnerable. The time is ripe for revolution, for war. Now as chapter 28 opens, if you were with us in our last study, it's at this point that David is invited to go along with the Philistines and King Achish. You remember, he's been deceiving that king, telling him that, you know, he's defected and he's no longer an Israelite and carrying on his raids. And he gets away with it until the king says, you know, you ought to go with me to fight against Israel.

He's stuck. And we studied what happened through the course of chapter 29, where the other kings see David arrive with his mighty men and they won't have any of it. And they send him packing back to Ziklag. And then chapter 30 told us how when they arrived back home, their wives and children had been abducted. Now all of that is taking place in David's life.

Here's what's happening next in Saul's life. So go back to chapter 28 and verse 4. The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly. He inquired of the Lord.

The Lord didn't answer him. Now if you go back and just look at verse 3, notice the last phrase. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land.

That's given to us to shape the irony of what we're about to read. According to the demand of God and Samuel, if Saul did anything right, it was this one thing. He rid the land of the occult, fortune tellers, channelers of spirit beings, palm readers, astrologers, the horoscope, which by the way was as popular then as it is now. And those called necromancers, that is those who contacted the dead, all of that was forbidden. And by the way, it wasn't forbidden because it was all hocus pocus.

It was forbidden because it was spiritually dangerous and destructive and it distracted the people of Israel like it distracts people today away from the word of God. And so verse 3 is kind of given to us as a backdrop to the irony of this scene about to open. It tells us that Saul is trembling in verse 5.

That means literally to quake. It was used of Mount Sinai, quaking, shaking as God descended to deliver the law to Moses. Saul is literally shaking with fear as he sees the Philistines gathering. Verse 6. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets.

Now stop for a moment. The Urim was among precious objects used by the high priest. Some believe they were stones carried in the ephod over his shoulder.

We do know that these stones delivered yes and no answers from God. Saul obviously has some problems here. He needs an answer, a yes or a no. You think of the problems he's encountering. First of all, he's lost his brilliant commanding officer who never lost a battle, David.

He's also lost contact with God, we just read, through God's prescribed methods. He's unprepared for this battle. It's almost like he doesn't have a battle plan. So before he decides to rush down that little Mount Gilboa into the jaws of the Philistine army, he wants to know if he's going to win or not.

Is it yes or no? And the heavens are silent. Some of the saddest verses in his biography, or anyone's for that matter, is this comment by Saul in verse 15. If you look down there, he remarks that God has turned away from me and answers me no more. God has turned away from me. He's complaining against God. It's tragic, but what's tragic is that he's blaming God as if God has somehow for no reason turned away from me. Well, David himself will provide the answer why, not only for Saul, but for everyone who walks with God.

He writes from his own experience. In that song we've labeled, Psalm 66 and verse 18, if I regard, if I cherish iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me. Now, David isn't saying that God doesn't literally hear you when you refuse to repent of some sin, because we know from Scripture that God is omnipresent and omniscient, and he hears everything.

In fact, he knows what you're going to say before you say it, whether you're walking with him or not. What David means here is that God will not respond to a request of him that you deliver from an unrepentant heart that is cherishing sin you know you should confess. So here's Saul complaining, oh God, you know, he just won't listen to me anymore.

He won't tell me anything. And you think, wow, why would you expect him to when you refuse to repent? The tragedy here is that Saul has chosen to be wayward rather than worship and honor God. And you just can't have it both ways. You can't have it both ways. It's like a child wanting to commune or have fellowship with mom or dad and at the same time rebelling, right?

It's like you when you were a child. Your parents told me you rebelled against them and still wanted communion with them, right? How many of us are guilty of that? You wouldn't raise your hand until I did. You chickens.

Okay, you just you can't have both. Chuck's McDowell told a funny story in his commentary here on what happened to him years ago when he visited the hospital one evening. A woman in the church was in critical condition and he came to visit as he pastored in Fullerton, California.

And she's walking through the parking lot. He spotted the husband of the woman that he'd come to visit. They both attended the church. He pastored and the man was standing off to the side of the front entrance of the hospital smoking. The man caught sight of Swindoll walking toward him at some distance away and he evidently didn't want his pastor to see him smoking. So he stuck his hand with the lit cigarette into his front pants pocket. Swindoll commented, I just decided to go over and carry on a conversation with him.

A long conversation. He said the man turned all shades of red, fidgeted, smoke was literally coming out of his pocket. Finally he just laughed and he said, look, why don't you just go ahead and finish it? The man actually looked at him and said, finish what? And he hurried off in a cloud of smoke. Somebody came up to me after one of the earlier services and said, maybe that's the origin of the phrase liar, liar, pants on fire.

Could be. Listen, we don't go to God for advice or communion or worship while at the same time attempting to hide something from him that he might not be pleased with as if he can't see it. Saul is complaining, God doesn't answer me anymore. But he's got stuffed into his royal robes, a heart that is smoldering with disobedience and he knows it. He knows it, but it is tragic. He can hear the war chant of the Philistines and he cannot hear the voice of God. This is the tragedy of Saul's unrepentant life.

Secondly, let me point out the reality of an unseen world. Notice verse seven. Then Saul said to his servants, seek out for me a woman who is a medium that I may go to her and inquire of her. And his servant said to him, behold, there is a medium at Endor.

Isn't it interesting he asks for a woman? Most scholars believe he knew she existed. He knew that she had escaped the purge. He just doesn't know where she's living at the moment. His servants do. In fact, one author said she's related, some believe, to the royal family.

There are connections. The Bible in the Hebrew text literally refers to her as a mistress of necromancy. In other words, she consulted the dead in order to determine the future. Now, Saul has categorically refused God's prophets and God's word. His disobedience has blocked God's prescribed methods of gaining insight and wisdom.

And we've been told this is sufficient for our life, right? He is rejected before the completion of scripture, the prescription of God through his prophets and priests. And because of that, he says, you know what? I know there's a woman who's a medium. She can contact the dead.

I want to try to get an appointment with Samuel and hear from him. Notice what happens next, verse eight. So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments and went, he and two men with him. And they came to the woman by night and he said, divine for me by a spirit and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you. And the woman said to him, well, surely you know what Saul has done.

Now he has cut off the mediums and the necromancers from the land. Why then are you laying a trap for my life to bring about my death? But Saul swore to her by the Lord as the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing. By the way, don't miss the irony that he's swearing by the name of the Lord. He is at that moment disobeying.

This is how rock hard his heart is. Verse 11, the woman said, well, whom shall I bring up for you? He said, bring up Samuel for me. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. That's a long way of saying she screamed, which is almost comical. She evidently wasn't expecting anything. And by the way, Samuel is going to emerge before she starts any incantation before she, you know, she throws a frog into the kettle or whatever, before she, you know, draw something on the sand and then gets in the middle of him against the moon and chant.

None of that took place. Here comes Samuel. By the way, God can do this.

He has done this with Moses and Elijah, brought them to the Mount of Transfiguration to bolster the faith of Peter, James and John. Now, I will tell you, and we'll pause for just a few moments, because there's a lot of ink spilled on whether or not this was really Samuel. I mean, what's really happening here? Is the devil doing something? Is this a demon? Is this an apparition?

Is this some mist? Or is this really Samuel that God allows to come back to pronounce this final judgment or reaffirmation of the judgment? I would throw my hat under the ring with those who say it's literally Samuel. And there are five reasons why I'm going to say I'm faster than you write.

So I don't want you to write them. Just listen. First, because the woman saw him and described him. Now, if you look at verse 14, she's polytheistic, she's superstitious, and she describes a God coming up from out of the earth. And then she described him as an old man, as he gets a little closer, wrapped in a robe.

So she's describing a man. Secondly, Saul recognizes him, not just the description, he evidently it's implied sees him, because he bows before him. Thirdly, because the biblical text literally refers to this thing as Samuel three times. And Samuel said, and Samuel said. Fourthly, the message that Samuel delivers is a mirror message of what he had already delivered to Saul years earlier. He said to Saul, God has taken away the kingdom from you and he's going to give it to your neighbor. What he does here in this text is he adds a name to the neighbor, David. One more reason, and these are an ascending order of importance, that this had to be God's divinely inspired prophet.

And here it is, because Samuel knew the future. The dead do not know the future any more than the living, beyond what God has already provided. What about the believer? Well, you have the believing martyrs who are martyred in the coming tribulation, and they're at the throne of God, and they're saying, how long, oh Lord, before you vindicate our blood? They know he's going to vindicate it because they've read Revelation, but they haven't been told when, and so they're asking. So believers don't know the timing of God's events. The dead don't know the future any more than we do.

However, keep in mind the deception of the underworld. While they do not know the future, by means of their communication systems, they know what's happening a thousand miles away right now. You could communicate it to somebody a thousand miles distant from them. They can read your email. They can read the email somebody's writing to you, which you won't get because it gets thrown into spam until you can figure out how to get it back in your mailbox. They can read the letter that's been mailed to you before you get it and they know what it says. They know the nickname of your great grandfather.

They know your departed pet's favorite toy. I mean, the devil is deceitful, and his kingdom has communication methods we know nothing of, so we don't trivialize them. We don't focus on them, and we definitely don't solicit information from them because they could deceive us with legitimate information because of things they have been able to communicate and what they do see. And people today are led to believe in some strange spirit world, distracted and deceived, taken away from God's revealed word. Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. You can learn more about us if you visit our website, which is wisdomonline.org. Once you go there, you'll be able to access the complete archive of Stephen's Bible teaching ministry. We also post each day's broadcast, so if you ever miss one of these messages, you can go to our website to keep caught up with our daily Bible teaching ministry. The archive of Stephen's teaching is available on that site free of charge and you can access it anytime at wisdomonline.org. While you're there, be sure and click on the link to receive a free copy of Stephen's ebook, Do Babies Really Go to Heaven When They Die? Stephen wrote this booklet to provide biblical answers to that question. As you read it, you'll find comfort and hope if you're among the millions of people who have lost a child. During January, you can download that ebook from our website free of charge. Once again, it's wisdomonline.org and a link to this booklet, Do Babies Really Go to Heaven When They Die? is right there on the homepage. Well, thanks again for joining us today. We're so glad you were with us and I hope you'll be with us for our next Bible lesson tomorrow, right here on Wisdom for the Heart.