Freed from the Fear of Death • 1 Samuel 28

40:06 Teaching begins

Notes

Trusting in Jesus and obeying God look like you’re going to die. It looks like you’re going to lose everything. It looks like a better bet is to try to save your life. Conserve what you have and try to make it last.

But until when? In reality we’re going to die. Silly sounding or not, that’s where we’re headed. Today King Saul is going to run out of options to save his life. He has to face death.

What we need is to be freed from the fear of death.

I’m reading in 1 Samuel 28.

1. The chapter begins with David having to go to war against Israel, vv. 1-2.

A. The Philistines are gearing up for a major war with Israel.

B. Achish lets David know in a very pointed way: be sure of this, you are going to fight with me against Israel. You wonder if he is looking to see if David flinches, shows some sign of not wanting to do that.

C. David answers just as emphatically, “Well, it is you who will know what your servant can do.”

D. But what is David going to do? We don’t find out this week because the chapter is about Saul.

2. The author repeats that Samuel is dead and Saul got rid of mediums and spiritists, v. 3.

A. This is the author giving background and context for what’s going to happen.

1. We saw in chapter 25 that Samuel died and was buried in his home town Ramah.

2. The author adds that Saul had earlier gotten rid of mediums and spiritists. Another name for these people is necromancer, people who through occult knowledge contact the dead for power and knowledge.

B. God’s law forbids Israel to seek power and knowledge from anything but Him.

1. Leviticus 20:6 As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.

2. God calls seeking the dead for power and knowledge spiritual prostitution. That’s being unfaithful to the Lord their God, and it’s unclean, it’s defiling. The dead are not God, they are not holy and eternal. They’re dead.

3. It begs the question: If you want to know the future, if you need supernatural power, why not seek God Himself? The answer is that you may not want what God has for you. You want what you want.

4. So God forbids seeking the dead because that is disobedient and rebellious against God. It’s looking for a way to escape from God’s authority. It’s the same attitude as worshipping and serving the devil.

3. The Philistines assemble their armies in Shunem, and Saul is terrified, 4-6.

A. The Philistines have moved into Israeli territory.

1. Shunem is down on the valley plain. It’s well suited for chariots to be most effective. They give an army speed and mobility.

2. Gilboa is on a mountainous ridge, a good defensive position.

3. The Philistines are daring Israel to come down and attack them where they have the superiority. They want to cut Israel to shreds.

B. Saul sees the Philistine camp and becomes terrified.

1. They have overwhelming numbers and they have chariots.

2. Deuteronomy 20:1 “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you.

3. But Saul is terrified because he is not with the Lord. He’s by himself. He’s thinking, “What are we going to do?”

C. Saul is so afraid that he seeks God, His knowledge and His power.

1. Saul disobeyed God in chapter 15. God fired Saul and Saul has been ignoring God ever since.

2. But now he is so fearful that he is seeking God like crazy. He’s asking the prophets for a vision. He’s asking the priests to use the Urim and Thummim. He’s hoping to get a dream from God about what to do.

D. But Saul ignored God, now God is ignoring Saul. That is terrifying.

4. Saul is desperate for a way out of his dire straits so he looks for a medium, vv. 7-14.

A. Remember that God said don’t do this. Saul himself put out all the mediums and spiritists out of the land. He disobeys God and contradicts himself: “Go find me a medium.”

B. Saul’s servants know where to find one. That’s interesting. I wonder how do they know?

C. Saul disguises himself and goes to her at night for at least two reasons. One, he doesn’t want to be recognized as king because he forbid it, and two, Endor is on the northeast side of the Philistine camp. He has to pass close by them to get there.

D. The medium is wary with good reason. Saul got rid of all the mediums and spiritists, are you trying to get me killed? But Saul swears by the Lord she won’t be punished. He’s defying God and yet he swears by God to protect her.

E. He says bring up Samuel.

1. She does her magic or her ritual, and then she screams! This is not what she expected and she’s terrified. And she knows—you lied to me! You’re Saul!

2. And Saul, who’s terrified, says, don’t be afraid. What do you see? And she says, an old man wrapped in a robe. And he knows it is and bows down. It’s Samuel.

5. Samuel tells Saul that there is no way to escape the Lord’s judgment, vv. 16-19.

A. Samuel asks why did you disturb me and bring me up? And Saul tells him: The Philistines are upon me, I’m really in trouble, and God has departed and won’t answer me. So you tell me what to do.

B. Samuel says, what are you asking me for? If God is against you, who can be for you? No one can help you.

C. He says, God is doing what He said through me He would do. He tore the kingdom out of your hand and gave it to your neighbor, David because you disobeyed Him about Amalek. Saul’s disobedience and stubbornness will affect him, and his sons, and the nation. You and your sons will be with me, he says. You cannot escape this.

D. People ask is this really Samuel? Why would the Lord allow necromancy to work if it’s really Him?

1. Well, you listen to what Samuel says, it’s the very same word of the Lord he told Saul back in chapter 15. And he prophesies what will happen the next day. And it happens.

2. How you know that it’s God speaking is that every single word has to come to pass, every single time. No dead spirit or deceiving demon would speak the truth and prophesy the future.

3. So this is not necromancy, this is God choosing to speak to Saul and to us.

6. The medium and Saul’s servants convince him to eat, 20-25.

A. Saul hears Samuel and collapses on the floor. He’s terrified, and he hasn’t eaten all that day and night. He has tried everything he knows to do and it’s all futile. He has no hope.

B. The medium says, look, let me make you something to eat. He says, I will not eat. It’s not that I’m so upset that I can’t eat, but that I will not eat.

C. They finally get him to eat, but what was that? Why was that recorded for us?

1. Saul was fasting, something you do when you pray. You do it to humble yourself before God. You are making request of God and you’re seeking His will.

2. But Saul is fasting even as he seeks his own will. He doesn’t want what God wants; he wants God to do what he wants God to do: save me, save the kingdom, beat the Philistines. I don’t want to die. I think he’s trying to fast as a lever to move God. If I fast enough maybe God will listen to me.

3. We see that God is not moved by fasting. He doesn’t have to respond to me because I’m doing religious things calculated to get Him to respond. I don’t control God. He is sovereign. He doesn’t have to do what I say. I need to get in line with what He is doing.

7. So what?

A. Even though Saul would not obey God and rebelled against God, he still serves God as an example of what not to do.

B. The principle is what Jesus taught His disciples in Mark 8:34-38 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

1. Saul was afraid to lose his life and did everything he could to save it and still ended up losing it. That’s one of the secrets you need to consider. You’re going to die and lose everything. You can’t keep your life anyway.

2. What Jesus says to do is die His way. Lose your life for His sake and the gospel’s. You lay aside your own will. You come to Jesus and surrender to Him. You lose your life to Him, to rule as He wills.

C. Jesus did this same thing when He came as a human being: He surrendered Himself entirely to the will of the Father, which was, to die in our place for our sins. That means to die under the wrath of the Father. To face that wrath that no man has yet faced. We know nothing about the consuming wrath of God. But Jesus knows that in our place.

D. He knew that when He did the will of the Father and died, the Father would raise Him to eternal life. John 12:24-25 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.

E. It is so easy to disobey Jesus because you think, “I’m going to die! I’m going to lose my life!” That part is true. But you’re going to die anyway. Lose your life like Jesus. Seek your Heavenly Father for His power and knowledge. And then you will be that seed that falls into the earth and dies, and bears much fruit.

Let’s pray.