This is a short message delivered to a combined Church gathering addressing the question: “What is God saying to the Church?”
We are asking tonight, what is God saying to the Church? I believe that there is something to be found in answer to this question by examining the life of Saul, king of Israel. I will begin close to the end of Saul’s 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 Israel 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.” (1 Sam. 28:3-7 NIV).
Now what caused Saul to go and do something which he knew to be wrong? Deut 18:10-12 is clear that no mediums or those who consult the dead must be part of Israel. They must be killed according to Lev 20:27. Saul had sensibly expelled these previously. But he was afraid and he got no answer when he tried all the means he knew of to get an answer from the LORD. So he became desperate. He needed God to answer him somehow so he turned to a medium to raise up Samuel from the grave, supposedly to get some answer from God about what to do. The logic here is quite dreadful, that Saul would try to get an answer from God by doing something which God has specifically forbidden!
How exactly did Saul get to this place of being so desperate and so foolish? We really need to go back to the beginning to answer this. When Israel first asked for a king, the LORD granted their request by giving them the kind of king they desired. Saul is described in 1 Sam 9:2 as “an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites—a head taller than any of the others.” He had the right worldly qualifications but he did not have the character to go with it. Nonetheless he had an impressive beginning. He was anointed by Samuel as king over Israel. He was given the Spirit and he prophesied. Samuel promised him, “The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you” (1 Sam 10:6-7).
Haven’t we as Christians also had an impressive beginning? We were chosen in Christ “before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless before God” (Eph 1:4). We have been anointed by the Holy Spirit and given precious promises. We have been promised by Jesus that he will never leave us or forsake us. We have been assured that “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” So like Saul, we believers had a wonderful beginning. We were chosen, anointed and given great promises. God is on our side.
Although Saul got off to a good start he failed to build on that beginning. Instead of realising that the king of Israel must be a man of God who walked with the God of Israel, Saul proved himself to be only a religious man. 1 Sam 13 records Saul’s actions when fighting the Philistines.
“Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear. 8 He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul’s men began to scatter. 9 So he said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.” And Saul offered up the burnt offering. 10 Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him. 11 “What have you done?” asked Samuel. Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash, 12 I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD’s favor. ‘ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.” 13 “You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the LORD’s command.”” (1 Sam. 13:7a-14 NIV).
Saul’s mistake here was that he elevated religious behaviour over obedience. He thought that getting the favour of God was about offering the sacrifice, instead of trusting God and obeying his will. Saul demonstrated in this instance that he had very little in the way of relationship with the God whose favour he was trying to gain. If he had trusted God he would have held onto the favour of God which he had from the beginning. Instead, he lost what he had and descended into more and more foolish behaviour. There is not time to go into all the foolish choices which Saul made, so one more must suffice.
In 1 Sam 15 Saul was given the command to attack the Amalekites and totally destroy them. Nothing was to be left alive, not people and not animals (1 Sam 15:1-3). Saul did attack the Amalekites but he saved king Agag and some of the sheep and cattle for an offering (20-21). Samuel rebuked him, “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams” (1 Sam. 15:22 NIV). Saul was again busy being religious as if religious behaviour was the way to gain favour with God.
Now if we move forward in time back to the story of the witch of Endor in chapter 28, the events here seem less surprising. Saul has demonstrated in his life that he had no actual relationship with the LORD. He was on occasion quite religious in his behaviour at the expense of obedience to the word of God. But he was not a man who had a relationship with God. So his fear about the situation on the battlefront did not result in him calling on the God who he knew personally. Instead he used all the means he thought were available to him to get an answer and that failed. It is not actually surprising that God did not answer him, since God does not allow people to manipulate him. And Samuel’s answer from the grave was that Saul was not obedient and God had left him (1 Sam 28:16-19).
What does all this have to do with the Church in Perth today? In some ways the Church in Perth is like Saul. Although we have been called by God, anointed by the Spirit and given the favour of God through Jesus, we are a very religious lot. Many Christians act like they believe that religious behaviour will gain the favour of God. This is false! We already have the favour of God through Christ. There is no value in going through religious motions.
What our God desires of us is to be people of God, people who know him intimately. What is needed is action to have an actual relationship with God. This is something which we objectively have through Jesus, but to know God in a personal way requires a choice. Saul was given this choice and failed. He chose religious motions, which did not gain him anything, but rather lost him the kingdom. We need to make the right choice. Getting to know God takes some effort. It takes time. It takes some discipline. There must be a choice to actually spend time in the Bible and time in prayer. The relationship which God desires with us is not necessarily one in which we get all the answers and all the things we want. The choice is to know God as both Lord and friend.
If we put in the time, chose the discipline, and be consistent in our desire to actually know him, then when the crunch comes, then we will not act like Saul does at the end of his life. He had the word of God and was foolish in thinking that he could manipulate an answer out of God. He acted out of desperation because he had no relationship. If we as Christians find ourselves in the position of doing something this foolish it is because we have failed to spend the time, and be disciplined in the word and prayer, to truly know the God we claim to serve. Let us make the right choice.