Quick Fixes
July 27, 2007
This will be the last of the life of Saul. We now skip over a lot of years. David has been on run from Saul even though Saul has said several times that he will not chase David any more. Saul has gotten further and further away from hearing God. The Philistines are starting a war with him. He asks God what to do, but God does not answer in any of the standard ways. Desperate for any word from God he takes action:
1Sa 28:7-8 KJV
(7) Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.
(8) And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee.
Saul is going to call up a spirit of a dead person, a practice that God had forbidden.
1Sa 28:9-10 KJV
(9) And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?
(10) And Saul sware to her by the LORD, saying, As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.
Saul obviously told the truth, she would not be punished. But she knew she should not be doing it. Still, she most likely was not a true caller of dead people. Why you ask?
1Sa 28:11-12 KJV
(11) Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel.
(12) And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul.
Why would she be surprised if she saw dead people rise all the time. She was just as shocked as Saul is about to be.
1Sa 28:13-16 KJV
(13) And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.
(14) And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself.
(15) And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.
(16) Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?
Saul finally found out what he did not want to hear. His kingdom would be taken from him. It is no wonder that he committed suicide as we saw in the first devotional on him.
The thing to realize is that all this was a progression. We have seen over the last few days that he did a lot of things wrong. Some of those we have done ourselves. Saul's problem was that he never learned and he got further and further away from God. Then desperate to hear from God he does not want to take the time to build up his relationship with God again. In its place he goes for the quick fix.
We need to know that it takes time to get into the problem we are in, we are not going to get out of it overnight. There are no quick fixes. Take time to build you relationship back with God.
