When Prayers Fall on Deaf Ears

Where do you go when you need a word?

You need direction.

You need clarity.

There's something going on in your life.

You're not sure which way to go, which direction to take.

You're not sure what to do about the situation.

What's your instinct?

What's your gut?

How do you figure it out?

You want, sometimes, a source that's beyond your own ability because you feel like this situation has brought you to your limit.

It wouldn't be hard if you just automatically knew what to do.

The point is, you're not sure what to do, you feel like you don't have the current wisdom to be able to know what to do, but you're desperate.

You've got to figure out something because Monday's coming, because that meeting is about to happen, or whatever it is.

And so where do you go when you need a word?

Some people, apparently many people, consult or look for advice, we might say, from the spirit world.

And some of you might be like, really?

Like for real?

For real.

Well, according to a 2021, I'd say that's pretty recent, New York Times article, it says this, a surprising number of people say they've consulted fortune tellers.

One in five Americans, according to a YouGov survey published in 2017, one in five Americans have consulted fortune tellers.

Hmm.

People go, it says, people go to psychics for all kinds of fanciful services, like palm and aura readings, astrological consultations, cartomancy, mediumship, and animal communication.

Some people's desperate nature is to communicate with their dog that passed away.

Is he okay?

But whatever makes somebody desperate, they really need to know something that they can't know Of their own accord.

And so where do they reach?

They reach for the supernatural.

It says in 2019, the market research from IBIS world reported that those businesses that I just read astrological readings, cardamom, mediumship, et cetera.

Those businesses had a combined revenue of $2.2 billion.

Even before the pandemic, the business like so many others was shifting online in 2019 consumers spent nearly $40 million on the top 10 us psychic and astrology apps compared to 24 million about half the previous year.

Now, I don't know if that's you.

From what I know, that's not you.

I'd be surprised if that were you.

And if you're thinking, boy, he might be disappointed if he found out I did.

Yeah, I would.

But maybe that's not you.

Maybe you've been tempted to do it.

Maybe you've driven by and you see the sign in the window and it's a palm reading sign or this person specializes in tarot cards.

Maybe you've been tempted.

Because you get sick and tired of coming to church and it's sermons with vague application and it doesn't tell you exactly what to do tomorrow at 8 a. M. When you have that meeting and you have that phone call.

You're tired of looking through scripture and you're reading genealogies and Abraham this and Samuel that.

Well what about Lucas O'Neill.

I have to make this decision now.

Well the fortune teller is going to be really specific to you now.

How specific are they really?

I don't know.

But their claim is to look into your future and give you a specific answer for you based on what they're seeing, not something generic or general.

I think that's the temptation.

So maybe you found yourself doing this.

Maybe you found yourself tempted to do it.

Perhaps it was seemingly as small as checking out the horoscope section in the newspaper, even if you were only mildly interested.

Where does that even mild interest, where's that coming from?

Perhaps you've played on a Ouija board and asked questions to gain information, even if you only thought it was a game.

Or was it?

I think there's a way to even read fortune cookies. That crosses the line.

You know, you crack that fortune cookie open and you're half joking, oh, it says this, but on your drive home, you're like, I hope so.

Do you kind of, almost kind of take it seriously a little bit?

Don't read them then.

They're not even good, honestly.

After you're like four years old, seriously?

Anyway, do you place your hope in it at all?

And if so, why?

Or do you feel the tug, the temptation to place your hope in specific readings?

Did you grow up concerned with what your sign was and dating someone with a specific sign?

Have you completely shed that or does it still linger in the background that it kind of matters what year you were born and the position of the stars when you were born because that kind of determines your personality.

Maybe in your background you were concerned whether you were a rat or a horse or a chicken.

We get desperate and you know your pastor is not going to give you your future.

And you know the Bible doesn't work that way but you're in a tight spot and you need guidance.

We suddenly realize we're not all that far removed from Saul's situation in this passage because you can't imagine a tighter situation than he's in.

And this is exactly what he needs to find out what he's looking to do is to find guidance.

So let's find that out and look at this in 1st Samuel 1st Samuel chapter 28.

We looked at the first two verses last time so we're only doing verse 3 to the end.

And here's what I'm going to do because it's it's a strange story and sounds like a ghost tale that you would read around the fire in October.

I'm just going to read it straight through, and I'm not going to be able to answer every question.

I've already let you down, I realize.

But I'll try my best.

I'll make a couple comments along the way for clarification purposes, but I'm going to save most of my comments for after we read 3 through 15.

So for the lay of the land, we're tracking Saul.

We're taking a time out from the David story.

Remember David, he's fooled Achish into thinking, yeah, I'll be your guy.

And Achish is like, great, you're going to be my bodyguard.

Oh, OK.

And he's like, and we're going to go march on Israel right now with you right next to me.

Let's go.

And David's like, oh, yeah, you'll see what I can do.

And then it stops to be continued.

And it's not going to pick up until next week.

It pauses that story and it goes back to Saul.

What's Saul doing?

And we'll see why in a few minutes why it does that.

But let's start in verse 3.

Now Samuel had died and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land.

The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunam 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.

And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets.

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 servants said to him, behold, there is a medium at Endor.

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 a spirit and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you.

The woman said to him, surely you know what Saul has done.

She doesn't know what Saul, he's in disguise, right?

Surely you know what Saul has done, how 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.

Then the woman said, whom shall I bring up for you?

He said, bring up Samuel for me.

I just real quick bring up the person who would be most ticked off on the planet that I'm doing this.

Thanks.

Okay, verse 12, when the woman saw Samuel, whoa, wait, what happened?

What did she do?

Did she have a crystal ball?

Did she sprinkle dust?

It doesn't tell us.

The next thing we see is she sees Samuel.

When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice.

She screamed, okay?

And the woman said to Saul, why have you deceived me?

You are Saul.

The king said to her, do not be afraid.

What do you see?

And the woman said to Saul, I see a God coming up out of the earth.

He said to her, what is his appearance?

And she said, an old man is coming up and he is wrapped in a robe.

We've seen the robe theme with Samuel many times.

The little robes that his mom would knit every year when he kept growing.

Remember that?

And then the robe that Saul grabbed onto when Samuel was pulling away, you've lost your kingdom, and he's like, no, no, give me my kingdom, and he tears that robe, so it's an identifying mark.

And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage.

Then Samuel said to Saul, why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?

Saul answered, I am in great distress for the Philistines are warring against me and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams.

Therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do.

And Samuel said, why then do you ask me since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy?

The Lord has done to you as he has as he spoke by me for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor David because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek.

Therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day.

Moreover the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me.

He got his fortune.

The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.

Then Saul fell at once full length on the ground filled with fear because of the words of Samuel.

And there was no strength in him for he had eaten nothing all day and all night.

And the woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, Behold, your servant has obeyed you.

I have taken my life in my hand and have listened to what you have said to me.

Now, therefore, you also obey your servant.

Let me set a morsel of bread before you and eat that you may have strength when you go on your way.

He refused and said, I will not eat.

But his servants, together with the woman, urged him, and he listened to their words.

So he arose from the earth and sat on the bed.

Now the woman had a fattened calf in the house, and she quickly killed it, and she took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread of it, and she put it before Saul and his servants, and they ate.

Then they rose and went away that night. " That's what you call your last meal.

Now as we look at this narrative.

The first thing we're told is that Samuel died, and it's really easy to just blow past that really quickly.

But if you remember, we were already told back in chapter 25, verse 1, that Samuel died.

This is not new information.

Why are you telling me that again?

Well, there's two options.

One, the narrator is, he needed an editor.

You know, he said it, but he forgot he said it.

He's saying it again.

Or there's a purpose in it.

Obviously, I think there's purpose in it.

So what is that purpose?

Well back in chapter 25 verse 1 when it first told us that Samuel died that's a letdown you're like wow this guy was a godly man he was a prophet he was available to tell people what to do he was available to tell people what God's word is and now he's dead that's in a sense it's kind of a silence there are other prophets true, but not like Samuel.

And so Samuel's death leaves a void.

What does David do in that void?

What does David do when he doesn't hear a direct word from the Lord?

What does David do when his guide, this spiritual man that he looks up to, is not in the picture anymore?

Well, what David does is wise things.

In chapter 25, he's restrained by the counsel of Abigail.

He's wise enough to hear Abigail's counsel and go, you know what, you're right, I shouldn't do that.

And then the next chapter, in chapter 26, he restrains himself again by not killing Saul.

He restrains himself.

And then in what we saw last week in chapter 27, he doesn't have a direct word from the Lord, but he figures out a way to continue pursuing Israel's enemies while also protecting his family, feeding his army, giving them shelter and making sure they're taken care of.

He's found a way to do all of that.

Now it's tenuous and things are about to blow up with Achish and that's to be continued and that's for next time.

But Samuel dies, David continues in wisdom.

And then it reminds us, now it's turning the camera over to Saul again, reminding us Samuel dies.

And what does a guy who's godless do when he needs direction and someone like Samuel's not around?

What does he do in that desperation?

Does he figure it out?

Does he have wisdom to make choices?

Or does he go, find me a witch?

He's a fool.

And in the wake of Samuel's death he acts as like someone who is unable to figure anything out on his own because he has no spiritual vitality to speak of.

So what is Saul going to do?

Well he's filled with fear, he's trembling, and he wants direction from the Lord on what to do.

And he does finally inquire of the Lord.

He tries.

But the Lord doesn't answer him.

The Lord sees that Saul is doing something that's right, but he's doing it at the wrong time.

And the wrong time means it's too late to do it.

He's spurned the Lord.

He's distanced the Lord.

He's abandoned the Lord.

Oops, I'm in trouble, Lord.

And he wants the Lord to pick up.

Yeah, just sitting here waiting for your call.

Desperate for you, Saul, my love.

Apparently, God doesn't work that way.

So he inquires of the Lord and he's hoping that God is going to give him a dream.

No dreams are coming to him when he asks.

You might think he would consult a priest.

Do you remember where the priests are?

He murdered them.

Except for one who escaped with the Urim that he would also use to consult God.

And that guy found David and David is protecting him.

No prophets are speaking to Saul.

They have no word from the Lord for him.

God is silent towards Saul.

That increases his desperation.

He's in this tight spot.

He's not hearing any word from the Lord.

What am I supposed to do?

I do want to point this out because God seemed silent for David in chapter 27.

Remember that?

God wasn't sitting there telling David, Hey, take a left.

Hey, do this next.

Hey, open this door.

Don't do that one.

Don't we wish God would act like that sometimes, like at least put a guardian angel behind us.

Like, Hey, do this first.

Take that class, drop that class.

Take this professor.

There you go.

Choose this major.

Nope.

Not that career.

This one.

That would be easy, right?

We can almost just flippantly go through life and God is just going to tell us where to go, where to turn.

Don't even need GPS.

He'll tell you exactly where to go, where to turn, which accidents to avoid.

He knows where the accidents are.

He knows where the crazy drivers are.

And you'll never get into an accident because God is your GPS.

Well, chapter 27 shows us even for someone like David, God doesn't operate that way.

David had to come up with a plan on his own.

He said to his own heart, I gotta do this because if I don't, Saul's gonna kill me.

And so even though God promised that Saul wouldn't kill him, David still had to use wisdom and prudence to figure things out.

That was the point of last week, but what I'm trying to remind you of is that David doesn't have God in his ear all the time.

And when you read through the Bible and you're like, man, I wish it was like Old Testament times where God gave you dreams and stuff.

They're rare.

Even in the Old Testament they're rare.

The words of the prophets were rare.

God rarely spoke in that supernatural direct audible voice kind of way.

So David had to figure things out according to the wisdom that he had.

Chapter 27 doesn't say he inquired of the Lord.

It doesn't say he didn't inquire of the Lord.

We're not sure.

But we don't see God speaking to him in chapter 27.

But that's different than God not speaking to Saul in chapter 28.

It's different.

Why is it different?

Because David is a man after God's own heart and God is just sometimes exercising his rights, his prerogative to not tell David everything at every step of the way.

He's not punishing David.

He's not ignoring David.

It's just that God uses regular means in your life to help you ascertain what's next.

He's not always going to step in supernaturally to speak to David.

But it's not punishment.

David is going all right, and if he needs someone to intervene, God might use someone like Abigail.

If he needs something to intervene, God might use something like the Philistines, which happened in the prior chapter.

Saul was about to pounce on David.

David is at his end.

He's unable to do anything else.

Philistines are attacking Saul.

Oh, he drops it and he leaves.

So God intervenes, even outside of a specific word.

He didn't tell David, hey, don't worry about it, man.

I'm going to have the Philistines attack.

God just did it.

And David can reflect on and go, okay, God got my back in that situation.

He didn't tell me, but it worked out.

And that's great.

So God has David's back, even without audible words.

But 28 is abandonment.

Chapter 28 is Saul going, God, please speak to me. And it's falling on deaf ears.

Saul's prayers fall on deaf ears because he made them deaf.

No matter how hard Saul seeks for guidance at this point, at this stage, after already leaving God, rejecting God, not listening to God, disobeying God, his prayers are landing on deaf ears.

You might be reminded this is a little way farther back, back in chapter 8 when Israel demanded a king.

They're like, God, give us a king like the nations.

We want a king like the nations have.

You remember that?

God was like, well, you're going to get a king then, but this king is going to take and take and take from you.

And in that moment when you're desperate and you're sick of him taking from you and you realize you made this big mistake and you're in trouble and you call out to me, I'm not going to listen to you. 1 Samuel chapter 8.

Huh.

Interesting.

Does that mean that God has kind of a limit?

You know, like when parents are like, I've had it up to here as a kid, we're like, what does that mean?

And eventually you start figuring out, I think, I think dad means he's got a limit.

Maybe it's here.

And if he says up to here, that means I expended patience from toes to eyebrows.

And there's just a little bit left.

Is God like that?

Sounds like it to me when you read 1 Samuel 8,chapter 8, that's exactly what he said.

You're going to go this route of rebellion and when your rebellion comes back to bite you in the behind and then you call on me to help you get out of it, I'm going to go like this.

Now is that God being petty?

Is that God being vindictive?

No, it's not God being vindictive and it's not God being petty.

It means that God is not obligated to rescue us out of the consequences of our own rebellion when all we want is not God.

What we want is comfort.

What we want is not this thing I'm stuck in, but we don't want God.

He knows that.

That's the difference.

So this might sound concerning to you and I think it should, but let me clarify a little bit.

God always hears the cry of true repentance.

God always hears the cry of true repentance.

But when a person rejects God, ignores God, walks away from God, then he needs something, then he starts praying to get that something out of God, God is not obligated to listen.

After a while, God might just be done with a person like that.

So we see in the David episode, God sometimes he's silent, but it's not because of sin.

Think about all the many Psalms that say things like, where are you God?

Don't we have plenty of Psalms that are like, Lord, why?

Why are you not here right now?

And the Psalms say, you know what?

I'm gonna trust you anyway.

I'm gonna trust you anyway.

That's not God punishing the Psalmist.

God sometimes doesn't pick up the phone in a sense, and it might feel like it's a little distant, but if there's not unrepentant sin in your life, this is God just sort of sometimes leaving us to other devices and means for seeking what to do in a situation.

That's the Christian life.

But the person who rejects God and then only calls on God for help with this or that should not be surprised when God is silent.

So.

You didn't consult God when you were doing what you wanted to do.

Why should he listen to you when now you need him to bail you out.

And it's not because God is petty, I just want to repeat this, and it's not because he's vindictive, he's not up there, huh, you didn't talk to me before, now I'm not talking to you.

It's not that.

It's because God doesn't have obligation to help someone who only calls on him when their consequences are catching up to them.

Because they don't want God.

They still worship themselves.

And they want to use God as a charm, a rabbit's foot, to get them out of trouble when they need it.

That's not worship.

That's worship of self.

Does this mean God will not answer if you've messed up?

Because you might be sitting there going, boy, I guess that's me.

I've messed up.

I've rebelled.

Why should God listen to me?

Does this mean God won't answer me if I've messed up?

No.

It means God answers the prayers of repentant people, and there's a difference.

That's the difference.

There's a difference between coming to God and going, God, I've messed up, I've sinned, and you know what?

I deserve these consequences.

I've brought these consequences upon myself, and I live in a world full of consequences because they've deserved these consequences.

And even if I can't find a direct line between what I did and all of my consequences, some of them are directly deserved by me.

Some of them are because we live in this broken, fallen world, all of which is rebellion against you.

I deserve worse than I'm getting now.

That's why Jesus didn't come to live a perfect life and then lose a job.

Jesus didn't come to live a perfect life and then get smacked around a little bit.

He came to live a perfect life and then die.

Because that is what I deserve.

And I thank you that at least I'm drawing breath.

I don't deserve this job, the job I lost, or the job I want.

But would you rescue me so that whatever job I'm in, I worship you?

Would you rescue me so that whoever I'm dating, I glorify you in it?

Would you rescue me so that however my kids behave, I hold the line?

Even if I don't get the things I want from you, that I still worship you in contentment because you are worthy of worship.

You are worthy of glory, no matter what my life looks like.

Now that person has God's ear.

It's different to say, God, I know I've messed up.

Okay.

Okay.

I like, I know I've messed up, but can you bail me out here again for the 15th time?

All right.

Knowing good and well that you don't want to follow the Lord.

God is like a superstitious charm to get you out of trouble and that is not a prayer that God listens to.

And I think that's what Saul is doing here in trying to get God's advice through necromancy.

It doesn't even make any sense.

He's trying to get a word from the Lord by using a demon conjurer to access a dead prophet to tell him what God is It doesn't even the more you follow Saul's life it gets worse and worse in terms of the lack of wisdom and insight that he has.

Here's the main point I think of this passage the main takeaway and then we'll just cover a couple of details because I know we've got some weird stuff in here and we'll do those quickly because I don't think they're the main point.

What is the main point.

The main point is that when we persist in unrepentant sin we risk abandonment by God. And we can't presume upon his help.

When we persist in unrepentant sin we risk abandonment by God and we can't presume upon God's help.

I know that sounds like bad news and you're like man I wanted some good news.

Reverse it then.

When we don't resist persist in unrepentant sin when we do repent does God abandon those.

No.

So you can put it in the positive light.

When we approach God in repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, he promises to guide us.

He's our good shepherd.

He leads us to green pastures.

He walks us through the dark valleys.

But when we reject the shepherd, yeah, you're a lost sheep and you're going to go off the cliff.

It just makes sense.

I want you to notice in this passage, again, there is zero repentance in Saul.

Yeah, when he gets the bad news, he throws himself on the floor, half because he hasn't eaten.

He does those stupid fasts.

When he goes to battle, he stops eating.

It's dumb.

But he thinks he's spiritual.

He thinks he's Religious, you know, he doesn't seek God, but he makes up his own stuff How about we fast guys and he forces it upon his soldiers.

He hasn't eaten so he's tired He's hungry.

And then when he gets that bad news, he falls flat on his face It doesn't say he repented when he's down there on his face But he's definitely really really scared the text tells that numerous times.

He's full of fear zero faith all fear There's no repentance in Saul.

What does Saul want?

Verse 15, he only wants information to bail him out.

That's all he wants.

Get me out of this situation.

What do I do here?

He's not promising to never do it again.

He's not saying, I won't take the car out anymore, mom.

I won't disobey you anymore, mom.

I'll stop drinking, mom.

It's just, I'm in jail.

Will you get me out?

That's it.

And it's too late, the Lord has already departed from him, verse 16.

Samuel actually tells Saul in that verse, the Lord has turned from him and become his enemy.

The Lord, he's not only going like this, he's actually against you.

God is not just ignoring Saul, he's against Saul, but Saul did this to himself.

So Saul turns to someone who professes to talk to spirits.

He consults a witch.

He asks, Hey, I know I pushed all the witches out, but there's gotta be someone still around.

Someone that still has the, the tools, the stuff, the board, the bones, this, whatever they use that, you know, it's, it's under a carpet somewhere in the kitchen.

There's gotta be someone that's still, we haven't fully knocked out yet.

You know, like there's still somebody lingering.

Yeah, we know of a woman.

The Hebrew word that translates here as medium is ghost wife or ghost mistress.

That's her job.

That's what she does, at least in secret.

She conjures up ghosts.

He's not interested in ghosts.

He's not interested in the netherworld.

He's not asking someone to come up.

What is it like down there?

I just want to know.

I'm curious.

It's nothing to do with curiosity.

There was a time when Saul rightly so, try to push all these kinds of people out.

He's not curious about them.

He wants them to be gone.

But now what he needs is, he needs to talk to Samuel.

None of these other prophets are worth anything because none of them are telling me anything.

I'm not getting any dreams.

Oops, I killed all the priests.

I can only think of Samuel.

I wish there was a way to talk to him.

Oh wait, a necromancer.

That'll do the trick.

So he disguises himself.

Those who've looked at the maps remind us that he actually has to skirt right past Philistine forces to get to Endor.

And then, of course, he's disguised because he doesn't want her to freak out.

She starts going, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're going to trap me.

No, no, no, just do it.

If she knew he was Saul, she wouldn't do it.

But she's a necromancer, meaning that she calls up spirits from the dead.

And there was rightly a ban on necromancers.

We'll put this up here.

It's from Deuteronomy 18.

You don't have to turn to it.

But in Deuteronomy 18,there's one passage where God makes it clear what he thinks about this practice.

He tells the Israelites, when you come into the land that the Lord, your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.

There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering.

And you're like, Oh, that's disgusting.

That's terrible.

Comma.

Look at what else he thinks is as terrible.

Not burning your son, not burning your daughter as an offering, comma, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead.

I mean, none of this like, I didn't approach a necromancer, I found a charmer.

He's like covering all the bases, man.

Don't approach these people.

For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. " That's harsh sounding.

It's not just the practice that's an abomination, the person who practices them is an abomination to the Lord.

And because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

Have you ever wondered, how come those people can't be in the land and Israel gets to be in the land?

Their wickedness, scripture tells us, God had it up to here, their wickedness was way up here.

That's why Israel was 400 years in Egypt as the wickedness was rising to a point where God goes, now I'm going to use Israel to exact judgment on them.

Why?

Why were they so wicked?

Well, things like burning their babies and consulting the dead.

That's God's opinion of it.

We might be like, oh, tarot cards, you know, fake stuff.

I don't know.

God takes it seriously. Finding fortune or looking for interpretations of stars, constellations, birth years and dates, looking for omens, dream interpretations, all that kind of stuff is inquiring of an evil source of information.

And because of these abominations, I don't know if I finished it, he's going to drive out the nations before them.

Verse 13, you shall be blameless before the Lord, your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune tellers and to diviners.

But as for you, the Lord, your God has not allowed you to do this.

He doesn't tell them why he hopes that they can kind of figure that out.

You are to come to me for wisdom.

You're to come to me for the information that you need.

And you're on a need to know basis.

And I tell you what you need to know.

And when you start getting antsy and you feel like you need to know more than I think you need to know, and you start consulting demons and spirits for it, it's an abomination.

Be content with what I give you to know, and you will follow me on this.

I doubt anyone here needs to be corrected on this, but you need to understand this is still an abomination today.

Tarot card readings, palm readings, mediums for contacting the dead, it's evil.

It's evil.

And the evil of it is not because it's creepy.

The evil of it is because it's seeking wisdom outside of the Lord.

What you give me is not enough.

What you offer me is not enough.

And what you offer me is not what I want to hear.

You think people will go back to the fortune teller if all they tell them is when you're going to die?

No, it's always like, oh, in three weeks you're going to meet a guy.

What's he like?

Oh, he's a guy.

He's got a cool accent.

Oh.

Everybody's got an accent from somewhere.

Even those of you Chicagoans who don't think you do trust me.

Brothers and sisters the only cards that you should be interested in looking at are prayer cards.

You come out tonight and you've got some point of desperation and you don't know what to do, write it on a card and we will intercede with you to the Lord himself.

That's not just allowed, that's what we're supposed to do.

What a greater trove of wisdom that we have in God and in the Lord himself than tarot cards.

But no, this is something that is evil and is still an abomination today.

It doesn't tell us what she did.

Did she use cards?

Did she throw bones mixed with blood?

Did she look for the hair of Samuel and then put it in a potion?

We don't know.

Scripture just skips all that.

Why do you think?

Do you think scripture's gonna detail a recipe for us?

Here's this abominable practice, by the way, here's how you do it if you ever find yourself tempted.

No thank you.

No thank you.

Skips it.

Don't worry about it.

That gives me an inkling that I don't know if this is just a scam artist.

I think there are spiritual realities that we're not completely aware of, and I think in more ancient times, people were a little bit more attuned to things than we are.

I don't know if I'm ready to just say, this woman never saw a spirit in her life, no one in the land ever saw any spirits, it's all scams.

I don't know.

It's possible, but I don't think so.

When you look at this passage, you see that as soon as the witch starts seeing this God she describes coming up out of the earth, she screams.

Now, why does she scream?

Ah-ha!

She shrieks.

Well, there's a couple different options.

One option is that she is a scam artist, and whoa, she actually sees a human spirit coming up out of the ground, and that freaked her out because she's used to just making stuff up.

That's possible.

I'll grant that that's a possible reading.

Another possibility is she's not a scam artist, but that normally what she sees, and many interpreters take it this way, normally what she sees is demonic spirits, not actual human spirits, but demonic spirits feigning, acting like the person that they're supposed to recall.

It's part of their deception.

It's part of their gaining control over people who would consult them.

It's part of them leading people astray. And part of their aiding her and fooling the customer or something like that.

That's possible.

Or perhaps she screams because of the next thing she says, Oh my goodness, you're Saul and I'm dead.

I think that's probably why she screamed.

That's what the text is giving us.

You're not going to trap me.

No, no, no.

I swear on the Lord.

Saul is not going to know about this is essentially what he's saying because he's in disguise and she's like, okay, she nervously goes about and does it and finds out somehow it's revealed to her.

Maybe Samuel saying something.

I don't know how exactly it's revealed.

Again, the author's trying to not let us in on how necromancy actually works, which to me is another hint that it does kind of work.

She shrieks because she realizes it's Saul that's consulting her and she's as good as dead.

Now this person that comes up, this spirit that comes up, is that actually Samuel?

Is he actually back from the dead?

Are there such things as ghosts?

I don't know.

I don't know, I don't think this passage is about, hey, let me let you in on the fact that there's ghosts.

It doesn't tell us, and part of it is because it doesn't want us that interested in it.

Why do you think this passage is not wanting us to be too interested in it?

For what I just said a moment ago, it doesn't want us going, yeah, yeah, it's evil, it's evil.

Wow, I could really talk to Auntie Em?

Stop it.

Do we get eerily close to that when we're like, I know I've lost my loved one, but I feel like they're still with me in the room.

My mom passed away and I glory and relish in the fact that she's with the Lord, not with me in my office helping me write sermons.

Let's not be weird and superstitious and so desirous to contact the dead that we, okay, I'm not gonna consult a witch, but I just feel like grandma's with me, you know, hovering over me as we eat and I'm cooking her recipe.

No.

I do think, though, that this is actually Samuel.

I do think she was a real conjurer, whether of demons or human spirits or whatever it is.

I think she was engaged in something that's real and actual.

And at least in this instance, maybe it's never the real thing, but in this instance, God is like, you know what?

This is crazy.

I'm going to actually let Samuel come back and use Samuel to rebuke this guy.

Possible.

But I do think it's actually Samuel.

The words he says, he speaks prophetically on behalf of the Lord.

He reminds Saul of previous conversations that they had.

It seems like Samuel and the text doesn't give us any evidence that it's not actually Samuel.

Samuel's ticked. That he's disturbed, man, I put in my time of prophecy.

You had time to consult me before.

And now that I'm finally in Abraham's bosom in comfort, you drag me back here, man.

I think that the afterlife is so blessed.

Some of us were reticent and we're like, Oh, I don't want to lose this.

I think once we're there, we're like, I don't want to go back to, I don't want to go back to that.

The aches and the pains and arthritis.

No, thank you.

He brings him back, he's disturbed by it.

So I think it's real, but the point is not what is the nature of ghosts?

What does it take to conjure up a ghost?

Should we think about conjuring up ghosts?

The answer to those things is definitely no.

No, don't think about it, don't entertain it, don't wish it.

So what is the main point of this?

The main point, to bring things to a close, is when we persist in unrepentant sin, And we are really desirous from a word from the Lord or from an answer from God.

We can't presume upon God's help.

And he abandons people who don't repent.

How does this teach us about the gospel?

Well, I think it's a rich instruction about the gospel.

One of the authors I love to read as I'm preparing these sermons is Dale Davis.

He reminds us there's only one way to know for sure that God will never turn his back on you.

There's only one way to know for sure that you always have God's ear and that your prayers never fall on deaf ears, and that is to know Christ, the perfect high priest who always ushers in your prayers to the Father perfectly.

That's to know Christ, to be folded into Christ as our refuge.

The Christ who is the one who on the cross cried, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Christ endured being forsaken by the Father so that you wouldn't.

So if you're in Christ, should you leave here going, I wonder if God has abandoned me?

Don't wonder that.

Cling to the gospel.

Christ has purchased an audience with God.

There's no curtain between us and God and our prayers are effective when we are repentant and we bring those prayers before the Lord in the name of Jesus Christ who became sin for us. And endured wrath for us so that we can turn to God by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

God does not abandon his people.

Jesus does not abandon his sheep.

I need you to make sure you understand that's what I'm telling you.

It's when people who never bothered to become a sheep, never bothered to enter into the fold, never bothered to repent and come into Christ in the first place, they want to live how they want to live, do what they want to do, and only come to God to get bailed out, that's what this is about.

So how do we live this out?

You're in a tight spot.

How do you seek direction?

Well, you find your prescription in the sermon in last week's chapter.

Fast recap, similar to last week's chapter, you use wisdom.

And prudence, you don't always need to know tomorrow at 8 a. M. You're going to receive a call.

You don't need to know that.

When you get the call, and even you're surprised by it, how do you respond to that call?

Wisdom, prudence, expedience, reasoning with yourself, and understanding what the right call is in that situation.

How do you become the type of person that can take that call, be in that meeting, receive that bad news, and understand what to do in that situation?

Well, if you wait for that situation to arrive before you get ready, That's going to be a problem.

If you figure out how to change a spare tire when you're already on the side of the highway, car zipping by you, and now you're trying to pull out YouTube and pull out the manual and figure out how to change a car, that's going to be a harder situation than someone who's practiced it a couple of times in the driveway in safe conditions.

And now that it's in a difficult situation, you kind of have some wisdom there already with changing the tire.

This just makes sense in life.

You spend time in God's Word over time, building wisdom over time.

You don't spend time every morning in Scripture because you're going to get answers out of it as to what to do at 3 o'clock that afternoon.

You spend time in God's Word because no matter what happens at any time, you're building wisdom. Brick by brick until you're a fortress of wisdom in your life.

And brothers and sisters, the longer you ignore being disciplined and spending time in God's word, years and years go by, you've only built three bricks and people are surpassing you.

You spend time in God's word and you build wisdom so that you can build your life.

You don't need fortunes and you don't need predictions.

You don't need omens or signs.

You also consult godly people who've been building those bricks for a long time.

They've been gaining wisdom with you, maybe even ahead of you.

Be humble and recognize that other people have greater wisdom than you do, and you consult those people.

That's radically different than consulting a medium.

There is a kind of consulting that not only you can do, that you should do, which is seek wisdom in God's people.

Be open and say, this job situation terrifies me.

What's going on with my kids terrifies me.

My marriage condition right now terrifies me, and I'm not sure what to do next.

Now, God's counsel through those people might not be, here's what you do.

Next Wednesday, mark it on your calendar, the clouds are going to part.

You know, it's not going to be that kind of advice.

But it's going to be brought through the situation I had when I was in a similar situation.

The testimonies that we can bring together in a church and show how God has been faithful through worse circumstances.

Surely, we don't know how, but surely he'll be faithful in that circumstance.

Just turn to him, lean on him.

Let's read those Psalms together that start with questions like, God, where are you?

And how does the psalmist say he's going to continue to pursue the Lord even when he doesn't have answers?

How did Job continue to worship God even when he didn't have answers?

We lean into scripture together so that we can be encouraged to follow paths that are wise and right and good.

And of course, I want to remind you to turn to God in prayer.

Join us tonight.

Mark it on your calendar.

What else are you doing on a Sunday night?

I'm skipping prayer because help me out.

Help me out.

I don't want to hear, man, I just wish God would show up in my life.

Well, do you show up?

And I get it.

Sometimes we have schedules that conflict and things like that.

There's nothing magical about Sunday night prayer.

What I'm trying to encourage you to do is start thinking, I may not get, show up Sunday night at, you know, what time is it?

And then by 7 p. M.

I have an answer, a clear answer on what to do that I can write down.

Nah, it doesn't work that way.

But if you start protecting it in your calendar, over time you'll look back and you're like, you know, I used to kind of fumble my way through life and now I feel like I'm like a veteran at making decisions.

But this kind of wisdom gaining and effective praying shouldn't be expected outside of repentance.

If I don't love God and I only love what I can get for him, then I can't expect God to pave the way for me in this life.

If you come to the Lord in repentance and faith, He's our Good Shepherd, He'll lead us.

If we build our lives for the Lord and we build our lives for His name and His glory, it'll be met with success and favor and it won't be in vain because we're building our lives for Him.

Let's pray.

Father, we're grateful to you for this strange, somewhat scary, somewhat creepy passage.

And we pray that we would leave here, even if we still have questions about what is a ghost and what is necromancy and what that looks like, we pray that our interest and our curiosity would be more about how do we gain your wisdom.

How do we gain from you the wisdom to make decisions in life, Lord?

And as we close in this song of worship, we pray that our aim in life, above all other things, above all other questions that we have, would be to bring glory to Christ through our decisions and through the things that we pursue in this life, Lord.

We ask it in Jesus name.

Amen.

Let's close in a song.