I invite you to open to 1 Samuel chapter 28 as we continue our series through this book. Excuse me. Which presents to us these kings over Israel and a search for the true king of Israel. 1 Samuel chapter 28. We'll be reading and looking at the whole chapter this morning. Let's pay attention to this because this is God's holy word. In those days, the Philistines gathered their forces for war to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, understand that you and your men are to go out with me in the army. David said to Achish, very well, you shall know what your servant can do. And Achish said to David, very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life. 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 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. 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, 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? 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. When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. 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. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. She took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread of it. She put it before Saul and his servants and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night. Thus far the reading of God's word. Let's go to him and ask for his blessing of the word to us. Our Lord and our God. We thank you for your word given to us, that your people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Your word is indeed a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, and so we ask that you would illumine us so that we might understand it, that you would illumine life by your word to us so that we might walk in your ways. Teach us, oh Lord, how we ought to go. Teach us what we ought not to do. Teach us most of all of our Lord Jesus Christ, even in this passage, we pray, amen. Amen, well, have any of you ever had one of those nightmares, possibly the worst kind of nightmare, where you are trying to get somewhere? Perhaps you are attempting to flee something or run to someone, and you can't move. Maybe you try to cry out and the words stick in your chest and they just won't come out. And you struggle and you strain and you try to cry out over and over and over again in this dream and just nothing happens. It's terrible, it's awful. You feel just a keen sense of hopelessness during that moment. And then you wake up. You realize it was a dream, you take a couple of deep breaths to calm your beating heart. You thank the Lord that it was only a dream, it wasn't real, and you are safe and sound in your own bed. Now, I'm sure most all of us, perhaps not all of us, but most all of us have had a dream like this. Most all of us have at least in that instance felt just the overwhelming hopelessness that accompanies a dream like that. That overwhelming hopelessness which ought to and indeed does even accompany those people who are outside of Christ. Being outside of the Lord Jesus Christ is quite a hopeless situation, isn't it? And unlike a dream where you're stuck and can't cry out, being without Christ is a real thing, not just the illusions of the sleeping mind. Why do I bring that up? In our text this morning, we see the sheer hopelessness of being without God in this world. So we come to this passage which speaks of Saul and his attempt to get some kind of revelation in whatever way possible. We see that Saul is a man completely without hope. The main point of this passage is actually to emphasize that, that those without God are without hope. Saul is without God and without hope. And yet as with all of these passages in the Old Testament, they also speak to us of Christ, don't they? So we'll see that while those who are without God are without hope, those who have Christ are indeed the most hopeful of all people. I want us to look at this text in three different sections of the story. First, there's some troubling dilemmas, which occur in verses one through six, aren't there? Varying degrees of troubling dilemmas, but troubling dilemmas nonetheless. Then, in response to at least one of these dilemmas, Saul's dilemma, there is a case of what I'm calling abominable desperation. Saul, in his desperation because of the dilemmas that he faces, practices that which is actually abomination in the eyes of God. And finally, there's proclamation of doom, terrifying desolation for Saul, even for Israel, proclaimed to him by this spirit, which appears in verses 15 through 25. So there's three sections that we'll look at. There's the terrifying dilemmas in verses one through six, and Saul's abominable desperation in verses seven through 14. Finally, proclamation of terrifying desolation in verses 15 through 25. With that in mind, let's jump into our text and see what the Lord has to say to us in this. We start out by reading, in those days, the Philistines gathered their forces for war to fight against Israel. A temporal marker here, don't we? In the days when David is living in the land of the Philistines, in the days when he's fled from Saul and given his fealty, as it were, to Achish, that's the time when the Philistines decide, okay, no more little raids against border towns. It's time to go fight against Israel in earnest. Philistines have done this before you remember back at the beginning of first Samuel the Philistines made a great attack against Israel in the time when Samuel was a little boy. You remember that Israel was defeated by the Philistines in those days because of their evil. The Israelites tried to use the Ark of the Covenant as a superstitious tool. to help defeat the Philistines, but that didn't work. God gave Israel over into the hands of the Philistines. And the Philistines have, by and large, not made any massive attacks on Israel for a long time at this point. But, as Philistines want to do, they decide they need to attack Israel in force, and this actually poses quite a bit of a problem for David, doesn't it? He's been hiding out in Philistia, he's been lying to Achish that he's been making raids against the Israelites, and Achish thinks, well this guy is like, he's a real Philistine convert. So David's been living this double life, but now the Philistines are really going to war against Israel, and Achish comes to David and says, you're coming with us. You're a Philistine now. When Philistines gather for war, all the Philistines have to join up and go fight. This places David in quite the dilemma, doesn't it? David has to figure out what he's going to do. David responds to Achish's proclamation. He says, well, you shall know what your servant can do. And Nekesh says very well, I'll make you my bodyguard for life. In Hebrew, there's a little bit more ambiguity in David's response than what we get in our English translation. Our English translation might make it sound as though David says, all right, I'll show you what I can do, let's go. In the Hebrew, it's more of a, okay, well I guess we'll see what happens, won't we, as David tries to think about what he's going to do rather than a, I'll show you how great of a warrior I am Akish, however, accepts this response from David, makes David the head of his bodyguard, and now we leave David in this dilemma. We'll return to him in the future, but David is facing a dilemma, but frankly, as bad as things are for David, things are much worse for Saul. As David has been upheld by God constantly, in spite of not deserving it, in spite of David's foolishness and sin and fleeing to Philistia and all of these things, God has still preserved David's life. So many times we can scarcely keep count, really, but things are terrible for Saul. In contrast, because he has been rejected by God. The dilemma of Saul then appears before us. We have this interesting reminder in verse three that Samuel has died. Israel mourned, Samuel was buried in Ramah, and then we're told that Saul had put the necromancers out of the land. And this might seem a little out of place. We can probably see how that second, well both parts, fit in later into the narrative. But why right here? Why place this verse right here in front of kind of the story of Saul's dilemma and desperation and the prophecy? Well, I think this is to emphasize what has gone on in the life of Saul. Samuel is dead. God will no more speak to Saul through his prophet Samuel. Saul didn't listen to Samuel when he was alive, though. And that's kind of the reminder here. Sure, Samuel might be dead, but in the long run, is that actually going to affect Saul much at all? He didn't ever listen to Samuel anyway. This emphasizes it. Saul had not listened to God in the past while Samuel was living and also shows us that Saul did not really listen to God's law as set down in the books of Moses. We see Saul put out the mediums and the necromancers, he put them out of the land but in fact God's law called for more than that. Leviticus chapter 20 verse 27. God's word says this, a man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones. Their blood shall be upon them. And so Saul kind of takes half measures. He says, well, this is against God's law, but I'm just gonna push them out. They can go hang out with the Philistines or the Amalekites or whoever, but I'm not gonna follow God's law the way I'm supposed to follow God's law. Saul partially obeyed by making this heinous practice illegal, but like later kings, it didn't quite follow through in what he was supposed to do. A brief application from this, or an applicatory aside. It is proper for the civil magistrate to outlaw heinous and wicked practices. Romans chapter 13, 1 Peter 2, both tell us that the governing authorities are instituted by God to bear the sword against evil. And that includes evil practices. The civil magistrate can and should make heinous sins illegal. And that's why even in the United States, although we have freedom of religion, some religious practices are not tolerated. human sacrifice and things of that nature are made illegal because they are wicked, heinous practices and indeed they should be. Another blatantly wicked, evil practices should also be outlawed, should also be condemned for the good of people of the land. Saul had partially done that but had not quite followed through as he was supposed to according to God's law for the people of Israel. But we can pray. that our governing authorities will act wisely and justly and will make good laws. We ought to pray, we must pray for them to do that. Well, Saul comes to battle lines against the Philistines, doesn't he? The Philistines come to Shunem, the forces of Israel at Gilboa. These are towns on opposite sides of the valley of Jezreel. If you remember your Old Testament history, this is the same valley that Gideon fought the Midianites and the Amalekites in. God gave a great victory to Israel in this valley. This should be a place that causes the Israelites to stop and look at the Philistines and think, well, God has conquered our enemies for us here before. Let's trust him to do it again. But while Gideon, in faith, obeyed the Lord and in boldness in God, went forth into the battle with just his 300 men, trusting in God to give him the victory, what does Saul do? Saul becomes afraid. He's terrified, his heart quakes in him. The pictorial nature of the Hebrew language really comes out here. Saul is so afraid that he doesn't just have some nervous jitters. His heart is pounding in his chest. Maybe you've been that afraid or nervous before where you feel like it's about to explode right out of your chest. It often happens to me when someone says we need to talk and doesn't give me any extra information. But you probably recognize that feeling, don't you? He's absolutely terrified. His heart is like a earthquake in his chest. And frankly, it should be. It should be, shouldn't it? Paul has been forsaken by God. Saul would not listen to God. He set himself above God, doing what he wanted to do. And now, faced with a whole host of the Philistines, the reality of Saul's finitude, his mortality, his weakness comes crashing down upon him. And he realizes, I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. What am I supposed to do here? He faces the armies of the Philistines. This is indeed a dilemma, but it pales in comparison to the worst dilemma he has here. God is not with him, God is not for him. Saul inquires of God, what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to get through this? Are we going to win? What's going to happen? And yet, God does not answer. In a last ditch attempt for something, Saul says, well, I guess I'll turn back to God. God says no. He doesn't answer him. In dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets? Doesn't answer him by the Urim because Saul had slaughtered the priests and now the Urim and Thummim are with David. Doesn't answer him by prophets because Samuel is dead and the other prophet who came to David is with David. Saul has no answers. Saul has rejected God's word and is therefore no longer instructed by God's word. And this should cause us to pause and consider, have you been rejecting God's word? Or have you been listening to it? You say, well, sure, God's word might say X, but that doesn't really line up with the way I want to live my life, so I'll just ignore that part. Sure, God's word calls me to live in this way, but I would rather not at the present time, and so I'll ignore God's word. This is a very dangerous place to be in, brothers and sisters. We are called to examine God's word, to search God's word, to make it part of our lives, to feast upon it even, and to listen to it. Not just hearing it going in our ears, but when it goes in doing what it says to do. There's no guarantee that if we ignore God's word over and over and over and over again, that the spirit will use that in our lives. In fact, if we ignore God's word and go our own way over and over and over again, that might be an indication to us that we are actually not trusting in Christ And so if that's the case, I encourage you to cry out to God to repent of ignoring him in his word, of repent of throwing his word to the side and not doing what it says and ask him to work in you by the spirit to love his word, to delight in his word and most of all to follow his word. Do not find yourself in the dilemma which Saul finds himself in of having rejected God's word and then The spirit no longer uses it in your life. Saul, because of this dilemma, acts in desperation, doesn't he? Look at his plan. God won't answer him, so he says, well, if God won't answer me, I'll find somebody who will. He seeks out a medium. Saul has constantly rejected the word of God, so he's been rejected by God, and so Saul does what so many others who have rejected God does. He turns to the devil instead. He decides to go to a woman who consorts with the demons to try and get some kind of information about the battle and what this holds for him and his life. We read Leviticus chapter 20 verse 27 a minute ago. Deuteronomy chapter 18 gives us a little bit more information about the way that Israel was supposed to avoid the mediums and the necromancers. Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses 10 through 14. God says, there shall not be found among you anyone who burns his sons or his daughters as an offering, 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. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving them out before you. 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. So God has expressly told his people, do not listen to these people. Do not countenance them among you. This is what pagans do. This is what the worshipers of false gods do. And so what does Saul do? Saul's outward actions demonstrate the inward reality of his heart, he acts like a pagan king because in his heart he actually is a pagan king. He doesn't fear the Lord, he doesn't obey God's word. The further one gets from God, the further one flees from God, strays from God, the more they draw towards these practices, don't they? Because there's really nothing else left for them. We look at the culture around us, we see as Western culture goes further and further and further away from the faith, as they reject more and more the word of God, they go more and more towards paganism and witchcraft and the occult. These things are more and more accepted in the West. And so what do we do? We see these things popping up in culture, what do we do? We fight with the sword of the spirit. We proclaim even more boldly the gospel of Christ. The light must cut through, shine through the darkness and the spirit is pleased to use the proclamation of the gospel of Christ to convert people. to the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether they are a pagan, whether they are a practicing witch, whether they dabble in the occult or whatever else, the gospel can, by the work of the Spirit, change their lives. And so we must more actively proclaim the gospel to those around us. And we must pray that the Lord would use the proclamation of this gospel to that end. We so often speak about how we desire revival and reformation both in the church and in our nation, but we must act to that end. Now, of course, God is sovereign and revival comes from God and from God alone. We can't create it ourselves, but we can in humble reliance upon the Spirit proclaim the word of God and we can go before the Lord in prayer fervently and constantly and we should. We should be praying regularly that the spirit would use the proclamation of the gospel from the most eloquent evangelists to the most feeble of us who proclaim the gospel. We ought to pray that the spirit would use that because he can and so often does and we ought to entrust in the spirit, fervently proclaim that very same gospel. Saul is turning to the devil. He goes to this medium, this witch of Endor, and he wants her to bring up a spirit that he says to her. She says, well, why are you asking me? Don't you know what Saul has done? Why are you setting a trap for me? Why are you trying to get me killed? Saul says, don't worry, you won't get killed. We see Saul's dissent in part here, his dissent in wickedness. Saul, first of all, ignores the civil law. He made it illegal to seek out mediums, necromancers, but Saul says, well, I'm the king. The law doesn't really apply to me in this instance. This is desperate times. They call for desperate measures, so I'll do that. So far, so bad, right? Then he ignores God's law. God's law very clearly says, you shall not go to these people. This is of the devil, this is against God, and Saul ignores that, so far so worse. But look at what he says to this woman in verse 10. She says, you're laying a trap for me. Saul swears to her by the Lord. As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing. So far, so worst. Saul's not just ignoring civil laws, and he's not just saying, well, God said this, but I'm gonna do something else. Saul's doing both of those things and saying, it's fine. As God lives, nothing's going to happen to you. I don't care what God says. I want you to do what I want you to do. Doesn't matter that God has told me not to do this. I'm more important than God right now in this instance. Saul's sin just extends and extends. Well, the woman says, who should I bring up for you? And he says, get me Samuel. Sure, I didn't listen to him while he was still alive, but this is different. Bring up Samuel. The woman seems to realize that Saul is Saul. When she summons Samuel, she cries out with a loud voice. The king asks her to tell her what she sees. She describes a spirit coming up out of the earth. He says, what does he look like? And he's an old man wrapped in a robe. Saul knew that it was Samuel and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage. Now we come to the part of the text where everybody begins to ask questions. What is going on here? Right, it's not the main point of the text actually, but it's a pretty big question and it needs to be addressed. People have debated about what's actually going on here for the entirety of church history. There's three or four main views about what's actually going on here. fairly ancient view was held to by the church father, Origen, who thought that this passage was merely allegorical. He says even all of this, the appearance of Samuel, this is basically just an allegory for how far Saul has fallen, how far into sin he has descended, how far he has strayed from God. To an extent, Origen is right about this. You know that frequently throughout 1 Samuel, we've seen contrasts between David and Saul. And we see David is removed further and further away from the tabernacle, so from the kind of temporal presence of God in Israel. David moves further and further away from the tabernacle as he as he goes into the wilderness of Judah and then into Philistia, but God is still with David, and David is still seeking God. Saul, however, is very close by the tabernacle, but Saul's heart is farther and farther and farther away from God. And so origin is partially correct. This is telling us how far Saul is going away from God, but this is a historical text, and so it's not just an allegory. There's actually something really going on here. And so the second option, which we might see, it's kind of maybe two variations, says, well, this witch was probably just a charlatan. She used smoke and mirrors and things like that maybe a ventriloquist or something of that nature. And so she could trick people into thinking that she had summoned a dead person. And maybe that's what she was doing here with Samuel. That doesn't really seem to make a whole lot of sense. You would think that Saul would recognize if there was smoke and mirrors, that sorts of things, and that it wasn't the voice of Samuel. Another variation of that is she's a charlatan and she attempts to summon Samuel with her tricks, but then actually summons a demon. and he impersonates Samuel. So this is option two, a charlatan who ends up getting way over her head. Option number three, she's actively engaged in working with a demon, a familiar spirit. She summons this demon to impersonate Samuel. Option number four, she is actually a witch, She actually consorts with demons, but then something happens that she's not expecting at all, and the Lord does send Samuel to issue a proclamation against Saul for his sin. Now, I lean towards that fourth option. It seems that if the author did not think that it was actually Samuel, by the inspiration of the spirit, he probably wouldn't have called him Samuel over and over again. The witch seems very startled that Samuel is actually appearing, so something's happened that she wasn't expecting, and that could be explained by God sending Samuel. Some have argued against this, saying, well, he comes up out of the earth, and that could just mean that he is coming up, as it were, from the grave, from Sheol, the place of the dead. But at the end of the day, we are not actually told the details about whether this is Samuel or a demon. We can use the information to the best of our ability, but I think we should all listen to the wisdom of R.C. Sproul. When he answered this question, he says, it's not clear whether the witch of Endor was a magician like some people who do seances today and imitate the voices and figures of those who have passed on, whether it was a demon doing a false work that the devil does of lying signs and wonders, or whether it was actually Samuel who was called up from the dead in opposition to the explicit prohibition of God, we don't know the answer. And I appreciate that wisdom. So I'll say we don't know the answer. But what we do know is that this does happen in order to issue the judgment of God upon Saul for his sin, for his wickedness. Samuel's spirit, as I'll be referring to it, issues a proclamation of doom, doesn't he? He asks, why have you disturbed me? Why have you brought me up? Saul says, I'm in great distress. The Philistines are against me. God has turned away from me. He doesn't answer me, so I've summoned you. Tell me what to do. Samuel says, why are you asking me? You are spiritually desolate. The Lord has become your enemy. The Lord has turned from you. and become your enemy. Saul, you've got a far bigger problem than the Philistine army camped on the other side of the valley of Jezreel. God is against you. Don't you think maybe you should take care of that before you worry about the Philistines? Saul has a far bigger problem than the Philistine, but Samuel's spirit reminds Saul that the kingdom is torn away from him because he refused to listen to God. God is your enemy. The Lord is fulfilling what he said he was going to do. God is staying true to his word. He's removed the kingdom from you. He's giving it to David, your neighbor, because you refused to listen to God, because you set yourself above God and ignored everything that he told you to do. When it came to the Amalekites, And Samuel's spirit tells Saul that doom awaits Saul and his sons and even the army of Israel. The Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines. Tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hands of the Philistines. Saul and his sons would go to the realm of the dead. Now Jonathan, being a man who feared God and loved God, I think we can safely say would be in the presence of God. Saul and the others who did not fear God would go into perdition. But either way, they would all enter the realm of the dead. There was no earthly life for them anymore after this battle with the Philistines. It's a terrifying proclamation, isn't it? And Saul responds in terror. He falls to the ground. He can't stand up anymore. He falls to the ground in terror because of what has just been revealed to him. He also falls to the ground because he hasn't eaten anything all day. And so he's weak and these two things combined cause him to just be a sprawling mess on the ground. The man who had held his head high, The tallest in Israel, who said, I don't have to listen to God, now collapses to the ground, a blubbering mess in the home of a witch who's been exiled from Israel. Divine judgment, Saul can't stand anymore. His suspicions that he was in a hopeless situation are confirmed. Hopeless situation. Knees aren't just weak, they don't work anymore. Imagine for a moment that you and your friends were invited to play a basketball game. You don't know who the opponent is, and you think, well, maybe it's just another ragtag team of guys. But your suspicion is, it's not what it's going to be. And you show up at the court, and it turns out that it's National College champions. And you had a little sense of hopelessness at first, and then as soon as you see them shooting three-pointers and dunking the ball and doing everything that you and your friends cannot do, all of a sudden the hopelessness hits home. You get weak in the knees, you just sit down and you say, I don't wanna do this, I just wanna go home. Similar to Saul, although I think Saul is probably in a worse state. It's over before it began. He can't win this. And he's just heard this proclamation that he his sons and Israel will be defeated and he's going to die. Saul despairs the same way we might if we were playing some champions in a basketball game. But what should he have done? Of course he should have repented. Might not have changed the outcome of the battle, sure, but he should have repented. Nonetheless, he should have actually done what a pagan nation far in the future of his time would have done, the Ninevites. When Jonah came to them and proclaimed the Lord's judgment on them, did the Ninevites fall to the ground and say, well, it's hopeless, we can't do anything? Or did they say, well, God wouldn't have warned us about this if he didn't want us to repent. So let's turn to the Lord, let's repent. Maybe he'll spare us, maybe he won't, but at the end of the day, we ought to repent. And that's what Saul should have done. That's what we should do when confronted with sin. We should repent, but instead Saul despairs like Judas. He lays there. This must have been something of an awkward situation for the witch, having the king of Judah lying on her floor. She tries to offer him some comfort. The only comfort she can offer, the only help she can give is his last meal. Saul is, as it were, on death row, and this lady says, well, at least a good meal will help you, maybe. Saul doesn't want to eat, but he eats nonetheless, but it's an empty comfort. Food is given to us for the prolonging of our life. It's given to us to enjoy, to rejoice in the Lord for, but here to Saul, it's ashes in his mouth. It won't really prolong his life at all. It'll give him the energy he needs to go into battle against the Philistines and get killed. It gives him a little bit of energy, but it gives him no hope. He's hopeless because he is without God in the world, as that passage we read in Ephesians chapter two speaks of. Those who are alienated, the Gentiles, from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, that's where Saul finds himself. Though he was part of the commonwealth of Israel, though he had heard the covenants, he had God's word, he's without hope because he's without God, because he's rejected God over and over and over again. So he has no comfort. He eats his food, gets back his energy, and gets up and goes away that night. The text ends there, and it ends on this hopeless note, doesn't it? To emphasize to us that without God, you are without hope. But I think also in this passage, we do see the king that we need, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our only hope in life and in death is the Lord Jesus who has given himself for us. You see, as I said earlier, 1 Samuel contrasts the lives of Saul and David over and over again to show that David is a better king for Israel. Saul might be the king after the people's heart, but David is the man after God's heart. God delights in David, God loves David, and God set David up as his king and as the ancestor to his Christ. But even though David is the better king for Israel, he's not ultimately the king God's people need, is he? David himself has sins and failures. So both Saul and David point us to our need for the perfect king. Here, Saul points us to Christ because we see Saul's despair when he's faced with the Philistines and we realize we don't need a king who sees his enemies and despairs. We need the king who takes courage in God, his strength, and goes boldly to the fight. Who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross. That's the king we need. We need a king who did not turn to the devil. When tempted, the devil said, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the earth. What a temptation that was. Christ resisted the devil, not turning to him, but resisting him, rejecting him, conquering him. We need a king who does that. We need a king. who did all his father's will. We need a king who teaches us by his word and spirit the will of God for our salvation. As we see Saul's failings, as we see David's failings, we're constantly reminded these aren't the kings we need. We need the perfect king. We need Christ. Because without Christ, we are without God. Without God, we are without hope. But in Christ, We have all hope. In Christ, our sins are forgiven. In Christ, we have the Father's pleasure upon us. In Christ, we have a certainty, a sure hope that one, we will be with Christ when we die, and two, we will be raised even as He was raised. While this text ends in a bit of a hopeless note for Saul, it reminds us that life need not be hopeless if we turn to Christ and live. Trust in the Savior and live. Cling to Christ. Be brought near by his blood so that you might glorify God and have hope through all of life's darkness and trials. and tribulations. Trust in Christ. Amen. Let's pray. Our Lord and our God, as we see this passage and we see the hopelessness of Saul, we must, oh Lord, cry out to you once again, you who are our only hope. Lord Jesus, you are our hope in life and in death, and we thank you that in you we might have complete, perfect hope. Oh Lord, give us this hope. We ask, Lord, that when we see trials in front of us, that we would flee to you. We ask, Lord, that you would keep us safe from the schemes of the devil as we take hope in you. We pray, Lord, that you would preserve us in this life, and then when the day comes for us to pass into glory, that you would keep in us a strong hope, that you would grow faith in us, so that we might with joy enter your presence and praise you for eternity. Lord and our God, we pray these things in Christ's name, amen. Amen, let's take a few moments to meditate on the word preached here.