Our scripture lessons tonight comes from First Samuel, chapter 28. Hear now the word of the Lord from First Samuel, starting in chapter 28, verse one. 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 Andor. 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? 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. 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. 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 has 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. 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. Now the Philistines had gathered all their forces at Aphek, and the Israelites were encamped by the spring that is in Jezreel. As the lords of the Philistines were passing on by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were passing on in the rear with Achish, the commanders of the Philistines said, What are these Hebrews doing here? And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, Is this not David, the servant of Saul, king of Israel, who has been with me now for days and years? And since he deserted to me, I have found no fault in him to this day. But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him. And the commanders of the Philistines said to him, Send the man back, that he may return to the place to which you have assigned him. He shall not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. For how could this fellow reconcile himself to his Lord? Would it not be with the heads of the men here? Is this not David, of whom they sing unto one another in dances, Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands? Then Achish called David and said to him, As the Lord lives, you have been honest, and to me it seems right that you should march out and in with me in the campaign, for I have found nothing wrong in you from the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, the lords do not approve of you, so go back now, and go peaceably, that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines. And David said to Achish, But what have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day I entered your service until now, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king? And Achish answered David and said, I know that you are as blameless in my sight as an angel of God. Nevertheless, the commanders of the Philistines have said, he shall not go up with us to the battle. Now then rise early in the morning with the servants of your Lord who came with you and start early in the morning and depart as soon as you have light. So David set out with his men early in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. But the Philistines went up to Jezreel. This is the word of the Lord. Tonight we watch as David follows the pattern of the Lord himself as he descends into the realm of the Philistines. Remember that Yahweh himself had gone there first, back in 1 Samuel 4-6. It was when the Ark of the Covenant was captured and taken to the Philistine territory, spending time even in Gath. the ark had gone before David and now David goes. Now it's worth even dropping back a step further because in Judges 13 we're told that Samson was the one who would begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines. And where did Samson end his life? In the temple of Dagon in Judges 16 where he destroyed the enemies of God's people by pushing the pillars of the temple down upon himself and thousands of the Philistines, so that it is said that he killed more in his death than he did in his life. In the book of Samuel, the deliverance of Israel from the hand of the Philistines will be completed by David. But before David came on the scene, the Lord himself had descended into hell to defeat the Philistines. The ark was captured, Yahweh humiliated by the gods of the Philistines. As we see so often in the scriptures, the way of humiliation is the only way to glory. Someone recently reminded me of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where the words run through his mind, only the penitent man shall pass. What does that mean? If you know the movie, you know. His head would have been taken off if he did not bow. The Lord's purpose was that Yahweh's own humiliation would result in the casting down of Dagon. Now the Lord's anointed is following the path of Yahweh himself. As David spends 16 months in Gath, the Ark had spent seven months in Philistine territory. There's probably something going on with sevens and eights there. David will pass through his own humiliation to glory as he remains in exile, awaiting the day when the Lord will vindicate him and establish his house. Now, you might wonder, is there no other way? This sounds so hard. Yes, there is another way. It's the way of Saul. And that's the one-way ticket to the grave. So there's no other way to glory except the way of the cross. But there is another way. What's the difference between David and Saul? In a word, repentance. Saul is so focused on his kingdom that he loses sight of God's kingdom. David recognizes yours is the kingdom that comes from his prayer in first chronicles 29. And so when David sins, he recognizes that he has sinned against God. Whereas when Saul sins, he only sees his sin against man. And the difference is catastrophic as Saul will end with a banquet in the grave while David will end at the wedding supper of the lamb. we've been seeing in this set of stories of the stories of what I've termed the adventures of David in between his anointing by Samuel and then his anointing as king of Judah, that the very center of this story is the story of David and Abigail. When Abigail proclaims to David God's purposes for David's life, we oftentimes think that, oh, when God said that he would establish David's house, that's what the Lord said to David. And he said it through Abigail. She's actually the first one that says it in the scriptures. Her words have now functioned as sort of the turning point in the story. As in the death of Nabal, the tide turns. Up until this point, the only people, at least the only named people who have died, have been the friends of David. David had fled to Samuel at the end of chapter 19. Samuel is dead by the beginning of chapter 25. David fled to the priests in chapter 21, and Saul kills Ahimelech and 85 of the priests along with their wives and children in chapter 22. David did have some success in his fighting the Philistines, but when he has the opportunity to kill Saul, he restrains himself because Saul is the Lord's anointed, and he says, no, that's in God's hands. And the question becomes, when will David's enemies start to fall? Well, the death of Nabal at the hand of the Lord as spoken by the word of Abigail, is the turning point. And as Abigail put it, all of your enemies will be like Goliath and Nabal. And in our story for tonight, we are reminded of David's victory over Goliath, even as Saul begins his descent into death. You may have noticed that the story of David and the Philistine army brackets the story of Saul and the medium. That's intentional. David has endeared himself to Akish, the king of Gath. We saw last time that David has been fulfilling all that Israel failed to do and to be. He's been destroying the Canaanites, as the Lord commanded Moses. Now to be clear, this is something that only the Lord's anointed, the Messiah, is called to do. As Samuel reminds Saul, you didn't destroy the Amalekites like God told you to. So, the Messiah, the Lord's anointed, is called to destroy the enemies of God. I think sometimes, living on this side of the cross, we are so used to the correct spiritual interpretation of that, that we forget that there was a time when this was a very physical command. And, according to our Lord Jesus, when he returns, he will bring a very physical destruction against those who oppose him. We are not the Christ. We are not the Messiah. So we fight with spiritual weapons. But David was called to succeed where Israel had failed. And so during his sojourn in Gath, he begins to defeat the Lord's enemies. But he tells Akish, as we saw the last time, that he's fighting against Judah. And Akish believes him. Now the Philistines are gathering for battle against Israel and Akish calls David to join him. David's response sounds great. But it's actually ambiguous. Very well, you shall know what your servant can do. What does he mean by that? Would he really fight against his own people? Surely not. We've seen enough so far to know that David would never do that. Would he have betrayed Akish and given the victory to Saul like the lords of the Philistines were afraid of? Maybe? I actually have a hunch that David knew the politics of the Philistines pretty well by now. He's been living there for a year and a half. There are five lords of the Philistines. One of them is David's patron. The other four are deeply suspicious of him. They've probably heard by now that David is living under Achish's banner. And he probably knows very well, given how much we've heard about spies running around in this story, that they're not fond of the idea of David going into battle. So my hunch is, David is going forth, saying what he needs to say to sort of keep going, trusting that the Lord will get him out of this through what exactly happens. All David has to do is show up, and they will order him to leave. I know. We're all curious what would have happened if David trusted the Lord, did what was set before him, and God delivered him from the dilemma that he undoubtedly would have had a difficult time deciding on. Well, not really. He's going to fight the Philistines. He's not going to fight against Israel. David would not do that. Or would David have turned tail and run? That's hard to imagine, too. But anyway, thankfully, we don't need to know that answer. The text then abruptly shifts from David to Saul in verse 3. David is living in the land of the Philistines, but becoming all that Israel was supposed to be, destroying the enemies of God and the enemies of Saul, for that matter. But Saul, who dwells in the land of promise, is becoming all that the pagans have been. Verse 3 reminds us that Samuel was dead, and that Saul had cast out the mediums and necromancers as the law of God commanded. But when the Philistines came and encamped at Shunem, and Saul brought the army to Mount Gilboa, he trembles at the size of the Philistine army. Now, it's worth noting the Philistines have chosen to engage Israel in the far north of the land. When you look at a map of Israel, this is nowhere near any of the Philistine cities. They're going far to the north. And if you just look at a map, you might wonder why. If you know the terrain, There's a very good reason why. If you try to go through the hill country of Judah, your big army is neutralized because you're climbing up through these wadis and this hilly terrain and so they can pick you off. You're going to take the plane, you're going to take where the big armies go, and that's what they do. But the significance of this is not lost on Saul. This was where Gideon had defeated the Midianites with 300 men in Judges 7. And so Saul inquires of the Lord, will you give me success like you gave to Gideon? But the Lord did not answer, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets. God's silence is more terrible than his voice. But Saul is desperate. He must know what is God doing. So he says to his servants, seek out for me a woman who is a medium that I may go and inquire of her, one who can call up the spirits of the dead. And he's told that there is one on the other side of Mount Gilboa at Endor. Endor is between Mount Gilboa and Mount Tabor. Psalm 83, which we sang earlier, tells us that Endor is where the Midianites were destroyed in the days of Sisera and Jabin, when Deborah and Barak sat on top of Mount Tabor with the Midianite army of chariots below them, when God opened the heavens and brought down the torrents and caused the Midianite chariots to get stuck in the mud. If Saul is remembering his history, he may even think of this as providential. In the place where the prophet Deborah won the great victory over Sisera, God now sends me a medium. I know, it's not proper thinking, but hey, when we're going off, we sometimes go off badly. And it is truly providential. God will sometimes give you what you ask for when you ask wrongly. To be clear, if you ask for a fish, God will not give you a serpent. But what if you ask for a serpent? God probably won't do it the first time, but if you keep insisting, daddy, daddy, daddy, I really want a viper, give me a viper, give me a viper, Eventually, He may actually give you what you asked for. Oftentimes, the judgment of God takes the very form of the thing that we wanted, and then we realized, I shouldn't have wanted that. If you will not repent of your sin, then the wages of sin is death. And so Saul goes to the medium of Endor to inquire of Samuel what is to happen. He disguises himself, but she's suspicious. But she's satisfied by his oath. As Yahweh lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing. Notice Saul is not turning to other gods. He's not trying to find out what Dagon is doing, the god of the Philistines. He goes to the medium and swears by the name of Yahweh and asks to speak to Yahweh's prophet, Samuel. but he is seeking Yahweh in a way that Yahweh had explicitly forbidden. But this is what happens to us when we become obsessed with my kingdom. Saul is more concerned with advancing and promoting his own kingdom than he is with advancing and promoting God's kingdom. And his problem is he can't tell the difference anymore. When you start to think that if this bad thing happens to me, that will hurt God's kingdom, God says, really? Whose kingdom are you concerned about? And so she brings up Samuel. What do we do with that? Commentators are all over the map on this one. Some have said the whole thing is just a fake. She made it all up. But then others have said, well, but then she was surprised when the real Samuel showed up. One commentator suggests the whole episode was a fake. That this is basically just a modern fortune teller. And she recognized Saul immediately and made up the whole thing. And she knew enough about Samuel to be able to pretend. I mean, it's true. It wouldn't be hard to predict a Philistine victory. Any medium with a knowledge of Samuel's true attitude towards Saul could have easily come up with the whole thing. So I totally understand how that scenario could happen. But that's not how the text treats her. The text treats her as a medium. We really shouldn't be adopting sort of modernist skepticism towards all spiritual realities. She very well may have had some connection to the spiritual realm. And so when the real Samuel showed up, she does seem quite scared because she realizes this is way out of her control. And then she realized, wait a second, this is King Saul. But Saul was so desperate to learn the future that he continued in his rebellion and assured the medium of his protection. And then Samuel says, why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? Now, this also raises questions. What does Samuel mean by being brought up? The simple way of saying it is Samuel's body was in the grave. So the proper way of saying it is he was brought up. The text does not give us any clear idea of how all this works. We're simply told that it happened. Also, this is the word that's used in spiritualism for bringing somebody up. So that's just the way they say it, so that's the way the text says it. And Saul explains that he has summoned Samuel because God no longer speaks to him. 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." It's easy to take pity on Saul in one sense. He has sinned grievously, and he has failed to repent properly. But he comes across as truly pathetic. It's just he keeps making it worse for himself. And Samuel says, if God no longer speaks to you, why call on me, his prophet? 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. Why? Because you did not destroy Amalek. And if you recall, last time we heard that David has been destroying Amalek for the last 16 months. So David is now doing what Saul had failed to do. Since you have not done what God commands, you and your sons are going to join me tomorrow. Samuel is saying, you are going to go down into the grave. You are going to die. Samuel was not sent to instruct Saul or anyone else about God's plans for the afterlife. So this should not be taken as... Some have said, oh, I guess this means that everybody shares a common... In the Old Testament, they all shared a common place in the grave, and then it's only later that... That's not what Samuel is saying. When he says, you're going to join me, he says, you're going to die, and you will go down into the grave. He's not trying to explain any sort of theology of the afterlife other than you're going to die. I'm not quite sure what Saul was expecting. God has rejected him. He is now seeking to ascertain the will of God through a medium whom he himself had banished some years before. So what exactly does he expect? I think sometimes we look at this and wonder, how can somebody be that stupid? But as Mark Hansen likes to say, sin makes you stupid. And how often have we done this? Saul is a poignant reminder of how sin works. One lie begets another. It all started when Saul said to himself, I need to ask Yahweh's blessing, so I'll just offer the sacrifice myself. Then, oh, I should bring thank offerings to the Lord. So I'm not going to slaughter the animals like I was told to. I'll bring them as a thank offering. They'll die anyway then. And then, hey, besides, then we get really good steak dinner for all the troops. And worship God, of course. Now Saul has become so obsessed with pursuing and maintaining his own kingdom that he's inquiring of the Lord's prophet through a medium and swearing to her in the name of the Lord that he won't harm her. Brothers and sisters, this is where sin leads. If you play with temptation, if you allow yourself to seek your own kingdom, your own pleasure, your own power, your own profit, this is where you end up. You end up in the land of the dead. I don't know that I realized for a long time how tragic verses 22 to 25 are. First, let's give honor where honor is due. the medium comes across as very kind and hospitable. She's a right decent hostess. She kills the fattened calf, bakes unleavened bread, bread baked quickly, and they ate. But when you look at the contrast between the end of Saul's story and the end of David's story in the next chapter, what is Saul doing? Not only has he consulted with the medium and sworn in the name of Yahweh that he will not harm her, now he breaks bread with her and shares in the feast of folly, Proverbs 9. Little does he know that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. If Abigail, a couple chapters ago, showed us lady wisdom, the medium of Endor shows us dame folly. For truly, Folly is no lady. Now, chapter 29 brings us back to David and his sojourn among the Philistines. They had gathered at Aphek. Now, Aphek is on the northern border of Philistia and it's another 30-40 miles to Shunem where they encamped in chapter 28. And you're like, wait, so what? We're going back in time. We're going back to the mustering of the Philistines before they marched north, before Saul consulted with the medium of Endor. After all, the medium says tomorrow Saul will die, whereas chapters 29 and 30 recount at least four days of David's activity, and 2 Samuel 1 tells us David heard of the death of Saul three days later. So this is a week before the death of Saul, David was dismissed by the Philistines. Now, why the dischronologization? Why is the story told in reverse order? Why not just tell David's whole story after telling Saul's story? Well, this is why I titled the sermon, David Among the Philistines, Saul Among the Dead. Our narrator wants us to see the parallel. If he puts off the story of the witch of Endor until after 1 Samuel 30, then you won't see it. The way the story is told, you can see how David's faithfulness in the midst of the land of the Philistines contrasts with Saul's faithlessness and indeed his descent into the land of death. You're also able to hear 1 Samuel 29 and 30 in the light of two things. Saul's oath as the Lord lives and Samuel's reminder that it was Saul's failure to destroy the Amalekites that resulted in his condemnation. And now in the story of David, after the Philistine commanders reject David, Akish swears, as the Lord lives. And this Philistine king seems to mean it and intend it more honorably than Saul, the Israelite king. Akish may be partly misguided in his confidence in David, but he swears by Yahweh more honorably than Saul. Now, the other lords of the Philistines are horrified that David is with Akish. This is the guy they sing the songs about. Saul is slain in his thousands, but David is ten thousands. You may trust him, that's okay. You can trust him for Gath, not with us on the battlefield. And so, Akish swears by the Lord, and I don't know if that's enough to make him a full-fledged Yahweh worshiper. Ancient polytheists would be comfortable swearing by any number of gods. But at least I'm comfortable saying that our text presents Akish favorably, recognizing that David was an honorable man and a faithful leader of his people. Now it seems clear that David expected this result, but he still needs to protest, otherwise it might look like he was too eager to leave. What have I done? Why send me away? And Akish testifies to David's character and standing. I know that you are as blameless in my sight as an angel of God. But no, please, you have to leave. And whereas Saul returned by night to his camp, David walks in the light. David set out with his men early in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. Now, remember, the last person connected with Israel to spend significant time in the land of the Philistines was Yahweh himself. In 1st Samuel 5 it was the Ark of the Covenant. It was God himself who was taken captive to the Philistine land and spending part of that time in Gath. In the book of Samuel God goes before his people to be humbled by his enemies and yet in his humiliation to triumph over his enemies. And now David follows his Lord. The Lord's anointed Messiah goes down to Gath and through his humiliation he triumphs. Just not in the way that you'd expect. David's triumph will not come on the battlefield. He understands. This is not the time to fight. This is the time to humble myself and accept God's call on my life. Now, we'll find out next time that God ordered all these things very kindly, very providentially, one might say, in order to save David and his men from something worse. But at the moment, David understands none of this. David must simply humble himself and accept what God has called him to do. Saul will descend into the grave very literally, but as we keep seeing throughout this section, this is David's descent into hell. David, as the Lord's anointed, passing through death and exile in order to defeat all his and our enemies, that through this death and exile he will be raised up to glory. And that is my exhortation and encouragement to you. Because in whatever trial you face, in whatever you face in terms of what does it mean for you to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Jesus? What does it mean for you to humble yourself in the situation you're in and say, I need to do what God calls me to do regardless of the consequences? As you humble yourself, He will exalt you, and it probably won't happen the way you expect. Because when we come to God and say, I know how you should do this, God usually goes, no, you don't. Trust Him. That's the point of trusting Him, is that you don't know how it's going to end. Trust Him. He is faithful. He will do it. Oh Lord, our God, have mercy on us and help us to trust you. We consider our brother David, We marvel at his trust in you, that he would go marching towards battle in a battle he can't fight, and yet you delivered him and graciously and kindly set a path before his feet to do what you called him to do. Help us, Lord, to have that same confidence, to trust you and to go forth not knowing what you are planning and expecting, but knowing that you will do all your holy will for us. Help us to humble ourselves before you, to trust you and to do what you say, that as you set before us the path for our feet, may we walk humbly and faithfully in the midst of all the trials and afflictions and challenges of life. Help us to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Jesus and follow him, yes, to the grave, but even further. to the resurrection, that we might be exalted and raised up in him, even as you have seated us with him in the heavenly places, that we might be yours forever. Have mercy upon us, we pray for Jesus' sake. Amen.