11. GRACE REIGNS (Chapters 27 - 30)
Harry Foster
THE first half of this book was devoted to Hannah's trial and prayer, the appearance of Samuel and the subsequent emergence of Saul. With his failure we found God intervening again to bring forward the one of His choice, David, the man after His own heart. The second half of the book covers about twelve years and tells of the trials of David who, having been anointed and commissioned to be God's king, had to wait and be proved by God. Our last study deals with chapters 27 to 30, finishing with the tragic end of Saul and terminating David's period of probation. If we continued on into 2 Samuel we should be considering David's history as king, but for the time being we conclude this series of studies with the record of how he came to the throne.
Saul was called to the kingdom, was tested and found wanting and so his sad and challenging story is one of failure. A dreadful indication of this impending failure is given in the fact that when Saul inquired of the Lord he received no answer at all (28:6). His army was outnumbered and the prospect so grim that we are told that Saul was afraid and his heart trembled greatly. Now there is no disgrace in a man being afraid. Almost every man of God in the Bible had at some time or other to be reassured with the words: "Fear not!" The tragedy with Saul, however, was that God did not say 'Fear not' to him; in fact He gave no reply at all to Saul's prayers. There are statements by David in some of the Psalms which show that to him this would have been the ultimate calamity if it had happened to him: "My rock, be not thou deaf unto me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit" (Psalm 28:1). For God to be silent to him was the worst thing which could possibly happen. Enemies, distresses, calamities, these he could bear; but if God refused to answer him then life itself had no more meaning. Well, God never was deaf to him, nor will He be to us, but he was to Saul. The Lord answered him not by dreams (which was one of His methods of speaking to men), nor by Urim (the light on the high priest's breastplate), nor by prophets (though even some of the bad kings at least had a message from God through a prophet). This was tragedy indeed. To pray and to get no answer at all, to find that God refused to speak to him. The reason is not far to seek. It is Wisdom which declares: "Because I have called, and ye have refused ... ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof ... Then they shall call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me diligently, but they shall not find me" (Proverbs 1:24-28). [92/93]
SO God had nothing more to say to Saul. What then could he do? He went to a source of information which he had himself formerly banned (v.3), a 'medium' who could put him in touch with the other world. This is what large numbers of people are doing in our own countries today, ignoring God's orders and going back on their own good laws. It is neither 'fun' nor is it just pretence, as Saul soon found. When a spirit appeared which seemed like Samuel, she realised who her visitor was and was frightened. She could trust her 'familiar spirit' to speak through her, but she could not trust it to deliver her, and she would not have gone on if Saul had not guaranteed her safety. Her insight was correct, and we need never be surprised if spirits give evidence of their knowledge, for of course the Devil knows the past. He knew what Samuel looked like when Saul last saw him, and so he produced the spectre of an old man covered with a robe. Saul was deceived, and may be so was the woman, but it was obviously a deceiving spirit masquerading as the old prophet. You notice that it asked: "Why hast thou disquieted me ...?" Can we tolerate for one moment the thought that a wayward sinner or a sordid old woman could cause any disquiet to a godly saint resting in the presence of his Lord? "There the wicked cease from troubling; there the weary be at rest," affirmed the old patriarch (Job 3:17). Is it possible that a cringing wreck of a man like Saul could have any power to alter that? Notice, too, that the spirit speaks of being brought up. Had it really been Samuel, he would surely have felt that in coming back to earth he was coming down. Can anyone who has the least insight into spiritual things believe that in eternity a saint of God will look anything like he did when on earth? Earthly robes will have been left behind, old age exchanged for eternal youth. There is no such thing as 'an old man' in eternity.
For me, then, this was not Samuel but a masquerading spirit. It knew the past and could quote all the familiar story of Saul's disobedience and rejection, for evil powers doubtless gloated in the unseen as God's name was dishonoured in this man. It knew that the Lord had departed from him -- everybody knew that -- and it must have had a shrewd idea that the coming battle would bring victory for the Philistines. I suggest that it did not know the future (which is known only to God) but seized the opportunity of introducing the idea of suicide into the mind of the desperate king. One of his favourite ploys is to suggest that we end it all -- he tried that, unsuccessfully, with Job -- and in fact that is precisely what Saul did (31:4). This, then, was the shameful end of a man who failed of the grace of God. David did not kill him; nor did God; nor indeed did the Philistines, for he committed suicide. This was the final outworking of disobedience. The original act may have seemed quite small. He had been told to wait seven days for Samuel, but he could not wait and impulsively took things into his own hands, forcing himself to a sacrifice which was not for him to offer. 'Disobedience?', men may comment, 'but it was not all that important'. 'Conceit and self-will? True, but none of us is perfect!'
Well, men may minimise the responsibility of a man called to the kingdom, but God will not do so. The end of disobedience is death. And like so many others, Saul involved others, including his own three sons, in his downfall. The Philistines gloated and praised their idols (31:9). That was what Satan had been working for. From the day when God regained for Himself the glory which departed through the capture of the Ark, the Devil had been seeking an opportunity to rob God once more and gain glory for his own kingdom of darkness. The real issue was not just the man, Saul, but the perpetual war between Satan and the Lord, a war which still continues and in which we are all involved. Can God be robbed of glory? Can the Devil usurp that glory for himself? This is the question which lies behind Saul's history and ours. In Saul's case it was a grievous blow to God's glory. The kingdom of Israel was at a very low ebb after the defeat on Mount Gilboa. Happily God had His answer. He had been preparing David for just such a time.
There is just one bright spot at the end of 1 Samuel: "When the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard concerning him that which the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons ... and buried them ... and fasted seven days" (verses 11-13). These were the men who had been saved by Saul's first great victory (chapter 11). In the hour of general defeat it is heartening to know of some who were grateful enough and bold enough to break into Philistine territory to recover at least something for the glory of God.
WE turn now from Saul to David, and may be rather surprised to find that he too is in rather a bad way. The thought that I wish to stress in this connection is that an abiding principle of God's working is resurrection. The kingdom is [93/94] brought very low and its new beginning must be a resurrection act of God. David, also, is passing through an experience which can only be solved by resurrection power. Clearly the prelude to resurrection is to be brought right down to zero. The actual zero point of David's experience is found in 30:4-6: "David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep ... and David was greatly distressed ...". This, mark you, was God's anointed king! He is at rock bottom. He has lost all; all except the grace of God.
We have to return to chapter 27 to trace the beginnings of this dark moment of human despair. After the three victories of faith which we considered in our last study, we are astounded now to find that David has gone all to pieces. Doubt has entered his heart. Questions take possession of his mind. He reasons: "There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more ...: so shall I escape out of his hand" (27:1). Nothing better? Nothing better than taking myself out of God's hands and seeking help from the world? Nothing better than planning for myself instead of waiting for Him? David, dear David, there is nothing worse! Yet, strangely enough it looked at first as though he were right, for "when it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, he sought no more again for him" (v.4). David had known spiritual victories, real triumphs of faith, and yet Saul still harried him. Now he gives up his faith, disobeys all that Samuel had taught him about trusting the Lord and not leaning to his own understanding, goes for help to God's inveterate enemies, and gets immediate relief.
The relief was immediate but its effect was disastrous to David's life with God. He had to resort to subterfuges and lies to ingratiate himself with his new protector who had allocated Ziklag to him. He needed to kill off women, not because they were evil but in case they should 'tell on' him (27:11). There are some who may be inclined to defend David because he was the Lord's anointed, but there can be no excuse for untruthfulness. Achish believed him, but drew an ominous conclusion, namely that now David would transfer his service from God to himself: "therefore he shall be my servant for ever". He even proposed to give him a post of honour, saying: "Therefore will I make thee keeper of mine head for ever" (28:2). So David was buying temporary relief at the cost of spiritual servitude; the man called to be king was to become a virtual slave. It is noticeable that there was no mention of enquiring of the Lord when David went off to Achish. He followed his own impulses and they brought him into bondage. The same will happen to us if we follow his example, and we shall discover that there are few things more heart-breaking than a son of God in bondage to the world.
Not that David seems to have worried too much about his new status. As a matter of fact he made a big fuss because suspicion on the part of the rest of the Philistine leaders forced Achish to deny him a part in the battle against Israel. So his prospective slavery was made worse by his urgent appeal to be allowed to go into battle with the Philistines. One wonders just what was in his mind. Was it to fight Saul -- a thing he had steadfastly refused to do? Or was it to double-cross Achish, help towards an Israelitish victory and so make his peace with Saul? One thing is certain and that is that he should never have been in the situation in which he found himself. Yet what can we say? Have we never got ourselves into a scrape which should not have been? Have we never yielded to unbelief and acted impulsively? Have we always enquired of the Lord and waited for Him? We all have to confess that David's story has been our story too. Only One, the Lord Jesus Himself, can claim always to have maintained pure faith in the Father. And by His perfect obedience He not only triumphed himself but has provided grace to cover all our faults and victory even for people like us. So we find that David's story is a story of grace -- grace instead of disgrace and victory out of defeat.
SO by the overruling of God and the complaints of the lords of the Philistines, David was refused a part in the battle and sent back to his own place, Ziklag, only to be confronted by real disaster there. The city was in ruins and all its inhabitants carried away captive. This was David's absolute zero; everything seemed lost. Even in this, though, we notice how God's grace had been at work for although the Amalekites "had taken captive the women and all that were therein, both small and great: they slew not any, but carried them off and went their way" (30:2). What could David do, though? He had lost his possessions, lost his family and now found that he had forfeited the confidence of those mighty men of his. "The people spake of stoning him." This, surely, was the end. But no, David still has hope: " ... but [94/95] David strengthened himself in the Lord his God" (v.6). Right down in the depths he had found God again.
We may ask how a man in such a predicament could ever find encouragement in a holy God. The answer must certainly be that he began by humbling himself and confessing his failure. His psalms abound with the expressions of contrition and appeals for mercy which could alone be appropriate for a man in his position at Ziklag. They are also full of the assurance of grace and help which such a penitent can always count on from the God of all grace. Even with the whole world against him he knew that he could count on the unfailing loving kindness of his God. And so can we. We, too, can always strengthen ourselves in our God when once we have come to despair of all human strength -- our own or anybody else's.
The kingdom had come to a new low, and so had its God-appointed king. Perhaps this was a good thing. Perhaps the Lord found opportunity for leading David into the strength of His grace by means of this calamity in a way that would not have been possible without it. It is a strange but very wonderful truth that God can sometimes get greater glory for Himself in us as a result of our blunders than could have been possible in any other way. After all our 'testimony' is not an account of our ability or success but it is the evidence of the greatness of our God. So from the depths of distress David could look up to God and find encouragement.
THE next significant thing is that he returned to his old good habit of seeking divine guidance: "And David inquired of the Lord" (v.8). He did not allow his mistakes and sins to paralyse him, but rightly appreciated that confession and forgiveness had put him back on to his old relationship with God. So while Saul was going farther and farther from God, David was fully restored and being guided to a glorious victory in which he recovered everything which had been lost (v.18). It was a miracle -- a miracle of God's goodness. But grace goes even beyond that for we are told that David not only brought back all, but gathered flocks and herds which he was able to describe as: "David's spoil" (verses 19, 20). Can you believe this? That a man who had failed the Lord, been brought to the brink to ruin, been restored and strengthened by God's grace and then got back into the battle, should actually become wealthier than ever before? Well, a similar thing happened in the history of Abraham, and the principle is an abiding one: that God is able to make all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.
The Devil is the great discourager. He is "the accuser of the brethren". If he can get us involved in some shameful failure he will do his best to keep us wallowing in self-accusation and self-condemnation, even after we have sought and found forgiveness. The Holy Spirit, however, is the Comforter, the Encourager, who enables us to rise up in the name of the Lord and plunge again into the battle, as David did. This was the faith which gave him the victory, by God's grace. Nothing was lost and everybody concerned was enriched as a result of the battle.
It is interesting to note that others also were helped by this experience of David's, for we are told: "When David came to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even to his friends" (30:26). It should always be like this. Our mercies and subsequent victories should always mean a blessing which overflows to others. In David's case, of course, the gifts were most timely, for they prepared the way for his acceptance as the new king by those elders of Judah (2 Kings 2:4). So it all contributed to the new kingdom to which David was called. So it is that the grace of God is able to turn even our failures to spiritual advantage, if only we humble ourselves before Him. David emerged from this episode forgiven, enriched, able to enrich others and more prepared for the kingdom than ever before.
AMID the general rejoicing at David's victory a shadow was cast by discontent among some of his warriors. The narrative describes them as: "men of Belial", which are strong words. Evidently the writer took a poor view of men who could be so ungracious as to grudge any benefits to their colleagues who had been too exhausted to follow David right through to the end. "... we will not give them aught of the spoil that we have recovered", they declared, surprising us that among these soldiers of David there should be those of such a disposition that they would deny their fellow soldiers a share in the booty? Could those who had themselves received great grace fail to show a little grace to their brothers? Alas, they could and they did. What is more, such a spirit [95/96] often persists among Christians. Those who owe everything to divine grace can readily be ungracious to their brothers in Christ, so confirming His sad story of the two debtors (Matthew 18:32-33).
The gracious David still called them 'brethren', in spite of this bad spirit, but he put the matter right and in doing so laid down a principle for all the future: " As his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike". God's ruling people must be magnanimous. As a matter of human reasoning the four hundred who went through to the end deserved more than the two hundred who fainted by the way, but since all was a gift of divine grace, the 'pros' and 'contras' of human reckoning could have no place. So David ordered this permanent ruling, that those who receive grace must also show grace. Grace reigns!
WE have come to the end of 1 Samuel and to the conclusion of David's probation period as he was being prepared for the throne. After he was crowned, though, he still depended entirely on God's grace, as the subsequent story so clearly shows. If we just glance into 2 Samuel we find the link with the previous book in the fact that we are told something of the circumstances of Saul's tragic death. And here magnanimity reaches a high peak, for in his lamentation David makes no distinction between his enemy Saul and his dear friend, Jonathan: "Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives". How could David speak thus of the wicked man who had pursued and persecuted him? Well, the Lord Jesus has ordered us to love our enemies and to pray for them who use us badly, a standard altogether too high for us, and too high for David, apart from the miracle of God's grace. By that grace, however, he was enabled to speak of Saul without any trace of rancour or self-pity. Let us finish on this high note. We are called to a throne and will therefore have to endure circumstances and people which are irksome to us as a part of God's work of preparation. If we can take it all in the right spirit, not being soured or embittered but always proving the abundance of God's grace and rising above human pettiness, we will find that God will see us through to the end. Grace reigns!
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