Samuel No.8 Saul - An Enigma

Oh, our aim be the glory, praise and the free song, Endless is the victory, proud and the strong. Angels in bright raven, from the spurn of pain, Be the glory, with the conquering sun, And end with the victory, our Lord. O Jesus, Jesus, risen from the tomb, Come in thee He greets us, Shatters fear and gloom, Hymns of triumph sing.

Where'er death has brought his sting, Thine be the glory, And end with the victory, Thou o'er death hast won. O light of life, Life is not without thee, Make us, give us strife, Make us all at one, Make us faithfully loyal, Be the glory, with the conquering sun, And end with the victory, Thou o'er death hast won. Last week we found that the Israelites were wanting a king, and that Samuel was given the order to go and get one.

And this week, this episode, exciting episode, tells us that Samuel meets Saul. 1 Samuel 9 There was a Benjamite, a man of standing, whose name was Kish, son of Abel, the son of Zerah, the son of Bekorah, the son of Ephiah, of Benjamin. He had a son named Saul, an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites, a head taller than any of the others.

Now the donkeys, belonging to Saul's father Kish, were lost. And Kish said to his son Saul, Take one of the servants with you, and go and look for the donkeys. So he passed through the hill country of Ephraim, and through the area of Shalisha, but they did not find them.

They went on into the district of Shalim, but the donkeys were not there. Then he passed through the territory of Benjamin, and they did not find them. When they reached the district of Ziph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, Come, let's go back, or my father will stop thinking about the donkeys and start worrying about us.

But the servants replied, Look, in this town there's a man of God. He's highly respectable, and everything he says comes true. Let's go there now.

Perhaps he will tell us which way to take. Saul said to his servants, If we go, what can we give the man? The food in our sacks is gone. We have no gift to take the man of God.

What do we have? The servant answered him again, Look, he said, I have a quarter of a shekel of silver. I will give it to the man of God, so that he will tell us which way to take. Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, Come, let us go and see the seer, because the prophet of today used to be called a seer.

Good, Saul said to his servant. Come, let's go. So they set out for the town where the man of God was.

As they were going up the hill to the town, they met some girls coming out to draw water. And they asked them, Is the seer here? He is, they answered. He is ahead of you.

Hurry now. He has just come to the town today. For the people have a sacrifice at the high place.

As soon as you enter the town, you will find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. The people will not begin eating until he comes, because he must bless the sacrifice. Afterwards, those who are invited will eat.

Go up now, and you should find him about this time. They went up to the town, and as they were entering it, there was Samuel, coming towards them on his way to the high place. Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed this to Samuel.

About this time tomorrow, I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, anointed leader over my people Israel. He will deliver my people onto the hand of the Philistines, from the hand of the Philistines. I have looked upon my people, for their cry has reached me.

When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the Lord said to him, This is the man I have spoken to you about. He will govern my people. Saul approached Samuel in the gateway and asked, Would you please tell me where the seer's house is? I am the seer, Samuel replied.

Go up ahead of me to the high place, for today you are to eat with me, and in the morning I will let you go, and will tell you all that is in your heart. As for the donkeys you lost three days ago, do not worry about them, they have been found. And to whom is all the desire of Israel turned? If not to you and all your father's family.

May the Lord richly bless this reading. And on the 20th verse we find tucked away at the end these words. 1 Samuel 9.20 And to whom is all the desire of Israel turned? If not to Saul and all your father's family.

I want to try to speak to you on one of the more difficult subjects of the Old Testament. The person of the first king of Israel. And so I've called my address the Enigma of Saul.

I hope the word enigma doesn't stumble you. It really means a puzzle. It means a paradox.

It means something that you find difficult to fully comprehend. If the preacher turns into a pervert, then you've got an enigma. If the nurse who's a nightingale suddenly turns into a Hitler, a tormentor, then you've got an enigma.

Why does this person become like that? That's what I mean by the enigma of Saul. Alexander White, a great Scottish preacher, made reference last century to a colleague of his, Dr. Newman, who three times preached on Saul and said that though he had done that triplet of studies, he still was at the end utterly confused as how to explain the personality of this man from the Old Testament. Well, maybe I'm moving a little bit too quickly for visitors who are here.

You see, it's my custom Sunday by Sunday to bring a passage of Scripture in a methodical way and for us to consider together. Sometimes it's from the New Testament as we work slowly through the books, but now we're somewhat racing through the book of Samuel. We find ourselves in the ninth chapter of 1 Samuel.

Now, if you were present last week, and if you're not, I must fill you in with the context. You discover that the Israelites were concerned to have a king. They wanted a leader.

They wanted a king because the kingship of God was not something that satisfied them, as, alas, for moderns that often is the case. They were not prepared to follow him who is invisible. Rather, they wanted a warrior king.

And the reason? Well, it was twofold. The one was they wanted a leader to be able to help them to repulse the Philistines who were perennially the enemies of the Hebrews. But then, and this was the sad part about it, they wanted a leader so that they might be like all the other nations.

That's verse 20 of the eighth chapter. Like all the other nations. And I gave you reasons why their particular request was invalid and the way that they went about it, especially, was not acceptable to the Lord.

Now, there's a verse in the book of Psalms which deals with a different context, but it enshrines this principle. It says that there are occasions when God will give a person or a community the desire of their heart, but he will send leanness to their soul. I told you in my final thrust last Sunday morning that I do not want what God gives in anger.

It was said of the first king that God granted to Israel, I gave them a king in my anger. That's Hosea the prophet speaking about this particular incident. And what we find when we look into Saul being made the king of Israel is a person who comes onto the stage of Hebrew history and he comes as an enigma.

He comes as a man who doesn't understand himself. He comes as one of the most sorry creatures that ever creeps across the pages of Old Testament history. Now, let's stop there, because my concern is not just to engage in historical excursions into the Old Testament.

You see, I believe that there are people here who, if they fully understood the word enigma, they would say, well, I'm that sort of person. I'm enigmatic. I really don't understand myself.

I find, to put it scripturally, that the good I want to do, I don't do, and the evil that in my best moments I would veer away from that so often I engage in. I have it upon my heart that here this morning we have some Sauls. We have some enigmas.

Some people who are not really in control of their circumstances, who, when they look into the proverbial mirror to reveal the whole of their psyche, the whole of their personality, they say, the greatest thing that baffles me is me. You know, you'll never understand Saul, this man who's made the first king of Israel, unless you have in mind a man who, by coincidence, bears his name in the New Testament, and maintaining the coincidence, comes from the same tribe. I refer to the Apostle Paul, who you remember in Hebrew form was known as Saul and came from the tribe of Benjamin.

Now, the Apostle Paul was a very remarkable man, and one of the most astonishing things that he had to his credit was this. He began to understand himself. He began to understand himself.

And at the end of the ninth chapter of 1 Corinthians, he remarks upon the greatest nightmare of any preacher. And just to summarize what he has to say and to plunder the language of the authorized version for a moment, he said, my great concern is this, that having ministered to others, I may fail to so discipline my spiritual life that in the end I will be a castaway. I will be utterly disqualified in the service of God.

Now, that really bears my arm in revealing to you my conclusions about the enigmatic Saul. What was he? I say that in the Old Testament, Saul is equivalent to the castaway, a man who in the purposes of God, alas, fell foul of what the Lord wanted, and ultimately we see him as an utter failure, groveling before a witch in some attempt to gain advice and help in the last days of his life as he touches the world of the occult, the medium, and the wizards. Well then, let's bring Saul onto the spotlight for a moment.

You see, we find him here in this ninth chapter. It's the first time that you come across him in Hebrew history. It's an unpretentious little incident that calls him to our attention.

He's lost his donkeys, at least. His father has lost his donkeys, and as a result of certain circumstances into which we'll not go, he finds himself in the presence of Samuel, and Samuel has this inkling that this unknown country yokel, for that's what he was, shall become the first monarch of the Hebrews. And so he addresses Saul, and possibly none is more astonished than the addressee himself in these words, and to whom is all the desire of Israel turned if not to you and all your father's family? Samuel identifies Saul as a man potentially useful in the service of God.

And let's say at the beginning of our little study this morning that Saul had a most encouraging start, a most encouraging start. You know, sometimes when Houston Space Center is working well, which, alas, it hasn't for about the last few months, but when it's working well and the rocket is in process of being launched, you get those wizard technologists and scientists in the base. They're checking their monitors, and they will say in their Southern American drawl, it's looking good, it's looking good.

And they hope that it's going to be a very highly successful launch. And what we would say about Saul is he's immediately called into the presence, or rather into the purposes of God. It's looking good.

He's looking good. After all, physically speaking, he was well endowed, was he not? Look at the second verse of the ninth chapter. He had a son named Saul, an impressive young man, without equal among the Israelites, a head taller than any of the others.

Now, the Hebrews were very concerned as to how a person looked, as though the outward appearance would indicate qualities of leadership. And so Saul was looking good just at the beginning as his appointment as a future monarch of Israel. Not only was he physically well endowed, but he seemed to be very self-effacing.

When told by Samuel as to what his destiny was, he responds in the 21st verse of the same chapter, But am I not a Benjamite from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Assuming quite a position of humility when confronted with the purposes of God upon his life. And what's more, to his credit, his personality is enlarged. We're told in the ninth verse of the following chapter that as Saul took his leave from Samuel, God changed Saul's heart.

He had the mind of a countryman. His was not the mind of politics and economics. It had been a simple life before he didn't even know who Samuel was.

That indicates just what a loner Saul had been. But there's an enlargement of the heart as he is launched or prepared for launching as the king, the future king of Israel. And what's more, he's charismatically gifted, is this man.

You read how the spirit of the Lord is to come upon him, verse 6 of chapter 10, and how that's fulfilled in the tenth verse of the same chapter, and it becomes proverbial amongst the people. Is Saul also among the prophets? And what's more, to his credit, he's a man who attracts others. A very select group of men identify themselves with Saul Look at verse 26, Saul also went to his home in Gibeah accompanied by valiant men whose hearts God had touched.

Now put all those things together. Here is a man who's physically well endowed. He's a man whose heart has been enlarged.

He's a man who's charismatically gifted. He's someone who attracts others to himself. And I say, repeating my illustration from Houston, it's looking good.

It's looking good. This first monarch of Israel, he's poised and ready to take leadership in a very brilliant and in a very sensitive fashion. Ah, but look, we're not concerned just about Saul, are we? Saul the Enigma.

We're concerned about you. We're concerned about me. Not just about you and I last week or last month, but for some of us last year, for some of us last decade, for some of us three or four decades ago, when first we heard the grand message of salvation and we committed our hearts and our lives to the Lord Jesus.

And it was looking good. You remember the first flush of enthusiasm? The way that you used to turn into the church and attend the prayer meetings and you were so evangelistically concerned. It was looking so good.

Your enthusiasm, your consistency. And now, what's gone wrong since then, assuming something has? You see, when Paul is writing to the Galatians in one of the opening chapters, he has to say this. You were running well, but who cut in on you? What was it that caused you to deviate from the purposes of God? Because this was the problem of the Galatian Christians.

They'd started so well. Like Saul, it was looking so good. The gospel was going to penetrate the whole of that area.

But it never quite came about. You see what I mean when I talk about an enigma? The irresolved problem as to why we're not being as successful, some of us, as we ought to be in the purposes of God. Why is it that of all the people we don't understand, the one at the head of the column is ourselves? Well, let's come back to old Saul, or not so old Saul.

Let's bring him onto the forefront again of the stage and see, and here we've got a very difficult task because there are so many chapters giving information about Saul. Let's see if we can run a psychologist's finger over him, if you like. No, let's do away with the psychologist.

Let's see if God will give us spiritual insight so that we can pinpoint the way that this man fell and never fulfilled what might have been the purposes of God for him. If one of the things characterized Israel before Saul came along, or before Samuel came along, it was simply this. And you read the statement in the third chapter of this book.

The word of God was rare in those days. You see, we're talking about the days of Eli. You remember my preaching on Eli some weeks ago? This man who was something of a geriatric and had lost the touch of God upon his soul, whose family had compromised him so that his name, the family name became a scandal from Dan to Beersheba, from John of Groats to Lanzend, as we would say.

The word of God was rare. There was no one to speak to the individual Hebrew, to speak out the word of the Lord directly into their circumstances until Samuel came along. And then this very gifted man, he went on a circuit from Dan to Beersheba like one of those old Methodist preachers with a peripatetic ministry that took them all over England with the enthusiasm and the guidance of Wesley.

So Samuel spoke the word of the Lord into the hearts of the Hebrews. But you see, Samuel is now an old man. And what he seems to predict in respect to Saul comes about.

This man has no basic spirituality. And the problem for Saul is the fading of Samuel, the diminishing of the divine voice. You see, when Saul is proclaimed the leader of Israel, we hear Samuel saying in the opening verse, the second verse of the twelfth chapter, I have been your leader from my youth until this day.

And now it's over to Saul, you see. You have a king as your leader. And so I am going out into the years of retirement.

But alas, the kingship of Saul had not with it an ability to tune into the voice of God, and there was no one to speak into his life what the purposes of the Lord were. Samuel makes his bow. Here in the twelfth chapter it says, Nunc dimittis, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.

Mine eyes seemingly have seen your salvation, the desire of all Israel in this man. Samuel, no, this man will not be the desire of all Israel because he is not able to reproduce what you reproduced, a sensitive ear to the voice of God, and he'll go off on his own. And Samuel, three times you'll come back from your retirement and you'll speak to him, and the final will be posthumously when you'll be brought back from the grave to deliver a message of judgment to this man, this enigmatic Saul who just limps through his monarchy.

You see, the problem for Saul was the fading of Samuel and the resultant diminishing of the divine voice. And parallel with that was the increasing arrogance of Saul, his increasing arrogance. You know the noun arrogance? We have the verb, gives us the verb arrogate.

If you arrogate something to yourself, it means to say that you take that which really does not belong to you. Now you can do it in the material sense and that makes you a thief. You can do it in the spiritual sense and it can make you commit the sin of sacrilege.

You say, what do you mean? Well, you see, here is Samuel on one occasion, or rather Saul on one occasion. You read of him in the thirteenth chapter. And he decides that he will act as a priest.

Because Samuel has been so late coming on the scene, Saul will arrogate to himself, he will take to himself a position that is not his and he will offer sacrifice simply because of the delay of Samuel. Now this is arrogance. This is arrogance at its most naked.

It's the sort of thing that Saul will engage in time and time again. You see, the self-effacing humility that first seemed to have marked him when he heard the call of Samuel upon his life, it now no longer is present. Which seems to suggest to me it was a false humility in the first instance.

And he arrogates to himself responsibilities that were never his. Listen. The only people God sends away empty are those who are full of themselves.

Did you know that? The only people God sends away empty are those who are full of themselves. If you're full of yourself and you feel competent in a ministry to which you have been called, then God can do very little for you. The only people God sends away empty are those who are full of themselves.

In the sixteenth chapter you discover Saul engaged in exactly the same thing. He now bends the purposes of God. In the fifteenth chapter, I should have said, there's a man who's equivalent to the Hitler of his day, a man by the name of Agag, whose story Allah cannot detain us.

And he is brought before Saul. He should have been executed, but Saul has bent the regulations of God. And once more Samuel comes out of retirement, and he pinpoints Saul and charges him with trying to manipulate what the Lord himself has revealed.

And as a result of this, and the previous bout of disobedience, the kingship is taken away from Saul. And he is no longer in the sight of God, the leader of the nation. You see, the problem with Saul is this, that he feels he can cope.

If we can do anything of ourselves, the one thing we shall get from God is the opportunity to try. Did you hear that? If you think that you can cope with life on your own, then God will allow you the privilege of trying. But that's alien to the Christian ethic.

You see, a greater than Saul who bears his name says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And what you have in the Old Testament is the inversion of all that the apostle Paul came to learn and to stand for. And as Paul becomes a man who more and more understands himself, so paradoxically Saul becomes a man who leaves the moorings of understanding, and there along he finishes up as the absolute enigmatic man who cannot control himself, let alone his destiny or the well-being of his people.

There's a melancholia that grips Saul. The melancholy, unrelieved, depressed spirit of Saul is one of the most tragic things in the Old Testament. How were the mighty fallen when once the charismatically endued Saul finds himself in such a condition that it's said in the 14th verse of the 16th chapter, the spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him? Don't stumble at that verse.

You see, my friend, if you have an understanding of the doctrine of evil that seems to suggest that the devil is omnipotent and has declared so much war against God and has so much power that he can rival the sovereignty of God, then your understanding is unbiblical. If I take my bed in Hades, in hell, says the psalmist out there, you see, even evil spirits are not outside the control of God. That I do believe.

God allows within his permissive will some terrible effects as a result of the malevolent power of Satan in the world, but behind the power of Satan, behind the power of evil spirits, there is the sovereign supreme power of God who one day shall call Lucifer to book. But if you resist the spirit of God, it could well be the case that the spirit of God leaves from striving after you and an evil spirit can come and in some way infect your personality. Now, that was Paul's problem.

That was Saul's problem. The evil spirit. Now you say, this is all very spooky.

All right, well, it may seem to be so. And it may seem to be so ridiculous for a man claiming to be intelligent in the 20th century speaking of evil spirits. But you see, I've known something of that power for me to want to apologize for the Old Testament language.

I remember preaching out in North India some years ago to hundreds of Indian young people. One young man came to me and he was almost dying. He couldn't get his breath at all.

What was happening was this, every time I mentioned the name of Jesus, it was as though some invisible hands were placed upon his throat and were strangling him. He was a Muslim and he got himself mixed up in the occult. And some demonic power seemed to be adrift within his life.

Now I suggest to you that occasionally this is what happened to Saul. Sometimes it was dramatic, sometimes it was less dramatic. But within the melancholia of Saul was a depressive spirit that at times made him feel that even his closest friends were his worst enemies.

So he picks up his javelin and he would pinpoint David who's playing his harp to try in some way to calm, to soothe the ruffled spirits of Saul's psyche, of his temperament. You see, Saul was never a great man. Great men are not bothered about competition.

They don't even know their grandeur. And as a result of that, they're not aware of competitors. It's only the little men striving to be big that get concerned about those who might wrest the crown from their head.

And so you see Saul in this fit of melancholia. Until at one point, in a moment of honesty, in the 26th chapter and the 21st verse, he confesses to David who spared his life for the umpteenth occasion, I have played the fool. And no man ever wrote a more honest obituary than Saul did on his own life when he allowed those words to drop from his lips.

You see, what we're trying to do at this moment is just to show how it was that Saul, who started so well, now goes so low. There are certain steps, if you like. It seems to me that when you trace them through, that they bring you to the point where you say, this man, he's utterly enigmatic.

He doesn't understand himself. The fading of the divine voice, an increasing arrogance, this depressive melancholia from which he suffered, and ultimately the absolute estrangement. You will discover in the 35th verse of the 15th chapter that Samuel said that you will not see my face again.

Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for Saul. And when you move into the 26th chapter, you discover there references made to the death of Samuel, actually the 28th chapter and the 3rd verse. Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel mourned for him.

And none felt the loss of Samuel, even though the prophet had been incommunicado for years and Saul, because at least Samuel had promised the people that he would pray for the nation, though the consequences of the appointment of an evil king might go heavy on them. Samuel is dead, and when Saul prays to the God of heaven, it's as though the heavens are made of brass, and none will hear what he has to say. And Saul, who has, by his own confession, verse 3 of chapter 28, expelled the mediums and the spiritists from the land, now disguises himself, and he goes in front of a medium, in front of a woman, and he asks if she can somehow bring from the dead, age Samuel, so that Saul can take further stock of what Samuel has to say.

And here in this 28th chapter of 1 Samuel is the most incredible statement, or amongst the most incredible stories, of the whole of the Old Testament. Saul, speaking to Samuel, who within the purposes of God has been allowed to come back from the dead as a result of the use of the gifts of the medium. We'll be looking at that extraordinary incident in weeks to come.

But what you're left with is this. Saul, utterly estranged. You see, Samuel has indicated to Saul that all he had predicted about a man who is arrogant and disobedient, all that he has prophesied coming to pass, that now is a reality in Saul's life.

And as a result, verse 20, Saul fell full length on the ground, filled with fear because of Samuel's words. His strength was gone, for he had eaten nothing all the day and night. You see what I mean when I say that Saul presents to us the most enigmatic, the most puzzling figure almost in the whole of the Old Testament.

He reminds me not so much as a king, as as a sort of Hebrew equivalent to Humpty Dumpty. You know, he sat on the wall, and he had a great fall. All the king's horses, you don't often look serious at the moment, all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again.

A silly little nursery rhyme. Now let's make it serious. You see, Saul, he's fallen off the wall, and he's in pieces.

And this really must command the final few moments as we bring some concluding comments together. What has happened to our Saul? Well, listen again to the Puritan writer who I quoted at the head of the notes and news if you had time to read it earlier on today. If thou wilt fly from God, the devil will lend thee both spurs and a horse.

If thou wilt fly from God, the devil will lend thee both spurs and a horse. That's what happened to Saul. He sped away from the Lord.

This man of whom it could be said at the beginning it looked so good, physically endued, charismatically gifted, a magnetic personality who brings within the number of those who would serve him some very, very loyal men indeed. And yet this man for whom things looked so well at the beginning is now in the company of a muttering witch. And ere long he's prostrate on the ground.

He's a broken man. He's broken spiritually. He's broken emotionally.

He's broken psychologically. The enigma of Saul. Now there are a couple of things that we can learn.

You see, though this case is severe and you'll not identify with it only a little bit in certain principles. Those of you who fail to understand yourself can at least learn from Saul. You see, as the way down for him we have tabulated, so the way up is climbing back those steps down which he tumbled as this sort of Hebrew Humpty Dumpty.

You see, you find him in a place of absolute estrangement. Put that in New Testament language, without God and without hope in the world. Now if you're in that condition, you're in a very sorry condition.

But you see, Jesus Christ who is referred to in Haggai's prophecy as being the desire of all Israel. That expression that Samuel almost seemed to use with a tinge of irony when first he encounters Saul. This is the description of Jesus Christ.

He is the desire of all Israel. He is the desire of all nations. And he comes to speak the word to those who are estranged.

To those who are without God and without hope. And men who feel to be totally enigmatic ought to be pointed to him. Because he has come to reveal to them a way out of the morass of the circumstances into which they have slipped.

And the depressive condition in which Saul found himself and so many people who are enigmatic can be lifted by the desire of Israel who came into the world and he said my peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives give I unto you. The only peace that Saul had known for donkey's years was when David came along and with those nimble fingers he plucked the strings of the harp and from his lovely voice came forth those old fashioned Hebrew hymns.

And there was a moment of respite. All that Saul should have known was just given to him a teaspoonful when he should have had a bucket. Just a cupful when he should have had an ocean.

And here is our blessed Lord and he comes into the world and he addresses Saul's. He addresses those who are enigmatic and he says my peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives give I unto you.

Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid. Ye believe in God believe also in me. These words that fall from the lips of the healing Christ are directed to the souls who are enigmatic.

These people who want to know what life is about and perhaps even more particularly who they are and what it is that's gone wrong in their lives. The desire of all Israel. The king of kings.

The one that God had in store to send to Israel as its grandest and greatest monarch. He speaks his word to the 20th century through the Christ and the miracle of the inspiration of scripture and he lifts the melancholia. And as a result he causes your arrogance to stagnate.

I cannot be an arrogant man when I recognize all that God in Christ has done for me. A worm I am and no man of myself. I have no abilities at all.

But glory be to God when he directs me to his gospel and he brings me to the foot of the old rugged cross. He opens my heart and he gives me a new spirit and a new understanding and he makes me an absolutely unique creature. Unique inasmuch as he gives to me the gift of salvation and I become made like unto his son.

Partaker of his nature. Now you see that was the way back. The way back from the steps down which Saul had fallen until ultimately you find yourself at the top step.

Saul was a man who at one stage had the word of God spoken into his life by Samuel. And those who have been brought back to God through serving faith in Jesus Christ have the word of God spoken into their lives through the gospel message inscripturated in this book and by those who are called to proclaim it. That's why it's so very important that you sit under the sound of a biblical ministry.

I don't say necessarily my ministry. But if you have not a man of God who is speaking into your lives then no wonder so often you become an enigmatic person. For God will speak to you today as he spoke to the Israelites in years gone by.

And if he should lift his voice from you as he lifted his voice from them then your case will be most lamentable. If you're so foolish as never to come in front of a prophetic ministry and hear the word of God expounded then no wonder sometimes you gravel almost like Saul beneath the influence of some muttering witch. You see then my friend, I'm more or less through.

You perhaps thought at the beginning of my study that this man Saul had got nothing to say to you. He's a great deal. You can learn by default the defects of his life.

You can see here a man who started well and yet never really tuned into the voice of God and responded from the depths of his being. A man who whenever he addressed Samuel and spoke to God always referred to God as Samuel's God, never as his own. Because he never entered into what we would call in the New Testament a saving faith in the living purposes of God in his life.

Now away from us, be banished the Saul mentality and by the gift of the grace of God may he achieve within our hearts what he achieved in the life of the man who bore the name of Saul in the New Testament even Paul the illustrious apostle. Widen our hearts and fill us with his spirit and enable us to go on to live for him, to conquer and to conquest until the day comes when we don't fall groveling in front of a witch or killed as a result of spearing ourselves with our own javelin or sword. But when the day comes, when at the end of our lives we step from this world to the next into the presence of Almighty God and there to praise the God who loved us and the Son of God who saved us and to know an even greater indwelling of the Holy Spirit who at this moment fills us.

My friend, let the enigma of Saul speak positively to your life as you see through him an example of a man that you'll never follow, not in one example. Amen. Let's conclude by singing 3, 2, 8 My faith looks up to thee Thou Lamb of Calvary Saviour Divine My faith looks up to thee Thou Lamb of Calvary Saviour Divine Thou hear me while I pray Take all my fears away O let me from this day Be only Thine Face with love, strength to my faith Because Thine is the answer As Thou hast died for me O give my love to Thee No hope can change this Keep the living God Some days my trembling Surround me, spread Fear of my heart In darkness come today While in sorrows fill the way O let me ever stray O lead me not astray As Thou hast led me When death comes on its way Shall all be home Let the Saviour, let Him come He and His love bring home O let me stay in Thy love And let me trust in Thy love And for that great hope at the end of our journey we give you, Father, our grateful thanks We look to death not as something that frightens us, but through the grave to the resurrection side Bearing in mind always and ever the great ministry and victory of our Lord Jesus Now we bring to you the families of those of our numbers who you have called into your service, into your immediate presence during these past days Be with Mrs. Brown, be with Valerie and Graham, we ask of you and bless them as a family and make them one in the gospel And for Mrs. Catamals' adult sons, we likewise commit them to you and to your grace And others, Lord, who are at the verge of Jordan, be with them and bless them