WTFMT 76 (FROM HGM ON 23 JUN)

WILDERNESS TRUTHS FOR MODERN TIMES-76

TEXT:  "And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever."  (I Samuel 13:13)

         

 I.  DEFEAT

 

     A.  Saul defeated himself with his foolish self-centeredness.  He lost that which he so desperately tried to preserve, his kingdom. 

         "But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee."  (I Samuel 13:14)

 

     B.  The reason or foundation for Saul's ignorance and for God's silence was his persistent disobedience in the face of clear revelation.  Saul was putting a distance between himself and God.  God "honored" that distance and withdrew from Saul as if Saul's own desire or request.

 

     C.  When this happens that which God brought to Saul initially was also withdrawn.  The kingdom and his finally life itself were withdrawn from Saul; he lost both.  He moved backward into the Wilderness of Bethaven in its meaning and spiritual significance.

 

     D.  Saul's consequence cannot be avoided in a life which constantly, knowingly, and willingly moves in the direction away for God.  The life is away from the Spirit of God, His leading, and conviction. 

 

     E.  There is no longer the touch of God upon the that life.  No longer is victory found in God.  The revelation which is in God is no longer available.  The inheritance belonging to that life is lost.  The person loses everything that God has provided for him.

 

     F.  Bethaven is a point of focus in this scene of Saul and the Philistine.

         "And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea shore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Bethaven."  (I Samuel 13:5)  Bethaven being in the picture helps us to see what is going on under the surface of things.

     

     G.  Once the clue is found and understood, its thread can clearly be traced through the whole story.  Then, it is easy to see Saul in his deteriorating direction.  Then understanding is clear as how he got himself into the position where God did not answer him, and consequently, why he searched for and communicated with the witch of Endor. 

 

     H.  We can see Saul's heart condition.  It is not because the Bibles states it, but because Saul's own words and actions displays it.  Often, things like the loss of a kingdom and loss of life, are blamed upon some condition relating to God's doing.  But we see and know that it was Saul's condition which causes the loss.

 

     I.  Disobedience and sin are also related to Bethaven and Ai in Joshua, chapter seven.  So we see, this particular moving is not found only in one isolated story.  You can read it in Saul; you can read it in Judas.  You can read it in lives today.  You can see it in Ai.     

         "And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai. ⁴ So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai. ¹¹ Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff."  (Joshua 7:2,4,11)

II.   PARTING THOUGHTS

      A.  The reason for Israel's defeat by the men of Ai was disobedience and sin.  God declared that Israel had moved contrary to His word.  The sin was committed in the face of clear revelation, willingly, and knowingly.  There was no excuse for it.  Joshua was very explicit in communicating to the people that nothing from Jericho was to be taken for personal possession.

          "And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD."  (Joshua 6:18-19)

    B.  Israel's first test in the Promised Land at Jericho they fail, but the failure was not seen until Ai.  Any time we are disobedience to God we are moving backward.  We are not moving forward and we are not standing still. 

     C.  Any time we are moving in disharmony with God in disobedience to what we know to be right, that is sin.  That does not bring us into any forward progress; that brings us into regression in God.  We are moving and living in the Wilderness of Bethaven.  We are leaving; we are not going anywhere.  And this, as it continues, brings us into what is called a backslidden state.  And finally it brings us into death.