I was given the opportunity to speak at my church's Young Adults Retreat on the topic of idolatry. A transcript of the sermon is posted below. It is based on 1 Samuel 23.
The
Problem with Jesus + Idols
A sermon on 1 Samuel 23
To be delivered on 5th July 2013, Grace Baptist Church Young Adults Retreat
This story of Saul and David may be familiar to some of you. The
context of today’s passage lies in the awkward “in-between” reign of Saul, the
current king and David, the king-elect. We enjoy this passage a lot because a
lot of things about David fascinate us. For example, in 1 Samuel 16 we read
about how the prophet Samuel went to the house of Jesse to look for the
king-elect after Saul’s kingdom had been rejected because he disobeyed God and
one by one, David’s brothers passed by but God said “No, not this one.” until
David, the youngest one was brought back from the fields where he had been
shepherding and God said to Samuel, “Arise, anoint
him, this is he.” Then in the next chapter in 1 Samuel 17, we read how
David triumphed against the mighty Goliath, with three stones. In this chapter
we find that this time it is not an enemy from outside of Israel that he should
be worried about but the king of Israel himself, Saul and we see how God
protects David from Saul.
Today however, we will focus not so much on David, but on Saul. I am
personally, convinced that the actions of Saul in this chapter have much to say
to us on the topic of Idolatry. Today, I am not going to ask whether you are
idolatrous or not. I assume you have one. Lest, you think that I am judging
you, I include myself in this category. The word of God however is powerful
enough to help us identify these things and it is to the word of God that we
must submit.
The problem with Saul’s idolatry is that on the surface he looks
like he is worshipping God! I invite your attention to two particular verses in
this very chapter. 1 Samuel 23:7 reads for us “Now it
was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, “God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in
by entering a town that has gates and bars.” On the surface it looks
like Saul’s inclination is still towards God. How did Saul get it so wrong? And
he didn’t do it just once. Once again we read in 1 Samuel 23:19-21: “Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is not
David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah,
which is south of Jeshimon? 20 Now come down,
O king, according to all your heart's desire to come down, and our part
shall be to surrender him into the king's hand.” 21 And
Saul said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, for you have had
compassion on me.””
The sermon today will
largely revolve around these two verses in the chapter. I made us read the
whole chapter so that we can see the whole context. I have included for us in
the retreat booklet the outline of today’s sermon and we shall thus approach
the first point of today’s text - Our Idolatry determines how we interpret God
and reality.
Our Idolatry determines how we interpret God and reality
“God has given him into my hand”. Or at least that is what Saul
thinks. Saul was coveting the kingdom of Israel so much. He was not interested
at all in God or what God would do. God was an agent or an instrument to get
and obtain the things he wants. In fact, there is a verse in the New Testament
that describes him perfectly. Many of us are familiar with the miracle of the feeding
of the five thousand that Jesus performed but that story had a very sad ending!
Because after that miracle, Jesus acquired followers who are not so much
interested in being his disciples but the bread that he gives. In John 6:26 we
read that Jesus said to these people: “Truly, truly, I
say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you
ate your fill of the loaves.”
The problem however is how this covetousness and desire for the
kingdom translates into Saul’s everyday life. He started seeing the signs he
wanted to see. When David entered the doomed town of Keilah, in order to fight
the Philistines, Saul is essentially saying in his heart “Wow, God is so good.
He has given me exactly what I wanted.”
The problem with a Jesus + Idols approach to life is that we are not
unlike Saul at all in the way we see God and reality. Like Saul, our God is
indeed the one true God. We start our prayers with “Our Father” and end it with
“In Jesus name” but what of the stuff in between? There were too many occasions
in my own life when the stuff in between “Our Father” and “In Jesus name” was
just my idolatry, my covetousness and the things I want. And then I look at
reality and say, “Man, David is in Keilah!”, and praise God that my prayer has
been answered -only to end up looking incredibly foolish.
And that was exactly what happened to Saul. Note here in 1 Samuel
23:14: “And David remained in the strongholds of the
wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him
into his hand.”
Friends, you can be like Saul. You can pray and pray every day with
a fervor that many people may struggle to match. Every day Saul sought David. I
wonder if he accompanied his actions with prayer. Let us keep this pursuing
David thing in prayer because hey, we’re not supposed to trust in our own
strength right? Or maybe he quoted Phillipians 4:13 and posted it on whatever
was his facebook in those days – “I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me”.
At this point it is worthy to mention that God is not pleased at all
with idolatrous prayers, no matter how fervently they are offered. Does it
shock you that God can get angry with certain prayers? Well it really
shouldn’t. Psalms 80:4 reads for us: “O Lord God of
hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?”
And why were those prayers anger stirring? Simply because they were
nothing short of idolatrous.
God’s wrath against all those who are idolatrous is clearly written
down for us in the second commandment. Exodus 20:4-6 reads for us: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any
likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or
serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who
hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep
my commandments.”
In his heart, though he
calls him God, his heart has set up an image – and this image is one that will
give him and consolidate for him, the kingdom of Israel.
What images have we been
worshipping? An image who gives us stellar academic results? An image who gives
us good jobs? Or maybe an image that doesn’t take sin seriously – that’s always
a popular one?
The way Saul sees reality
and the way sees God is completely off because of his idolatry. Brothers and
sisters, lest we think we are different from Saul, I invite us to re-evaluate
our lives. What is the reason why God means anything to us at all? Your reality
could be your own crafting, your own construction, your own perspective, your
own imagination and because of this God is your own crafting, your own
construction, and when God becomes your own IMAGINATION – you have worshipped
an image.
Our Idolatry confuses God’s purposes with our purposes & confuses our purposes with God’s purposes
The second outline is in fact a little bit related to the first one.
It is in fact a subset of the first one but a detailed explanation of this
point is needed and we must give it the attention it deserves.
At this point in Israel’s history Saul is hopelessly, hopelessly
confused. As soon as David set foot into the town of Keilah it triggers all the
wrong signals in Saul. God has answered my prayer Saul said. God is such a good
God, Saul said. God is all worthy of praise and honor and glory SIMPLY BECAUSE
David has stepped into Keilah. Of all the towns he could have gone to, he
stepped into Keilah, the town which has gates and bars. God is such a good God;
he has sent David into the place where he cannot get out. Praise the Lord for
answering my prayer - “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Does this sound like us?
Why did David enter into Keilah? In 1 Samuel 23:1-3 we read: “Now they told David, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting
against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors.” Therefore David inquired
of the LORD, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” And the LORD said to
David, “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.”
The Philistines are enemies of Israel. Remember Goliath he was a
Philistine. Throughout Israel’s history fighting against the Philistines was
common. They represented the remnant of the land the Promised Land that Joshua
did not fully conquer. After Moses had guided the nation of Israel out of
Egypt, his leadership of the nation was then given over to Joshua who
accomplished all these amazing victories for the nation of Israel in the
Promised Land that they were conquering.
But, and this but is important, the Philistines were not defeated
under Joshua. To understand this, you must read Joshua 13:1-2: “Now Joshua was
old and advanced in years, and the Lord said to him, “You
are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to possess.
2 This is the land that yet remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and
all those of the Geshurites …” and then he goes on to list down a few
others which in the interest of time, I will not go into. The point is however
the conquest of the promise land was not completed under Joshua. And the
Philistines remained very much a part of the incomplete. That’s why you have
Samson fighting against them, and you have Saul fighting against them and you
have David fighting against them and so on.
David was doing the rightful thing by fighting the Philistines. It
was the job that ironically Saul as the king of Israel was supposed to do! Here
we see the king of Israel, was not interested anymore in leading the nation
against their rightful purpose, God’s purpose for the nation but have
completely succumbed to his own desire and his own purpose and thinking that
this is God’s purpose.
God’s intended purpose for Israel in the Promised Land was to
conquer it and defeat the Philistines who were worshipping other forms of gods.
As the nation that worships the true God, god’s glory will be displayed when it
is proven that the false god, Dagon, will be proved to be nothing more than an
image.
Saul however thinks that it is God’s purpose for his kingdom to be
retained. Even worse, he went directly against the one man who was doing a
pretty good job of obeying God’s intended purpose for Israel.
How does that look like today? We know that in this period we live
in, in between the worlds, God’s purpose is for His kingdom, not Israel’s
kingdom, to come on earth as it is in heaven. God is in the business of
redeeming His people, of rescuing sinners, of giving to them the knowledge of
Him to fear Him and know Him, of purifying sinners and sanctifying them from
one degree of holiness to another so that all may be in Christ-like.
How does our purpose square up with God’s? While our David, that is
Jesus Christ, is saving our Keilah’s from the Philistines, that is saving
sinners from their sins and themselves, are we like Saul, caught up so much in
our own purposes and making and twisting and bending God to our wills.
The sort of idolatry we indulge in is so dangerous because it wears
the mask of Christianity. I use the word mask, because it uses the Christian
Bible, the disciplines of prayer, the service, the worship, the fellowship but
all of that hopelessly caught in our own purposes while many, many Keilahs are
saved because Jesus Christ is so faithful and it passes us by. We are not aware
at all of what is happening. The things that get us out of bed are our
idolatries and not the business of saving Keilah.
What is Saul’s crisis? Please turn with me to 2 Kings 17:41. It
describes a group of people. In the interest of time, I have no time to explain
this whole story to you. But it ends of with this chilling verse: “So these nations feared the Lord and also served
their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children's
children—as their fathers did, so they do to this day.”
Most of you, I assume, are Christians. You are here, to discover the
Lord so I assume you do fear the Lord. But while you are serving God, what else
are you also serving side by side with your worship of the Lord? There are two
ways you may distinguish yourself from the world outside. That is you worship
the Lord your God, while they do not. The other way of distinguishing yourself
is that you are exactly the same as the world outside, but you also fear the
Lord. I don’t think I need to explain which one is the incorrect one.
How do we get out of this trap?
At this point in time, you are going to ask
me how do I get out of this. Some of the images you have been worshipping have
been with you for so long. How do I get rid of them?
My answer? On your own, you can’t. You have
to work at it definitely, but you require a divine work before you can even
succeed at it.
The last Scripture reference for today
reads from Ezekiel 37:23:
“They shall
not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable
things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all
the backslidings[a] in which
they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and
I will be their God.”
As with anything that concerns salvation,
it belongs to God. It is to Him that we should plead for mercy. It is God
himself who can get us out of the trouble we have gotten ourselves into.
Let us pray.
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