The Perils of An Unanointed Shield
2 Samuel 1:17-27 KJV And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son: [18] (Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.) [19] The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen! [20] Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. [21] Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil. [22] From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty. [23] Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. [24] Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel. [25] How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places. [26] I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. [27] How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!
NOTE: AT THE READING OF THIS TEXT, THE FOCUS IS VERSE 21. READ THIS ALOUD WITHOUT THE ITALICS THAT WERE INSERTED BY THE TRANSLATORS.
l. INTRODUCTION – TIME HAS A WAY OF TELLING
Yesterday (3/20/04), I found an interesting article in the USA Today weekend edition in the lobby of the Ramada Limited in Mobile. It told a story, in fact on the front page, about a journalist named Jack Kelley who had been employed by USA Today for ten years. He had written 720 stories over the course of a decade. In an extensive investigation of these stories, 100 of them have been found to be full of sweeping and substantial fabrications.
The evidence strongly contradicted Kelley’s published accounts that he spent a night with Egyptian terrorists in 1997; that he met a vigilante Jewish settler named Avi Shapiro in 2001; that he watched a Pakistani student unfold a picture of the Sears tower and say, “This one is mine,” in 2001; that he visited a suspected terrorist crossing point on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in 2002; that he interviewed the daughter of an Iraqi general in 2003; or that he went on a high-speed hunt for Osama bin Laden in 2003.
Significant parts of one of Kelley’s most gripping stories, an eyewitness account of a suicide bombing that helped make him a 2001 Pulitzer Prize finalist, are untrue. Kelley told readers he saw the bomber. But the man he described could not have been the bomber.
But the story that got him into this mess was one from 2000. He used a snapshot he took of a Cuban hotel worker to authenticate a story he made up about a woman who died fleeing Cuba by boat. The woman in the photo neither fled by boat nor died, and a USA Today reporter located her this month. If Cuban authorities had learned she was the woman in the picture, she says, she could have lost her job and her chance to emigrate.
Now there are investigators within USA Today who are looking to see if one of their greatest writers did not frequently rely on embellishment and fabricated stories that arose somewhere in his own imagination. Kelley resigned in January 2004 after he admitted conspiring with a translator to mislead editors overseeing an inquiry into his work.
-What would cause a man to rely on such self-deception? Why would a man bargain away his talent and education on such a foolish idea?
Thomas Watson on Self-deception – “A sinner is well conceited of himself while he dresses himself by the flattering mirror of presumption. But if he knew how loathsome and disfigured he was in God’s eye, he would abhor himself.”
ll. THE LIFE OF SAUL
1. The Background of the Text
-Israel begin to send up it’s voice for a king as the other nations had. God supplied them one, although it was against His will for Israel to be ruled in such a manner.
-Saul, the man who stood head and shoulders above all the men of Israel, the son of Cush, of the tribe of Benjamin, was anointed by Samuel to be the king of Israel.
-At that anointing there was such power and humility that marked his life. He surely felt that he was very unworthy to serve in such a capacity as this. But after that, Saul began an downward spiral and starting a spiritual regression.
-Why did Saul become a statistic?
• Because his life was marked by disobedience (saved Agag when he had been commanded to slay him).
• Because his life was marked by rebellion (offered sacrifices before Samuel had arrived).
• Because of his unbridled hatred (for David).
• Because of his murderous rage (he murdered a company of priests at Nob).
• Because of his leanings toward apostasy (he consulted the witch of Endor for spiritual direction).
• Because he neglected to anoint his shield.
-Now there was a storm that was gathering. Because of Israel’s spiritual decay, the Philistines were looking across their borders to take advantage of them.
2. The Unanointed Shield
-Saul’s last battle was fought after he had consulted the witch of Endor. His final hours were spent in misery because God had cut him off and the old prophet, Samuel (his voice from God), was now dead. In his longing to talk with God, he consulted the witch of Endor in hopes that she could bring the old prophet back to him.
-Saul seeking counsel from such a voice gives light as to his spiritual condition. When men lose their faith in God then they start looking for any substitute voice they can find to convey to them some thought, some purpose, or some direction to take their lives.
-The spiritual direction of Saul’s life had now caused him to seek after the very thing that he could not have. When we abuse mercy and when we slight the privileges of God, in the course of time, they will be withdrawn by God.
-At that point, abused mercy and slighted privileges of God will be the thing that we desire the most and they will be unavailable to you. It is extremely important that we protect the voice of God that speaks individually to each man.
-When Samuel had been alive, his counsel was treated with contempt by Saul but when Samuel could no longer be entreated, the man who grieved him the most was the most anxious to do anything he could to get that voice back again.
-A guilty conscience is one that fills the soul with phantoms that have tongues of evil. The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a soul. Conscience speaks in whispers; but if it is unheeded, its whispers echo quickly back from the close walls of the dark prison of the soul. Then those whispers becomes like the rolling of thunder.
-The conscience may be as small as the tiniest earthworm, but when it is contradicted and fought against, it becomes a great stinging serpent that will allow no rest, no peace, and no comfort.
-Saul at the witch’s cave at Endor:
• This is the cry of a soul consciously deserted by God.
• This is the cry of a soul profoundly convinced of the value of a prophet’s voice.
• This is the cry of a soul who now only can hear the voice of delusions.
• This is the cry of a soul plunging into the depths of despair.
-A large Philistine invasion was gathering force to face Saul and his men.
-During Saul’s reign, he had fought twelve wars:
• One with the Ammonites.
• Seven with the Philistines.
• One with the Edomites.
• One with the Moabites.
• One with the Syrians.
• One with the Amalekites.
-What was it that made his last battle so crucial? Eleven times earlier he had gone to battles and had returned mostly victorious. There had been some losses but the progress made in these wars overcame the losses.
-But all hope had abandoned the Saul’s soul. When a man loses hope, he loses himself. A soul losing hope is like a mountain traveler descending some mountain side. The sun is setting behind him and at every step down, he moves further into the shadow. The shadow gets longer and it gets blacker until at last the traveler is shrouded in midnight darkness and with his path hidden, his way is lost and he tumbles over some rocky cliff.
3. The Anatomy of a Failure
-The thing that pulled the lifeblood from Saul is given to us. The clue is found within 2 Samuel 1:21. The Bible declares there that his shield had not been anointed with oil.
-No soldier treats his weapons with disrespect because it is through his own careful attention to detail that sustains him during the fight. That is what Saul failed to do in this most crucial hour leading up to this battle.
-The failure had occurred before the battle had ever been fought. It came through the haphazard neglect of his shield.
A. The Shield
-History bears out that the shield was of extreme importance. Ancient shields were made mostly of stout leather or of several layers of leather that were stretched over a frame or rim of wood. It was necessary to rub them with oil so that the leather would remain supple which prevented it from hardening and cracking.
-If a shield was allowed to become friable and weak, an arrow or a spear could easily pierce through the leather. This could heighten the liabilities against the soldier.
-The treatment of oil was particularly important immediately prior to the soldier entering a battle.
-What is the shield to a soldier in battle?
• It is not a strength in a calamity–But–It is something that prevents the calamity from occurring.
• My strength is my power to bear–But–My shield is my escape from bearing.
• My strength lifts me when the blow falls–But–My shield catches the blow before it falls.
• My strength supports what it is–But–My shield wards off what might have been.
• I have often praised God for the strength–But–I have rarely thanked Him for the shield.
• I have often used my shield against temptation, rebellion, disobedience, and all sorts of other evils–Therefore–I must never forget to keep my shield anointed.
-Rest assured that somewhere in my future and in your future is a carefully laid trap. That trapper of our souls would love to trap and destroy us just as he did with Saul. We cannot afford to die on a spiritual battlefield because of an un-anointed shield.
lll. CONCLUSION – THE DECEIT OF SELF-DECEPTION
-The following was written by Thomas Watson (an old Puritan) about the nature of self-deception:
He who takes copper instead of gold, wrongs himself; the most counterfeit saint deceives others while he lives, but deceives himself when he dies. To pretend to holiness when there is none is a vain thing. What were the foolish virgins better for their blazing lamps, when they wanted oil? What is the lamp of profession without the oil of saving grace? What comfort will a show of holiness yield at last? Will painted gold enrich? Painted wine refresh him that is thirsty? Or painted holiness be a cordial at the hour of death? A pretense of sanctification is not to be rested in. Many ships, have been cast away upon the rocks; so, many who have had the name saints, have been cast into hell.
-There has to be a fresh anointing every time that we go into battle. We cannot wait until we are in the fight to decide then that we need a fresh anointing, it must come prior to the battle. We cannot live on an anointing of the past.
Philip Harrelson
barnabas14@yahoo.com
