Pulling Back The Curtain

 “Pulling Back The Curtain”

 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sunday, Aug 24, 2014

Text: I Samuel 28 // Series: Games & Thrones: I Samuel

On August 25, 1939, Metro Goldwyn Mayer studios released a movie that would go on to become the most watched film in history. 

The film cost an estimated 2.7 million dollars to make – they paid the dog on the set $125 per week on the set.  On opening weekend, it made 5.4 million and has since gone on to gross over 22 million around the globe translated into multiple languages, re-leased and re-released.

It launched the career of a young actress named Judy Garland who would go on to become a household name. And its title song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was ranked #1 by the American Film Institute on the list of 100 greatest songs in American film.

Have you guessed which film it is? That’s right, the original Wizard of Oz.    

Now my personal favorite sequence in the movie is the scene where they return to the Emerald city for a second time to visit the wizard.  Do you remember this?  There’s lots of smoke and it appears amazing and supernatural… But then Toto pulls aside the curtain to reveal an old man pulling levers and speaking into a microphone.  The so-called wizard. Instead of being the great and powerful Oz, turns out to be an illusion.  A fake.  There’s nothing supernatural about him.  He’s just a sorry and sad old man.  Do you remember his name?  It’s not mentioned in the movie but in the original book, his name is “Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs”.  Here’s an illustration from 1900.  I’m pretty sure this where we get the iconic phrase “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” because you won’t remember his name J.    

Perhaps without realizing it, for many people in our culture, Oscar Zoroaster, The Wizard of Oz for short, has become their mental picture and operational template when it comes to dealing with all things super-natural.  For some people, the explanation for the supernatural is just a man behind the curtain.      

How many of you watched the TV series Cosmos that was just released this spring?  In it, noted scientist Neil Degrass Tyson suggests that anything that we can’t explain is just superstitious religious people trying to maintain power and control and that as science continues to develop and we fain new understandings, everything from miracles to angelic beings will have a fully naturalistic explanation.  Some people suggest that what we experience as supernatural we will someday find out to be nothing more than a man behind a curtain pulling levers and speaking into a microphone.

But belief in something more than we can see with our eyes and touch with our hands is persistent and universal and cannot be eradicated no matter how hard we try.  Whatever your believe structures or your present location, all of us have likely brushed up against the super natural in some way, shape or form.    (examples – birth of a child; death of a loved one – asking is this life all there is?  Miraculous experiences of protection from accidents, people who pray believe God is listening or speaking to them in the Bible.  These are places where the veil between the supernatural realm and the natural realm become thin and it is as if earth is touching heaven.   

The Famous military general and Napoleon Bonaparte once said “We are born, we live, we die among [the] supernatural.”

Perhaps more appropriate for this time of year here in Langley, poet and author Elizabeth Barret Browing famously said “Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes - The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.”  

Well this morning, we are going to see a powerful example of the reality of the supernatural in the book of I Samuel where we have been exploring this summer in our Games and Thrones teaching series in the Old Testament in the Bible.

This is our second to last weekend and we are almost finished the book of I Samuel.  You can find this on page ___ in the brown Bibles.  We have traced the stories of two kings – Israel’s first king, Saul, and the second not-yet-king, David.  And today, the natural fades into the background and the super-natural comes to the forefront. 

In our study so far, we’ve seen that Saul becomes king, anointed by the prophet Samuel, But we see a pattern of disobedience to the point where the prophet Samuel declares in I Sam chapter 15 that God has left Saul, has torn away his kingdom and throne and given it to another person – that person who is ascending to the throne is David. 

Throughout the book of I Samuel, we see David – plucked from obscurity herding sheep in the backcountry, to slaying the Giant Philistine Goliath, to his prominence as Israel’s #1 soldier of whom the people sing “Saul has slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands”.  But because of Saul’s jealousy, David is driven out and hunted down.  He is forced to live in the caves in the dessert…  But here in I Samuel 28, things are shifting for Saul.  Let’s pick up the story in I Samuel 28:3 – some of the key verses will come up on the side screens but you’ll want to open your Bibles or the YouVersion app on your smart phone and follow along.  If you have a Brown Bible, which I’ll be reading from, this is on page ____. 

Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in his own town of Ramah. Saul had expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land.

Props to Saul.  Here he has done something that God had instructed in Deuteronomy 18:11 & Leviticus 20:6,27 God has strictly forbidden people to consult with mediums or spiritists – these are people who communicate with the spirit realm.  The reason for this is that God wants His people to communicate with Him and depend and rely on Him as opposed to consorting with evil spirits.  Let’s keep reading…   

“The Philistines assembled and came and set up camp at Shunem,(G) while Saul gathered all Israel and set up camp at Gilboa.(H) 5 When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror(I) filled his heart. 6 He inquired(J) of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim (this was through the priests – but remember, Saul had killed most of the priests in chapter 22 already so I’m not so sure that any remaining ones were keen to help him inquire of the Lord what to do in this situation!) or prophets.”  We begin to see that this is a portrait of a desperate man.  Saul’s inquiry of the Lord is not prompted by piety, but by panic.  He is frantic with fear, he can’t get an answer on what to do from God so he is willing to take drastic measures to find out about the future.  Let’s see where Saul turns for help and advice… 

“Saul then said to his attendants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.”  “There is one in Endor,” they said.

Just pause for a moment to think of the irony here… We have a king who is asking for something illegal punishable by death – Saul himself had passed a law getting rid of all of the mediums in the land – and yet he says to his men “find me a lady who can speak with the spirits” AND they say without any hesitation “no problem, boss.  There’s one only 17 miles from here!”  Clearly Saul was not as effective in getting rid of them as God wanted him to be.  The lawmaker is about to become the law-breaker.   

“So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman.”  Now, here’s another indication how desperate this guy is for spiritual input in his life.  In order to reach Endor from his current position, Saul has to sneak behind enemy lines.  The entire Philistine army lies between him and his desired destination but he is so desperate, that he is willing to take the risk.  He disguises himself, travels with only two companions and sets out to have a spiritual encounter.  The risk is incredible, which means the desperation is high.  We are often willing to do incredibly risky and foolish things when we think our options are limited.  Follow along in your Bible as I READ I Samuel 28:9-14 and we’ll see what happens…

V 9 – she’s a smart businesswomen – she needs to assess risk, make sure she is not the victim of an undercover government sting operation. 

V 10 – You can just feel the irony here.  Saul, who has been forsaken by God making an oath in the name of the Lord whom he has forsaken, to a medium who is working for the other team!!

V 12 – She screams…  not only has she put two and two together & figured out that her night visitor in the natural realm is King Saul, but more surprisingly for her, their visitor from the supernatural realm is none other than Samuel!  And I think from the tone of the text and the surprise of the medium, this really was Samuel and not merely some apparition.  This is outside of her usual experiences of the magic arts… And here I think it is important for us to note that the medium did not conjure Samuel up.  In this situation, God allowed Samuel to appear to Saul to send him a message.

PAINTING 28:I3  see a ghostly figure coming up from the earth

Slide: I Samuel 28:15 - “Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” “I am in great distress,” Saul said. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has departed from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do.”

Samuel is almost comical – “can’t you let a guy Rest In Peace, Saul”  Death hasn’t mellowed him – his is still cantankerous, curt.  And Saul is about to finally gets the information about his future that he asked for.  But it is NOT good news.  Samuel continues in I Samuel 28:16-20:

“Samuel said, “Why do you consult me, now that the Lord has departed from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done what he predicted through me. The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbors—to David.  Because you did not obey the Lord or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this to you today. The Lord will deliver both Israel and you into the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me.”

By which Samuel means “you and your sons will join me in death”.

The Lord will bring the entire army of Israel down in defeat.  And if we flip over the page to the story of the battle the next day which is in I Sam 31, we see that Samuel’s prophetic word comes to full fruition.  Saul’s three sons are killed, Saul is mortally wounded by an archer’s arrow and then he takes his own life by falling on his sword. 

But when Samuel speaks this word out, Saul, who has already been overcome by fear, is now paralyzed with fright.  You get this sense from another one of the paintings by classical artists who depict the scene. This painting by Rosa is hanging in the Louvre in Paris, France.  (Read 20-25)

There’s yet another level of irony to the ending of this story.  At the end of the day, Saul obeys the voice of the women and his servants but he does not heed the voice of God.  And so the woman kills a calf and sets out a feast fit for a king.  But it is a king going to his death.  This may well be the last meal Saul ate in his natural life.  And the ironic thing is that Saul already in many ways knew what the future held before he sought out his nightly visitor…  In chapter 15, Samuel had already told Saul that the kingdom was going to be taken away from him.  But Saul refused to listen.  It’s a sad and somewhat frightening story and in some ways, that is the point.  The writer is inviting us to think about and sort through     

What are we to make of all of this? The first thing that we can say is  

1. Though we can interact with and influence the supernatural, we dare not believe we can control or manipulate it to our own ends.

Just like Saul, people in our day and time want to access information about the future or the past.  They are seeking knowledge.  They want to get access to what is behind the curtain.  There are a few different ways that people can and do go about this…

Divination = seeking knowledge (via supernatural means)

Magic = attempt to produce effects (sorcery, voodoo, placing curses)

Necromancy = consultation with the dead

The real danger here is that we are dabbling in something that we in the natural realm cannot and do not control.  God is no like a puppet that we can control or manipulate with our prayers.  That’s why we sang earlier about His majesty and grandeur and power and love and wonder…  He is the Creator of the whole universe and we dare not think that with some kind of incantation that we can make him do what we want. 

The same is true for those who seek knowledge or attempt to produce an effect by means of an evil spirit.  We dare not believe for one minute that we can control or manipulate the spiritual realm to our own ends.  

Peter Ash and I experienced this during our time in East Africa three years ago.  In Tanzania, they are so much more deeply aware of and engaged in the spiritual realm than we are here in North America.  I can remember driving out into the very heart of a region known for witch doctors – in a place the geographic size of Langley there were 1200 of them! And we were going to show a film that exposed their work as demonic and fraudulent and evil.  And they obviously were not happy about it.  And we had been told that the witch doctors were casting spells to make it rain that night so that we would not be able to show the film on the giant outdoor screen.  And as we drove toward the area, there were dark, dark clouds over it. Lightening was flashing and it was ominous.  I remember praying – not only for protection – but also praying that the rain would be stopped and that we would be able to show the movie and that Truth would advance.  And as we got closer and closer, we knew it was going to be tight.  There were already some people leaving the showing area because they believed that if it rained, then the witch doctors were obviously more powerful than God because they could control even the weather.  And so we were praying that it wouldn’t rain and the witch doctors were doing their divination that it would rain – it was a very, very real spiritual battle.  And in the end, God was amazingly gracious, the clouds parted and we were able to show the film right there in the heart of the darkness. 

There have been only a few moments in my life when I have been reminded palpably of the existence of evil.  When it has felt so close and so real – and that was one on them.  In Africa and the global south, divination, magic necromancy… all very, very real.  Because the realize, I think more clearly that you and I do on a day to day basis, that there is a spiritual world behind the curtain.  That it is very real.  And they deeply want to interact with it.  The problem comes when we think we can manipulate and control it.  We are fooling ourselves if we think that we can.  As a person of faith who believes in God, you need to stay far, far away from this kind of stuff.   In the New Testament in Acts 19, we have examples of the dangers of casually pulling back the curtain – 7 sons of Sceva.  They decide to casually try invoke the name of Jesus over those who were oppressed by evil spirits. The spirit turns around and says to them “Jesus, I recognize. Paul? Him I recognize. But who are you?” and the man who was oppressed by the evil spirit jumped on them, beat all 7 of them up and they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.  You don’t play around or mess around and think you can control or manipulate the spiritual realm to your own ends. 

The reason that all of this is so dangerous is where it is all coming from.  To illustrate this, we are doing to do a little segment called “Ask Pastor Brad”.  Where some kids in the audience are going to ask me for advice.  How dangerous could this be? 

1. Pastor Brad, what is the best road to take in Nairobi, Kenya from the airport to the coast? (well, I’ve only ever transited through that airport – but I could see from the airplane that you just need to head east for awhile…)

2. Pastor Brad, can you tell me what is the best method of surgery to deal with an aortic aneurism? (the location of an aortic aneurism determines its type – have you considered robotic surgery?)

3. Pastor Brad, when will the strike be over so we can head back to school? (that I don’t know J)

Here’s the challenge with this stuff.  When you seek advice, you need to consider the source.  Sometimes people seek out advice from all the wrong places – Saul sure did here.    

The reality is 2. You can’t get GOOD advice from BAD sources

Just like I am a bad source of information for these topics, a medium is a BAD place to find good advice. 

Mediums, tarot card readers, psychics, Ouija boards, fortune tellers…  None of these are getting their information from good sources

Consider: where are these people getting their information from?  Some of them are just playing at it, dabbling in something that they don’t fully understand.  But some are genuinely committed deeply to their practices – and so you need to ask: is this the way that God communicates to people?  The Bible reminds us that we have direct access to God through prayer.  Yes, God sometimes gives His people dreams, visions, prophetic words.  But you always have to consider the source.  You cannot get can’t get good advice from a bad sources. 

 Consider where the advice is coming from.  It is not coming from the Lord. 

As we wrap up this discussion today, I think that it is important to say a few words.  Unlike Saul, if you live in a relationship with God,

3. We don’t have to live paralyzed by FEAR

There is FREEDOM from your past – some of you did that kind of stuff before you came to saving faith.  There is forgiveness, cleansing – sometimes you may want to ask God specifically to cut off the influence and ties from those items in your past.  If so, I want you to e-mail me and we can set up a time to pray together specifically about that.   

There is PROTECTION in the present – I am so wonderfully grateful that we don’t have to live in a state of fear about evil.  We don’t live in ignorance: it is real, it does exist, the evil one is active in our world today.  But if you are a person who has given your life over to Jesus Christ, you are under his protection and His hand.  That’s why we sang those songs this morning – to remind us of the saving and power of the cross and the name of Jesus.  When you are experiencing fear and worry, call out to God and invite His protection.

There is HOPE beyond the grave – This chapter illustrates for us that when we reach the end of our natural lives, this is not the end of our existence.  You and I are not physical beings who have spiritual experiences.  We are spiritual beings who, for however long God gives us on this earth, are granted a physical experience.  But beyond the grave, our souls, the essence of who we are, will live on.  And so it is vitally important that you and I are clear on our eternal destiny.  For those who love God, who have received Jesus as their forgiver and leader, there is hope and certainty beyond the grave.  If that is not you, today and you are living in a state of fear, I want to invite you to bow your heads with me and we’ll pray together as we wrap up our time today.