September 4

1 Samuel 28 “Ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?” You may recognize that line from the Joker in the 1989 movie Batman. Although I have only seen the movie a couple of times, it is a line that reverberates through my mind like a bad dream from which I cannot awake, and no one can rescue me. Saul’s tortured reign has come to an end. Samuel is dead. God won’t talk to him. His back is once again against the wall as he faces the Philistines. He knows there is only One who can rescue him, but his life of half-hearted obedience has led him down the path of bondage and despair. He knows the glory of the Lord, but he desired the ways of this world. His desire for riches and power choked out the peaceful fruit of righteousness and now the devil has come for the last dance. It is time to pay the piper. Like Saul, many have mixed the glory of the Lord with the knowledge of evil. We can fall in the same trap. In so doing, we snare our souls and dance with demons. Is it the glory of the Lord to remain silent when we have steadfastly rejected his instruction. The law clearly opposed seeking spiritual knowledge by any method other than seeking God. Saul was aware of that, and he had even dispensed legislation to support it. His desperation to hang on to what was not his has led to this final act of disobedience. There is now no remedy. It had to be terrifying. It was the natural result of seeking his own glory over God’s. Lord help me to never be like Saul. May my meditations on your glory always lead me to let go of what you do not intend to be mine and to only hang on to you! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor john This is taken from the top of Mt. Tabor looking south. The large hill/mountain in the valley floor is the Hill of Moreh. Shunem where the Philistines camped was on the opposite side of Moreh. The mountains of Gilboa may vaguely be made out in the haze in the distance to the left of Moreh. En Dor where Saul met the medium was on the valley floor in the foreground near the slopes of the Hill of Moreh to the left of it.