When Relationship Matters

Scripture: Now therefore you also, please obey the voice of your maidservant and let me set before you a piece of bread, and eat so that you may have strength when you go on your way.” But he refused and said, “I will not eat.” But his servants, and also the woman, urged him and he listened to them. So he arose from the ground and sat on the bed. Now the woman had a fattened calf in the house, and she hurried and killed it, and took flour, and kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread from it. She brought it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they arose and went away that night. 1 Samuel 28:22-25

Observation: After summoning a vision of Samuel, who informs Saul that he is about to be defeated by the Philistines, Saul collapses is both despair and hunger. He has not eaten for 24 hours and says he won't eat, but then upon just a little persuasion - and the butchering of a fatted calf - Saul eats.

In other words, Saul has no idea how to engage God anymore. He no longer sees visions himself. There are no prophets sending words. So he brings in a medium who summons Samuel, and is told "you have already been told the answers and the reasons". At this point, Saul could continue his fasting and praying. Instead, he just eats. Of course, he wasn't really "fasting" ... there is no evidence that Saul was fasting in order to focus on God and strengthen his prayers before God. Instead, it appears Saul simply had been too worried to eat. His lack of nutrition was because he was scared and upset and couldn't eat, resulting in his physical weakness. He was not fasting as a means to spiritual strength.

Saul has it ALL wrong. He does the wrong things. He does potentially right things for wrong reasons. And this is all because he has no intention of consulting God. For Saul, God may not even be real anymore ... he is real in that he controls the world, but Saul does not try to access him except through others. Saul has no relationship with God, and as a result God is scary and to be feared.

Application: I remember when I believed in God without a relationship with God. And I thought God was all kinds of 'bad'. At best, I thought he didn't care. At worst, I thought he manipulated the world for his childish entertainment. Somewhere down the middle was my belief he simply wielded all-controlling power in ways we couldn't understand and thus of which we could only be random victims.

David can go live with the enemy for years in peace because he has a relationship with God. Saul can't eat a meal in peace because he has no relationship with God. And now Saul shows that he cannot even seek such a relationship ... he doesn't have the will or the understanding. For me, I seek that relationship. I have it, and I want it deeper. The closer we are to God, and the better we understand our relationship with him, the simpler all things in life truly are.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for this reminder today, that belief in your existence can be fearful if not for an understanding of your love, your nature, and your son. May I speak with you, my father, continually this day and every day. Amen.