Saul's Unanswered Prayer
No answer.
Not “yes.”
Not “no.” Not even “maybe.” Silence. The Lord did not answer him. King Saul was
terrified of the Phillistine armies which had amassed in great numbers to fight
against Israel. He recognized that he needed God’s help to defeat this strong
enemy. So he prayed. He inquired of the Lord. But the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by the prophets. The Lord was silent.
Saul, as we have
seen, was far from God. After starting out well with humility and the anointing
of the Holy Spirit, Saul had drifted away from God. He let pride and selfishness
cloud his relationship with God. He no longer sought God or worshipped Him. But
now he is in trouble, so his first instinct is to turn back to the Lord and
inquire of Him. So often we see people who have not submitted themselves to the
Lordship of Christ and have no relationship with Him turn to Him in times of
crisis. It seems to be a natural human instinct in times of great distress to
seek God’s help. Yet, the stark reality is that many of these prayers go up
toward God but He does not listen.
The Lord did not
answer Saul. Why? I think we can find the answer to this in Psalm 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not
hear me.” Saul had built up a wall between himself and the Lord – a wall
of sin, pride, and disobedience. This wall was blocking his communication
channel with the Lord. In reality, his prayers never made it to God’s ears. He
did not hear. “Behold,
the Lord’s hand is not
shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your
iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have
hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” (Isaiah 59:1-3)
There are many reasons for unanswered prayer. Sometimes God
simply wants us to wait. Other times, He has an alternative plan to reveal to
us. Still other times, His answer is simply “no.” But in this case, there was
no answer at all because Saul’s sins prevented God from hearing him.
Tragically, instead of dealing with the sin and pride issues in his heart, Saul
made the sad mistake of turning elsewhere for answers. He turned to the dark
spirits, calling on mediums and necromancers (a conjurer who supposedly communicates
with the dead).
For
the follower of Christ, when our prayers seem to be unanswered, we must make
sure that our hearts are right with God. That we are not harboring any unconfessed
sin or pride or iniquity in our heart. Having confessed and forsaken our sins,
we must trust fully in God’s timing for His answers to our inquiries. As he
promised, “Call on me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” (Psalm 50:15)
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