Have you turned off the news recently? Do you find yourself having to switch off from the news - everywhere you look there are horrible and concerning things happening. Do you get frustrated with yourself and the things you see in yourself doing the same thing again and again. If you can’t change yourself, what are you meant to do about a war or injustice on a global scale? - We can’t even be kind to our flatmates. How’re we gonna solve the problems out there!
We respond negatively to darkness and hard times on our tv: In 2013, BBC documentary Planet Earth 3 narrated by David Attenborough, documented the life of a baby elephant dying in drought stricken east africa. The crew chose not to intervene, following the unwritten rule of nature filmmakers, observe don’t interfere. The team received 32 complaints by viewers, some of them in tears. I’m not saying baby elephants don’t matter, but its telling of how we feel about death and pain that following one, led to a number of people complaining and asking for filmmakers to lose their jobs when they’d done nothing wrong. We hate seeing the dark side of life. We wanna hide from bad news, turn it off and go do something else.
There’s darkness and hard news in our local area:
- We are grateful for Social workers who help our most vulnerable children in the UK. But it must be difficult to see the evil of our children being mistreated and abused.
Home4good notes the average lifespan of a social worker is very short. They train thinking they wanna help our kids and help our country. But staring at something so dark and evil has it’s toll. HomeforGood interviewed a social worker called Anna who said “There are days when I get in the car to drive home and there is nothing else I can do but cry.” One thing is for sure, being on the front line, looking after children and families in the community, is surely one of the most demanding professions there is.It's well-know that there is a high level of sick leave and staff turnover, and social workers can experience empathy fatigue. According to recent research the average career length for a social worker is just seven years.
It’s amazing that social workers, emergency services etc are willing to deal with the dark areas of life that we wanna avoid.
How should we handle the horrible bits of life and horrible news that surrounds us?
- Should we hide from the horrible things out there, pretending they don’t exist? - many use the term ‘going dark’ to describe the idea of hiding from horrible news?
- Should we work at the difficulties in the world, aiming to make it a better place and finding that dealing with the darkness of life increases the likelihood of burnout?
What do you do about the darkness in the world around us?
We should face the darkness with truth we find in this book. The Bible has a lot to say about evil, and it doesn’t call us to hide or shy away from it or fix it on our own.
Point 1: The evil in Saul (5-17) [key verse - 17]
Saul looks secure [6]. There’s quite a contrast between David and Saul in terms of godliness and character. But also in terms of this their current situation. At this point, David is in a cave, alone and vulnerable and slowly vulnerable and weak people flock to him. At the same time, Saul is chilling under a tamarisk tree with a spear surrounded by elite soldiers. David is fleeing enemies, desperately surviving by faking illnesses and hiding in tombs. Saul is at ease, out in the open surrounded by all his servants.
But Saul is deeply insecure [7-8].
In chapter 21 we see David in the wilderness, God provides the fulfillment of his word. We’ve just seen David leave the cave of Adullam for the forest of Hereth. From there we move north to GIbeah to catch up with Saul. Last time we saw Saul he was overcome with rage, throwing a spear at his own son and calling him a son of a perverse and rebellious woman (20:30) - words and actions that could easily scar a relationship between a father and son, words and actions a father cannot take back. Here in 22 Saul hears news about David. It’s probably a mini flashback to when David was in the cave of Adullam.
Saul is chilling under a tree and looked secure, but he was deeply riddled with insecurity. He surrounds himself with people of his own tribe - the nepotism probably flowed from insecurity and paranoia. Saul wanted people who would back him, not people who would help him and hold him to account… his insecurity bleeds out in the remainder of this passage. He’s not composing Psalms about his trust in God, he’s ranting and raving. There’s no evidence that his servants were disloyal, yet he’s filled with self-pity.
Unwittingly Saul is fulfilling Samuels warning in chapter 8 that if Israel demanded a king, if the nation chose to reject God and trust a man, that king would ‘reign over you… He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. (8:11-14) Which is exactly what we see here! A man who only wants to benefit people like him, people of his clan. He’s surrounded himself with them. People who profited from Saul and he didn’t trust them. And full of insecurities and conspiracy theories he rants at them. No one speaks up till Doeg does. Telling Saul what happened at Nob.
Saul goes scorched earth [11-17]. What happens next is not pretty. Saul summons Ahimelech and all other priests. The king demeans Ahimelech, making sure Ahimelech knows how little he thinks of him, he doesn’t even have the decency to refer to him by name, he calls him ‘son of Ahitub’. This would be like me summoning Josh and calling them ‘little boy’. Saul is convinced everyone is against him. And he accuses Ahimelech of opposing him.
Ahimelech gives a true and honest defense in 14-15. He finishes by assuring Saul that there is no conspiracy against him. But his defence doesn’t move Saul at all. Saul is not pleased or impressed. He acts as both accuser and judge. Putting Ahimelech to death without referring to anything Ahimelech has said (16).
The king has gone scorched earth, he threatens his son with death (twice). He threatens God’s anointed king. He calls for someone to kill Ahimelech and the Priest but none of the Israelistes will kill their own people, certainly not their own men of God.
Theological point: God works through this massacre. Saul becomes an antichrist.
But God uses the most horrific things as a means to bring about his purposes. Through this massacre, God’s judgement on Eli is fulfilled. What Doeg did to Nob is horrific. It’s also meant to highlight Sauls deadly insecurity and contrast against God’s judgement on corrupt people. In 1 Samuel 15, Saul is called to put to death the Amalekites. But he refuses. Here he puts to death his own people. It’s tempting to revolt at God’s judgement previously here (God judges sins and sinners. Please don’t overlook or undervalue God’s Holiness and our sin. God is far more holy than you could ever imagine. Your sin is worse than you think) - we’ll come back to this point later.
But I don’t want you to miss Saul acting as an antichrist. The Bible talks about an antichrist and people get all nervous. The New Testament has 5 references to ‘antichrist’. In 1 John 2:18; 22; 4:3 2 John 7. I’m not trying to do a deep dive into the identity of the antichrist, but rather to get across that as John says “many antichrists have come.’ (1 John 2:18) and that the spirit of the antichrist has come already (4:3). Antichrist literally means ‘one who opposes Christ’. Satan is the ultimate antichrist, but it would be fair that Saul here is acting as one who opposes the work of God. The next time you see or experience evil and want to doubt God’s existence, remember that you could not even recognize that act as truly and objectively evil unless He exists.
None of the Israelites are willing to kill their own priests. But Doeg will. Back in chapter 15 Saul wouldn’t kill the Amalekites. And that’s why he lost his kingship. Saul wouldn’t do God’s holy and just war. Here, he calls someone outside of God’s kingdom to war against God’s priests. He’s having a war against God.
The well meaning farmer’s son became a king. But now he’s a genocidal tyrant.
God’s king has become like Pharoah slaughtering Israel on Moses' day. Like Herod, killing innocent children in an attempt to kill God’s chosen one. He’s an antichrist.
Point 2: The evil in the world (18-19) – [key verse 19]
Doeg does a great evil in verses 18-19. Doeg killed the people of linen ephod. But Doeg seems to enjoy killing and massacring people. He goes further, and kills all the women, children and animals too. There is no indication that Saul has a problem with this, no indication that Saul calls Doeg to stop. —. God’s people in Nob; priests, men, women, children are utterly wiped out to feed one man’s insecurities and another’s blood lust. Why is this allowed to happen?
This evil occurs everywhere - Last week a 40 year Hainault sword attacker was sentenced after murdering a boy. As a 14 year old boy left for school in his PE kit with his headphones on. A man pulled out a samurai sword and hacked at him, screaming in delight and smiling after fatally wounding Daniel. News reports thankfully do not disclose the extent of the wounds to the young boy beyond the fact that they were fatal because it’s just too horrific and dark to think about.
The father of the school boy, Dr Anjorin gave a victim impact statement in which he recalls seeing his son leaving for school at 7:00 am in full PE kit. 15 minutes later he’d been informed his son had been stabbed. Running out into the road he saw the attacked body of his son hunched up. He says “ I knew at once that my son was dead, but I reached down, called his name and held his head.”
What other word can be used to describe an event like that other than evil? We don’t describe it as relative, as meaningless in a random world without God. We collectively look at some events out there and describe them as evil. And we cry out for justice.
Stephen Fry blames God for Evil. The God who created this universe is a maniac, an utter maniac. Totally selfish, why should we spend our lives on our knees thanking him!? What kind of God would do that? Yes the world is very splendid but it also has in it insects whose whole life cycle is to burrow into the eyes of children and make them blind. It eats outwards from the eyes. Why? Why did you do that to us? You could easily have made a creation in which that didn’t exist. It’s simply unacceptable. This God is monstrous and deserves no respect whatsoever.
Fry’s right that a God like that isn’t doesn’t sound like the God of the Bible. Yes you can get some understanding of what God is like from nature. But it's the scriptures that reveal what God is really like, what he is fully like.
Also, Fry doesn’t give us an alternative, the atheistic position is bad things happen and that’s the way it is. There isn’t any right to justice as it’s all about survival of the fittest. If you suffer, you’re just a weak link - goodbye.
The darkness shows our need for God and the reality that he can be the only solution.
C.S. Lewis famously said, “My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust?” In other words, his argument against God, because of evil, ironically became his most powerful argument for God’s existence. The reason we respond so strongly to evil is because we’re collectively aware of good, of a sense of holiness revealed in God. The reason it’s hard is because sin is terrible and it’s not just in the world, it is in you and I too.
Human responsibility and God’s sovereignty over evil. It is really important to understand what is being shown here. Saul has an evil response to kill and destroy. But it’s not as though somehow God manages to add a silver lining to this horrible event by going at least my purposes were achieved. And it’s not as though God planned for David to become king and everything to be easy but that pesky Saul just keeps hanging on. God is able to use what we mean for evil for good.
God intends to fulfill his purposes and promises (including his promise to save us) while Saul wickedly tries to grasp on to power. God doesn’t have to adapt his plans to fit around Sauls downward spiral, like some jiu jitsu specialist. And God isn’t somehow responsible for Saul’s genocidal actions here. God’s sovereign purpose is worked out, while Saul voluntarily works out his. God’s sovereignty, and human responsibility are distinct but inseparable.
Should you wish to read more on this area, could I recommend you wrestle through Isaiah 10 and Habakkuk - maybe using Ralph Cunnington’s book perfect unity as a help.
Point 3: The evil in us (20-23)
Take your sin seriously. David is known as a man of God. He’s the great hero who killed Goliath, the anointed king. Israel sings songs about his glorious achievements and none of those songs match the Psalms, songs of scripture he writes whilst on the run - and yet, David recognises the sin in him. He may be God’s anointed, but he knows he’s not perfect. There’s clearly evil in him too.
Back in 1 Samuel 21, David misled and lied to Ahimelek, putting him and the people of Nob in harms way as he fled from Saul.
Here, David takes responsibility for his actions. When confronted with his sin, he does recognise it and repent.
— Practically, let’s not get this twisted, at time David looks evil and like a man trying to cover up his sin— David did attempt to cover up his affair with Bathsheba and the murder of his husband for several months, but when confronted and exposed, he did confess, he did repent —-
And we’re guilty of wanting to do the same thing - about a thousand years later the perfect God who holds this situation together and judges us for our sin comes to earth. Not just to judge, but to die for our sins. Think about the cross, morally and spiritually speaking this is the most horrific crime in history. The only innocent man, the God man, who created us and remains steadfast in his love and commitment to us is tortured and murdered on a cross. For us.
And we weren’t passive in this. In our Genesis origins series, we saw that we would’ve done the same as Adam and Eve and ushered in a world of sin. In the gospels we see that we would’ve done the same as the crowds and disciples, deserting Jesus and spitting on him as we say “crucify him - kill this man.” We’ve learnt to look measured. To act British and passive. But at our core, screams a heart that says I do not trust you, no to your ways, I wish you death. We have the heart of an antichrist.
Keller quote - If God wiped out all sources of evil in the world we would no longer be here. Evil is inside us.
- We are Saul - The sense in which we are totally and utterly against Christ and would have had him killed on the cross if we could.
- We are Doeg and the ungodly world.
- We can be David accepting responsibility
This means that Adam, Eve, Saul, David, all the people we’ve discussed and us - we’re stuck. Our temptation is to compare and say that we’re not that bad. But actually
There is sin in Saul. There’s sin in David, there’s sin in us. And the only hope in that situation is a God that takes it on for us. The world says, ignore the evil that is there, hide from it or work to fix it. The Bible tells us it’s in you but it can be confronted - because of what our God has done.
Remember the C.S. Lewis quote? The fact that even in our relative world there are still some actions that we point to and say, they are evil tells you that the opposite must be there. That the world isn’t meaningless atoms flying around. That we do look for good.
Where is the hope for us?
Option 1: Atheists See evil as relative
Option 2: Moralisitic Christians Blame Satan,for Evil - Moralistic Christians will credit God with all the wonderful things that happen in their lives and blame Satan for all that goes wrong. And all we need to do is trust God when we suffer, trust God when times are hard. The problem with this is it doesn’t take into account the gospel. It doesn’t even accurately represent the God of the Bible who is all present and all knowing. How does a God like that relate to us?
Example: “God is great - I am not” Danny Bhoy - Comedian Danny Bhoy has a great skit about all church hymns having the same theme “God is great, you are not!”. He does it in a really funny way - but he’s also right. It’s what we believe, but it is only half the gospel- That is half the gospel. The gospel tells us we’re more sinful than we’d dare believe, but we are more loved and accepted by Jesus than we’d ever dare hope
You’re unlikely to face the evil of WW2, Tiananmen Square or the recent tragedy in london. Many of us have jobs and lives that aren’t at the forefront of the darkness in the world. What does living out the gospel in the face of evil look like for us?
Option 3: See evil in light of the gospel - What does this practically look like?
How does the secular world deal with pain, suffering and evil? The phrase "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family" is a common expression of sympathy and support, particularly when someone has experienced a loss or is facing a difficult situation. It signifies that the person offering the sentiment is thinking of and offering support to the family during their time of need. While it's a widely used phrase, some find it to be a hollow gesture, especially if it's not accompanied by actions to help. - Diogo Jota, Robbie Fowler and John Bishop.
In John 11, in response to the darkness that was the death of Jesus’ friend Lazarus, Jesus says ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die
That may be the greatest sermon at a funeral. The most heartwarming thing that could be said in the darkness of grief and pain. That is so much more comforting than my thoughts and prayers are with you. I’m not sure my thoughts for anybody help anyone. My prayers are to a God who is in control of all things, but he is the only one who can give life. Who gave us life in creation, who deals with the problem of evil and offers us life to the fullest now.
Jesus doesn’t say my thoughts and prayers are with you, or I hope it works out, or when a door closes another opens. To a sister grieving the death of her brother, Jesus looks right into Martha’s eyes and says ‘I am the resurrection and the life.”
Shortly after this Jesus would die, with our sins draped all over him. With our guilt and shame, and God’s wrath that should’ve been directed at us, poured out on him. He lays down in a grave to take our place, David’s place and anyone else who does great evil but trusts in him. He makes atonement, but he also wakes himself up from death. Something no one has ever done or ever will be able to do. What comfort are the words he says to Martha, that he says to us. He is the resurrection and the life, and by his resurrection he proves it to us.
I dunno what unhelpful pointers and attempts at comfort have been offered to you in dark and hard times. But this has to be the best hope in dark times. If you read the news this week, if you see great evil, if you experience pain and disappointment - hear Jesus say to you he is the resurrection and the life. There is always hope with him.
Stephen Fry blames God for Evil. The God who created this universe is a maniac, an utter maniac. Totally selfish, why should we spend our lives on our knees thanking him!? What kind of God would do that? Yes the world is very splendid but it also has in it insects whose whole life cycle is to burrow into the eyes of children and make them blind. It eats outwards from the eyes. Why? Why did you do that to us? You could easily have made a creation in which that didn’t exist. It’s simply unacceptable. This God is monstrous and deserves no respect whatsoever.
Fry’s right that a God like that isn’t doesn’t sound like the God of the Bible. Yes you can get some understanding of what God is like from nature. But it's the scriptures that reveal what God is really like, what he is fully like.
Also, Fry doesn’t give us an alternative, the atheistic position is bad things happen and that’s the way it is. There isn’t any right to justice as it’s all about survival of the fittest. If you suffer, you’re just a weak link - goodbye.
Christianity gives a reason for us to reject evil, and a way to deal with it.. OT narratives help us see ‘what is God like?’ As we read through the story of Joseph Genesis 37-50 we see that God is in charge, in control and compassionate. When it seems as though God is silent, he isn’t absent. And when the characters of the Bible feel as though God is far from them, (hidden), God is not impotent. When we hurt, when we’re in pain we’re tempted to think God has left us. And if we reject him in that pain, it could well be a terrible mistake
