Grieve With Hope

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we just have one verse. 1 Samuel chapter 25, verse 1. Samuel's death. So, let's have some coffee. We'll pray. We'll talk about the death of the last judge of Israel. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much. that you have given us your word. And Father, we pray that you would please give us your Holy Spirit, that we would know your word, that we would understand your word. And Father, we pray that you would please help us to walk in your ways. In Jesus' name, amen. All right. Real simple here. One verse. Then Samuel died, and the Israelites gathered together and lamented for him, and buried him at his home in Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran."
We need to ask ourselves our three questions. A. What's this about?
B. What's the best verse to summarize this? C. What are we called to do? So, what's this about? Samuel has died. Samuel has lived a long life in front of the people. He's even talked about himself as the judge of Israel. And it was Samuel and his boys that the people said, your boys don't walk in the same way you do. We want a king. But in saying they wanted a king, it wasn't just saying they didn't want Samuel's boys.
God could have raised up another judge. But they wanted a king so they could be like all the other nations. But see, Samuel wasn't just their judge. Samuel was a prophet. Samuel was the one who was faithful when Eli's sons were so abjectly wicked. It was Samuel who had led them faithfully. It was Samuel who had cared for them. It was Samuel who had walked them as a shepherd. So the people love Samuel and he dies. And it's like the whole nation for the state funeral gathers, convenes together in his hometown, even at, nearing around his tent at Ramah. And they grieve and they mourn. But it's interesting.
We don't hear whether David actually goes there or not. We're guessing that, I can't imagine Saul not being there, although we're guessing there too. We're not told who's there and who isn't. We don't know the list of people. When there's presidents who die now, everybody goes to the National Cathedral and you'll see the pictures or the video of all the different world and national leaders, all the living presidents who are there to show their respects to that president who died. Would it have been safe for David to go? We know that Samuel grieved Saul and never saw him again while he was living. Was Saul willing to go to Samuel's state funeral?
Don't know. What we do find out is, and David arose and went to the wilderness of Paran. He goes way, way, way down south. I'm talking about almost all the way, so if you look at the Red Sea, you have the Sinai Peninsula and on each side there's a body of water and on one side of the body of water that drains into the Red Sea is the Gulf of Aqaba and David goes all the way down there, way away from what is Israel.
Is he fleeing from Saul? Is he going down there because he knows that his most powerful ally is gone? Does he go because he's in that much grief that he just has to get away from everyone and everything? Does he have to let the dust settle because he knows that that type of grief could cause Saul to go off his rocker again? Don't know. So what's this about? The last judge dies. The prophet is dead. And the people are grieving. And David is fleeing. It's a really uncertain time in Israelite history.
What's the best verse to summarize this? I think I'm going to underline verse one. Actually, I don't have anything underlined in this. It's just one verse. What are we called to do in response to this? Well, I want to talk about two things. Number one, it's okay to grieve. There's this thing that happens in modern American, especially evangelicalism, where we don't know how to have our tears mingled with joy. We're told in 1 Thessalonians to grieve, but not as the pagans do without hope. We don't grieve like the pagans, but Christians ought to grieve. Death is not quote-unquote natural.
We can be sad. that somebody near to us has died. I remember hearing a college professor just say something off the cuff of his sleeve one time, and he was saying that the fact that we cry when somebody dies, and our hearts are just pulled down heavy and hard, is we know that something about this isn't right.
That's why when Moses dies, there's a period of mourning. It's why when families die, there's months of... when Joseph dies, even the Egyptians know that there's a period of mourning. So that's what happens. Samuel dies and there's a period of mourning.
And so in your life, I just want to encourage you. It's okay to have those mixed feelings of just heavy sorrow. the deep longing, the heartfelt pain, that's normal and it's okay to express that pain and expect the dips in the energy and the crying out of God why and the feeling of this isn't normal, this isn't right and I don't think the Lord rejects us when we say that and yet at the same time as Christians, death leads us to the one who's conquered death we have our hearts soothed as we grieve especially for those who die in the Lord that we grieve as those with hope that we believe the resurrection is real that God is Jesus is going to come back again and the dead will rise again from the grave and so we look to Jesus as the firstborn of the resurrection we look to Jesus and we know if he is alive so we will live So I just want to encourage you this morning with Jesus. Even in death, grieve and grieve well. Go through the process of grief. But I pray that your tears may be mingled with joy and hope. Let's pray. Father, you know how hard it is for us.
Even as we grieve the death of Those who are so impactful and meaningful to us as we mourn. Lord, even this past week, somebody who shaped my life in a very powerful way, a giant in my mind and my heart is now before you in glory. And Lord, we thank you for the gift of life.
And we pray that your Holy Spirit would be with us as we grieve, as we mourn. Lord, we pray that you would give us hope. Especially for those who have died in the Lord. Father, we pray, thanking you, that death is not the final chapter. We thank you that you have prepared a place for us to be with you forever. God, give us hope. Help us, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, may God bless you. May you walk in the joy of Jesus Christ. May you be filled with hope, even in the darkest hours of your grief. I'll see you next time.