Matins Devotion: August 13, 2025

1 Samuel 31

When Jesus tells us about Lazarus and the Rich Man in the Gospel of Luke, the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers to warn them about their sinful living. But Abraham tells the rich man, “they have Moses and the prophets. If they will not hear them, neither will they listen if someone should rise from the dead.” This is something we see pretty conclusively in the death of Saul.

Saul refused to listen to the word of God, refused to repent when he had warred against the Lord, both directly and by warring against David. And even when God allowed the Witch of En-dor to conjure up the spirit of Samuel who then told Saul he was going to do the very next day because of his rebellion, Saul still didn’t listen. He grieved but he didn’t repent. He still strapped on his battle garments to war against the Philistines. In the end, Saul trusted in his armor and his strength more than he trusted in the Lord. And the end result was that Saul’s armor was offered up in the temple of the Philistines gods and his corpse was put on display in the land of his enemies.

So don’t trust your armor. Don’t trust in your ability to argue that the Scriptures aren’t talking about you when they rebuke the very sins that are in your hands and heart. Don’t tell yourself that you’re different and special, like Saul surely did by appealing to his status as king. And don’t demand some supernatural sign from God if He expects you to turn from the transgressions His word has already condemned. You wouldn’t listen to the sign anyway.

Repent now based on nothing but the word of the Scriptures alone. Put your trust in Christ, the one who went onto the battlefield covered not in armor, but in spit and blood. Trust the one whose body was also put on display by foreigners at Calvary because in that display, in that death, He destroyed your sins and won for you the salvation you never could have earned. Trust the one who was not conjured up from death in spirit but who rose bodily from the grave to show that He had triumphed over your enemies and given you the right to live with Him in His kingdom forever. Hear the word of the Scriptures and come home to your God, the One who is the only armor you’ll ever need.