Wrong Turns, Wrong Roads, and Dead Ends
1 Sam. 28:3-25
A man and his wife had just moved to town, and he was coming home from his first day at work. As he’s driving down the highway, his cell phone rings, and it’s his wife. “George, I just had to call you and tell you to be careful. I just heard on the radio that some nut got off the on ramp and is now driving the wrong way down HWY 280!” “It’s worse than that!" said George, "I’m driving home on 280 and it’s not just one car. It’s hundreds of them!"
You’ve probably never made that big of a mistake on the road, but most of us have made some wrong turns here and there. Jennifer usually does the navigating when we drive for just that reason: I have almost no sense of direction. I could get almost get lost on a playground, much less the interstate. Fortunately most wrong turns are no big deal if you’re willing to trace your steps back to where you left the right road, and to ask directions (unless you’re a man.)
But sometimes taking a wrong turn can be serious business, especially when you’re talking about the road of your life. In Matt. 7:13-14 Jesus Christ once said every one of us is walking down one of two roads: one wide road that leads to death, and a narrow road that leads to life. His words imply that making a wrong turn in life is not just inconvenient, but disastrous.
I want to talk to you this morning about a man who made some disastrously wrong turns in his life. His name is Saul, and he was like most people who make a wrong turn: he didn’t realize the danger until it was too late. From this tragic episode in his sad life, I hope you and I can learn to avoid wrong turns, and most of all, to realize that if you’ve made a wrong turn this morning, it’s not too late to turn around. Would you look with me at 1 Sam. 28:3-25?
Father, we ask you to help us read our map this morning. You have given us your Word, the Bible, as a roadmap for life. You have given us your Son Jesus, Who told us He is the Way. You have given us Your Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised would lead us into all truth. As we read this morning, let us hear Your Voice speak through Your Word and Your Spirit to our hearts about Your Son. Help us recognize some of the wrong turns we are prone to make, and help us learn to stay on the right road. For those who need to start the journey on the narrow road this morning, I pray you will show them the danger they are in, and give them the courage to turn around and come to Christ, Who is the only Way to Heaven. For all You have done for us and all You will do today, we praise you and thank you, in the mighty Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Let’s begin by pointing out a very real danger about wrong turns in life:
I. SOMETIMES A WRONG TURN LOOKS LIKE THE ONLY OPTION. (v. 3-6)
I’ve noticed a lot of differences between the way GA and TN handle their road signs. First of all, GA posts a lot more signs than TN does, especially in rural areas.
Second of all, on the interstates, you will see those signs that say something like This lane exit only. In TN they don’t always mean that. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen that sign still stayed right where I was w/o taking the exit. But let me tell you: in Atlanta GA, if they say this lane exits, you will exit with it. There are no options. And from experience I can tell you that some of those “must exit” lanes will make you take a wrong turn.
Saul’s life has been stuck in this exit only lane for awhile. He has made some serious wrong turns in his life, mainly whenever he chose to disobey God’s commands. Now he’s running out of options. Samuel, God’s prophet has died. He cannot go back to the man who anointed him as king for advice or help. Saul has expelled all the mediums and spiritists- people who try to contact the dead through ceremonies and séances. V. 6 reminds us that God’s not speaking to Saul anymore through any of the usual means. To top it all off, Israel’s old enemy the Philistines have decided to mount an attack. Saul is a king who needs somebody to let him know what he needs to do, but he has burned too many bridges behind him. He is stuck between a rock and a hard place. To Saul, it looks like taking a wrong turn is his only option.
Can you sympathize with Saul here? Sure, you know what’s right and wrong, but if you’re honest, you admit that sometimes you seem to have no choice but to make a wrong turn. You want to tell the truth, but if you do, it’s going to cause trouble. You want to be honest, but cheating would be a lot easier and less hassle. Your anger gets away with you, and you says some harsh, unloving things, but what else could you have done? Something- maybe your past choices, maybe your pride, maybe the devil himself- tells you that your options are limited. You have no choice but to make a wrong turn. What else can you do?
You can do what’s right. No matter how hot the pressure gets, or how big the problem becomes, you always have at least one other choice than making a wrong turn, and that is doing what’s right. Obeying God denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Christ. That is always an option because you can always do what you ought to do. You can always do right because God promises:
2 Peter 2:9 …the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations…
God not only can, but will help you do what’s right, even when it seems that your only option is to make a wrong turn. Don’t forget that no matter how limited your options seem, you can always choose to do what’s right.
You don’t have to take a wrong turn in life. But if you do, be sure of this:
II. A WRONG TURN WILL LEAD YOU DOWN THE WRONG ROAD. (v. 7-15)
Because Saul takes a wrong turn, he ends up on the wrong road: the dark road of necromancy= attempting to call up the dead to discover the future. Though traditionally known as the Witch of Endor, technically this woman is a medium= someone who claims to be able to call up dead spirits. God condemns these occult practices in the Bible:
Leviticus 20:27 ‘A man or a woman who is a medium, or who has familiar spirits, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them.’ ”
Isaiah 8:19 And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards,…,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?
But there are always a few who still dabble in these forbidden arts; Saul’s men seem to have no problem knowing right where to find this woman.
The scene is as eerie and dark as any ghost story you’ve ever heard. Saul creeps out at night to this haunted house and asks for this medium to call up the spirit of a dead person. This woman is at first suspicious, but Saul promises her his own personal vow of protection. The irony is heightened by his promise in v. 10 …as the Lord lives… and by the name he calls for: Samuel, the prophet of God.
What happens next has been the subject of speculation and debate among Bible scholars for many generations. It looks like the séance works: the woman sees an elohim= a word usually reserved for God, but here referring to a spirit being= god. In the form of an old man wrapped in a robe it rises from the ground like a ghost rising from the grave. In some way the medium suddenly sees past Saul’s disguise, and only another promise of protection keeps her from calling the whole thing off. Through the medium, Saul speaks to Samuel with a tone of pitiful urgency I don’t have anyone else to turn to, Samuel! Please tell me: What should I do?
What happened here? Did this woman call up Samuel’s ghost, or was it a demon? Can a person really communicate with dead people? Different people see different answers in this story. Some say this apparition was not really Samuel. Others say that God allowed the departed spirit of Samuel to reappear and communicate with Saul. It’s really not easy to say for sure one way or the other. What is plain is that Saul has taken a wrong turn onto the wrong road. Instead of facing his destiny, he wants to control his destiny. God already told him what will happen. Now Saul desperately looks for a way out--some way to get away. But it’s too late; he’s made too many wrong turns, and traveled too far down the wrong road.
The danger of taking a wrong turn is that it will almost always lead you down the wrong road. It may lead you down the dangerous road of the occult. Millions of people today are involved in all kinds of occult practices, from witchcraft, or Wicca, to astrology to full fledged spiritism.
One TV medium hosts a show called “Crossing Over” in which he claims to channel the spirits of the dead to communicate with their living loved ones. A lot of people read their horoscopes almost religiously, looking for guidance for the future. Almost any large bookstore sets aside space for books on Wicca and witchcraft. And who hasn’t heard of the adventures of a young wizard named Harry Potter?
A lot of these areas range from the harmless to the silly. But let’s not forget that the devil is real, and the occult is dangerous. It is one thing to read a novel that mentions a witch- it’s another thing to try and practice witchcraft. It is one thing to read you horoscope like a Chinese fortune cookie- it’s another thing to really believe your life is controlled by the stars. It’s one thing to believe in life after death- it’s another thing entirely to try and communicate with dead spirits. You and I might not take the occult too seriously, but both God and the devil do. God warns us that if you get involved in the occult, you are taking a wrong turn onto the wrong road.
But you don’t have to delve into the occult to get on the wrong road. Anytime you try and find your own way without God you are turning down the wrong road. God wants to guide you through life, not on your terms, but on His. He calls us to walk by faith, not by sight, nor by magic. He calls us to trust Him to give us wisdom and direction for the future. Only when you walk by faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord, your Savior, and your Shepherd can you be sure you are walking down the right road.
A missionary from Africa tells of a story of a follower of Mohammed who became a follower of Jesus. “Some of his friends asked him, ‘Why have you become a Christian?’ He answered, ‘Well, it’s like this. Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly the road forked in two directions, and you didn’t know which way to go, and there at the fork in the road were two men, one dead and one alive—which one would you ask which way to go?””
The real tragedy comes when a person makes a wrong turn and gets on the wrong road, and then comes to the end of the road, because
III. THE WRONG ROAD EVENTUALLY LEADS YOU TO A DEAD END. (v. 16-25)
It’s hard to believe a man like Saul-who started out so well will-end up so bad. But these verses demonstrate an key truth: follow the wrong road long enough, you meet a dead end.
The image of Samuel has no good news for Saul: Because of your many wrong turns has rejected you as King, and anointed David to rule Israel. You and your men will lose this battle, and you and your sons will die in the fighting as well. Saul is literally headed for a dead end.
The message is too much for Saul to handle. Facing his own death is bad enough, but the death of his sons and the defeat of his army drag Saul deeper into his depression. He hasn’t eaten, and only at the insistence of the medium do he and his men finally have a bite and then go home to await their fate.
How would you feel if you knew God has rejected you, you’re about to suffer a crushing defeat, and to top it all off, you and your children will die tomorrow? I am sure Saul’s mind and heart were full of remorse and regret, full of fear, full of hopelessness. He could see how terrible it had been to make all of those wrong turns, he could see how traveling the wrong road had brought him to a dead end. The one thing he couldn’t do was change his destiny. He had gone too far to turn back now. His life would end in failure, suffering, and death. His tombstone in the Bible reads this way:
1 Chronicles 10:13 So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the LORD, because he did not keep the word of the LORD, and also because he consulted a medium for guidance.
There are too many people who end up like Saul. They take the wrong turn, know they’re on the wrong road, but they find out too late that they’re headed for a dead end.
Charles Murray was a student at the University of Cincinnati and also high diver and training for the summer Olympics. A fellow student had been talking to him for quite some time about her relationship with Jesus Christ. Not being raised in a family that attended church, this was all quite new and fascinating to Charles. He even began asking questions about sin and forgiveness. Finally the day came that his friend put the question to him: was ready to trust Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior? The expression on his face changed and replied with a strong, “NO.” For many days afterward he avoided the student who witnessed to him, but finally he called her one evening and asked where he could find some of the verses she mentioned in the Bible. Then he hung up, without speaking anymore about Christ.
Because he was training for the Olympic games, Charles had special privileges at the university pool. Some time between 10:30 and 11:00 that evening he decided to swim and practice a few dives. It was a clear night in October and the moon was big and bright. The pool was housed under a ceiling of glass panes so the moon shone brightly across the top of the wall in the pool area. Charles climbed to the highest platform to take his first dive. He stood on the platform backwards to make his dive, spread his arms to gather his balance, looked up to the wall, and saw something that froze him in his tracks: there on the wall was his own shadow made by the light of the moon. It was in the shape of a cross. He sat down on the diving board and began to pray. He asked God to forgive him and save him. He trusted Jesus Christ sitting on a diving board a little over 20 feet in the air. Suddenly at that point, the lights in the pool area came on. The attendant had come in to check the pool. As Charles turned around and looked down from the platform, he noticed for the first time the empty pool that had been drained for repairs. He had almost plummeted to his death, but he stood at the crossroads, and made a right turn just in the nick of time.
It’s not too late for you to make a right turn today. Maybe you’ve made some wrong turns, maybe you know you’re not on the right road. But you haven’t reached the dead end yet. The Lord is speaking to you right now, saying today is the day you choose life. A great man of God once stood before a group of people just as I stand before you this morning and made this plea
Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life…
It’s not too late right now for you to make a right turn, it’s not too late for you to get on the right road. But you must choose today, or you may realize too late that your life will wind up at a dead end. Would you come today and choose life?
