1 Samuel 28 - Introduction

A Spiritually Bankrupt Saul Seeks To Demonic Sources For Assistance Because Nothing Else Is Left To Him (1 Samuel 28:3).

Having briefly summed up the situation from the Philistine point of view, the writer now switches to Saul's situation as the king who had learned that his country was about to be invaded by an army much more powerful than his own. He had become aware of the large scale mustering of a massive Philistine army (1 Samuel 28:1), something clearly much different from a border raid, and the question was, what was he to do? But when he turned to the sources from which he expected to obtain answers to his questions he received no response. YHWH was not answering him. That was why in desperation he determined to turn to forbidden sources. If God would not answer him he would try to contact Samuel through a necromancer.

This was one great difference between Saul and David. In such a situation David would have flung himself down before YHWH in tears, pleading to be shown where he had gone wrong, and repenting deeply. In the face of YHWH's silence Saul rather preferred to turn to necromancers. He was lacking depth of soul.

We note that in this extreme situation it was to Samuel, the mentor of his youth, that he determined to turn, even though Samuel had been the instrument of his rejection. He apparently saw Samuel as a kind of back door to God. Samuel would no doubt know what was best for him to do. But Samuel was dead, and thus to contact him would involve him in the forbidden area of necromancy (necromancers purportedly contact the dead through familiar spirits).

The description of what follows inevitably leaves us with unanswered questions, simply because it is dealing with matters beyond our knowledge, for the thing that surprises us is that it appears that he was in fact actually able to contact Samuel. It should, however, be noted that the medium was equally as surprised as he was. She had not expected to see Samuel. She had expected her own ‘familiar spirit'. So what happened appears to have been outside her experience as well as his. It would seem probable therefore that God had in this case determined to act uniquely in order to again pronounce judgment on Saul and exalt David, a judgment which resulted from Saul's earlier gross disobedience, a disobedience in respect of which he had never truly repented. And it was in fact God's previous sentence on that disobedience that had preyed on his mind and had made a major contribution towards his illness, even though part of it probably resulted from traumas in his childhood. Now he was to be reminded of that disobedience again. It is a dreadful warning to us all that if we do not truly repent from our past sins and seek God's forgiveness while we can, we too may end up in a state of hopelessness in which we are simply reminded of our past sins, and with our hearts hardened.

We should also note that it did not bring Saul what he was really seeking. What it brought home to him was not how to fight and win his battles, but rather the certainty of his forthcoming defeat and death. It was information that he would have been better without. Had it been left to the necromancer, of course, he would probably have received a comforting message. But in his case YHWH intervened. It reminds us that even at its best necromancy can only offer false comfort, for it never results in genuinely true benefit, even though initially it might appear to do so. It causes us to rest on false hopes.