1 Samuel 28:1 - Meaning and Application

The Philistines now planned to fight Israel, and they chose their moment well, when David was among them. If Israel had not turned away from God, the Philistines would not have remained to trouble them. If Saul had not turned away from God, the nation would by now have been safe from this danger.

The Philistines also had reason to believe David would help them in this war. Achish, the Philistine king who had given David shelter, said, “You will go with me into battle” (1 Samuel 28:2). He felt that if he protected David, he had a right to expect service in return. He also thought it would be a great advantage to have such a man on his side, since David had prospered wherever he went.

David’s answer was careful and unclear: “You will see what your servant can do” (1 Samuel 28:2). In effect, he did not commit himself outright, but he did not shut the door either. He left Achish hoping that David would stand with him, and Achish took the answer that way. So Achish promised to make David captain of his bodyguard, or chief officer of state.

The two armies then gathered for battle. The Philistines camped at Shunem, in the tribe of Issachar, far north of their own land. This shows how poorly Israel was being guarded, since the Philistines could march deep into the country. While Saul had been chasing David, he had left his people open and exposed. Saul gathered his forces on the nearby hills of Gilboa, but he had little heart for battle now that the Lord’s Spirit had left him.

When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was terrified. From what he saw himself, and from what his spies reported, he knew the Philistines were more numerous, better armed, and more confident than his own men. So his heart trembled greatly (1 Samuel 28:5). If he had stayed close to God, he would not have feared a Philistine army. But after he had driven God away by sin, his strength failed, his army looked weak, and his own spirit collapsed. His guilty conscience made him shake with fear.

He then remembered the blood he had wrongly spared from the Amalekites and the innocent blood of the priests he had slain. His sins stood before him, and they confused him. They ruined his plans, took away his courage, and filled him with fearful expectation of judgment. Trouble is truly terrifying to those who live in disobedience.

In this distress, Saul asked the Lord for guidance (1 Samuel 28:6). Need often drives people to God after they have ignored his word in better times. “In trouble they have sought you” (Isaiah 26:16). Yet Saul did not receive an answer. The Lord gave him no direction, no comfort, and no promise of help. Saul could not expect peace from God, because he came in the wrong spirit, without faith and with a divided heart. It was as if he had not really sought the Lord at all. He also came too late, after the time of mercy had passed and he had been finally rejected. And he had already shut himself off from the usual ways God used to answer, through Samuel, through the priest, and through dreams. A man cannot mock God and expect to be heard.

The writer then reminds us of earlier facts that lead into the story. Samuel had died, and that made the Philistines bolder and Saul more afraid. If Samuel had still been alive, Saul may have hoped that Samuel’s presence, advice, and prayers would help him in his trouble. Saul had also ordered strict action against witchcraft. He had enforced the law against people with familiar spirits, that is, those who claimed to contact spirits or the dead (Exodus 22:18). Some think he did this early in his reign, while Samuel still guided him. Others think it was a recent order, since it is mentioned here as something done not long before. Perhaps when Saul himself was tormented by an evil spirit, he grew suspicious of sorcery and cracked down on it.

People often look very zealous against sin when they are personally hurt by it. They may speak strongly against swearers if those people insult them, or against drunkards if the drunkards offend them. But that does not mean they care about God’s honor or hate sin for its own sake. Even so, Saul did do something proper by using his authority to restrain these evil practices. Many people seem to hate sin in others while still allowing it in themselves. Saul wanted to drive the devil out of his kingdom, while still harboring him in his own heart through envy and hatred.