Scripture Daily

Context No. 766 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

Context · Reflection

1 Samuel 28:1-7: in context

1In those days, the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. Achish said to David, “Know assuredly that you will go out with me in the army, you and your men.” 2David said to Achish, “Therefore you will know what your servant can do.” Achish said to David, “Therefore I will make you my bodyguard forever.” 3Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. Saul had sent away those who had familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land. 4The Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and encamped in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped in Gilboa. 5When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. 6When Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD didn’t answer him by dreams, by Urim, or by prophets. 7Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek for me a woman who has a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” His servants said to him, “Behold, there is a woman who has a familiar spirit at Endor.”

The Philistines have massed for war, and when Saul sees the size of their army, the text says his heart trembled greatly. He is a king out of his depth, and he does the right first thing: he inquires of the LORD. But the answer is silence. God does not respond to him by dreams, or by the Urim of the priests, or through any prophet; every channel is shut. Saul is left standing before a battle he dreads with no word from heaven at all.

What he does next is the tragedy. Years earlier Saul had obeyed the law and driven all the mediums and spiritists out of the land. Now, unable to bear the silence, he tells his servants to find him a medium so he can inquire of the dead, and they know of one at Endor. He cannot tolerate not knowing, so he reaches for the very thing he once outlawed, a forbidden door to a forbidden answer. The silence of God was itself part of his judgment, a thing to be sat with and repented under. Saul could not sit in it for one night. He would rather have a dark answer than no answer, and he goes looking for one where he had sworn none should be found.

Saul could not bear God's silence, and went looking for an answer through a door he had once shut himself. When God is quiet, can I wait in the silence, or do I reach for any answer at all, even one I know is wrong?

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