1 Samuel 28:1-7: a reflection

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.”

Facing the Philistine army and gripped by fear, Saul seeks guidance from God, but heaven is silent: the LORD did not answer him by dreams, or by the sacred lots, or by prophets. God's silence should have driven Saul to repentance, for he had long turned from God. Instead, in his desperation, Saul turns to a forbidden source, seeking out a medium at Endor, the very kind of practice he himself had once banished from the land. When God would not answer, Saul went looking for answers in the wrong place.

Notice Saul's tragic response to God's silence. The silence was itself a call to return, to humble himself, to seek God rightly. But rather than repent, Saul sought a shortcut, turning to forbidden means to get the guidance God was withholding. His fear and impatience drove him not to God but away from him, to a source God had condemned. He wanted an answer more than he wanted God.

That is a warning for our own seasons when God seems silent. When we seek God and heaven seems to give no answer, we are tempted, like Saul, to grow impatient and to look for guidance in the wrong places, illegitimate shortcuts, sources that promise answers apart from God. But God's silence is often a call to wait, to examine ourselves, to seek him more earnestly, not a reason to turn elsewhere. When God seems silent, do not do as Saul did. Do not grasp at forbidden shortcuts to get the answer you want. Wait on God, humble yourself before him, and seek him rightly, trusting that he is better than any answer sought apart from him.

Lord, when heaven was silent, Saul, in fear and impatience, turned not to repentance but to a forbidden source, seeking answers apart from you. Guard me from that tragic response when you seem silent. When I seek you and hear no answer, keep me from growing impatient and looking for guidance in the wrong places, grasping at shortcuts that promise answers apart from you. Help me understand that your silence may be a call to wait, to examine myself, to seek you more earnestly. Teach me to wait on you and seek you rightly, trusting that you yourself are better than any answer found apart from you. Let me want you more than I want an answer.