Commentary - 1 Samuel 28:8-14

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, we find King Saul at the absolute end of his rope. Having been cut off from every legitimate form of divine communication, he now turns in desperation to the very thing he had previously, and rightly, outlawed. This is not just a political misstep; it is a spiritual collapse. The king of Israel, anointed by God, is now seeking counsel from the kingdom of darkness. He is a man who has rejected the word of the Lord from the prophet Samuel when he was alive, and now he seeks to circumvent God's silence by digging up that same prophet from the grave. This is the story of a man who has become a hollow shell, a king in name only, whose rebellion has led him to this pathetic and shadowy rendezvous. The scene is thick with irony, hypocrisy, and the palpable terror of a man who knows, deep down, that his day of reckoning has arrived.

The central theme here is the terrifying consequence of rejecting God. Saul had been given every opportunity, every lawful means of guidance, a prophet, the Urim, dreams, but his disobedience rendered them all silent. When God stops speaking, it is a fearful judgment. Saul's response is not repentance, but rather a frantic attempt to get an answer, any answer, from another source. He treats the spiritual world like a vending machine, and when God's machine is out of service, he goes down the hall to find another. This passage serves as a stark warning about the folly of seeking guidance apart from God and His revealed will. It demonstrates that God is not mocked; a man reaps what he sows, and Saul is about to reap a harvest of terror.

Outline

Context In 1 Samuel

This chapter marks the tragic culmination of Saul's downfall, a process that began many chapters earlier with his disobedience regarding the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15). The Spirit of the Lord had departed from him and he was tormented by a harmful spirit. He has spent years hunting David, the Lord's true anointed, and has slaughtered the priests at Nob. Now, the Philistines are gathered for war, and Saul is terrified. He has inquired of the Lord through all the proper channels, dreams, Urim, and prophets, but has received only silence (1 Sam. 28:6). This silence is God's judgment. It is in this context of divine abandonment and military threat that Saul makes his fatal choice to consult a medium at Endor. The narrative places Saul's faithless desperation in stark contrast with David's conduct, who, despite his own precarious situation among the Philistines, continues to trust the Lord.

Verse by Verse Commentary

8 Then Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes, and he went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night; and he said, “Divine for me, please, and bring up for me whom I shall say to you.”

Saul, the king, the head and shoulders taller than any other man in Israel, now stoops. He takes off his royal robes, the symbol of his God-given authority, and puts on the costume of a common man. This is more than just a tactical disguise; it is a picture of his entire spiritual state. He has abandoned his office. He is no longer acting as the Lord's anointed, but as a frightened man slinking through the shadows. He goes by night, because deeds of darkness love the dark. He cannot go as a king to a witch, because as the king he had rightly outlawed witchcraft. So he must go as a hypocrite. The request itself is pathetic in its politeness, "Divine for me, please." This is the king of Israel, who should be commanding armies and executing justice, now begging for a forbidden glimpse into the future from a woman he was supposed to have driven from the land.

9 But the woman said to him, “Behold, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who are mediums and spiritists from the land. Why are you then laying a snare for my life to bring about my death?”

Here is a fine piece of irony. The witch is more aware of the king's law than the king is of God's law. She reminds this disguised man of the official policy in Israel, a policy Saul himself instituted. In this, Saul had actually been obedient. Deuteronomy 18 is plain that such practices are an abomination to the Lord. So Saul had done a good thing in purging the land of mediums. But now, that one good deed rises up to accuse him. The woman is shrewd. She suspects a trap. Is this some kind of sting operation? Is this man trying to entrap her so he can turn her in? Her fear is entirely reasonable. She is afraid of Saul's law, while Saul, the lawmaker, is in the process of trampling all over God's law.

10 Then Saul swore to her by Yahweh, saying, “As Yahweh lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.”

If the previous verses were ironic, this is outright blasphemy. Saul invokes the name of the living God, Yahweh, to guarantee the safety of a woman engaging in an act that Yahweh has explicitly condemned as an abomination worthy of death. "As Yahweh lives," he says, while acting as though Yahweh were dead. He is using the name of God as a cover for his sin, as a tool to get what he wants. He is swearing an oath to disobey God, and he is making God the guarantor of that oath. This is a man whose conscience is so twisted, whose fear has so entirely consumed him, that he can no longer see the gross contradiction of his own words. He is promising this woman that he will protect her from the consequences of the very law he is sworn to uphold, and he does it in the name of the God who gave that law.

11 Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” And he said, “Bring up Samuel for me.”

Having been given a blasphemous assurance, the woman agrees. Her question is simple and professional, "Whom shall I bring up?" She is ready to perform her seance. Saul's answer reveals the heart of his desperation. "Bring up Samuel for me." He wants the prophet he had ignored in life. He wants the man whose stern warnings he had rejected. He wants to hear the word of the Lord, but on his own terms, through a forbidden channel, at a time of his own choosing. He wouldn't listen to Samuel when Samuel was sent by God; now he tries to summon Samuel as though the prophet were his errand boy. He is treating a prophet of God like a genie in a bottle.

12 And the woman saw Samuel and cried out with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul.”

Something happens here that is entirely outside the woman's control and expectation. She begins her incantations, her normal bag of tricks, expecting to produce some familiar spirit, some demonic deception. But instead, God intervenes. The text says she "saw Samuel," and her reaction is a shriek of terror. This was not part of the show. This was not what she was used to. The real deal showed up, and it terrified her. In that moment of supernatural clarity, she also sees through Saul's disguise. The presence of the true Samuel reveals the identity of the true king. God pulls back the curtain, and both the witch and the king are exposed. She isn't angry that he lied about being an ordinary man; she is terrified because she has been caught in a transaction with the king himself, and more than that, she has been a party to something far beyond her pay grade. God has crashed her party.

13 And the king said to her, “Do not be afraid; but what do you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a divine being coming up out of the earth.”

Saul, now exposed, tries to calm her down. His focus is singular. He is not concerned with her terror, or with the fact that his cover is blown. He just wants the message. "What do you see?" The woman's description is telling. She sees an "elohim," a word that can mean God, gods, or in this context, a majestic or divine being. She sees a figure of authority and power ascending from the earth, from Sheol, the realm of the dead. This is not some wispy ghost; it is a figure of gravitas. The power of the event is real, and it is coming from a place she only pretends to have access to.

14 And he said to her, “What is his form?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped with a robe.” And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself.

Saul cannot see the apparition himself, so he presses for details. The description is definitive. An old man, wrapped in a robe. This was Samuel's signature attire, the prophetic mantle. It was this very robe that Saul had grasped and torn years before, symbolizing the tearing of the kingdom from his hand (1 Sam. 15:27-28). The mention of the robe would have struck Saul like a thunderclap. At this, Saul needs no more confirmation. He knows. And his reaction is not defiance, but utter submission. He bows, prostrates himself, with his face to the ground. Before this specter from the dead, this messenger of his doom, Saul finally assumes the posture he should have taken before the living God years ago. But it is too little, and far, far too late.