How will David ever make it out of this predicament? For over a year he has been stationed in Philistine territory at Ziklag exercising a covert operation against the enemies of Israel. Through cunning deception, he gained the favor of the Philistine king Achish. But what would David do now that Achish would enlist his help in the destruction of David’s kin, the Israelites? How will he ever get himself out of this? It seems like David’s deceptions have finally found him out …
We interrupt this program to bring you a special announcement!
We all at one time in our lives were watching something intently, wondering what would happen next, when we were rudely met with those words, followed by a news report, before we were returned to our regularly scheduled program. This is what the author of 1 Samuel intentionally does. He breaks off the narrative about David right at the peak of interest, and rather than telling us what happens, he tells us something of greater importance and more dramatic. Had he followed his story chronologically, the sequence would be chapter 27:1-28:2, followed by chapter 29 (the conclusion of the story of David and Akish) and then chapter 28:3-25 (our text for today) and chapter 31 (the death of Saul). Why does the author do this? Why interrupt the account of David with something that occurred later? He wants to place David’s predicament right beside Saul’s dilemma to show us that as difficult as David’s situation was, Saul’s was far worse.
King Saul was abandoned by God. In verse 15, Saul utters what are among the most miserable words in all of Scripture when he tells the ghost of Samuel, “I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams.” Saul had reached the point in his life that Samuel had prophesied of years earlier in chapter 15, verse 23, “rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”
Facing the greatest misery of his life, Saul sinks into the deepest darkness of his career as king, as his rebellion (akin to witchcraft) turns to actual witchcraft. In the absence of a word from the Lord, king Saul hypocritically violates God’s commandment and turns to Satan for answers. In desperation and facing devastation, men will often turn to anything they think will bring them hope. But the lesson Saul learned is that if one despises God’s Word, He will take it away and if one persistently refuses to obey God’s word, they will endure His silence.