Words of Condemnation

God has allowed Samuel’s spirit to come to Saul. But in today’s passage, Samuel does not give Saul the hopeful guidance he longs to hear. Indeed, the news Samuel brings is anything but good.

Samuel seems to know who is responsible for summoning him, but he wants to know the purpose for it. So Saul, gathering his courage, explains that he did it because he is in “deep distress” for two reasons: Israel is under attack by the Philistines and God is refusing to answer his entreaties. Saul is technically truthful here, but he chooses not to note that God has abandoned him because of his sin. Matthew Henry writes: “He that in his prosperity enquired not after God in his adversity thought it hard that God answered him not, nor took any notice of his enquiries…. He does not, like a penitent, own the righteousness of God in this; but like a man enraged, flies out against God as unkind and flies off from Him.”

Saul goes on to say that he called Samuel because of this dual difficulty, desperately hoping that he will “reveal to me what I should do.” But Samuel replies with the obvious question: “Why do you ask me, seeing the Lord has departed from you?” In other words, why should he, a man of God, assist one whom God Himself has refused to help? The implication is that Saul should be dealing with God in repentance, not trying to get from God’s man what God has refused to give. Samuel then spells out the problem for Saul: He is in these straits because of his sinful failure to carry out God’s wrath against Amalek. Because of that, God tore the kingdom from Saul and gave it to David—the previously anonymous “neighbor” (see 15:28)—just as He announced through Samuel. Why does Saul now seek assurance from the man who pronounced God’s judgment on him?

Then Samuel speaks his most chilling words. Saul wants guidance, but instead he gets prophecy. Samuel tells him not what he should do but what will happen. God is going to cause the Philistines to prevail over Israel, Samuel says, and Saul and his sons are going to perish and join Samuel among the dead. Saul is already weakened due to fasting, either out of fear or in an effort to curry God’s favor, and when he hears these awful words he apparently swoons and falls prostrate on the floor. His last hope is shattered and he is lost in despair.