Gospel Reflections #1019: When God's Seeming Silence Break us Down

1 Samuel 28:19 ‘The Lord will deliver not only you but also Israel into the hands of the Philistines. Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will deliver the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.’

This is the scene in which King Saul, having been forsaken by God, receives a pronouncement of utter destruction—his own death and the defeat of the Israelite army—from the spirit of the prophet Samuel, whom he had summoned through a medium (a woman who conjured spirits). 

In response to Saul’s lament that ‘God has departed from me and gives me no answer’, the spirit of Samuel delivered these words in verse 19 as his final message. 

Samuel declared, ‘Tomorrow, both you and your sons will be with me (i.e., in the realm of the dead, the underworld).’

This was a ruthless and absolute prophecy of the future, foretelling that not only King Saul but also his sons (including Jonathan, David’s close friend) would certainly be killed in battle the following day.

As it says, ‘The Lord will deliver not only you but also Israel into the hands of the Philistines’, the punishment for King Saul’s unbelief and sin is not confined to him alone, but is brought about in the form of the defeat of the entire Israelite army, God’s people.

It is not because the Philistines are strong that Israel will lose. What is being proclaimed here is God’s absolute sovereignty: that ‘the Lord’ is delivering Israel into the hands of the Philistines in order to judge Saul. 

Saul had previously committed the sin of ‘disregarding God’s command and failing to utterly destroy the Amalekites’, and it had already been decided that he would be removed from the throne.

At this critical juncture, his reliance on a medium (occult practices), which is strictly forbidden by the Law, became the final blow that sealed his spiritual downfall.

What Saul sought was not true repentance before God, but an ‘oracle (answer)’ to escape his immediate crisis.

Unable to bear God’s silence, he resorted to human means (a medium), only to receive a message of further despair, causing him to collapse to the ground.

Although Saul had been given many opportunities to return to God before this happened, he was unable to focus his mind on anything but the immediate situation.

It is not God who determines the final outcome, but we who choose it.

Even if we are condemned like Saul, God continues to work on our behalf.

Before we can no longer hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, we must strive to respond to it.

AUTHOR'S BIO: This Gospel Reflections page is written by Masae San, who resides in Hiroshima, Japan. Masae is a dedicated student of the Bible with a deep passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She shares her daily reflections on Gospel perspectives to reach out to others and spread the message of God's true love through a Christ-centered approach. We are sharing her insights here so that you, too, can experience the joy that comes from knowing and understanding the true Gospel and the love of God through Jesus Christ.