1 Samuel 28 Chapter Study

The dark night at Endor is framed by two gathering storms: the Philistines mustering at Shunem and Saul’s terror on Gilboa (1 Samuel 28:4–5). Achish drafts David into his ranks and boasts, “I will make you my bodyguard for life,” while David replies with guarded ambiguity, setting up the tension the next chapters will resolve (1 Samuel 28:1–2; 1 Samuel 29:4–7). Yet the chapter’s center is not David at all but Saul, alone beneath a silent heaven. Samuel is dead, the prophets are silent, the Urim gives no light, and dreams do not carry a word; the king who once tore a prophet’s robe now seeks a forbidden voice in the night (1 Samuel 28:3; 28:6; 1 Samuel 15:27–28). What follows is one of Scripture’s most sobering scenes, where a desperate monarch crosses boundaries he himself enforced and hears from the grave a verdict long announced.

This chapter presses readers to wrestle with guidance, judgment, and hope. Saul’s flight to a medium exposes a heart that treated God’s word as negotiable until the word withdrew (1 Samuel 28:6; 1 Samuel 15:22–23). The woman of Endor, fearing the law Saul had enacted, performs a forbidden rite only to scream when the Lord truly sends Samuel, whose robe and voice return to confirm the sentence: the kingdom torn, Israel delivered to the Philistines, and Saul with his sons soon among the dead (1 Samuel 28:12–19; Deuteronomy 18:10–12). Yet even amid pronouncement, the text hints forward. The throne will be given to Saul’s neighbor, to David, and the plan God announced still moves ahead in a stage that mixes judgment with preservation and grief with promise (1 Samuel 28:17; 2 Samuel 7:12–16).

Words: 2946 / Time to read: 16 minutes

---

Historical and Cultural Background

Samuel’s death, already noted earlier, casts a long shadow over Israel’s spiritual life. He had functioned as judge and prophet, a circuiting intercessor who called the nation to return to the Lord with all its heart (1 Samuel 7:15–17; 1 Samuel 12:20–25). With Samuel gone and the Spirit withdrawn from Saul, the king stands exposed to fear and to his own history of disobedience (1 Samuel 16:14; 1 Samuel 28:5). The narrator reminds us that Saul had expelled mediums and spiritists, a policy aligned with the law’s prohibition against divination, necromancy, and attempts to consult the dead (1 Samuel 28:3; Deuteronomy 18:10–12). The same king who enforced the ban now seeks a loophole in disguise, underscoring how power without repentance twists righteousness into theater (1 Samuel 28:8).

The means of guidance listed in the text map Israel’s normal channels for hearing from God: dreams, the Urim, and the prophets (1 Samuel 28:6). Dreams had carried warnings and directions from patriarchal days onward (Genesis 20:3; Genesis 31:24). The Urim and Thummim, borne by the high priest, were to be sought in weighty decisions as Israel stood under the administration given through Moses (Exodus 28:30; Numbers 27:21). Prophets, from Moses to Samuel, delivered the Lord’s word directly, calling kings and people to obedience in concrete ways (Deuteronomy 18:15; 1 Samuel 3:20). The silence at Gilboa is therefore not an accident but a moral judgment: rejecting the word invites a famine of the word (1 Samuel 28:6; Amos 8:11–12).

The geography sharpens the peril. The Philistines encamp at Shunem on the plain of Jezreel, a strategic platform from which to threaten the northern tribes, while Saul camps on Mount Gilboa, a ridge that cannot by itself conquer fear’s arithmetic when three thousand select troops have become an outmatched host (1 Samuel 28:4–5). Endor lies beyond the Philistine line, requiring Saul to pass near enemy positions at night. The risk heightens the irony: to avoid God’s gaze, Saul places himself under human danger and swears by the Lord to protect the very lawbreaking he seeks (1 Samuel 28:8–10). The oath “As surely as the Lord lives” falling from the lips of a disguised king in a forbidden house reveals how far form can drift from faith (Exodus 20:7; 1 Samuel 28:10).

Within Israel’s life, consulting the dead was more than a private superstition; it was a covenant breach that confused the holy with the profane. The law’s bans protected the people from counterfeit voices that pretended to reveal destiny while luring hearts away from the living God (Leviticus 19:31; Leviticus 20:6). By contrast, true guidance was tethered to God’s revealed will, His chosen mediators, and the sacrificial system that dealt with sin and secured fellowship (Leviticus 1:1–5; Deuteronomy 12:5–7). The narrative therefore presents Endor as a symptom of deeper disease: a king seeking a word without surrender, a verdict without repentance, and a future without obedience (1 Samuel 28:6–8; Proverbs 1:24–28).

Biblical Narrative

The chapter opens not with Saul but with Achish and David. The Philistine ruler announces that David must accompany him into battle, and David replies that Achish will see what his servant can do, a reply loaded with ambiguity that providence will soon unravel (1 Samuel 28:1–2; 1 Samuel 29:6–7). The camera then cuts to Israel. Samuel is dead, the nation has mourned, and Saul has driven out necromancers; yet the Philistines assemble at Shunem, Israel at Gilboa, and terror grips the king when he sees the opposing force (1 Samuel 28:3–5). He inquires of the Lord by every authorized means and receives no answer, a silence that mirrors years of spurning God’s word in favor of expedience (1 Samuel 28:6; 1 Samuel 15:22–23).

In desperation Saul asks for a medium and is directed to a woman at Endor. He disguises himself, travels at night with two men, and asks her to summon the one he names (1 Samuel 28:7–8). The woman objects, noting Saul’s purge and fearing a trap, but Saul swears by the Lord that she will not be punished, an oath that breaks the very law he once enforced (1 Samuel 28:9–10; Deuteronomy 18:11–12). When he asks for Samuel, she performs her rite, then shrieks when she sees Samuel, recognizing by the shock of genuine apparition that her client is the king himself (1 Samuel 28:11–12). Saul urges her to describe what she sees, and when she mentions an old man wearing a robe, he knows and bows with his face to the ground (1 Samuel 28:13–14).

Samuel’s words are a reprise with a terminal date. He asks why Saul has disturbed him, and the king confesses distress: the Philistines are upon him, God has departed, and the ordinary channels of guidance are closed (1 Samuel 28:15). Samuel replies that the Lord has become Saul’s enemy and has done what He said long ago: tearing the kingdom from Saul and giving it to his neighbor, to David, because Saul did not carry out the Lord’s fierce wrath against Amalek (1 Samuel 28:16–18; 1 Samuel 15:27–29). The prophet adds a specific timetable: the Lord will give Israel and Saul into Philistine hands, and tomorrow Saul and his sons will be with Samuel among the dead (1 Samuel 28:19).

Saul collapses, weak from fasting and fear. The woman, having risked her life, now pleads to give him bread and meat, and after he refuses she and his men urge him until he eats what she prepares—unleavened bread and a quickly butchered calf (1 Samuel 28:20–25). That same night they rise and depart. The narrative ends in silence, with a king who sought a word receiving a verdict, a household of strangers feeding the condemned, and dawn coming on the last day of Saul’s reign (1 Samuel 31:1–6). The juxtaposition of a forbidden house and a final meal underscores both the gravity of judgment and the strange hush of common grace that lingers even as sentence stands.

Theological Significance

Silence from heaven can be a judgment on a long refusal to heed the word already given. Saul’s inquiry by dreams, Urim, and prophets yields nothing, not because God has become weak but because the king has become stiff-necked (1 Samuel 28:6; Psalm 66:18). Earlier, the Lord warned that those who would not listen when He called would one day call and not be answered, and that a famine of hearing could fall upon a land that despised His voice (Proverbs 1:24–28; Amos 8:11–12). Saul’s night at Endor is therefore not an unlucky moment; it is the ripe fruit of a pattern where sacrifice was preferred to obedience and appearances to repentance (1 Samuel 15:22–23; 1 Samuel 15:30–31). The chapter urges readers to receive today’s word with soft hearts while the door of mercy stands open (Hebrews 3:7–8; Psalm 95:7–8).

The channels of guidance in Israel reflect the stage of God’s administration under Moses. Dreams, Urim, and prophets were ordained means by which the Lord directed His people while the priesthood bore the symbols of decision before His presence (Numbers 27:21; Exodus 28:30). With the coming of the promised King and the outpoured Spirit, God’s people are called to serve in the new way of the Spirit rather than the old way of the written code, with the Son Himself as the climactic word (Romans 7:6; 2 Corinthians 3:5–6; Hebrews 1:1–2). Progressive revelation does not deny the earlier means; it fulfills them, centering the church’s guidance in Scripture breathed by God and illumined by the Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16–17; John 16:13). Saul’s silence warns not to despise the means God has actually provided in any era.

Necromancy is condemned not because the unseen is unreal but because such practices attempt to gain secret knowledge apart from God’s appointed word. The law forbids mediums and spiritists, severing Israel from the surrounding nations’ rites and guarding the people from counterfeit guidance that enslaves (Deuteronomy 18:10–12; Leviticus 20:6). At Endor, the shock is that Samuel truly appears; the woman’s scream suggests that the outcome exceeded her expectations and methods (1 Samuel 28:12). The Lord remains sovereign even when sinners trespass; He can overrule forbidden acts to pronounce His own verdict and accomplish His purposes without endorsing the means (Genesis 50:20; Psalm 115:3). The episode teaches that we cannot coerce heaven by illicit doors; God speaks if He wills, and when He speaks, the message confirms what He has already revealed (1 Samuel 28:16–19).

Judgment here is covenantal and concrete. Samuel ties the doom on Gilboa directly to Saul’s failure against Amalek, the old hostility that the Lord swore to blot out because Amalek attacked Israel’s weak and trailed the people with violence (1 Samuel 28:18; Deuteronomy 25:17–19; Exodus 17:14–16). Earlier Saul spared what God forbade and sought to dress disobedience as worship; now the sentence reaches its appointed day (1 Samuel 15:19–23). Covenant literalism emerges in the details: the kingdom is torn just as the robe was torn; Israel is delivered into Philistine hands; Saul and his sons fall on the very ridges named in the prophecy (1 Samuel 15:27–28; 1 Samuel 28:19; 1 Samuel 31:1–6). God’s promises and warnings operate in real places with real outcomes.

The phrase “tomorrow you and your sons will be with me” requires careful reading. Samuel does not announce a change in Saul’s eternal destiny in this sentence; he declares that Saul will join him in the realm of the dead, the grave-world often called Sheol, the place where the departed go (1 Samuel 28:19; Job 7:9; Psalm 16:10). The point is immediacy and inevitability, not approval. Saul’s earthly course closes under judgment, while the Lord’s plan moves forward by raising up another, the neighbor to whom the kingdom has been given (1 Samuel 28:17). The text keeps our eyes on history’s hinge even as it glances into death’s shadow.

Hope still threads the night. Samuel specifies that the kingdom has been given to David, the neighbor whose heart the Lord chose and anointed, and whose restraint in prior chapters has kept his conscience ready to receive the throne (1 Samuel 28:17; 1 Samuel 24:12–13; 1 Samuel 26:23–24). This “already/not yet” rhythm—promise now, fullness later—marks the way God advances His plan, inviting faith to rest in what He has said when circumstances look most contrary (Hebrews 6:12; Romans 8:23). Even Endor serves that thread: while Saul spirals, the Lord is simultaneously disentangling David from Philistine service and preparing to seat him over Judah and then all Israel (1 Samuel 29:6–7; 2 Samuel 5:1–3). Judgment and mercy run on parallel rails without contradiction.

The final meal in the forbidden house offers a muted picture of common grace. The woman who risked judgment to practice a banned art now hastens to feed the king who is under judgment, and the men eat bread and meat that will not strengthen them for victory but only for the walk into what God has decreed (1 Samuel 28:22–25). Scripture recognizes that rain falls on the just and the unjust and that kindness can appear where least expected, yet such gifts, without repentance, do not reverse verdicts (Matthew 5:45; Romans 2:4–5). The narrative thereby balances gravity with quiet mercy, even as it steers readers away from sentimental conclusions.

Spiritual Lessons and Application

When God seems silent, the faithful response is not to seek forbidden voices but to return to the word already spoken with repentance and prayer. Saul’s night demonstrates how neglecting God’s voice over time can harden the heart until even legitimate channels yield no light (1 Samuel 28:6; Psalm 95:7–8). Scripture invites believers to examine themselves, confess sin, and ask for wisdom that God gives generously without finding fault (Psalm 66:18; James 1:5; Isaiah 55:6–7). In place of shortcuts, the path forward includes Scripture, prayer, counsel among mature believers, and patient trust in the Lord’s timing (2 Timothy 3:16–17; Proverbs 11:14; Psalm 37:5–7).

Leadership without obedience drifts toward superstition. Saul swore by the Lord to shield a lawbreaker while breaking the law himself, a contradiction birthed by the fear of man and the habit of self-preservation (1 Samuel 28:10; 1 Samuel 15:24). Believers in leadership—at home, church, or work—are called to integrity that refuses to dress disobedience in holy language (Micah 6:8; Proverbs 28:13). Where past compromises have accumulated, the answer is not disguise but repentance, not frantic activity but a return to the Lord who still speaks through His word and receives the contrite (Psalm 32:5; Isaiah 66:2).

Discernment means rejecting modern analogs to Endor. While few will visit a medium by night, many flirt with occult curiosities, horoscopes, or spiritualized techniques that promise a word about the future apart from the Lord’s appointed means (Deuteronomy 18:10–12). The church is called to abstain from such practices and to cherish the sufficient word given through the prophets and apostles and fulfilled in the Son (Hebrews 1:1–2; Jude 3). This does not trivialize hard choices; it dignifies them by rooting guidance in God’s character and promises, not in whispers from the dark (Psalm 119:105; John 10:27).

A pastoral case can make this concrete. Imagine a believer facing a career decision with high stakes and little clarity. Anxiety tempts them toward quick fixes—consulting dubious “readings,” over-spiritualizing coincidences, or forcing doors. The pattern of 1 Samuel 28 counsels the opposite: confess fear, return to basic obedience, sit under Scripture, seek wise counsel, and ask the Lord for light, trusting that He will direct steps even when He withholds immediate answers (Psalm 25:4–5; Proverbs 3:5–6). Better a slow path in the light than a quick path into shadows (Psalm 27:13–14; Philippians 4:6–7).

Conclusion

Endor is not a sensational detour; it is the moral resolution of Saul’s reign. The king who treated obedience as negotiable discovers that when the hour of terror arrives, the God he sidelined does not answer in the old ways, and the voice he summons from the grave only repeats what he refused to hear alive (1 Samuel 28:6; 1 Samuel 28:16–19). A final meal, a night march, and a silent dawn lead to Gilboa, where covenant warnings take visible form and a kingdom passes away (1 Samuel 28:25; 1 Samuel 31:1–6). The lesson is stark but merciful: today, while we hear His voice, let us not harden our hearts; let us receive the word gladly and walk in it while light remains (Hebrews 3:7–8; Psalm 119:105).

Yet the chapter does not leave us in darkness. Embedded in Samuel’s sentence is a line of hope: the kingdom is given to David, and through David the Lord will advance His plan toward a throne established in righteousness and peace (1 Samuel 28:17; 2 Samuel 7:12–16). The same God who judges faithlessness preserves promise, disentangling His servant from Philistine ranks and carrying him toward shepherd-kingship over Israel (1 Samuel 29:6–7; Psalm 78:70–72). For believers living between promise and fullness, Endor warns against seeking light in forbidden places and invites a return to the Lord who speaks in Scripture and through His Son, guiding His people by the Spirit until the day when silence is swallowed by the joy of His presence (Hebrews 1:1–2; Romans 8:23).

“Because you did not obey the Lord or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this to you today. The Lord will deliver both Israel and you into the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me.” (1 Samuel 28:18–19)