If in chapter, 21:10-13, we saw a saint of God out of the path of faith, out of communion with God, for a season, the David we now see, in chapters 27, 28 and 29, exhibits the same traits in a worse degree. Before, he pretended insanity for fear of his life; now he professes to be a friend of the world, takes a place of influence in it, and consequently maintains himself by living a lie. Sad evidence of a low state of soul in David is the Holy Spirit's record in verses 1 and 2. But. what else can be expected when the believer turns from dependence on the living and true God to depend upon his own resources, and seeks the protection of a guilty world which is soon to meet its judgment?
The Philistines were prepared for war upon Israel and gathered in Shunem, and the Israelites united in Gilboa to meet them. Saul, miserable, self-seeking man, without resource in God whom he had never known by faith, is overcome by fear. God whom he had got along without all his days, or outwardly recognizing but habitually disobeying, will not now answer him.
We are reminded of those solemn words of Proverbs 1:24-32: "Because I have called, and ye refused, ... ye have set at naught all My counsel, and would none of My reproof, ... when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, .... then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer, .... for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord." May this not be the portion of the reader!
Saul then no longer turns to religion (and outward service to God, as on former occasions, chapters 13:9 15:30, etc.). Has he learned that the time for sham, for empty profession, is past? His heart trembles as he faces, not only the loss of honor and position, but of life itself; with eternity before him, Saul is "without God" (Eph. 2:1212That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (Ephesians 2:12)). Will he then, now at last take his true place before Him as a confessed sinner seeking mercy from Him who is "rich in mercy" (Eph. 2:44But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, (Ephesians 2:4))? Had he done so, he would have found even at this late moment in his life, a pardoning God.
Saul made his choice; he decided to seek satanic help rather than to humble himself before God and acknowledge in brokenness of spirit his many sins. Accordingly, he went to a woman who had a "familiar spirit," which he knew and had condemned as evil. What followed is somewhat parallel to the case of the wicked Balaam in Numbers 22 to 24. Both the woman of En-dor and Balaam (and a large class in our own times who have dealings with the unseen world and profess to be able to foretell events) had to do with Satan and the demons under his control, and in both these cases we see God interfering for His own glory. Instead of a demon, the woman saw Samuel, and was startled and terrified; it was power above her enchantments that met her, the power of God.
Samuel was seen in the likeness he had borne on earth, and in the few sentences he uttered, Saul learned that tomorrow all will be over with him; he and his sons will be in eternity. The realization of the solemn judgment of God upon him, and that not without warnings during his life, was too much now for Saul, and a deeper fear entered his heart. Eternity with the lost, the unrepentant, was Saul's prospect. Is it yours?
"It is appointed unto men once to die,
but after this the judgment," but "unto them which look for Him (Christ) shad He appear the second time without (apart from) sin, unto salvation." He!). 9:27-28.