1 Samuel 28:6

_AND WHEN SAUL INQUIRED OF THE LORD, THE LORD ANSWERED HIM NOT, NEITHER BY DREAMS, NOR BY URIM, NOR BY PROPHETS._ And when Saul inquired of the Lord. Since it was a part of the official duty of the high priest to ask counsel for rulers in all matters affecting the national interests of Israel, we find Joshua in early, as well as David at a later period, frequently employing the agency of that high dignitary for consulting God in emergencies where his own sagacity was an insufficient guide. It appears that Saul also, in the brief period of his theocratic allegiance, inquired of the Lord through the same medium (1 Samuel 14:18). But he had long discontinued such applications, his impulsive and wayward temper driving him to neglect them, probably from the day that God gave him no answer (1

1-6 David could not refuse Achish without danger. If he promised assistance, and then stood neuter, or went over to the Israelites, he would behave with ingratitude and treachery. If he fought against Israel, he would sin greatly. It seemed impossible that he should get out of this difficulty with a clear conscience; but his evasive answer, intended to gain time, was not consistent with the character of an Israelite indeed. Troubles are terrors to the children of disobedience. In his distress, Saul inquired of the Lord. He did not seek in faith, but with a double, unstable mind. Saul had put the law in force against those that had familiar spirits, Exodus 22:18. Many seem zealous against, sin, when they are any way hurt by it, who have no concern for the glory of God, nor any dislike of sin as sin. Many seem enemies to sin in others, while they indulge it in themselves. Saul will drive...

Verse 1 Samuel 28:6. _THE LORD ANSWERED HIM NOT _] He used the _three methods_ by which supernatural intelligence was ordinarily given:- 1. _Dreams_. - The person prayed for instruction; and begged that God would answer by a significant dream. 2. _Urim_. - This was a kind of oracular answer given to the high priest when clothed with the ephod, on which were the _Urim_ and _Thummim_. How these communicated the answer, is not well known. 3. _Prophets_. - Who were requested by the party concerned to consult the Lord on the subject in question, and to report his answer. The _prophets_ at that time could only be those in the _schools of the prophets_, which Samuel had established at _Naioth_ and _Gibeah_. These were the only successors of Samuel that we know of....

WHEN SAUL INQUIRED OF THE LORD ... - It is said 1 Chronicles 10:14 that one reason why the Lord killed Saul, and gave his kingdom to David, was because he inquired not of the Lord. The explanation of this apparent discrepancy is to be found in the fact that inquiring of the familiar spirit was positively antagonistic to inquiring of the Lord. That Saul received no answer - when he “inquired of the Lord” by dreams, which was an immediate revelation to himself; by Urim, which was an answer through the high priest clothed in the ephod; or by prophets, which was an answer conveyed through some seer speaking by the Word of the Lord 1 Samuel 22:5 - was a reason for self-abasement and self-examination, to find out and, if possible, remove the cause, but was no justificatio

DOWNFALL AND DEATH OF SAUL (CHS. 28-31.) THE PHILISTINES GATHER TOGETHER FOR WAR. DISTRESS OF SAUL, AND VISIT TO THE WITCH OF ENDOR (1 Samuel 28:1.). EXPOSITION ACHISH SUMMONS DAVID TO JOIN HIM IN THE WAR AGAINST ISRAEL (1 Samuel

AND WHEN SAUL INQUIRED OF THE LORD,.... And this being not done truly and heartily, nor continued in, it was as if he had not inquired, and especially after he had inquired of one that had a familiar spirit, as Kimchi observes; for so it is said, 1 Chronicles 10:14; THE LORD ANSWERED HIM NOT, NEITHER BY DREAMS; which he dreamed himself, from whence he could not conclude anything relating to the will of God; so the Targum, "the Lord did not receive his prayer even by dreams;'' or by dreamers, diviners, who pretended to give answers by dreams: NOR BY URIM; there being no priest to consult in this way, Abiathar having fled with the ephod, in which were the Urim and Thummim, to David, 1 Samuel 23:9; though some think that he sent to A

URIM (_ See Scofield) - (Exodus 28:30). _...

7. SAUL AND THE WITCH AT ENDOR CHAPTER 28 _ 1. David fully joined to Achish (1 Samuel 28:1)_ 2. Forsaken Saul (1 Samuel 28:3) 3. The command to seek a witch (1 Samuel 28:7) 4. Saul's visit to Endor (1 Samuel 28:8) 5. Samuel's solemn message (1 Samuel 28:15) 6. Saul's despair and departure (1 Samuel 28:21) Saul's final plunge towards his awful end is the main topic of this chapter. Israel had ad

1 SAMUEL 28:2 is continued by 1 Samuel 29:1; the _connexion is_ broken by the insertion of 1 SAMUEL 28:3. SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR. This section interrupts the connexion; moreover, it would come naturally immediately before the battle of Gilboa. Saul is at Gilboa (p. 29) in 284. Opinions are divided; some hold that this section is from another source (E) than the bulk of 1 Samuel 25-31, and some that it is from the same source (J), that originally it stood in that document immediately before ch. 31, and that it has got into the wrong place, because it was omitted from an edition of _Samuel,_ and reinserted in a later edition (see p. 273)....

ENQUIRED. asked. Hebrew. _sha'al,_ to ask. Not darash, "to seek out". See note on 1 Samuel 28:7, and 1Ch 10:13, 1 Chronicles 10:14. THE LORD. Hebrew. _Jehovah_. App-4. ANSWERED HIM NOT. Not likely therefore to answer now by. way He had forbidden. Samuel had been dead two years. URIM. See note on Exodus 28:30; Numbers 26:55. It must have been an ephod of his own making, as Abiathar the High Priest was with David. Saul makes no mention of this in 1 Samuel 28:13....