Because thou didst not hearken to the voice of Jehovah, and didst not execute his fierce anger upon Amalek, therefore has Jehovah done this thing to thee this day.
Saul has gone by night to a medium, and the answer he gets brings no new charge: it reaches back years to one command he failed to carry out against Amalek. Why should one act of sparing, long past, be the reason the kingdom is torn away now?
Samuel brings no fresh accusation. He repeats a sentence already passed years before.
Samuel continues to speak. The Lord had at last taken the case into His own hands. After all these years of patience, and with no repentance on Saul's part, the original word that went out is fulfilled. The language is very like what the prophet had used years before. That was the day Saul took hold of his robe and tried to keep him back. As then, he declares, "The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbour" — who is now named.
The "fierce wrath against Amalek" was not Saul's idea. God had passed that sentence generations earlier and only told Saul when to carry it out.
The Spirit now gives a whole chapter to the campaign against Amalek. This makes it absolutely clear why the Lord rejected Saul, and how right it was. God's sentence had long since gone out against this persistent enemy of His people. At Rephidim the Lord said He would have "war against Amalek from generation to generation" (Ex. 17:16). In his parting charge to Israel, Moses said, "you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget" (Deut. 25:19). All that was lacking was a word from the Lord about the exact moment to carry out that terrible sentence. That word came to Saul through Samuel.
Commentators also read Amalek as a picture.
Amalek is the great enemy of God's people. As we have seen in our notes on Exodus (chapter 17), Amalek pictures the flesh and its lusts. Israel was to fight Amalek from generation to generation, and the memory of Amalek was to be blotted out completely. So too the flesh is always the enemy of the children of God. "For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh." It is enmity against God. This was the enemy Saul was to fight and destroy utterly. But Saul at heart was nothing but an Amalekite.
Years separate Saul's sparing of Amalek from this night. The verse says the sentence lands "this day."
The cause too is the same — disobedience in failing to carry out God's judgment on Amalek. How solemn to remember this! God may long delay carrying out a sentence, but judgment must fall at last. And it falls for the very sin that made it necessary in the first place. Indeed, sparing Amalek is the root of all sin. At the cross of Christ God passed sentence on sin in the flesh. That sentence declares that nothing short of complete removal will do.
Disobedience does not stay the size it started at.
Samuel's solemn words could head this chapter. Saul had spared the spoil of Amalek against the Lord's command, and Samuel told him, "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." The two parts are far apart in time and in outward character, yet they are really one. The old proverb says it well: "Consider the end." Little did Saul think where it would lead. On the day he failed to wipe out Amalek he spared the cattle "to sacrifice to the Lord" — in disobedience to His word. Those spared cattle grew into the spells of a medium. We do not realise the unity underlying all evil; when one link of obedience to God is cut, the soul puts itself into Satan's hands.
Saul came looking for guidance. He got a verdict instead.
Saul had sinned against light and privilege again and again. What could Samuel do but pronounce his doom? For this solemn purpose God was pleased to send His servant back to earth that day. There was nothing of pity or mercy in his words.
Commentators take the voice Saul heard as the real Samuel, not a medium's trick.
Samuel does not answer Saul's problem the way an evil spirit would. When an evil spirit speaks through a medium, its messages are always nice and pampering. They are meant to make the person asking feel good. But Samuel tells Saul the plain truth. It made no sense for Saul to ask Samuel when the Lord had departed from him (v.16).
- One sin. The charge is not new: the whole sentence hangs on the day Saul failed to carry out God's word about Amalek.
- One delay. Years of silence were patience, not pardon; judgment fell at last for the very sin that first required it.
- One root. Amalek pictures the flesh. Sparing it is the root of all sin, and only the cross deals with it fully.
- One road. Sparing Amalek's cattle and consulting a medium are one road: "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." Cut one link of obedience, and the soul hands itself to Satan.
- One end. Saul asked for counsel and got a verdict — no pity, no mercy, and no way to turn the judgment aside.
And Jehovah will also give Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me; the army of Israel also will Jehovah give into the hand of the Philistines.
On the eve of battle, fear drives Saul to a woman at Endor who claims to speak with the dead. He wants an answer from a God who has stopped speaking to him — and he gets one. The reply names the day of his own death. Two questions have followed it ever since: who spoke that night, and what "with me" means.
One writer points out that the woman never even began her usual routine.
Overruling her objections, he told her to bring up Samuel. Before she could start her incantations, Samuel appeared. That night she could not reach her usual demon. The Lord stepped in for reasons of His own. Samuel's appearance terrified the woman, for she had never had such an experience before. God sent the prophet to the abandoned king; the woman had nothing whatever to do with the matter.
One commentator asks how the woman worked out who her visitor was:
We have no reason to believe that Samuel said it was Saul, but she drew the conclusion at once. And why? Because it was not the familiar spirit she expected, but Samuel, whom God alone could send. And why would God send him, if not for the king?… So Saul, in his desperation, wanted to consult a witch and her familiar spirit. He was caught in his own trap, and heard his doom from the departed prophet.
This sentence goes back years, to God's command about the nation Amalek — a command Saul never carried out.
It is too late. The measure is full. God has forgotten nothing. He has now become the enemy of Saul (v. 16), who has both God and the Philistines against him. And why? Saul did "not listen to the voice of the Lord" nor "carry out His fierce anger against Amalek" (v. 18). On top of that, he had not kept the word of the Lord, and he had consulted a medium for guidance instead of asking the Lord (1 Chronicles 10:13). Disobedience and independence mark out man without God. Despite all appearances, Saul was one of these. Because of these things God decreed the death of Saul and his sons, as well as the defeat of Israel (v. 19).
One writer weighs the tone of the message as much as its content. Samuel had once prayed all night for this man.
But Saul had sinned away his day of grace. Nothing was left but to pass sentence on him… Saul had had many opportunities. In his early reign he had the light of God's presence, and the counsel and support of the prophet. Yet his privileges were nothing compared with those of people today, who get to hear the gospel of Christ preached in their ears.
Those sons include Jonathan. One writer traces his death to a choice made years before:
He does not follow David, but stays in the house of Saul, where "David's place was empty."… And what was the end? Jonathan lost his life on the mountains of Gilboa. He died among the enemies of David. He refused to share the rejection of David, and suffered loss in consequence.
Some take it to mean only that Saul would be among the dead:
Samuel did not mean that Saul would end up in the same place and circumstances as himself. Between saved and lost "a great chasm has been fixed," and no one can cross it from either side. Samuel meant only that Saul would be dead the next day — numbered among the dead like the departed prophet.
Others argue from the timing that the grave cannot be the meaning:
That could not mean the grave. Samuel knew that soldiers killed in battle are not, as a rule, buried on the same day, if at all. In fact, the Philistines did not find Saul's body until the day after he died — two days after his meeting with Samuel.
Saul collapsed at the news. One writer sets him beside a man who faced death without fear.
Now notice the contrast in Paul the apostle. His life was in danger for the sake of the gospel. But was he dismayed? Far from it: "we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord."… His own words in Romans 5:8 tell us all we need to know: "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Known and believed, that truth banishes all dread of death from the soul. Christ has gone into death for us, making full atonement for all our sin and guilt, and breaking the power of the enemy once and for all.
- Answer. Saul asked a medium; God answered instead. Even she could see this was not her usual work.
- Amalek. One disobeyed command about Amalek, left unrepented for years, stands behind the death sentence.
- Alone. Samuel speaks without a trace of tenderness. Saul had spent his day of grace.
- Accompanied. Saul does not fall alone: his sons and Israel's army fall with him. Jonathan chose Saul's house over David's exile.
- Afterwards. Commentators differ over what "with me" covers. All agree the news flattened Saul — while the other Saul, sure that Christ died for sinners, met death without dread.