Saul’s chickens have come home to roost—in Armageddon! Napoleon called it the cockpit of the world.
“It happened in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for war, to fight with Israel” (1 Sam 28:1). Now what will David do? Where does his loyalty lie? But Achish didn’t see a problem. Of course, he wouldn’t: he was an uncircumcised Philistine. “You assuredly know that you will go out with me to battle,” he told David. And David seemed to acquiesce. The Philistines advanced northeast to Beth Shan, at the nexus of the Jordan and Jezreel Valleys, “then…gathered together, and came and encamped at Shunem” (28:4), 16 miles to the northwest. So Saul placed his troops on the slopes of Mount Gilboa, just across the valley. But without God, he knew he would be overwhelmed by superior strength. What to do? Samuel was dead. The priests had been executed. “And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him” (v 6). So he went looking for an outlawed witch—which he had outlawed! One was found at En Dor, on the same hill of Moreh as the Philistine forces. Dressed in disguise, he requested a séance. She feared because it was illegal, but “Saul swore…saying, ‘As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you’” (v 10). Imagine! The woman was used to dealing with familiar spirits, but when Saul requested Samuel and he really showed up, “she cried out with a loud voice” (v 12). It wasn’t supposed to work like that! Samuel grudgingly appeared, with his first message to the house of Eli sadly matching the one for the house of Saul. “Why ask me? God’s your enemy. Israel will lose. You and your boys will be with me tomorrow.” After supper with the witch (vv 22-25), Saul went into the night amid the gathering clouds of doom that eventually engulf all those who reject the light.