David and the Kingly Line of the Messiah – Saul’s Descent Into the Occult

Peter Barnes | 1 Samuel 28:3-25

SERMON  NOTES
Saul’s Descent Into the Occult
1 Samuel 28:3-25

This is one of the most tragic chapters in the Bible. William Blaikie compares Saul to a crippled vessel at sea.

1. Desperation leads to sin.

– 28:3-5; see Lev.19:31; 20:6, 27; Deut.18:9-14; Isa.8:19-20.

William Lloyd:

My times are in Thy hand:
My God, I wish them there;
My life, my friends, my soul I leave
Entirely to Thy care.

Saul was in no condition to sing it.

2. God gives over the apostate.

– 28:6; 1 Chron.10:13-14; Ps.66:18. Rom.1:26-27.

– 28:7. Saul is not desperate to know God; he is desperate to know the future.

– 28:10 – Saul takes an oath by Yahweh in order to do something that Yahweh specifically forbids. Calvin and Luther both say that this was a spectre of the devil; but Dale Ralph Davis maintains that it actually was Samuel. Hitler and Goebbels were both into the occult.

– 28:15-19 is the death sentence. Note 1 Sam.15:23; 1 Cor.10:11.

3. Yet some common grace remains.

– 28:21-25, but the result reminds us of Judas – John 13:30.