I 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.

ACHISH'S CONFIDENCE IN DAVID. (Sa1 28:1-6) The Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel--The death of Samuel, the general dissatisfaction with Saul, and the absence of David, instigated the cupidity of those restless enemies of Israel. Achish said to David, Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me to battle--This was evidently to try him. Achish, however, seems to have thought he had gained the confidence of David and had a claim on his services.

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, Ch1 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, Sa1 23:9; though some think that he sent to Abiathar, who was with David, to inquire for him; and others that he made another ephod with Urim, and appointed another priest to consult by them; neither of which are probable: nor by prophets; of which there was a school not far from him, even at Naioth in Ramah, of which Samuel in his lifetime was president; but neither by the one nor the other could Saul get an answer from God, who for his sins had departed from him.

David in the Army of the Philistines. Attack upon Israel. Saul and the Witch of Endor - 1 Samuel 28 The danger into which David had plunged through his flight into the land of the Philistines, and still more through the artifice with which he had deceived the king Achish as to his real feelings, was to be very soon made apparent to him. For example, when the Philistines went to war again with Israel, Achish summoned him to go with his men in the army of the Philistines to the war against his own people and land, and David could not disregard the summons. But even if he had not brought himself into this danger without some fault of his own, he had at any rate only taken refuge with the Philistines in the greatest extremity; and what further he had done, was only done to save his own life. The faithful covenant God helped him therefore out of this trouble, and very soon afterwards put an end to his persecution by the fact that Saul lost his life in the war.

Preparations are herein making for that war which will put an end to the life and reign of Saul, and so make way for David to the throne. In this war, I. The Philistines are the aggressors and Achish their king makes David his confidant (Sa1 28:1, Sa1 28:2). II. The Israelites prepare to receive them, and Saul their king makes the devil his privy-counsellor, and thereby fills the measure of his iniquity. Observe, 1. The despairing condition which Saul was in (Sa1 28:3-6). 2. The application he made to a witch, to bring him up Samuel (Sa1 28:7-14). 3. His discourse with the apparition (Sa1 28:15-19). The damp it struck upon him (Sa1 28:20-25).

28:6 refused to answer: Earlier, Saul had consulted the Lord by sacred lots with mixed results (14:36-42). God’s refusal to speak was a sign of his judgment (14:37; Lam 2:9; Ezek 7:26; Amos 8:11-12; Mic 3:6-7).