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1 Samuel 28 · a question people ask

Why didn't the LORD answer Saul?

In the text

At 28:6 the chapter doesn't say. What it gives comes later, in the words Saul hears: "Why then do you ask me, since the LORD has departed from you and has become your adversary?" (28:16) (tap adversary), and the reason for the kingdom being torn away: "Because you didn’t obey the LORD’s voice, and didn’t execute his fierce wrath on Amalek" (28:18). The book has said it before. After Amalek, Samuel told him, "Because you have rejected the LORD’s word, he has also rejected you from being king" (15:23). When David was anointed, "the LORD’s Spirit departed from Saul" (16:14). Saul himself says, "God has departed from me, and answers me no more" (28:15). Past that, the chapter leaves the LORD's silence unexplained, and so does this answer.

The verses

“When Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD didn’t answer him by dreams, by Urim, or by prophets.”
1 Samuel 28:6 · World English Bible
“Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me, to bring me up?” Saul answered, “I am very distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me, and answers me no more, by prophets, or by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I shall do.” Samuel said, “Why then do you ask me, since the LORD has departed from you and has become your adversary?”
1 Samuel 28:15-16 · World English Bible
“Because you didn’t obey the LORD’s voice, and didn’t execute his fierce wrath on Amalek, therefore the LORD has done this thing to you today.”
1 Samuel 28:18 · World English Bible
“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected the LORD’s word, he has also rejected you from being king.””
1 Samuel 15:23 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 1 Samuel 28

1 Samuel 28: The LORD didn't answer

Saul had sent those with familiar spirits out of the land himself (28:3), and when the LORD didn't answer him (28:6) he went to one by night. What he heard about the kingdom was nothing new: "The LORD has done to you as he spoke by me" (28:17). The kingdom was torn from him and given to his neighbor, as in 15:28, and now the neighbor is named: David.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions