1Sa 28:21 | KingComments | STEP | After this message Saul immediately falls “full length” upon the ground. This addition emphasizes his length. That has been his pride and fame. All that pride collapses. When God tells sinners in His Word what terrible fate awaits them, He opens a door of hope to them at the same time. That door of hope a sinner can enter when he repents. But those who turn to the gates of hell for help can only expect darkness, without a ray of light. While he is still lying on the ground, the woman asks him to listen to her. Once more Saul is treated kindly, however by a medium. She presents herself as his servant. She has no sense of guilt; she has done her job. Here we see what all these demonic practices yield. It only brings misery and dejection and total mental and physical devastation. Saul has lost every initiative. He is in the power of others, surrendered to them. The woman and his servants try to get him up and running, they cannot offer him anything better. Saul gets up and disappears in the night, on his way to his tragic, dramatic end (cf. ). The tragedy is great. The downfall is his own fault. There is a dark, demonic, nocturnal darkness in the soul of Saul, as there is later in the soul of Judas. Here already the night falls over the life of Saul. He can no longer go back and faces irrevocably his downfall.

‏ 1 Samuel 28:21

Despair and Resignation of Saul

After this message Saul immediately falls “full length” upon the ground. This addition emphasizes his length. That has been his pride and fame. All that pride collapses. When God tells sinners in His Word what terrible fate awaits them, He opens a door of hope to them at the same time. That door of hope a sinner can enter when he repents. But those who turn to the gates of hell for help can only expect darkness, without a ray of light.

While he is still lying on the ground, the woman asks him to listen to her. Once more Saul is treated kindly, however by a medium. She presents herself as his servant. She has no sense of guilt; she has done her job. Here we see what all these demonic practices yield. It only brings misery and dejection and total mental and physical devastation. Saul has lost every initiative. He is in the power of others, surrendered to them. The woman and his servants try to get him up and running, they cannot offer him anything better. Saul gets up and disappears in the night, on his way to his tragic, dramatic end (cf. Jn 13:30).

The tragedy is great. The downfall is his own fault. There is a dark, demonic, nocturnal darkness in the soul of Saul, as there is later in the soul of Judas. Here already the night falls over the life of Saul. He can no longer go back and faces irrevocably his downfall.