“And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out for me a woman who is a medium and it may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servant said to him, “Behold, there is a medium at En-dor.”
– 1 Samuel 28:6–7
1 Samuel 28:6–7 represents yet another call in the book of 1 Samuel to be patient before God and obedient to God and not try to take things into your own hands. The whole picture here is Saul needing direction from God, but the normal means of grace through which God provided that direction. He wasn’t getting the answer that he wanted when he wanted. So he goes outside of those and he seeks after a medium to go inquire of her, to try to find out the word of God.
God, help us truly to seek You alone knowing that You will provide and draw us into deeper intimacy with You.
Defying God and Trusting in Our Own Ways
This is total defiance of God, masked as desiring wisdom from God. He’s seeking God’s counsel by doing that which God has said not to do. And as foolish as this looks in Saul’s life, the reality is you and I can do the same thing. When we have a decision to make, when we are trying to discern what to do in a certain situation, there are means of grace that God has given us. His word is our guide that we go to and we think, okay, how does God’s word inform this decision that I need to make? What I need to do in this situation?
1 Samuel 28:6–7: How to Look for the Will of God
We seek the leadership of God’s spirit through his word, through his church. We go to brothers and sisters in Christ who we know are walking with God in his word. And we seek counsel from them obviously knowing that not everything they say is infallible. It’s not perfect revelation from God by any means. Nowhere close to the authority of God’s word, which is supreme over and above everything else. Every counsel we could ever get from anyone else.
At the same time when other brothers and sisters in Christ are walking in God’s word, who know God’s word, and who are sensitive to God’s spirit, we can seek them for counsel. But even still, after doing that, if we’re not careful, we can grow impatient and we could be hasty in trying to get an answer. The answer we want when we want it and sometimes God is telling us to wait. Sometimes God is telling us to be patient. To persevere and seek after him through prayer, through the word, through getting counsel, and through fasting. Until God gives clarity to the means he has promised to give clarity through. That’s the thing we don’t even need to think that God is up in heaven trying to hide his will from us. That God doesn’t want us in some way to know and follow His will.
God Desires Us to Know His Will
Of course, he does. He’s our Father in Heaven. At the same time, he leads us through processes where we’re seeking him in prayer. Where we’re diving into his world, where we’re getting counsel from others, and in due time, in His time, he will provide the clarity we need. He will provide the wisdom we need for what to do in any and every situation. We can trust Him to do that, but we trust Him in his timing according to His ways are not our own.
1 Samuel 28:6–7: Asking God to Help Us go to Him for Wisdom
So we pray, God, help us to truly seek you alone for wisdom, for direction, for guidance. God, I think about people who are listening to this right now who are facing major decisions that they need wisdom in. God, I pray that you would help them to seek you with all their heart, to trust in you with all their heart, to be long in your word and long in your prayer to fast even to put aside food and to say, “God, my food is to do your will to do your work.”
Asking for Guidance
God help me, I pray, for clarity and as they seek after you, God, I pray that you would by your spirit. Lead them, guide them through your word, through counsel from others who are pointing them to your word. God, that you would use your church to help them in their decision-making processes just like we see at different places in your word, the way you use us as family, the spur one another on towards you.
We pray for good, godly, wise counsel based on your word and the leadership of your spirit. And God, we pray for patience. I pray for patience for those who are making decisions to persevere in seeking you until there’s clarity from you according to your word and your ways on how you are leading them and I trust oh God that you will provide that clarity and in the process, you will draw them into deeper and deeper intimacy with you.
Praying Against Rebellion and Impatience
And God I pray against, in light of what we’re reading here in 1 Samuel 28:6–7, I pray against any rebellion against you. Any sense of impatience before you and in any way, any brothers, sisters listening to this going outside of your means of grace and your word to try to find direction. God, I pray for just a humble trust and patience and obedience to you that leads to following your direction in their lives.
I pray the same thing for my own life and the decisions I make. Please, oh God, help me and all of these ways to trust you, to be patient before you, to walk in your word and to live according to the wisdom you provide as you have provided. The discernment you give, as you give it. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
