King Saul started out knowing God's
will and following it. Later in life he turned to and continuously
sought his own good, even when it was in contradiction to the will of
God. He did not completely destroy the Amalekites as he was told to,
instead he allowed some of the people to take plunder for their own
benefit, though he said it was for sacrifice. Then he sought to kill
David - who was to be his successor - though David proved over and
over again that he was faithful to Saul's leadership and would be
till he died. He continued to ignore God's law. He slaughtered a
whole city of priests in his pursuit of David, and even threw a spear
at his oldest son, Jonathan, because of his friendship with David.
Finally God ceased to speak to him at all. In I Samuel 28, the
Philistines gathered their forces to come against Israel. After
seeing the army of the Philistines, Saul decided to seek God,
presumably because he was afraid they were too much for him. But God
did not send any message, not by a dream, or by prophets. Even the
Urim, a device used by the priests, was silent. Then Saul went to a
medium, a person who talks with dead people. This practice is
expressly forbidden in the law of God. That worked, sort of. However, Saul
never showed any real repentance for any of his sins and he died in
that battle, along with all of his sons.
