1 Samuel 28 - Mind the Gap - Stephen McAlpine

Devotional

Day 1: When Public Masks Hide Private Ghosts

The gap between our polished exterior and fractured interior widens slowly, like Saul seeking a medium after banning witchcraft. Compromise begins with small choices to feed hidden hungers rather than heed God’s voice. Over years, the chasm between reputation and reality becomes a haunted space where shame breeds desperation. Yet even here, God’s word pierces pretense. [17:25]

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (Proverbs 14:12, ESV)

Reflection: What hidden choice have you justified as “necessary” this week? How does Saul’s midnight meeting with the witch warn against solving crises without Christ?

Day 2: The Weight of Unfinished Obedience

Saul’s incomplete destruction of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15) became a spiritual burr – a nagging disobedience that festered. Like food stuck in teeth, half-hearted obedience irritates the soul until crisis erupts. Unresolved sin gives old enemies like the Philistines new footholds. God’s call to radical obedience isn’t cruelty but protection against the rot of compromise. [28:07]

“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.” (1 Samuel 15:22-23, ESV)

Reflection: What “Amalekite” have you partially spared? How might today’s small compromise become tomorrow’s undoing?

Day 3: Feasting with Witches or the Risen King

Saul’s last meal – a desperate snack at a medium’s table – contrasts sharply with Jesus’ Last Supper. One king clutches at shadows while the other transforms bread into covenant. Our daily choices echo this contrast: grasping at quick fixes or receiving Christ’s enduring nourishment. Every meal whispers which kingdom we trust. [35:01]

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” (Psalm 23:1,5, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you been snacking on spiritual junk food? How does Jesus’ table reset your appetite for true sustenance?

Day 4: Grace for the Gap

Saul’s story terrifies; Jesus’ story transforms. Where Saul’s throne crumbled under the weight of his gaps, Christ’s throne becomes a place of mercy. The High Priest who needed no atonement for Himself now intercedes for those drowning in discrepancies between their ideals and actions. [41:16]

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16, ESV)

Reflection: What gap feels too wide to approach God today? How does Jesus’ perfect record become your bridge?

Day 5: The Company That Keeps the Gap Narrow

Saul’s attendants enabled his witchcraft visit. Our companions either amplify our pretense or expose our gaps with grace. Like the woman who urged Saul to eat, true community speaks hard truths with nourishing love. The church becomes God’s gap-minding tool when we risk tender transparency. [35:46]

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:16, ESV)

Reflection: Who knows your current struggle? How might confessing one hidden fear this week prevent future compromise?

Sermon Summary

1 Samuel 28 puts a king, a ghost, and a witch in the same room, but Saul is the real ghost. The king of Israel has become a hollowed out man, lying face down in the dark, desperate for a word from the prophet he would not listen to while Samuel was alive. The scary thing in the story is not mainly the medium at Endor. The scary thing is the gap between who Saul was meant to be and who Saul actually became.

Saul started so well. The king stood head and shoulders above Israel, prophesied by the Spirit, fought battles, and looked humble before God. Yet the Philistines come back again, and the old fear comes back again. Saul’s problem has always been that people are too big in his eyes and God is too small. Fear made him disobey God, and now the Lord does not answer him by dreams, Urim, or prophets.

The text shows the gap widening in real time. Saul had publicly driven out the mediums and spiritists, yet privately he says, “Find me a woman who is a medium.” The public Saul and the private Saul are not the same man. That is how drifting works. Not usually in one spectacular leap, but in small decisions, little compromises, and ignored sins until the thing that once shocked a person becomes normal.

Samuel’s word from beyond the grave is not new guidance. It is the old word Saul ignored. The Lord has torn the kingdom from Saul and given it to David because Saul would not obey concerning the Amalekites. The thing Saul feared, the Philistines, will take him down, and his sons and Israel will suffer with him. The king’s gap is not merely private failure. It becomes treason, because the king represents the people.

Saul’s last meal is a dark parody. A king condemned to die eats in the house of a witch, in the night, before going out to destruction. But Jesus’ last supper turns that darkness inside out. The true King dies, not for disobedience, but because of cast iron obedience to his Father. Saul’s sin means many die. Jesus’ sinless life means one dies for the people. In Jesus there is no gap, and at his throne there is “grace for the gaps.”

Key Takeaways

1. The gap grows by drift The gap between public faith and private life rarely becomes a chasm overnight. Drift is usually slow, ordinary, and easy to explain away while it is happening. The danger is that small ignored decisions train the soul to live comfortably with contradiction. [21:05]
2. Fear makes people too big Saul’s fear of the Philistines keeps returning because the old weakness was never really dealt with before God. When people become too large in a person’s eyes, obedience starts to look impractical and compromise starts to look wise. The fear that promises protection often becomes the very thing that destroys. [15:45]
3. God may give silence as judgment Saul refused God’s word again and again, and then came the terrible moment when God no longer answered. Divine silence here is not absence, but judgment: God gives Saul what Saul had been choosing all along. The most frightening thing is not that God speaks loudly against sin, but that God may stop speaking to the person determined not to listen. [18:07]
4. There is no killer app Saul wants one last word, one last fix, one last Samuel moment to sort out a life of disobedience. Godly life does not work that way. The Christian life is a long slow walk of obedience, confession, transparency, and attention to the gap before crisis arrives. [29:23]
5. Jesus brings grace for gaps Saul lies before a dead prophet and hears condemnation, but Jesus lives as the risen Prophet, Priest, and King who gives grace. His obedience has no gap, and his death is not shame to hide but good news to proclaim. The throne of grace is exactly where the exposed and needy person is meant to go. [40:37]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[01:49] - Reading 1 Samuel 28
[07:13] - Kings, Ghosts, and Witches
[08:14] - Public Achievement and Private Collapse
[10:02] - Saul as the Real Ghost
[12:08] - Saul Started So Well
[13:41] - The Net Closes In
[16:15] - When God Stops Answering
[17:01] - Public Saul and Private Saul
[21:05] - The Long Slow Drift
[25:28] - The Kingdom Torn Away
[27:30] - Samuel Reads the Rap Sheet
[29:23] - No Killer App for Godliness
[34:06] - Saul’s Dark Last Supper
[36:55] - Jesus’ Better Last Supper
[40:37] - Grace for the Gaps

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

1) 1 Samuel 28
“In those days the Philistines gathered their forces for war, to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, ‘Understand that you and your men are to go out with me in the army.’ David said to Achish, ‘Very well, you shall know what your servant can do.’ And Achish said to David, ‘Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life.’

Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land. The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. 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, that I may go to her and inquire of her.’ And his servants said to him, ‘Behold, there is a medium at En-dor.’

So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments and went, he and two men with him. And they came to the woman by night. And he said, ‘Divine for me by a spirit and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you.’ The woman said to him, ‘Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the necromancers from the land. Why then are you laying a trap for my life to bring about my death?’ But Saul swore to her by the Lord, ‘As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.’ Then the woman said, ‘Whom shall I bring up for you?’ He said, ‘Bring up Samuel for me.’

When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman said to Saul, ‘Why have you deceived me? You are Saul.’ The king said to her, ‘Do not be afraid. What do you see?’ And the woman said to Saul, ‘I see a god coming up out of the earth.’ He said to her, ‘What is his appearance?’ And she said, ‘An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped in a robe.’ And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage.

Then Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?’ Saul answered, ‘I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams. Therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do.’ And Samuel said, ‘Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me, for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. Moreover, the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.’

Then Saul fell at once full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. And the woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, ‘Behold, your servant has obeyed you. I have taken my life in my hand and have listened to what you have said to me. Now therefore, you also obey your servant. Let me set a morsel of bread before you; and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way.’ He refused and said, ‘I will not eat.’ But his servants, together with the woman, urged him, and he listened to their words. So he arose from the earth and sat on the bed. Now the woman had a fattened calf in the house, and she quickly killed it, and she took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread of it, and she put it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.” [01:49]

2) Hebrews 2:1
“Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” [21:05]

3) Hebrews 4:14-16
“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” [40:37]

4) 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” [36:55]

Observation questions

In 1 Samuel 28, what details show that Saul is frightened, desperate, and no longer acting like the king he was meant to be? [10:02]
What contrast appears in the chapter between what Saul had publicly done about mediums and what he privately asks his servants to do? [17:01]
When Samuel speaks to Saul, what reason does he give for the kingdom being torn away from Saul? [27:30]
What are some of the differences between Saul’s final meal in 1 Samuel 28 and Jesus’ meal with his disciples in 1 Corinthians 11? [36:55]

Interpretation questions

Hebrews 2:1 warns about drifting away. How does Saul’s story show that spiritual collapse usually happens slowly rather than all at once? [21:05]
Saul keeps fearing the Philistines. What does that repeated fear reveal about the size of people and the size of God in Saul’s heart? [15:45]
In 1 Samuel 28, God does not answer Saul by dreams, Urim, or prophets. How should that silence be understood in this chapter: as simple absence, or as judgment on long-term refusal to listen? [18:07]
Hebrews 4:14-16 says believers should draw near to the throne of grace. Why is that especially important for people who feel the gap between their public faith and private life very deeply? [41:09]

Application questions

The gap usually grows by drift, not by one dramatic leap. Where does that feel most realistic right now: private habits, speech, relationships, thought life, use of money, or something else? What small compromises might be training the soul in the wrong direction? [21:46]
Saul’s fear made people too big and God too small. Whose opinion, reaction, or pressure tends to loom too large in daily life? How does that pressure make obedience feel inconvenient or unrealistic? [16:15]
Public Saul and private Saul were not the same man. Where is there a temptation to maintain appearances while hiding what is really going on? What would honest repentance or healthy transparency look like with a trusted Christian? [17:32]
There is no “killer app” for godliness. What ordinary practices help keep a person from drifting: confession, prayer, Scripture, church, honest friendships, slowing down, cutting off temptation? Which of those has been neglected lately? [29:23]
Saul wanted one last fix in a crisis, but the Christian life is a long slow walk of obedience. Is there any area where there has been a hope for a quick solution instead of steady repentance? What would one faithful next step look like this week? [29:28]
Saul’s failure affected not only himself but others around him. How might a hidden gap in one person’s life wound family, friends, or the wider church? Does that change the way secret sin should be viewed? [30:16]
Jesus has no gap, and his throne is a throne of grace. When guilt or shame rises, is the instinct to hide, delay, or clean things up first? What would it look like to come confidently to Jesus for mercy and help in time of need? [40:37]

Sermon Clips

50s

#RisenKingGrace

“``And if you feel the gap is huge, the last thing you would think you should do is go before the one who sits on the throne, but it's the very thing you're supposed to do because that's where the righteous king dwells and he will give you grace. Tempted in every way we were, no gap. That's Jesus. A risen king. It was the end for Saul the next day. For Jesus, you can't keep a good man down three days later. He's not a ghost who condemns. He's a risen savior, prophet, priest, and king who offers grace.”

70s

#KingAtTheTable

“Last meals abound in the bible, but there's something radically different to this one because the king is at the center of this meal. He's handing it out to his followers. And the next day, the king is gonna be killed, not for his refusal to obey god, but for his cast iron obedience and love of his father. He will give his life for the people. Saul's sin meant that everyone dies. Jesus' sinless life means that one dies for the people in the same way the new covenant it says. Why is it a new one? Because everyone else has got a gap.”

69s

#JesusBridgesTheChasm

“At Sinai, Moses says, this is what God says. And they all say, all that God says, we will And then all that God says, they don't do, this golden calf looks a little bit like what I said not to do and all that sexual immorality looks a little bit like a the gap is there. But here is a king in whom there's no gap. The new covenant king. And he provides a new obedience for the people of God. That as we eat and drink, each time we eat and drink, we remember the Lord's death that he's won for us an obedience that we don't have because we're all souls. We're all people with gaps. And if you hear today going, I don't have much of a gap. Well, it's a chasm. That's the irony of the gospel. If you come here saying, oh, the gap is massive. You know what? Jesus will cross that gap for you.”

43s

#GraceOrJudgment

“He has not listened to God and God says, okay. Let's go with that. That's worse, isn't it? If it was imagine, I I'm not gonna listen to you. I'm not gonna listen to you. I'm not gonna listen to you. And that's the point you well, I'm gonna shout louder and louder and louder. That's God's grace. You know what this is? God's judgment. I'm gonna give you what you want. I'm gonna give you what you want. I'm not gonna speak to you because you don't wanna listen to me.”

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