5. Fri 92 - 1 Samuel 28–29 · Acts 19 - FeedTheGoodHorse
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Day 92: 1 Samuel 28–29 · Acts 19 · Commentary · Commentary²
The Bible text is included for reading continuity; it is accurate in substance, aligned with major modern translations, and may be read alongside any Bible you prefer.1
Special Note about the following Bible text: The following translation uses the Hebrew terms tamé (טָמֵא) and tahor (טָהוֹר) instead of the traditional “unclean” and “clean.” These terms describe ritual status in relation to sanctuary access, not moral fault, shame, or physical dirtiness. A fuller explanation will follow in a dedicated article.
1 Samuel 28
In those days the Philistines gathered their forces for war, to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, “Know certainly that you and your men shall 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 keeper of my head for life.”
Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. Saul had removed from the land the mediums and those who consulted spirits.
The Philistines gathered and came and camped at Shunem, and Saul gathered all Israel, and they camped at Gilboa.
When Saul saw the camp of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.
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.” His servants said to him, “Look, there is a woman who is a medium at En-dor.”
So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments and went, he and two men with him. They came to the woman by night, and he said, “Practice divination for me by a spirit and bring up for me whomever I tell you.”
The woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and those who consult spirits from the land. Why then are you laying a snare for my life to cause me to die?”
But Saul swore to her by the Lord, saying, “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. 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?” The woman said to Saul, “I see a godlike being 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.” Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage.
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 called you to tell me what I should do.”
Samuel said, “Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned away from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done for himself as he spoke by me, for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, to David. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his burning anger 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 also give the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.”
Then Saul immediately fell full length on the ground and was greatly afraid because of the words of Samuel. There was no strength in him, for he had eaten no food all day and all night.
The woman came to Saul and saw that he was greatly terrified, and she said to him, “Look, your servant has obeyed your voice. I have taken my life in my hand and have listened to the words that you spoke to me. Now therefore, please also listen to the voice of your servant, and let me set a piece of bread before you. 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 voice. So he rose from the ground and sat on the bed.
Now the woman had a fattened calf in the house, and she hurried and slaughtered it. She took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread from it.
She brought it before Saul and before his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.
1 Samuel 29
Now the Philistines gathered all their forces at Aphek, and Israel was camped by the spring that is in Jezreel.
As the lords of the Philistines were passing on by hundreds and by thousands, David and his men were passing on in the rear with Achish.
Then the commanders of the Philistines said, “What are these Hebrews doing here?”
Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, “Is this not David, servant of Saul king of Israel, who has been with me these days and years? I have found no fault in him from the day he deserted to me until this day.”
But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him, and the commanders of the Philistines said to him, “Send the man back, that he may return to the place that you assigned him. He shall not go down with us into battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. For with what could this fellow reconcile himself to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of these men?
Is this not David, of whom they sing to one another in dances,
‘Saul has struck down his thousands,
and David his ten-thousands’?”
Then Achish called David and said to him, “As the Lord lives, you have been upright, and your going out and your coming in with me in the army is good in my sight, for I have found no evil in you from the day of your coming to me until this day. Nevertheless, you are not acceptable in the sight of the lords.
Now return and go in peace, that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines.”
David said to Achish, “But what have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day I entered your service until this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?”
Achish answered David and said, “I know that you are as blameless in my sight as an angel of God. Nevertheless, the commanders of the Philistines have said, ‘He shall not go up with us into battle.’
Now therefore rise early in the morning with the servants of your lord who came with you, and depart. As soon as you are up early in the morning and have light, depart.”
So David rose early, he and his men, to depart in the morning and return to the land of the Philistines. But the Philistines went up to Jezreel.
Acts 19
Now while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the inland regions and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples and said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
They said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”
He said, “Into what then were you immersed?”
They said, “Into John’s immersion.”
Paul said, “John immersed with an immersion of change of mind, telling the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”
When they heard this, they were immersed into the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they began speaking in languages and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all.
Entering the synagogue, he spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some became hardened and refused to believe, speaking evil about the Way before the crowd, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greek-speaking people.
God was doing extraordinary works of power through the hands of Paul, so that even cloths or aprons carried away from his body to those who were sick caused diseases to leave them and evil spirits to come out.
But some of the traveling Jewish exorcists also attempted to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I command you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” Seven sons of a Jewish chief priest named Sceva were doing this.
But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” Then the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered all of them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
This became known to all the Jews and Greek-speaking people living in Ephesus, and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Many of those who had believed came confessing and disclosing their practices. Many of those who practiced magic brought together their books and burned them in the sight of everyone. They calculated their value and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.
So the word of the Lord kept growing powerfully and prevailing.
After these things were completed, Paul resolved in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem after passing through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” After sending into Macedonia two of those who served him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed for a time in Asia.
About that time there arose no small disturbance concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing considerable business to the craftsmen. Gathering them together, along with the workers in related trades, he said, “Men, you know that our prosperity comes from this business. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a large crowd, saying that gods made by hands are not gods. Not only is there danger that our trade will come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be regarded as nothing, and that she whom all Asia and the inhabited world worships will even be deprived of her greatness.”
When they heard this, they became filled with anger and cried out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” The city was filled with confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s traveling companions.
Paul wanted to go into the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. Some of the officials of Asia who were his friends also sent to him and urged him not to risk himself in the theater.
Now some were shouting one thing and some another, because the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had pushed forward. Alexander motioned with his hand and wanted to make a defense before the people. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single cry arose from all of them for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
After quieting the crowd, the city clerk said, “Men of Ephesus, who among humans does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis and of the image that fell from heaven? Since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here who are neither temple robbers nor blasphemers of our goddess.
So if Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you seek anything further, it will be settled in the lawful assembly. For indeed we are in danger of being accused of rioting over today’s events, since there is no cause that we can give to explain this disorder.”
After saying these things, he dismissed the assembly.
Commetnary - Day 92
1 Samuel 28–29 · Acts 19
Summary:
Saul reaches a breaking point in 1 Samuel 28. Unable to receive any answer from the Lord, he disguises himself and secretly seeks out a medium, turning toward the very practices he once removed from Israel. Samuel’s message gives no new escape: Saul’s present collapse is tied to earlier refusal to obey. In 1 Samuel 29, David’s compromise with the Philistines reaches its limit as he marches toward battle beside Israel’s enemies, but the Philistine commanders reject him and force him away before he crosses fully into betrayal.
In Acts 19, the difference between outward form and inward reality becomes central. Some disciples begin with incomplete understanding and are brought further, while the sons of Sceva try to use Jesus’ name without true relation to him and are exposed publicly. Many in Ephesus openly confess, burn their magic books, and turn away from hidden practices, while others cling to Artemis because their wealth and identity depend on it.
In 1 Samuel 28, the pressure that has been building around Saul finally collapses inward. The Philistines gather for war, and Saul trembles when he sees their camp. He inquires of the Lord, but receives no answer—not by dreams, not by Urim, not by prophets. The silence is total.
Saul then turns toward the very thing he had once driven out of the land. He asks for a medium and goes to her disguised, by night. The concealment matters. Saul is no longer standing publicly as king seeking the Lord; he is moving secretly in fear, trying to force access to what has been closed to him.
Even here the contradiction deepens. Saul swears protection to the medium in the Lord’s name while violating the very command he had earlier enforced. The outward language of covenant remains, but inwardly he has already crossed elsewhere.
When Samuel appears, the message contains no new path forward. Saul asks what he should do, but the answer returns him to what was already spoken long before: the kingdom has been torn away because he did not obey concerning Amalek. The present crisis is tied directly to earlier refusal. What was left unresolved has now matured into judgment.
Saul falls to the ground without strength. Fear empties him physically as well as inwardly. The strange final scene with the medium carries an almost inverted hospitality: the outlawed woman feeds the king who can no longer stand. Saul eats and leaves into the night. Nothing is repaired. The chapter moves from silence, to forbidden inquiry, to confirmed ruin.
In 1 Samuel 29, David stands in a different but related tension. He is marching with the Philistines toward battle against Israel. The compromise that began in fear has now carried him to the edge of fighting beside Israel’s enemies. The Philistine commanders immediately distrust him. They remember the songs sung about David striking down tens of thousands and refuse to let him go into battle.
Achish trusts David completely and speaks of him almost reverently, “like an angel of God,” but the other commanders force David away from the conflict. David protests and asks what fault has been found in him, but he is still sent back.
The chapter never states openly what David himself would have done had he remained in the battle. Instead, the removal itself becomes the point. David is prevented from passing fully into a situation that would have divided him against his own people beyond recovery. The same fear that drove him into Philistine territory now reaches its limit and is interrupted from outside himself.
Acts 19 opens with another kind of incompleteness. Paul finds disciples who received John’s immersion but have not heard about the Holy Spirit. Their beginning was real, but unfinished. Paul directs them forward into fuller understanding, and when hands are laid on them, the Spirit comes upon them.
The pattern repeats throughout the chapter: what is partial, external, or merely imitated cannot hold on its own. The sons of Sceva attempt to use the name of Jesus as a technique detached from actual relation and authority. The evil spirit answers them directly: “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” The result is exposure and humiliation rather than power.
That exposure produces a different response in others. Many begin confessing openly and disclosing their practices. Books of magic are burned publicly at great cost. What had been hidden and privately controlled is brought into the open and destroyed rather than managed secretly.
Later, Demetrius reacts because the proclamation threatens both profit and identity. The craftsmen are not defending only theology but an entire economic and civic structure built around Artemis. Confusion spreads through the city. Crowds gather without understanding why they are there. Shouting replaces judgment. For two hours the city repeats the same cry mechanically: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
The city clerk finally restores order not by affirming truth, but by restraining chaos and redirecting the matter toward lawful process. Public frenzy is calmed before it consumes the city entirely.
Across these readings, hidden fear repeatedly drives people toward distorted forms of control. Saul seeks forbidden knowledge after refusing obedience. David survives through compromise until he nearly loses his place altogether. The sons of Sceva try to use spiritual language without inward reality. The Ephesians cling to idols tied to wealth, identity, and social order. Against all of this, Acts 19 repeatedly moves things into openness: confession, disclosure, correction, public repentance, and the steady spread of the word. The readings keep distinguishing between outward forms used to preserve the self and inward transformation that can actually endure under pressure.
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