1 Samuel 28: beware of help from dubious quarters
I read the 28th chapter of 1 Samuel this morning, and upon reflecting on it, I wanted to share my thoughts with you. I’ll pass over the verses referring to David, because I want to write about Saul. Here he is, with Samuel dead and buried, alone with his demons. He’d made a semblance of a move to please God and Samuel by putting away “those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land.” But it was done only for the eyes of the world, wasn’t it? Because there he is, after the Philistines pitch camp in Shunem and get ready for battle, struck with fear. Of course, the Lord does not answer him, for very good reasons. There was no real repentance in Saul, only the outward appearance - that had been the only thing he’d been concerned with throughout his life - he wanted to make sure others thought he was righteous. But he wasn’t fooling anyone, was he? For when he asks his servants to find him a “woman with a familiar spirit”, a necromancer, right away they find her. They knew their master well.
They go to her at Endor. I wonder, was it because that was the only place they could find one, or was something behind this? I think there was. Every time the devil is involved in something, he’ll use every opportunity to make his point. This time, the army of Israel was camped at Gilboa. Shunem was between Gilboa and Endor. Satan wanted to make sure Saul passed by the Philistines and was scared once more. He wanted him to be good and ready for that meeting with the witch, to be trembling in his shoes.
Here’s a sidenote that just occurred to me… The place of the witch, or psychic, or necromancer, or whatever you want to call her, was at Endor. The name of Samantha’s mother in the TV episodes of “Bewitched” was Endora. I don’t know if this coincidence was intended or not by the writers of that show, but it is worth noting.
In verse 9, the woman feigns fear to do what he asks her by saying: “wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?” Let’s be serious. First, she wasn’t fooled by Saul’s disguise. Saul was much taller and had a wider frame than most Israelites. He also had a kingly stature and port. Even disguised, she recognized him. Besides, people who came to her in the middle of the night were usually there to conduct a transaction, not to lay snares. Instead she wanted assurance from him that she wouldn’t be punished, and he gave it to her, in a very sad way: “As the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.” Isn’t it sad, that he swore by the Lord to a witch working for the devil? If the Lord lived then, as He lives now, why didn’t Saul trust in the Lord, answer or no answer to his prayers?
Notice what the witch says to him in verse 13: “I saw gods ascending out of the earth” (KJV). In the NJB, it says: “I see a ghost rising from the earth.” In the footnotes, it explains the Hebrew word used as “(plural of majesty) or superhuman being. Only in this place is it used of the dead.” Interesting, that the ghost (and there is no such thing) of Samuel would be described in such terms. First, he was human, not a god or superhuman being. That’s the first clue. The second clue is that he is rising out of the earth. Only God can raise the dead - witches can’t. They can call up demons that masquerade as the dead, but that’s another story. I should mention here that devils can imitate very well the voice and looks of a deceased or living person, even the personal habits or idiosyncrasies of someone. It is conceivable that the apparition that Saul saw did speak with a voice that resembled Samuel’s very much, and Saul was taken in by the deception. The third clue is that the supposed Samuel is described as “an old man coming up; he is wrapped in a cloak” (NJB). And Saul prostrates himself! It is so sad that Saul believes this load of lies, and it’s even sadder that he prostrates himself in front of a witch, when not even God’s angels accept prostration. Only God deserves it.
Here I am reminded of the true story of a woman. It happened toward the end of WWII. Her husband had been drafted and was serving in the army somewhere. She hadn’t heard from him for a long time, and as she got more and more worried, she thought he might be dead. She’d gotten no letter from the Army saying so, but she decided to “find out” by visiting a psychic who was more than happy to oblige. He or she called up her husband’s “spirit”, who showed up, dressed in the same clothes he wore when he left her to go to war, and look and spoke just as she remembered him. He told her he was dead and how he died. She had quite a conversation with him, and said a touching goodbye. She paid the psychic and left, feeling that she’d gotten closure. Imagine her surprise about 6 months later when her husband showed up at the door of their house! He’d been detained and couldn’t write, but had been finally released and rushed home the first chance he got. What do you, the reader, make of the supposed husband the witch called up? Obviously he was fake, and also obviously, he was a devil, a fallen angel, since there can be, according to the Bible, only two sorts of ethereal beings here on Earth: good angels and bad angels.
Furthermore, the very words the witch utters in Saul’s case serve only to deflate the hypothesis that many churches (prominent ones, mind you) parade around these days… namely, that the souls of the righteous go to God in heaven immediately upon death. If that is so - and it couldn’t be, for many valid reasons, all Biblical - how do you explain that this witch sees “Samuel’s” ghost or spirit rising up from the earth? Why would it rise up from the earth, when it should descend from heaven, according to these enlightened modern theologians? Why would it be an “old man”, when our bodies are to be re-made to a perfect prime when we go to heaven? Do you see how there is only confusion if one doesn’t stick to what God has to say about things? Search the Bible for the truth, and you shall find it.
What happens afterwards? Well, the devil uses this occasion to regurgitate stuff that Saul already knew all too well, for it wasn’t any secret. The point is, the devil uses that occasion to beat upon poor, misguided Saul to the point that he gets him ready for the slaughter which ensues in the morning. How can one expect to inspire his troops and rally them to victory after that sort of an encounter?
The point is, no good can come of associating with the devil in any way. Under the guise of helping you, or offering you guidance, the devil will lead you lower and lower, all the while beating you over the head with your own shortcomings and faults, until you can do nothing but collapse, beaten, acknowledging defeat. Or you can kill yourself, as Saul did. There is no uplifting with the devil. There is no forgiveness of sins and strengthening, as there is with the Lord. And one of the ways the devil works, as show in 1 Samuel 28, is through these psychics, or witches, or foretellers of the future, or diviners, or whatever you want to call them. It’s best to simply not associate with them. You are not only cutting yourself off from God when you do that, but you are also opening up your defenses for a full frontal attack from the devil. You can’t win that fight. It’s best to stay away from it altogether.
For a more in-depth look at this chapter, go here.
