Saul And The Psychic Hotline Series

This morning’s message will be a Halloween sermon. I wonder how many times you’ve ever heard a Halloween message? Probably rarely, if ever. Halloween brings a heightened awareness to the realm of evil spirits, so I would like to take this Sunday after Halloween as a time to caution us concerning the evil spiritual forces that roam this earth, and of how easily people are tempted to dabble with the things of the supernatural.

Many people think there’s nothing wrong with occasionally playing with a Ouija board or reading horoscopes. “It’s harmless,” they say. But what happens if a person messes with the spiritual realm? To be more specific what would happen if someone from our church read horoscopes, watched television shows about witchcraft, or even called the Psychic Hotline? In today’s passage of Scripture we are shown a man who actually played with witchcraft and consulted the Psychic Hotline. That man was King Saul.

God Did Not Speak on Mt. Gilboa (vv. 3-6)

3 Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented for him and buried him in Ramah, in his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the spiritists out of the land. 4 Then the Philistines gathered together, and came and encamped at Shunem. So Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped at Gilboa. 5 When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. 6 And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets.

In verses 3-6, we see that the Philistine army had encamped at Shunem, and Saul’s army of Israelites had camped out on Mt. Gilboa. Both the names of Shunem and Gilboa contain meanings, which are very symbolic. Once we see the meaning of each place name, we can then see how God is revealing here in the text the spiritual state of each army. What do the names of both Shunem and Gilboa mean? What we are going to find out might surprise us!

Shunem in Hebrew means “rest,” and “quiet.”(1) Now, Gilboa has many meanings. One is, “fountain of ebullition.”(2) I looked up this word ebullition, and it means either “a sudden violent outburst or display,” or “the act, process, or state of boiling or bubbling up.”(3) The name Gilboa in Hebrew also means a “heap of stone,” or “a heap of dung,”(4) and also “to desire earnestly,” “to ask” or “to inquire.”(5) We see a lot of different meanings derived from the name Gilboa. Well, let’s apply this information!

For some strange reason the Philistine army was in a place of rest while the Israelite army under Saul was camped upon a hill whose meaning meant, “heap of stone, violent outburst” and “to ask or inquire.” The symbolism here reveals that the Philistines were at peace, and for some strange reason in God’s will, while Saul was “in a heap of trouble,” so to speak, or in spiritual trouble as he cried out to God for help. Mt. Gilboa was symbolically a desolate heap of stone because Saul had done something against God’s will.

Verse 6 reveals that when King Saul cried out for help, that the Lord refused to reveal Himself. Why did the Lord not speak with Saul? Author Beth Moore provides a good answer to this question. She begins by asking, “Why is God silent at times?” and she answers by saying this:

Isaiah wrote, “Your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Remember that Saul continued in disobedience to God. He relentlessly sought the life of an innocent man and even attempted to spear his own son! He had the priests of the Lord slaughtered and gave approval to an entire town being wiped out. [Moore says] we’ve seen some regrets, but we’ve never seen him truly turn from wickedness to righteousness.(6)

Because Saul was living in unrepentant sin, God refused to answer him either through dreams or by Urim [hang on and I’ll explain the Urim]. We see here a regression of faith in Saul. First, Saul tried to talk to God one on one through prayer. This is an acceptable practice, but God didn’t answer Saul because his heart was not right with the Lord.

Secondly, after he couldn’t hear God, he lowered his standards a little, and sought some form of dream revelation. If God chooses to speak through dreams, then it must be His initiative, and God will sometimes speak through dreams. However, if we intentionally seek after dream revelation then we are bordering on cultic practices. It has been suggested that Saul’s revelation may have been similar to a drug-induced trance, in which the dreamer sought to see the future. This practice wouldn’t have been good, for any kind of drugs cloud the mind from hearing God’s voice.