The Witch Of Endor: Was It Really Samuel? - 1 Samuel 28:11-25 Series

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Introduction

In chapter 28 the writer breaks into the middle of his account about David in Philistia and jumps ahead in time to show us Saul on the night before the war. He will get back to David in chapter 29, but the Lord wanted us to read about Saul in Endor immediately after reading about David leaving Israel. He does not want us to miss the connection between David’s going to the Philistines and Saul being completely abandoned by God. If he kept with the strict chronological order we might miss that. But we need to see the systematic, deliberate judgment of God on Saul. Piece by piece God is stripping away every last vestige of His grace from Saul. He had already taken Samuel away. Then David is removed. God takes away any connection Saul might have with grace, and then drops the hammer of judgment on Saul. So here we are on the night before that fateful battle. And for Saul it is a dark night indeed.

The Horror of Abandonment

Desperation (Goes to a medium)

God would not respond to his prayers, so Saul reverted to plan B – which was to seek guidance through the occult. We left off last time right where Saul first shows up to the medium’s house. He wants her to conjure up a spirit for him, and after a little bit of haggling she is willing.

Samuel appears

11 Then the woman asked, "Whom shall I bring up for you?" "Bring up Samuel," he said.

Samuel!? Why Samuel? Samuel asks the same question in verse 15 – “If God has abandoned you, why call me up?” And Saul said, “Because I want you to give me the guidance that God will not give me.” Saul figured Samuel might give him a break. Saul is trying to bypass the punishment of God, and he seems to think Samuel will be more merciful than God.

Catholicism

Saul’s strategy here is like that of many Roman Catholics. That religion teaches that it is a good thing to pray to Mary and other saints who have died – which is an effort to communicate with the dead. Praying to Mary is necromancy. And many Catholics will pray more to Mary than to the Lord Himself, because they actually believe Mary is more merciful than Jesus.

No one is more merciful than Jesus and the inability to see that is a mark of a person who does not really know the Lord. That is another difference between Saul and David. In 2 Samuel 24 God was punishing David and He let David pick his punishment from three options – a plague, a famine, or fleeing from enemies (verses 13-15).

14 David said "Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men."

God said, “Pick from three punishments,” and David said, “I don’t care – just don’t give me a punishment that involves human beings. I would much rather rely on God’s mercy than on man’s.”

Like the lazy servant who buried his talent in the ground because he thought of his master as a hard, unmerciful master. If your conception of God is that He is a hard Master, or if you would prefer to be at someone else’s mercy rather than God’s, you have a skewed understanding of what He is like, and it is possible you do not know Him at all.

Was it really Samuel?

But Saul figures he will have better luck with Samuel than with God so Saul says, “Call up the spirit of Samuel.” And she says “All right, I’ll give it a whirl.” And she begins her process – whatever procedures she had for conducting a séance. And when she does that, all of a sudden she sees something that makes her panic. She sees something she did not expect to see, and it terrifies her and she starts screaming. I am sure they were already a little nervous being in a séance, but now with the medium screaming in fear – I am sure about now Saul’s bodyguards are wishing he would have picked someone else for this mission. Down in verse 13, when she is done screaming, Saul asks her what she saw and she says it looked like a god coming up from the ground.

What did she see? Was it Samuel? Or a demon? Was it all a trick?

Both Luther and Calvin insisted there is no way this could be Samuel, because God is not going to give a wicked medium the power to control the spirits of departed saints. Plus, the text says that God would not speak to Saul, so how can we have a prophet of God speaking to him? And why would God reward Saul’s wicked necromancy by allowing it to succeed? And on top of that, this spirit tells Saul that Saul is about to come and be where he is. Does that mean Saul was going to heaven or Samuel was in hell, or what?