Saul and the Witch of Endor

So a little while back my niece Presley was reading the Bible and came across a confusing passage. It's the story that comes from 1 Samuel 28:3-19. It reads like this:

Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented over him and had buried him in Ramah, his hometown. In the meantime Saul had removed the mediums and magicians from the land. The Philistines assembled; they came and camped at Shunem. Saul mustered all Israel and camped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the camp of the Philistines, he was absolutely terrified. So Saul inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him—not by dreams nor by Urim nor by the prophets. So Saul instructed his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so that I may go to her and inquire of her.” His servants replied to him, “There is a woman who is a medium in Endor.”

So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothing and left, accompanied by two of his men. They came to the woman at night and said, “Use your ritual pit to conjure up for me the one I tell you.”

But the woman said to him, “Look, you are aware of what Saul has done; he has removed the mediums and magicians from the land! Why are you trapping me so you can put me to death?” But Saul swore an oath to her by the Lord, “As surely as the Lord lives, you will not incur guilt in this matter!” The woman replied, “Who is it that I should bring up for you?” He said, “Bring up for me Samuel.”

When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out loudly. The woman said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!” The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid! But what have you seen?” The woman replied to Saul, “I have seen a divine being coming up from the ground!” He said to her, “What about his appearance?” She said, “An old man is coming up! He is wrapped in a robe!”

Then Saul realized it was Samuel, and he bowed his face toward the ground and kneeled down. Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul replied, “I am terribly troubled! The Philistines are fighting against me and God has turned away from me. He does not answer me anymore—not by the prophets nor by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what I should do.”

Samuel said, “Why are you asking me, now that the Lord has turned away from you and has become your enemy? The Lord has done exactly as I prophesied! The Lord has torn the kingdom from your hand and has given it to your neighbor David! Since you did not obey the Lord and did not carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this thing to you today. The Lord will hand you and Israel over to the Philistines! Tomorrow both you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also hand the army of Israel over to the Philistines!”

 My niece was confused by this story and asked some really good questions. I told her I'd get back to her and sent her the follow letter a few days later to help her (and me) understand this passage.

Dear Presley, Here's what I've found after looking into the story we talked about last week. I hope this helps. If you have any more follow-up questions, please let me know.

So here's the story. At the brink of defeat at the hands of the Philistines, Saul is desperate to hear from God. He decides to consult a spiritual medium. He hears that there's a woman in En-dor who is a medium and talks with spirits. He disguises himself, grabs two of his guards, and heads out in the middle of the night to meet this woman. Meeting her, he tells her he needs to speak to a spirit. Not just any spirit, but a specific one that he will name. The woman asks if he's trying to get her killed. This is where we need to pause to get some background insight as to what's happening here. 

Saul was named king because the people of Israel were tired of listening to prophets and wanted a king like those in other nations. Saul was chosen, and he looked the part. The problem was that he was a petty person and someone who thought more of himself than he should. God rejected Saul twice. Both instances were due to Saul's disobedience. The first time was because Saul had decided not to wait for God's prophet Samuel to give a burnt offering during a battle. He was worried that, because it had taken the prophet a long time, his troops would desert him and he wouldn't win the fight. So he went ahead, and Samuel showed up the moment he was done. Samuel told him that God would've permanently established his reign as king if he'd been faithful. But because Saul showed God that his own needs were more important than obedience to God, God decided to raise up another person to take over for Saul.

A few years later, Saul messes up once again. This time, he succeeded in battle and was told to completely destroy his enemies, including their families and livestock. After the battle was won, Saul allowed his armies to take some of the best livestock as a prize, and he kept the king of that land alive as a trophy to remind his people of how great he was. When Samuel showed up this time, he'd heard from God that God had regretted naming Saul as king because he wouldn't do what God told him to do. Saul argued with Samuel, and Samuel told him that God honors obedience above everything else. As Samuel leaves, Saul reaches out, grabs Samuel's robe, and tears it. Samuel says the torn robe is like how God would tear Israel away from Saul. Saul was told that this was the end of the matter and that God wouldn't change his mind. After Samuel left this time, he and Saul never saw each other again.

Then comes David, a shepherd boy who was anointed by God, defeats a giant and receives national acclaim. The people sing songs about how great David is, creating extreme jealousy in Saul. So much so that Saul tries to kill David a number of times, he tries to kill him by throwing spears and armies at David. Saul even offers the hand of his own daughter in marriage to David, as long as David kills a number of Philistines as a messed-up wedding gift. David kills twice the number that was asked of him, and now Saul's hatred of David runs even deeper. David remains faithful to God and doesn't kill the person he knows that God anointed as king, even though it could be considered self-defense. As David flees, he passes through a land called Nod and receives help from a priest there. After he left, Saul's forces came through and were furious that they had given aid to David, and so they ordered all of the priests and their families to be killed that day, and so they were. David spares Saul over and over again, even though he could have taken the king's life. Eventually, Saul gave up killing David and went to wage war on the Philistines.

This is where the story picks back up. Saul didn't have priests of God left because he'd killed them for helping David. He'd removed anyone who claimed they could talk to spirits from the land, so the only ones left were practicing in secret. Saul tried things like casting lots, an old-fashioned form of trying to get God to reveal his will, but nothing worked. So a desperate Saul came in the middle of the night to a woman who was practicing something that she shouldn't have been practicing. The person that he was trying to contact was none other than the man of God who had told Saul that he wasn't obedient enough or patient enough to trust God, Samuel.

So the woman, after hearing the name and getting a promise from Saul that she wouldn't be punished for doing this service, agreed. There's no record of what she did to try to contact this spirit. Some people nowadays will light candles, pour salt, or chant words. It seems that almost as soon as she attempted to contact Samuel, he appeared, and she screamed. Something about seeing the spirit, or perhaps Saul pulled back his hood to see what she was seeing, made her recognize him as the king. Saul tells her to relay what she's seeing because he cannot see the spirit. She says that she sees an old man coming up who is wearing a robe. Saul remembers that the last time he saw Samuel, he was wearing a robe Saul had torn himself, and he knew it was Samuel. He falls to the ground and asks for advice. Samuel's spirit tells Saul that God will continue with the plan he's already made. Saul would lose his kingship, which would be given over to David, and that would be a battle tomorrow. Samuel's last words were chilling: "I'll see you tomorrow." Just as God promised, Saul and his sons died during the battle, and Saul fell on his own sword. David becomes king, and under him, Israel prospers.

We're then left with some huge questions. I'll do my best to summarize them in my answers.

1) Was that really Samuel who came up from the ground?
Yes, it was. The Bible doesn't say that it looked like Samuel or that it was another spirit pretending to be Samuel; it says that it was.

2) How could Samuel have come back from the dead to give Saul that message?
This isn't the only time a faithful servant of God has appeared on earth after their death. In Matthew 17, Jesus goes up high on a mountain and has a conversation with Moses and Elijah in the presence of Peter, James, and John. So it appears as if God, in his power, can allow those who are with him in heaven to make some form of appearance on earth if he deems it necessary. In this instance, with Saul, it seems that because Saul hadn't gotten the message before, God allowed Samuel to appear to deliver one final message to him. We can trust that Samuel was with God at this point because he told Saul he'd see Saul tomorrow. This means that he was given a sort of "Heaven Hall Pass" and that God did what only God could do and performed something miraculous.

3) Does this mean we can summon dead people whenever we want?
No. Note that we have no idea what this medium had done before Samuel's appearance. This is because there is no formula for making the dead come back and speak to us. Note also that when Samuel appeared, the medium screamed. My guess is that she was really good at tricking people and was going to put on some whole show and dance to get money out of gullible people. Imagine her surprise when, instead of faking some silly routine, an actual spirit came out of the ground! She was terrified from this point forward.

4) What does this tell us about modern-day mediums and spiritualists?
It tells us that now, as back then, they don't have any real power or ability to do anything other than trick people. There are a whole lot of shows and news reports that show how these people trick poor people who are desperate to hear from beyond the grave, but they are always shown to be charlatans. This doesn't mean that there are no such things as spirits; those are actually demons.

5) What do demons have to do with these sorts of practices?
Demons have the ability to mess with and trick people who already want to believe in them. This is why it's so dangerous to invite the "dead" because it opens the door for evil to come in and prey upon those who don't place their faith in God. There is a very real spiritual realm that exists here on earth, and sometimes participating in occult practices like seances and Ouija boards can leave a person vulnerable to attack from demonic forces. Those powers can't affect a believer in God, but those who don't believe could be in danger from such things. These demons do have limited power and should be taken seriously.

6) How can demons use what they know to trick people?
In Acts 16, it seems like a demon possessed a slave girl who claimed to predict the future and read fortunes. Her master even used this ability to make money from her. Demons cannot know the future, but are expert liars. They can also interact with the world in unique ways. This means a demon might know something about a person or an event that not everyone else does. They can then use that information to make it seem like they know the future. For instance, if you know the boss at a company will fire some of his workers next week, you could come up to one of those workers and tell them that they will lose their job. To the worker, it would seem as if you'd just predicted the future. This could be a method by which demons use to trick people; all they do is manipulate people and take advantage of them. We know that the girl in Acts 16, who claimed to predict the future, had a demon living in her because Paul commanded that demon to leave her in the name of Jesus. The moment he did this, the demon left, and the people who owned that slave girl knew that they couldn't make money from her in that way anymore.

7) What does this story tell us about ourselves and God?
We should learn from Saul's example and realize that we must obey God. God wants great things for us, and what gets in the way isn't God, but our inability to follow him. If Saul had simply obeyed, he would have stayed king, and that title would have been passed to his sons. Instead, his sons died because of their father's lack of trust in God. The Bible is also very clear that God's people should have nothing to do with the occult. Deuteronomy 18:10-12 says, "No one among you is to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire, practice divination, tell fortunes, interpret omens, practice sorcery, cast spells, consult a medium or a spiritist, or inquire of the dead. Everyone who does these acts is detestable to the Lord, and the Lord your God is driving out the nations before you because of these detestable acts." It's not because these things have real power; it's because we start looking to them as power instead of looking to God. It also tells us that God can do the impossible if he thinks it's important enough.

At the end of this story, we see a sad account of a man who failed to trust God, had his kingdom taken away, and paid the price. In an extremely sad moment, we see that Saul got his wish to speak with a prophet of God, only to hear a prophecy that was the worst news anyone could receive. It's a cautionary tale for anyone not to mess with occult things because of the harm they can do to us. We should be wary of anyone claiming to know something they cannot know, because the only way to receive something that appears to be real knowledge is from a demonic force. It's OK to enjoy movies that use magic and talk about witches and wizards as long as we recognize it as the silly thing that it is. We should no more believe in that sort of thing than we should believe in genies in lamps and mermaids. That said, we should very carefully steer clear of people who don't treat these things as silly and claim they have some supernatural ability to do something they shouldn't. God calls us to be wise in what we believe and think.

At the end of it all, keep asking good questions. God wants us to have an inquisitive mind and to ask the hard questions. Asking questions is the only way to get good answers, and I firmly believe that God wants more people to take their faith so seriously that they challenge crazy stories about spirits and fortune-tellers. The God who created the universe isn't afraid of being asked these things; he just wants to ensure that we also seek his answers. I hope this helps, and thanks to you asking this, I now have a better understanding of what happened, so I'm a better Pastor for your good questions. - Kellan