1 Samuel 28:1-25 (PLEASE READ…TOO LONG TO INCLUDE HERE)
“So Saul died for his
breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the
command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance. He did not
seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the
kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.” (1 Chron. 10:13-14)
This unique text has
often been scrutinized for it’s details regarding what it has to say about
human nature and the after-life. May I suggest that this is missing the
Holy Spirit’s main intent for this text?
Every text of Scripture was inspired, in the first place, to expand our
knowledge of God, and that every inch of the Old Testament points to the
perfection of the Person and Work of Christ. When we read any passage of the
bible, our primary question should be—what does this teach me about God? And
then we can make personal application…We tend to be anthropocentric (man-centered)
in our approach to this text, while it is meant to viewed theo-centricaly
(God-centered).
The text above from 1 Chron. is an inspired
interpretation of this event. Hence, it should be the spectacles through
which we view it. I’m not saying that discussing the finer points of the
passage is inappropriate, but rather let us not miss the forest for the trees.
.Put bluntly, how can we even think about using this text to support spiritism
(belief in, and communicating with, trapped souls), when we are told that our
holy God killed Saul for that very practice? (please see text above)
. Let me put it this way: if the sovereign
majesty, glory, and holiness of God were grasped, we would not be having this
discussion regarding whether ghosts exist or not. The very notion of
trapped spirits is monstrous in light of God’s absolute sovereignty and the
glorious perfection of the Person and work of Christ. Our theology affects our
anthropology—if we have a deficient view of God’s greatness then we will have a
deficient view of human nature, and what happens when we die. The dearth of
truly God-centered preaching today is the primary reason the notion of ghosts
has blossomed…along with pastors refusing to come to terms with its
significance.
This episode with Saul and the medium comes
at a crucial juncture in the drama of redemption— (establishment of the
monarchy and the Davidic covenant). The inauguration of each stage was crucial and
was often attended by unusual occurrences. Saul was the first king of Israel,
and he would be replaced by its greatest king (David), and this is where we
find ourselves in this text—THE DAY BEFORE SAUL DIES. In the flow of biblical
history, or the drama of redemption, this is a key moment…THAT EXPLAINS WHY WE
HAVE THIS UNIQUE AND EXTRAORDINARY
APPEARANCE OF A DECEASED PROPHET. As first in a long list of kings, Saul
figures prominently for that reason—and for that reason we have God doing
something extraordinary…nowhere else in scripture do we have a disembodied soul
talking to another human (excluding Jesus with Moses and Elijah)…the oddities
during Jesus/apostles day were resurrections from the dead, and not disembodied
spirits.…
The specific context of this unique text is
Saul’s. terrible fright due to the impending battle with the Philistines.
He desperately wanted and needed the Lord’s wisdom and guidance, but the Lord
was not answering his prayers (v.15.). Hence, he secretly (and very sinfully) approached
a medium to see if she could contact Samuel, who he thought would be able to
guide him. It seems that King Saul believed in the end justified the means…It is similar to, “since I am trying to
get guidance from a godly deceased prophet, it is okay if I look to a demon inspired
medium.” Is that so different from “I can get assurance that there is an
afterlife, if only I can speak to my deceased mom.”? Is not our motive for
being fascinated with the paranormal—fear of death or curiosity about the
future—often quite similar to Saul’s? Please do not misunderstand me—curiosity
regarding the supernatural is one thing, but what we do with that curiosity is another thing altogether! It was
entirely proper for Saul to feel fear and to desire supernatural insight, but for believers, the end never justifies
the means! (Prov. 3:5-6) He knew it
was wrong in that he had previously expelled the mediums and necromancers (v.
3)
The woman that Saul
found was similar to the mediums that practice today—she was not a witch as we
understand it. (‘ob…according to The Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament means medium) No, in
v. 7 Saul told his servants to seek out a medium,
and in his initial request in v. 8.—“…divine
for me by a spirit….” This phrase is often overlooked, but it
reveals why Saul had earlier banished mediums…they used a spirit (demon) in
their attempts to contact the dead. Saul knew that he was trafficking with the
demonic in order to contact Samuel. It is said that desperate people do
desperate things, but what Saul did wittingly (consciously communicate with
demons) was extremely foolish—but don’t we do the same foolish thing
unwittingly?.
Doubtless the medium
did her usual ritual in order to bring the trance-like state in which she
brought up the individual asked for with the help of her collaborating demon.
The text is silent regarding any misgivings she might have felt regarding
contacting the holy prophet. It is obvious she had been down this road many
times, and I’m confident that her
demonic accomplice was always eager to deceive everyone that it was the soul of a deceased person it was
impersonating.
However, the whole
occult practice was cut short when the real Samuel makes a grand entrance,
which terrified the medium She
screamed in fear when it became apparent the God Himself had taken over and
brought in the spirit of Samuel.. She rallied long enough to answer Saul’s
inquiry as to who it was….Samuel. Any way you slice it, this was a unique and
extraordinary occurrence which our Lord caused for His purposes at this crucial
juncture of redemptive history. Saul was about to be killed by the Lord, and
David anointed king—the Davidic covenant and many of his psalms looked forward
to the coming of king David’s greater Son.—the Lord Jesus. Because of the
sovereign in-breaking of God on the proceedings, can you see that the first
question that should occupy our minds is NOT who is this masked man, but rather
what kind of God cold do this? Theology precedes anthropology.
V.16 dispels any
doubt as to who this mystery man really is: the inspired narrator says it was
Samuel. The following verses either state explicitly or imply that this was
Samuel: 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20…Moreover, since it is obvious that the
disembodied soul was delivering a true message of judgment from the Lord, and
refers to himself as the prophet, then that really settles the issue.
Here is the rub
though—the hallmark of a ghost is that they are trapped souls due to traumatic
or premature death—right? But Samuel’s soul was anything but trapped! He
complained that Saul had disrupted his tranquility.(v.15).That one detail
immediately disqualifies this text as evidence of the existence of ghosts. In addition, it is obvious that Samuel’s soul
was not resting in what we think of as the paranormal realm or second heaven.
Whatever else it may mean, coming up from the ground indicates that Samuel was
not existing in any realm we have access to via EVP’s. To use this as an
example of an earthbound spirit is to do violence to the text, and is a
grievous example of scripture twisting.. .
At a crucial point in
the flow of the unfolding drama of redemption, our sovereign God completely
nullified the medium’s wicked attempt at necromancy, and instead raised up His
deceased holy servant to bring His message of judgment upon Saul. That
disembodied souls exist after death is a biblical notion, What is un-biblical
is the notion that souls of deceased humans can get trapped here. This text
does not support that idea at all—quite the opposite. This where we must drop
idle curiosity and remember to look at this text from a God-saturated
perspective...
Sadly, the bible
reveals that Saul, and his sons, died in battle the next day. We are not
left to our own interpretation of this turn of events. In 1 Chronicles
10:13-14—(above) we are given an inspired theological and theo-centric interpretation
of Saul’s death. God the Holy Spirit tells us that He put Saul to death for two
reasons: not obeying His command to utterly slaughter the Amalekites, and for attempting
to speak to the dead.(v.13) Please note that in Lev. 20:4-6 we are told that the Lord detests
attempts to speak to the dead (necromancy or spiritism) so passionately, that
is was punishable by death. However, He goes even further: if the covenant
community fails to kill those caught speaking to the dead, then He Himself
would hunt them down and kill them. .As
I said in another newsletter, I know of no other list of sins in which
God makes this threat—and the text in 1 Chron. tells us that God killed Saul
for seeking out the medium of En-dor. Is that not both sobering and
instructive?
The New Testament does not change God’s character, nor does God begin
to love or accept what He hated with such a singular passion in the Old
Testament. Because we are not a theocracy, spiritism is no longer a crime,
but it is still a heinous sin. How can we avoid that conclusion if we have an
ounce of respect for the authority of holy writ? What is spelled out so clearly
in Deut 18 and Lev. 20, is ILLUSTRATED in this episode and in Saul’s subsequent
death in battle.
Recently I was on
Dave Schrader’s popular radio show Darkness
Radio, and he agreed that every investigator he knew was experiencing
paranormal activity, and/or many were sick and dying—or already dead. Our
Lord killed Saul for attempting to speak to the dead. What a dreadful madness
or demonic delusion has blinded our dear friends. From the depths of my heart,
I beg you to stop, and to persuade others to stop. .Can God hurt people today?
You bet your neck He can…and is. We must repent..or perish...
Breaking God’s
commands and seeking guidance from the prince of this world brought Saul under
God’s curse. However, it was Saul’s death that transitioned the monarchy to
David, and ultimately to Christ the King. Because we all disobey God’s commands
everyday, and look in all the wrong places for guidance, Jesus took all of this
upon Himself—He became a curse for us. Jesus experienced every temptation that
Saul did, and yet was without sin….His blood can wash away all occultic sin.
Hallelujah, what a Savior!!
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