September 18, 2021
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Reading along with us in 1 Samuel? Here’s today’s reading:
1 Samuel 28 (NIV)
1 In those days the Philistines gathered their forces to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, “You must understand that you and your men will accompany me in the army.”
2 David said, “Then you will see for yourself what your servant can do.”
Achish replied, “Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life.”
Saul and the Medium at Endor
3 Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in his own town of Ramah. Saul had expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land............Continue Reading
It is funny that Saul is so impatient and even though he disobeys God he also expects Him to answer him whenever he needs it. As a result he disobeys further to reach Samuel. Consulting a medium after he himself expelled them all out of Israel on God’s command to receive an answer from God.
Samuel’s reaction is not surprising…first annoyed that you are pulling him back to the world and second gives him like the classic “Duh” you are not obeying God, your are straying further and further away from His will and path, you are going to lose it all!
1 Samuel 28
1Samuel 27&28
There is a lesson to be learned here about having the right attitude towards God. Saul clearly just wanted to accomplish his own goals and did not care so much about the will of God. In my life, God’s will should be my priority. I should keep looking to God.
What a sad and interesting account, indicative of a life declining further away from God. Saul has driven David and his men to the enemy and now the battle lines are drawn and Saul is struck with fear. It’s a natural emotion to have when things overwhelm us and our resources don’t meet the problems that life throws at us. Our relationship with God is the best answer to fear because His resources are limitless and He promises to be with us. The problem for Saul is that he is not with God and so the comfort and confidence that would come from hearing from God and knowing that He is with him is absent. To compensate for what he lacks in his own life, he seeks to go back to the one who had the answers and was connected to God. Unfortunately that person is dead. So Saul does what is typical to those who have declined in their walk with Him: he does the very thing that he would never had done before. In righteousness and fidelity he had driven out the mediums and yet now he consults the very one he would have called evil. Desperation does things like that, but it is all reflective of the things we do that compensate for us being apart from God. So naturally Saul has to disguise himself (usually a bad sign and an indication that we are doing something wrong). But how hard is it for the king to disguise himself especially when he is calling up Samuel?
The scene from this point is almost comical. What the medium does actually works for the first time. God allows it. Samuel comes up and says why in the world have you bothered me and brought me back here. And then he tells Saul you are reaping what you have sown and what is happening is exactly what I have already said when I was alive. So you really shouldn’t be surprised. (It is sad that his sons will die as well). But the amazing silver lining is that they will be were Samuel is. Saul will be in a place of paradise, Abraham’s bosom, as the Jews called it. It is the abode where those who believed in God went before Jesus came and died and gave us access to God and heaven. But Saul is saved in spit of all the evil he has done. I call him the poster child of eternal security. And if all this wasn’t enough, the King of Israel is broken over the news and doesn’t even want to eat. And so he’s got this medium making him a meal, killing the fattened calf for him, because she is concerned for him. And then Saul and his men eat. It makes you wonder if he paid her her normal fee?
Saul has really gone off the deep end. He seems to have no logical, moral frame of mind at this point, although it seems that he really must know that this was not the right decision!