The Life of Samuel Series - Study #8

“Samuel’s Last Prophecy”

1 Samuel 28:3-19

Study #8 in The Life of Samuel Series 

INTRODUCTION:

“Famous last words.” You have heard that expression. Often the term is mumbled after someone makes a statement expressing undue optimism, particularly about some task they plan to undertake. The person to whom the quote is attributed may or may not have been near death when the quote was supposedly uttered. “Famous last words” quotes are often expressed in the form of a joke. Here are a couple of interesting “famous last words.”

Ø  Lord Kelvin, then president of the Royal Society in 1895 said, “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”

Ø  At the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May 9, 1864 Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, U.S. Army leaped up on the breastwork to urge his men to advance against the enemy. In a loud voice he shouted to his men, “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist…” just before being fatally shot.

Ø  “No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris.”—said Orville Wright.

Ø  John Lennon’s Aunt Mimi gave her nephew this wise bit of advice: “A guitar’s all right, John, but you’ll never earn your living by it.” 

I love good books. A while back I read David McCullough’s award-winning book about John Adams, which was published in May 2001. John Adams represented Massachusetts as a delegate at both the first and second Constitutional Conventions and played a significant role garnering European support for the American Revolution. He represented the United States during peace negotiations with Britain, served as George Washington’s Vice-President, and was elected as the second United States President. Following his presidency, he retired to his farm in Quincy, Massachusetts and began a lengthy correspondence with his friend, Thomas Jefferson, that would last over twenty-five years. Although in his nineties and gravely ill, he resolved to live until the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1826. That morning, he was awakened by his servant who inquired if he knew what day it was. “Oh, yes,” Mr. Adams replied, “it is the glorious fourth of July. God bless it. God bless you all.” He then lapsed into unconsciousness. Later that afternoon, he awakened briefly to mumble, “Thomas Jefferson still surv…” before dying. Amazingly, his dear friend, Thomas Jefferson had died earlier that very same day, but Adams had not been told of his friend’s death. 

TRANSITION:

Today we are going to hear the prophet Samuel’s last recorded words. They were not deathbed words, however. In fact, they were his words spoken after his death. Yes, you heard me correctly. Let’s look at the story in 1 Samuel 28, starting at verse 3. 

NOTES on the Text:

Verse 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.

• This was one of the good things that Saul accomplished during his reign. He set out to rid Israel of the pagan and occultic practices that had crept in from the ungodly nations roundabout them. Leviticus 20:27 gave him all the authority he needed: “Now a man or a woman who is a medium or a spiritist shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones, their blood-guiltiness is upon them.” Witches, wizards, sorcerers, necromancers, fortune-tellers, etc. were to be eradicated from the land of Israel. God made it clear that their occultic practices were an abomination, and an insult to Him. 

Verses 4-7: The Philistines assembled and came and set up camp at Shunem, while Saul gathered all the Israelites and set up camp at Gilboa. ⁵ When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart [lit. his heart trembled greatly]. ⁶ He inquired of the LORD, but the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams, or Urim [i.e., lot casting], or prophets. ⁷ Saul then said to his attendants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.” “There is a woman [who has a familiar spirit] in Endor,” they said.

• The Philistines camped near the village of Shunem on the northern side of the Jezreel Valley. The Israelites camped on the south end of the valley up in the foothills of Mount Gilboa. From there Saul could look north across the valley and see the size of the enemy camp and calculate the size of the army, and what he saw scared him big time.
• Saul’s fear led him to try and connect with God by every means at his disposal, but nothing worked; his prayers were hitting the ceiling and bouncing off. The heavens were brass, and his messages were not getting through. His sin and rebellion had cut him off from God and the Lord was not speaking to him, much less giving him any good news about the coming battle. What we see here is the practical application of Psalm 66:18 – “If I regard [i.e., harbor] wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear.”  Likewise, Psalm 18:41 – “They cried for help, but there was none to save; even to the Lord, but He did not answer them.” Or in Isaiah 1:15 – “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you. Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of bloodshed.” Saul wanted God’s help, but he wanted it on his own terms, and he was still not willing to repent and come clean before God. If he had humbled himself and truly repented, I believe that the Lord would have listened to him, but there is no indication that Saul did that. He was just trying to manipulate the Almighty into giving him victory in battle once more.
• If Saul had been on speaking terms with the Lord, he would not have been terrorized. The Bible says, “Perfect love casts out fear.” After all, it was in that same area where, with the Lord’s help, Barak had defeated a superior Canaanite force. And it was in that very same valley where Gideon fought and defeated the hosts of the Midianites. If God were with them, He could once again give Saul and his army victory over their enemies, even though the Israelites were greatly outnumbered by the Philistines.
• How his servants knew of the existence of the spiritist medium at Endor is anybody’s guess, and Saul did not stop to ask questions. Endor is about eight miles northeast of where Saul’s army was camped, and the way is very rough and treacherous. 

Verse 8: So, Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes and at night he and two men went to the woman. “Consult a spirit for me,” he said, “and bring up for me the one I name.”

• This makes it sound so easy, like they just walked across the street to her house. Saul and his two servants made that eight-mile journey at night, coming dangerously close to the Philistine camp to get to the witch’s house.
• Saul was no fool. He took off any clothing that would make him look like a king. He probably had to borrow some clothes to disguise himself. But evidently it worked because no one stopped them and even the witch did not recognize him. 

Verse 9: But the woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?”

• This woman was spooked and gun-shy. Saul had done a good job of exterminating most of the witches, spiritists, fortune-tellers, and necromancers. She was a survivor and wanted to stay that way. So, she was nervous about agreeing to help these three night-time guests. 

Verse 10: Saul swore to her by the LORD, “As surely as the LORD lives, you will not be punished for this.”

• This shows two things: (1) How desperate Saul was; and (2) How little “fear of the Lord” was in him. He swore by the Lord that she would not be punished, that he would not turn her in for helping him. I believe that Saul’s vow to the woman falls into the category of “taking the Lord’s name in vain.” Saul had gotten no help from the Lord, so he turned to the devil for answers. This just shows that his relationship with God was only skin-deep. 

Verses 11: Then the woman asked, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” “Bring up Samuel,” he said.

• Obviously, Saul believed that this medium really had the power to call Samuel back from the dead, and the woman might even have believed it too. But did she? Could she really do it? This whole subject is troublesome because we must look at it from two different directions.

1.    First, it is my contention that no human has the power to call someone back from the dead, although many have claimed to be able to do it. For us today the Bible is clear that when a believer dies, he goes directly to be with the Lord. The Word says, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” However, before Christ’s resurrection believers went to a place the Bible calls Paradise or Abraham’s Bosom. Unbelievers, on the other hand, then and now, go to Sheol, also called Hades, a place of darkness and torment where they are held until the Day of Judgment when they will be cast into Hell, also called The Lake of Fire. In any case, dead people do not float around as disembodied spirits, or ghosts, or specters, or phantoms, or anything of the kind. The only spirits floating around, back then or now, are evil demonic spirits who often masquerade as dead humans in order to draw people deeper into occultism by making them think that it is possible to communicate with their dead loved ones. The Hebrew word, אוֹב (obe) used in verses 3, 7, and 9 and translated as “medium” literally means, “one that has a familiar spirit, necromancer, one who evokes the dead.” A “familiar spirit” is a divining demon that takes up residence in the body of a person who can conjure the demon up at will. It is a type of demon possession where the demon and the medium work in partnership. English Bible translators took their cue from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate that translated this Hebrew word with the Latin word, familiárus, meaning a servant belonging to a family. The word “familiar” has two senses: (1) The demon was familiar in the sense that the medium was intimately acquainted with the demon, although probably thinking that she was dealing with the spirit of a dead person, not a demon; and (2) These demons are often passed down through the generations from one family member to another.

2.    The other side of the coin is this… I said that no human (and no demon either) has the power to call up the dead, and that is true. However, God has the power to do just that. (1) Jesus called Lazarus forth from the grave after he had been dead for four days. (2) The Bible says that Jesus Himself, after the crucifixion, descended into Hades and declared His victory over Satan, and death, and the grave, and He “led captivity captive.” (3) At the transfiguration God called forth Elijah and Moses to minister to the Lord Jesus in preparation for His coming ordeal. Where did they come back from? They had both been dead for hundreds of years! And at that time, they both had physical or virtual bodies that were fully visible to Peter, James, and John. How do you explain that?

3.    I do not believe that the witch of Endor called Samuel from the grave. She may have thought she did; and it appears that Saul thought she did. But in truth she had no power to do so. But I believe that God sent Samuel back from the dead on one final mission, with one final message, a frightening message of death and destruction for Saul. 

Verse 12: When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!”

• All at once the pieces of the puzzle came together for the woman. She saw Samuel, something that she obviously was not expecting. It scared the bejeebers out of her, scared her so badly that she literally screamed in terror. In that moment she realized that she was not in control of what was going on.
• It was the view of the ancient rabbis that the spirit of Samuel truly appeared. The same view was held by Justin Martyr, Origen, and Augustine. On the other hand, Tertullian and Jerome maintained that the appearance of Samuel was a diabolical delusion. However, most orthodox scholars today agree with the ancients, that this was really Samuel that God brought back for one final prophecy.
• Why did the witch not recognize Saul before this moment? It is difficult to understand why she had not recognized the tallest man in Israel right away. Perhaps he hunched himself over and shuffled like an old man, or perhaps the darkness hid him from her view. We just do not know. 

Verse 13: The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?” The woman said, “I see a spirit coming up out of the ground.”

• I believe that her fear was twofold: (1) She was afraid of Saul, thinking that he had set her up and that now he would kill her or have her killed; and (2) She was terrified at what she was witnessing as she saw Samuel approaching. Up to that point apparently Saul had not been able to see or hear Samuel.
• Modern orthodox commentators are almost unanimous in the opinion that the departed prophet did really appear and announce the coming destruction of Saul and his army. They hold, however, that Samuel was brought up not by the magical black arts of the witch, but through a miracle wrought by the power of God. 

Verse 14: “What does he look like?” he asked. “An old man wearing a robe is coming up,” she said.  Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.

• Upon hearing a description of the man, Saul knew that it really was Samuel. His reaction is interesting—he immediately prostrated himself on the ground. Think about it… this is the king of Israel, flat on the floor inside the witch’s house. 

Verse 15: Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” “I am in great distress,” Saul said. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has turned away from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So, I have called on you to tell me what to do.”

• Samuel immediately spoke to Saul but there was no “small talk,” no warm words of greeting. Samuel was not happy about being disturbed. Would you be? My understanding of what awaits the believer after death leads me to believe that it is much better than anything we experience in this life. Samuel was pulled away from a place of peace and joy and absolute contentment to come back here and express one more time what he had already told Saul.
• The text does not make it clear if Samuel spoke to Saul in an audible voice or if he communicated with him in some other manner. Personally, I do not believe that the woman was used as an intermediary. The text leads us to conclude that Samuel spoke to Saul directly. Whether the woman could hear Samuel’s voice we do not know. I would point to the Acts 9 story of the interchange between Saul of Tarsus and the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. On that occasion the Lord spoke to Saul in an audible voice and Saul responded, but the men who were with Saul heard none of that conversation. They only saw the blinding light but could not make out the words.
• Saul tells Samuel that he is in great distress for two reasons: (1) His enemies are getting ready to kick the tar out of him and his army; and (2) God is not taking his calls. They are all going straight to God’s voice mail. All Saul hears is a message with God’s voice saying, “I cannot take your call right now. Please leave a detailed message and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. All except for Saul… Saul, I won’t be returning any of your calls, no matter how many messages you leave, so stop calling Me!”
• Saul says, “Samuel, you are my only hope. Surely you must have some influence with God. Can’t you do something?” 

Verses 16-19: Samuel said, “Why do you consult me now that the LORD has turned away from you and become your enemy? ¹⁷ The LORD has done what He predicted through me. The LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbors, to David. ¹⁸ Because you did not obey the LORD or carry out His fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the LORD has done this to you today. ¹⁹ The LORD will hand over both Israel and you to the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The LORD will also hand over the army of Israel to the Philistines.”

• Samuel’s words are biting and to the point. They carry no comfort, no encouragement. He makes it clear that this is happening to Saul because of his disobedience, dating clear back to the events recorded in 1 Samuel 15 when Saul failed to carry out the Lord’s command to wipe out the Amalekites. Instead, Saul saved back the best of the loot and spared their king. Here we see that he paid a heavy price for his stubborn disobedience. It is a practical lesson illustrating that, “the wages of sin is death.”
• I find it interesting to note Samuel’s words that “tomorrow you and your sons will be with me.”  Will they join Samuel in Paradise or merely join him in death? That is the question. 

CONCLUSION:

So, in the end if it was really God who brought Samuel back to deliver one final message to Saul, how did God feel about Saul doing what he did in calling on the witch of Endor? We read in 1 Chronicles 10:13-14, “Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance, ¹⁴ and did not inquire of the LORD. So, the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David, the son of Jesse.” 

This is a difficult and controversial portion of Scripture. Scholars have argued over it for centuries. The main questions are these:  

1. Did Samuel really come back from the dead? I believe that he did. If not, how do we account for what Saul and the witch saw? I believe that it really was Samuel that Saul spoke with, not some demonic Samuel impersonator. However, one of my favorite Bible teachers, good old Dr. J. Vernon McGee, adamantly says that this was not really Samuel who appeared, but some sort of demonic apparition. I respectfully disagree with him.
2. By what power was Samuel brought back– demonic or divine? I believe that in this story we are once again seeing God’s divine power at work. I believe that the witch had nothing to do with what took place. I believe that God capitalized on Saul’s belief and used the occasion to pronounce a final sentence on Saul for his earlier disobedience, as well as his present sin of calling on a witch for guidance.
3. Was Saul truly a saved man who was just sadly mixed up, or was he an unbeliever in the skin of religious person? I have wrestled with this question, examining it from every angle. But after much thought I have concluded, albeit reluctantly, that I believe that Saul was a saved man. I believe that he was seriously flawed and weak at the core, but I believe he loved God, even though he was not fit to be king and even though he was a poor example of a God-follower.
4. Did Saul go to be with Samuel in Paradise, or did he go to Hades to await the Day of Judgment? Based on Samuel’s words in verse 19 I believe that one day we will meet Saul in Heaven. I believe that he is an example of how badly we can screw up and yet still be loved by God. In the same way, I believe we will probably see Ananias and Sapphira in Heaven, even though God struck them both dead for lying (Acts 5).