Prayer Challenges
Current Challenge from Doug Knox.
March
Man Builders, Part 38
1 Samuel 28:1-25
David—Forged Masterpiece, Part 20
THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR SAUL
The Tightening Collar Around David’s Neck
Before devoting its attention to Saul, 1 Samuel 28 begins with a short introduction concerning David. An uncomfortable predicament is about to descend on him:
In those days the Philistines gathered their forces for war, to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, “Understand that you and your men are to go out with me in the army.” David said to Achish, “Very well, you shall know what your servant can do.” And Achish said to David, “Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life.”
--1 Samuel 28:1-2
Achish is the ignorant—and in some ways innocent—party in this exchange. David has deceived him about where his exploits have taken him, claiming to have raided parts of Judah while he has ventured against Israel’s enemies to the south (1 Samuel 27:8-10). We saw Achish’s confidence before. “He has made himself an utter stench to his people Israel; therefore he shall always be my servant” (1 Samuel 27:12). Now he hopes to cash in on his investment. “Understand that you and your men are to go out with me in the army.” David’s answer, “Very well, you shall know what your servant can do,” is cagy.
Achish takes it at face value, however, and tells David that he will be his bodyguard for life. The position that he offers David is is an honorable one, but it assumes that David will remain loyal to him.
The Doomed Monarch
The situation between Achish, David, Philistia, and Israel will interweave through the remainder of the book. For now, the narrator leaves the dialogue as a foreshadowing device while he shifts his attention to the situation with Saul.
Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land. The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa.
When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, there is a medium at En-dor.”
--1 Samuel 28:3-6
Early on, Saul showed himself incapable of maintaining the consistent leadership skills necessary for stable rule. His tendency to vacillate between permissiveness and heavy-handedness led to several consequences, including an overreliance on Samuel’s guidance. Samuel’s abandonment of Saul following the king’s failure to eliminate Amalek’s king Agag (1 Samuel 15:7-9) crippled him.
A Doomed and Desperate King
Now Samuel is dead. In desperation, Saul seeks a medium to hear a word from the prophet who pronounced his judgment. His frenzied search draws the woman into an unexpected vortex.
So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments and went, he and two men with him. And they came to the woman by night. And he said, “Divine for me by a spirit and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you.”
The woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the necromancers from the land. Why then are you laying a trap for my life to bring about my death?”
But Saul swore to her by the LORD, “As the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.”
Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?”
He said, “Bring up Samuel for me.”
--1 Samuel 28:8-11
The dialogue between Saul and the medium is telling. Not only was Israel commanded to consult the prophets instead of mediums for God’s guidance (Leviticus 20:6; Deuteronomy 18:9-15), but Saul himself had driven them from the land on pain of death (1 Samuel 28:3). The woman rightly fears for her life. Ironically, the disguised king gives the unsuspecting woman his word—by default as a royal promise that calls on the name of the LORD who had forbidden such things. His promise, “No punishment shall come upon you for this thing,” speaks in the moment. He will refrain from having her put to death. When she receives the promise, she asks whom Saul wants her to call. Little does she understand the gravity of the answer that is to come.
When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul.”
The king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What do you see?”
and the woman said to Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.”
He said to her, “What is his appearance?”
And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped in a robe.” And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage.
--1 Samuel 28:12-14
Something about the specter makes the woman realize that Saul stands before her. His response, “Do not be afraid,” appears to refer to the death sentence that he has pronounced earlier. He promises not to kill her, but her vision poses a greater threat. She sees “an old man…wrapped in a robe,” which she describes as “a god coming up out of the earth.” She uses the word Elohim. El, is the singular noun that means God. Elohim is the plural of majesty. She says in effect, “I see a great god coming out of the earth.” Saul recognizes the ghost to be Samuel.
Nothing Left but the Sentencing
Saul casts a pitiful image here. He is the has-been king, the doomed ruler who gropes for a scrap of hope.
Then Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?”
Saul answered, “I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams. Therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do.”
And Samuel said, “Why then do you ask me, since the LORD has turned from you and become your enemy? The LORD has done to you as he spoke by me, for the LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did not obey the voice of the LORD and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the LORD has done this thing to you this day. Moreover, the LORD will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The LORD will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.”
--1 Samuel 28:15-19
Samuel responds to Saul with the same absence of patience that he showed early in his reign. “Why have you disturbed me…?” He remains the pitiless judge who only repeats the verdict, along with his rigorous list of Saul’s failures. Then he adds the judgment. The king and his sons will die in battle the next day.
Potentially Sideling Questions
Many church studies on Saul’s visit with the medium have focused on her credentials as a spiritist. Was she a charlatan or did she have actual powers? Where did her powers come from? Did Samuel’s appearance surprise her? These discussions tend to draw inferences on demons from the Gospels and the book of Acts. These books focus on the historical appearance of demonic powers during Jesus’s and the apostles’ ministries, when opposition was at its peak. The book of 1 Samuel is silent on the issues that the early New Testament raises. Any conjectures we might make on the woman’s power are speculative. The critical issue is Samuel’s appearance. While she registers no surprise over Samuel, she panics when she recognizes Saul. His response, “Do not be afraid,” addresses her immediate fear. That is, he is there for the séance, not to double cross her. When Saul asks, “What do you see?” the medium answers, and Saul recognizes Samuel from her description. His distress becomes the focal point. The two men’s personal histories—Saul’s hyper-dependency on Samuel’s approval versus Samuel’s disillusionment with Saul—comes to a flash point. Samuel’s verdict is final.
The Woman’s Compassionate Demeanor
Once Saul hears Samuel’s pronouncement, he becomes paralyzed with grief. Now the spiritist steps up as an active character, someone capable of exercising compassion in the presence of despair.
Then Saul fell at once full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night.
And the woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, “Behold, your servant has obeyed you. I have taken my life in my hand and have listened to what you have said to me. Now therefore, you also obey your servant. Let me set a morsel of bread before you; and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way.”
--1 Samuel 28:20-25
The shift in characterization at this moment is dramatic. Following Samuel’s message, Saul descends into passivity. Meanwhile, the woman, seeing his paralysis, rises to action.
He refused and said, “I will not eat.”
But his servants, together with the woman, urged him, and he listened to their words. So he arose from the earth and sat on the bed.
Now the woman had a fattened calf in the house, and she quickly killed it, and she took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread of it, and she put it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.
--1 Samuel 28:23-25
Obviously, the woman acts in self-preservation, partly to get rid of the man who put a price on her head. Still, she treats him respectfully as royalty. The closing twist resembles a Twilight Zone ending. The medium performs a final act of service for her king as a free woman. But Saul departs with a death sentence over his head. The closing statement, “Then they rose and went away that night,” rings with foreboding.
Doug Knox