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. (1 Samuel 28:15-18 ESV) The character of this event has long been debated—whether the spirit was really Samuel, or how the medium could command the spirit of a holy prophet. As far as the narrator is concerned, this really is the spirit of the dead prophet Samuel. He is called “Samuel” in vv. 15–16. He speaks much as he had spoken to Saul during his lifetime (cf. vv. 16–18 with15:18, 26–28: in both places, Samuel describes David as Saul’s “neighbor”). He uses the name of the Lord seven times, and adds the true prophecy that Saul and his sons will die. It is hard to think that the narrator thought this was a deceptive illusion performed by the woman or some demonic spirit deceiving Saul. An evil spirit would not deliver a true prophecy or true words to Saul, as Samuel does in 28:16–19. That the woman’s actions brought Samuel up is implied by v. 15, Why have you disturbed me? So whatever the limits on a medium’s power normally were, in this case the Lord let her rouse the spirit of Samuel himself. We see to what extreme measure Saul goes to in order to hear the words of the Lord. Our Journey continues today in 1 Samuel chapters 27 through 31.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 11:42:50 +0000
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