Be sure your sin will find you out …. and it does – Achish gathered his Philistine army to fight against Israel. Problems! Not only does he do that, but he expects David and his men to be on his side (v1,2). David is in the wrong place at the wrong time. David has no choice but to accept (or to confess that he lied), and Achish makes him one of his chief bodyguards.
If we behave like the world, the world will expect us to fight for the world even against God. One has said that if you lie, sooner or later you will have to live the lie.
It is often the case that Satan will see to it that we get promotion in the world to conflict with our Christian beliefs. For example, if a person is willing to work (by choice) instead of worshipping God it often happens that that person gets a job that prevents them from attending Church. Of course, I’m not referring to those who have to work on Sundays etc. for example doctors, nurses, police, public transport etc. Once in, it is difficult to get out of. It might be financially beneficial to work overtime, but if it clashes with our service for and worship of God, and opportunities to meet together with fellow believers, we have a choice to make. We need to remember that a Christian has rights just as much as any other religion. There are many examples of people who stood by their principles and requested time to follow their religious beliefs. The Human Rights Act 1998 gives freedom of thought, religion etc. Dan Walker, Eric Liddel to name but two. We must be tactful and reasonable in the way we do it, but we have other examples to show that it might not be easy, and we could be discriminated against and marginalized, as many have.
One might understand why David didn’t tell Achish that he had been conquering the allies of the Philistines seeing he was given hospitality there, but really, he shouldn’t have been there then he wouldn’t have had to compromise his standing. How we must be careful where we go and what we do – we must be honest and truthful and nail our colours to the mast, which may mean not doing certain things. It will not be easy, but it could create difficulties if we do and also if we don’t. But here David found himself fighting against his own people ‘God’s chosen people’ – the ones he described as ‘the army of the Living God’ when he took on Goliath.
On the other side Saul is compromising too (v3). Now that Samuel is dead (see chapter 25:1), Saul has no one to turn to for guidance. He is faced with the mighty army of the Philistines and (not for the first time) he is afraid. Then he tries praying and seeking God through the priests etc. but “The LORD did not answer him” (v6). How terrible to find heaven closed to our prayers? We are reminded that whilst Samuel was alive, Saul had been told to put away spiritists and mediums out of the land. They have no place among His people in passages such as Leviticus 19:31, 20:6, 27 and in Deuteronomy 18:9-14. Saul put them away in his earlier days when he was still influenced by Samuel’s leadership.
Things such as tarot cards, palm readers, tea leaf, horoscopes and Ouija Boards are modern forms of spiritism. They are often said to be harmless fun, but they are neither harmless, nor are they fun. We often see ‘churches’ described as “Spiritualist’. All of these are dangerous links to the demonic. Christians should have nothing to do with such occultist arts or practices.
The Philistines encamped at Shunem in the Valley of Jezreel, which was about twenty miles north of Aphek, the most northerly Philistine city. Saul was afraid. He used to be a man of great courage (see chapter 11) but after The Spirit was withdrawn from him (16:14) all this changed until after Samuel died, when he seemed to have lost his courage completely. When God did not answer him, he was in an awful place. God was silent, even through the usual channels which were the Urim and Thumim, part of the Priests attire. He was in disobedience to God by seeking to kill David as his words convey when he seemed to repent after David could have killed him but spared him.
We cannot expect God to speak to us if we are in complete disobedience to Him. That does not mean that God has not shown us His will, it is that we disobey it and when we seek to go our own way that God seems to be silent.
Saul decided to do what he knew he should not do. He told his servants to seek out a medium. They either already knew, or they made inquiries and found one in Endor (v7). She is known as the Witch of Endor. She was one who made contact with the dead, known as a necromancer, one who stands between the living and the dead, also known as a medium. Endor was about four miles northeast of Shunem, which is where the Philistines were camped ready for their attack against Saul. It was perilously close to the enemy.
Going against God’s will usually is close to the enemy, and we should be most careful not to go that way.
He went in disguise (v8). He thought he could fool everyone including God and went to the witch of Endor. He asked her to bring up Samuel for him in a séance. She was afraid because Saul had cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Obviously, she still had a reputation because Saul’s servants recommended her (v7).
God said in Leviticus 20:6: “…. the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.
It was no good wanting God to speak to him, when He already had the law. He was rejecting God’s word and putting himself in grave danger. He asked her to contact Samuel of all people!
She obviously did not know he was Saul and I assume being asked to contact Samuel scared her. She said that Saul had cut off her kind from the land, and she probably thought this was a plot to expose her and get rid of her (v9). Saul assures her that no harm will come to her (v10). “It is only once, no one will know – it’s our secret”, he even swore to her in the name of The LORD, to make it sound good. How often does the devil tempt us like that?
One would have thought that Samuel would be the last person Saul would want in view of the words of rebuke which Samuel had made to him, but he asked for him (v11). She then realized that he was Saul. We are not told how she knew that. When the woman did her thing – Samuel indeed appeared. She described that she had seen this old man, and Saul immediately recognized that it was Samuel. (v12-14).
This shows the danger of dabbling with such things – you may say “I don’t go for that, and I don’t go that far – I only read horoscopes – that’s harmless fun!” Fun it might be, but harmless it is not – it is playing with fire. You ask (as I was some years ago), “does the Bible prohibit reading horoscope?” yes, I believe it does. The word horoscope comes from two Greek words – ‘hora’ and ‘scopos’ – literally ‘an observer of times’ i.e. the signs and times of the Zodiac.
In Deut.18v10 “There shall not be found among you anyone that …. uses divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch………. for all these things are an abomination unto The LORD….” (KJV) Note v14 “for these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and mediums but as for you, the LORD God has not appointed such for you” (not allowed you to do so).
When Samuel appeared, the woman cried out in a loud voice. She never expected this for, after all, she was a fraud. Real people didn’t usually appear. I reckon she was terror struck.
There is some controversy over this incident, but I believe that Samuel did appear, but not because the medium called him. God allowed this appearance of Samuel. It confirmed the coming judgment upon King Saul in a dramatic way, and it taught the medium and Saul a powerful lesson about the danger of her occult craft.
“When we close our ears to God, He will find unusual – and perhaps uncomfortable – ways to speak to us. “That he did appear to Saul, there can be no question, but he did not come in response to her call. He was sent of God, for the express purpose of rebuking Saul for his unholy traffic with these evil things, and to pronounce his doom.” (G. C. Morgan)
The defeated nations had listened to mediums etc., who, no doubt, had told them that things would get better, but God says – “You have got Me, you don’t need these and what I say will be the truth. You can depend on Me. If you go to and listen to these people you are putting them before and in place of Me”.
It is a form of idolatry, and that is condemned/prohibited by God. But you say – it’s OK God saying that, but He didn’t hear or answer Saul’s prayers (He had forsaken Saul), but God had already spoken, Saul knew the answer, but he disobeyed.
Samuel did appear and asked,“Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” (v15) One can assume that Samuel was at peace in Paradise. Jesus described Lazarus (Luke 16) as being in a place known as ‘Abraham’s Bosum’. It appears that prior to the crucifixion, this was not heaven, but a place of rest and peace. It was a real place.
Saul replied, “I am deeply distressed…. God has departed from me and does not answer me anymore, therefore I have called you….” Samuel gave a poignant reply “Why do you ask me seeing that the LORD has departed from you” “The LORD has done for Himself as He spoke by me….” (v15-18) In other words I’ve already told you what would happen if you turned away from God, and it surely has. Samuel had mourned for Saul while they were both alive in 1 Samuel 15 v 35; 16 v 1 he told him that God had rejected him because of his disobedience. Saul didn’t like the answer he already had but he had brought it on himself because of disobedience – Samuel reminds him of this again.
How often do we have God’s answer on a particular thing but go and ask someone else in the hope that we will get a different answer? How often do we seek God’s will hoping it would be different to what He has already said?
v16-19 “Samuel said, “Why do you consult me, now that the LORD has departed from you and become your enemy?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 neighbours—to David. Because you did not obey the LORD or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the LORD has done this to you today.The LORD will deliver both Israel and you into the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The LORD will also give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.”
Samuel gave Saul the same message as before. However much we may want a different answer, God will not change it just because we don’t like the original answer. Samuel reminded Saul that he had disobeyed and that the LORD had departed from him and become his enemy. (v16). How disastrous and how tragic!
Samuel reminded Saul that he had disobeyed God by failing to execute God’s fierce wrath on the Amalekites (see chapter 15). Maybe he thought that the passage of time since then would cause God to change His mind, but Samuel said that He had not. Our genuine repentance and brokenness may change God’s mind and cause Him to be merciful to us, but the mere passage of time will not.
In Ephesians 2:11-13 Paul says that we, “Gentiles, being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were afar off have been made near by the blood of Christ”. We were once without God, but not now; Saul was once with God, but not now. We believe in “once saved always saved” – provided our conversion is genuine we can never be lost although we can backslide, and the heavens can become “brass” and our prayers unanswered.
Samuel informed Saul that Israel will be delivered by The LORD into the hand of the Philistines, and furthermore, Saul and his sons would be killed (v19).
Saul is distraught and falls full length on the ground (v20). The witch was concerned for Saul that he might die on her hands, and more to the point, that she might be blamed for Samuel’s condemnation of Saul. She said that she had only done what he asked her to do, to call Samuel. I’m sure that she was petrified at the whole episode. It is dangerous in the extreme, to dabble in the occult.
He had not eaten for 24 hours so she offered to feed him. Saul refused, but she and Saul’s servants persuaded him, and they ate the fatted calf she just happened to have (v21-25).
