1 Samuel 28

What we can know is that the woman “saw” something and that she cried out. It would seem that what she saw was beyond her ordinary experience, something beyond her control. At the same time, she was given the ability to recognize Saul (verse 12).

However, Saul did not see what the woman saw, because he kept asking: “What do you see . . . What does he look like?” (verses 13–14). When she said she saw an old man wearing a robe, then Saul knew it was Samuel¹⁰⁵ and he bowed down with his face to the ground.

15–19 Then “Samuel” spoke. Again, we cannot know whether the one speaking was Samuel’s true spirit that God had raised up, or whether this was an evil spirit, or perhaps only a vision. The fact is, this “spirit” spoke words that Samuel might well have spoken had he been alive. God clearly used this “spirit” to remind Saul why the kingdom had been torn out of his hands and given to another (1 Samuel 15:28)—to David¹⁰⁶ (verse 17). In addition, through this spirit, God revealed to Saul what was about to happen: namely, that Israel would fall to the Philistines and that Saul and his sons would soon be dead—“they will be with me,” said the spirit (verse 19). All of this came true the very next day (see 1 Samuel 31:1–6).

20–25 Saul was filled with fear because of Samuel’s words (verse 20). He was also weak from hunger. Finally the woman and Saul’s two men succeeded in getting him to eat; Saul and his men then left that same night.

What are we to learn from this strange episode? First, the mighty Saul, who once had access to God through Samuel and who once was a gifted leader, had now sunk to the level of consulting with mediums. Why had Saul sunk so low? The simple answer is that he had disobeyed God. But there is a deeper reason than that: Saul had put his own will ahead of God’s will. The basic cause of Saul’s decline was his own self-will. Saul’s greatest enemy was not the army of the Philistines; it was himself.

A second thing to learn concerns the seeking of God’s will by unscriptural means. The events related in this chapter in no way justify the use of horoscopes, fortune telling, tarot cards, witchcraft, or any other kind of modern-day “mediums” in an attempt to gain access to spiritual guidance and power. All of these means are detestable to God (Deuteronomy 18:9–13) and therefore forbidden to Christians. God Himself, through His Holy Spirit, will give us all the guidance, all the power, all the blessings that we could ever need-or even imagine (Ephesians 3:20–21).