March 23, 2010 - The Tragedy Of Consulting With A Medium

Meditation on 1 Samuel 28

The emotionally disturbed Saul was full of fear when he faced the attack of the Philistines at Gilboa. God's presence has departed from him. Samuel had also been dead. His prayers were not answered. So he resorted to consult a woman medium in order to know what he should do.

Bible Commentators have seven or eight different interpretations concerning his encounter with the woman who supposedly had called up Samuel from the dead through a séance experience. The ancient rabbis all considered that it was really Samuel who spoke to Saul. Several church fathers such as Augustine and Jerome also though it was Samuel himself that appeared. Evangelical scholars like Unger and Gleason Archer with many scholars do take Saul's conversation with Samuel authentic. So I believe that God had intervened in this particular incidence to show Saul that he was doomed because of his disobedience to God in not destroying all the Amalekites and other rebellious act. God had become his enemy because he treated himself above the law. Notice also that the woman who supposed to have a familiar spirit to deceive people did suddenly cry out with fear when she saw Samuel. She was not expecting that in her normal consultation with the spirit.

The question then remains why God would choose a forbidden practice to express his will? The answer was that the pronouncement of Samuel was for the doom of Saul. So any practice of consulting with a medium would lead to destruction and ruin. The Bible strictly forbids it. (Deuteronomy 18:9-14)