I SAMUEL 28 lesson # 28
DESPERATION IN SEEKING ADVICE
I. Introduction:
Note: We left off last week with David in the thick of a very difficult situation. He has left Israel and joined the enemy and now is caught between a rock and a hard place. He has been enlisted to fight for the Philistines against his own people. He did not ask God for any direction. He is away from Israel (away from the Church!!) and is now in trouble. However, Saul, the leader who drove David away seems to have all the cards in his hands. From an outward point of view, Saul has it made! Saul has driven the good man from God’s promised land and remains in power. However, things are not often what they seem. God is not mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
II. Saul Needs Assurance and Guidance. I Samuel 28:3-6.
A. The Crisis is Defined and Saul Seeks Help. I Samuel 28:3-6
>>>> Have someone read I Samuel 28:3-6.
Q What crisis is now facing Saul?
An = The Philistines are gathering for a major battle. Remember it was the Philistine crisis that caused the Israelites to want a king in the first place. It was the Philistine threat that propelled Saul into his present position of power and now this is what is threatening him.
Q How did Saul react?
An = In 28:5 we see that this has completely shaken him. Maybe the extent of the battle preparations of the Philistines has terrified him.
Q What is his problem according to 28:6?
An = He cannot get any direction or assurance from the Lord. Either personally (dreams), from the priests (Urim, remember he killed most of them anyway in chapter 22), or by the prophetic word.
Q At what time of your life did you most desperately want help and guidance from God?
Note: It is often at these times that we really want to hear from God. This is where Saul is. He needs help and Heaven is silent. Saul is desperate and so seeks help from another source.
B. Saul Seeks Another Source: Divination. I Samuel 28:7.
>>>> Have someone read I Samuel 28:7.
Q What is wrong with seeking a medium?
An = It is expressly forbidden in God’s Word.
>> Have someone read Leviticus 19:31.
>> Have someone read Deuteronomy 18:10-15.
Note: Saul cannot hear from the prophets because of his sin and so he now seeks the very thing that he himself tried to eradicate in 28:3.
Note: Several of the scholars point out that Saul risked a lot to meet with this medium for she was close to or behind enemy lines. We will see that he has to go to her in disguise. (Show on map if you can). Gordon, p. 194.
III. Saul At the Medium’s House. I Samuel 28:8-25.
A. Dialogue Between Saul and the Medium. I Samuel 28:8-14
>>>> Have someone read I Samuel 28:8-11.
Note: The clothes motif comes up again. In 18:4, 19:24, and 24:4,5 the issue of clothes is used by the author to speak of the struggle for the possession of the kingship. Here Saul puts on other clothes and therefore takes off the symbol of His kingship, as he seeks to go against the Lord’s will to get the council and advice he needs.
Q What is the woman afraid of?
An = Oddly enough, she is afraid of Saul. He was well known for being very religious and he had correctly made attempts to eliminate such people from Israel.
Q What does Saul do in 28:10 to reassure her that she will come to no harm if she does what he asks?
An = The irony is that he swears by God that he will not punish her for breaking God’s commands.
Q Who does Saul ask to see?
An = He asks to see Samuel. Even in sin Saul seeks God, because he seeks God’s servant Samuel. Saul is still attached to Samuel and despite the irony that Samuel would totally disapprove of Saul’s use of necromancy (attempting to speak with the dead) Saul tries to contact Samuel.
>>>> Have someone read I Samuel 28:12-14.
Note: This story has often puzzled and anguished commentators. First, how can this woman really bring someone up from the dead. There are no doubt a majority of mediums who are merely frauds, but the Bible forbids necromancy, it does not say it is not effective. Second, how can a man of God be called from the dead by a person who is dealing with the other side?
Q Whom did the witch contact?
An = Apparently this is Samuel. Some scholars think her surprise is that she actually got someone from the dead, but the text seems to say that Saul did get into contact with Samuel, even though he was dead.
Saul could not deal with the truth and the direction Samuel offered while alive and so now he wants to deal with Samuel, because he is in a pinch. What Saul is doing is wrong and illegitimate, but Saul is desperate and seems to think that the crisis justifies his breaking the Lord’s explicit commandments. Let us see if his flirting with “spiritualism” is productive. He is worried, he needs assurance and direction, and since the Lord will not answer, he has turned to God’s opposite….
B. Dialogue Between Saul and Samuel. I Samuel 28:15-20.
>>>> Have someone read I Samuel 28:15.
RQ Is Samuel happy?
Q How does Saul justify his action?
An = He is in a crisis, God will not answer, and he needs to know what to do. Therefore he has called upon Samuel. It is almost as if Saul is saying it is God’s fault that he has resorted to necromancy, because Saul has a need and God has not provided.
Q Have you ever done that? Alienated God and then got upset that God does not answer any more and seek the help you need?
Q Does Saul still seem to refuse to accept that he was to lose the kingship because of his sin?
An = Yes, he still wants things to be as “he wants them to be”. He is king and he feels he needs answers.
Note: Saul sees God as a “coke machine”. Put the right amount of quarters in the machine and it should respond. Saul has been religious, (the quarters), he needs an answer (the needed soft-drink), and so he cannot seemingly understand why he does not get a response. A lot of fathers (or children), spouses, pastors, or leaders are this way. They alienate the people they are around and then wonder why the relationship is broken. Saul seems to have no clue.
>>>> Have someone read I Samuel 28:16-19.
Q How does Samuel open his speech?
An = With a rebuke in verse 16. Not quite the answer Saul was hoping for. Maybe Saul had pretended too long that “his brand” of religion was sufficient despite what God was saying to him. Maybe He really came to believe that he could approach God the way he wanted to.
Q What is Samuel saying in 28:17-18? Is it new?
An = Verses 17 and 18 are not new. Samuel is telling Saul what he already knew. In verse 17 Samuel tells Saul that God will take his kingdom away from him and give it to a “neighbor” but this time the “neighbor” is named: David. Then in verse 18 Samuel recites the reasons for the judgment. First a general statement: you did not obey the Lord. Then Samuel gives a specific example: You did not carry out the assignment against the Amalekites.
Q What is being said in 28:19?
An = A specific prophesy is given. Israel will be defeated, and Saul and his sons will be killed the next day. Now, there is no longer vague threats being made but specific predictions for the very near future. The reason Saul was made king was to meet the Philistine threat and now he would be shown to be a failure on the last day of his life. It would be a judgment on his kingship.
Q What was the proof of a leaders anointing?
An = Military victory. Saul’s kingship would be “de-confirmed”. Notice Saul’s reaction.
>>>> Have someone read I Samuel 28:20.
Q What caused Saul’s collapse, according to this verse?
An = Two things: he was filled with fear and he had been fasting. Emotional and physical reasons are given. What follows is quite interesting because it is described in fairly great detail (something we would think is unimportant), but the author spends a fair degree of time on it.
C. Attempts to Stabilize Saul. I Samuel 28:21-25.
>>>> Have someone read I Samuel 28:21-25
Q Does the author want you to have sympathy for Saul?
An = I think he does. He portrays the pitiful condition of this man who is abandoned by God. Even the witch is presented sympathetically and seen as a good and proper host. The Bible tries to be fair to Saul. He is to be pitied. He murdered priests, tried repeatedly to ruin David, lied, and disobeyed the Lord directly, but still he is to be pitied. A sad, realistic detail of Saul’s action is given at the end of verse 23: he listened, arose and sat on the bed. This is the picture of a broken man.
Q Is this “spiritual” helper helpful?
An = It is interesting that this “spiritual” specialist has no special or helpful “spiritual” advice or comfort for the hapless Saul. She does do what she can though: she meets his physical needs. She does not know what to do about his great fear. What can a “spirit” say about the judgment of God?
Q Did it do Saul any good to get a hold of Samuel through necromancy?
An = No! The story does not directly condemn necromancy, but shows that even though it is potentially effective even when it “works” it cannot bring “goodness”. It certainly cannot over ride the judgment of God. In the spiritist’s world good and evil cannot be reversed. What you reap is still based on what you sow.
Q Did Saul really see Samuel or was he just fooled?
An = It appears that the story takes seriously that Saul did contact Samuel. What is very clear is that such action does not have the ability to undue the judgment of God based on justice being given to us for our actions. The foolishness of seeking help from the “spiritualist” world is shown to be futile. It is the “abandoned” man’s religion.
Q The word “hear” or “listen” comes up and who is Saul enjoined to listen to?
An = In an ironic play on words Saul is entreated to listen to the “witch”. The woman reminds Saul two times that she “listened” to him and so now it is his turn to “listen” to her (Brueggemann, p. 196). Brueggemann points out that Saul had such a hard time listening to God through Samuel but finally listens to a witch. Saul tried to be a “believer” without listening to God speak through the prophets and winds up in his last night listening to a sympathetic witch.
Note: Saul tries to force contact with God, even if he has to go to the devil to get an audience. He seems to be unwilling to realize that his own disobedience has broken the lines of legitimate communication. His end run around the will of God does not work. Even as he dabbles in witchcraft the overriding power and will of God dominates the story. Playing with the other side will not take one out of the judgment of the Almighty. It is His voice that must be heard, if we are to be saved.