Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" "I am in great distress," Saul said. "The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has departed from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do." – 1 Samuel 28:15

Today's Scripture Reading (June 14, 2025): 1 Samuel 28

This passage not only describes one of the weirdest incidents in Samuel, but it is one of the strangest stories in the entire Bible. It takes place around 1010 B.C.E., or approximately 3,000 years ago. Samuel has been dead for a year, maybe two. Saul is fighting a war on two fronts. He is fighting against the Philistines, but he is also fighting an uprising within his own ranks, led by David. David had risen through Saul's ranks and had become popular with both the people and the soldiers. David became so popular that Saul saw him as a competitor for the throne of Israel. Which, of course, he was, but not because of anything David had done. God had chosen him to be King after Saul's death as a result of Saul's sin. Saul disagreed and was trying to eliminate his former General.

Saul and David did not get along. But neither did Saul and Samuel. Saul had considered Samuel a thorn in his side ever since Saul had risen to power. The two were constantly bickering, but on top of that, before Samuel had died, he had anointed David as King. Anointing someone outside of Saul's family as the next king did not help the relationship between Samuel and Saul.

If you have ever had someone die who was a royal pain but who also you knew was wise, then you are getting close to the relationship that Saul and Samuel had together. Samuel was a pain, but when push came to shove, Saul knew that he needed Samuel.

Samuel had forbidden the practice of the occult arts in Israel, and Saul had maintained that ban. The reason for this ban is one of the story's surprises. These practices were not banned because they were ineffective. We struggle with that. They were banned because God had never intended for his people to delve into the future. God's people were to trust God in the eternal now. Whatever you are going through right now, God desires that you will trust Him in this moment, not that you will consult a psychic to find out what is going to happen in the future. We are to make the most of this moment in our lives and trust God for the future. This concept is one of the issues that I have with Christian End Times Prophecy; our pursuit of End Times Prophecy violates this principle. It is not that it is impossible to see into the future and know the end date, although no one has, as of yet, been successful. The biblical principle is that we live fully with God in this moment, doing as He asks us, with full knowledge that we can trust God with whatever the future might hold.

But Saul can't wait, and so he violates this principle of God. In a moment of stress, Saul begins to seek a spiritist despite having previously banned them. He is told that there is one living covertly in Endor, a village in Galilee. Saul disguised himself, which was probably quite a feat considering that he was a very tall man, and goes to a woman we traditionally think of as the Witch of Endor. The woman is hesitant. Her practice has been outlawed. Maybe because the practice was illegal, she wanted more money to perform the deed. And here we get into some confusion. Some believe that the woman was a fraud and that when Samuel appeared, she was in a state of shock. Others think that she was the genuine article, but the appearance of Samuel was a moment of revelation. Not only did she see Samuel, but she suddenly also knew the identity of the one who had asked for him, Saul, the same one who vowed that all of the people like her should be put to death. Whatever the actual circumstance might have been, Samuel is brought up, and he is not happy.

The witch is a pagan. She is not a believer in the one true God. Yet even she understood that what she was witnessing was different from any other time that she had plied her craft. The word she uses, which we have translated as "a ghostly figure," is actually the word elohim, a term used to describe God. But we should not interpret that to mean that Samuel was somehow deified. However, to this pagan woman, this ghost was noticeably different. As she watched Samuel's spirit rise from the ground, there was no doubt that this was Samuel, the prophet.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 29