Saul's Participation in a Demonic Seance
Saul's Participation in a Demonic Seance
Gods prerogative was to rebuke Saul with the one, the only, Samuel
Not Samuel.
If God refused to speak to Saul through
legitimate means (Samuel when alive), neither would he speak to him through
illegitimate means (Dead Samuel).
God refused to let Samuel speak to Saul while he was alive. I find it hard to accept that in this desperate hour, after refusing to speak to him by dreams, Urim, and other prophets, God did give him a direct word from the Lord through an cursed methodology.
I think there are at a minimum two huge textual questions for the pro-Samuel crowd to answer, namely the significance of "Samuel's" rising
up from the ground, and his declaration that Saul will be
with him. As soon as one starts explaining these observations in terms of "
realm of the dead," and alleged "
OT perspective" on the afterlife, he leaves the text behind, and begins his own version of systematic theologizing.
The relevant texts are 1 Sam.15:35;19:18,22,24; and especially 1 Sam. 28:6 "
And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets."
In other words, Saul sought for legitimate means to have God speak to him. He prayed, he went to worship, he sought the will of God through the intermediaries God had provided--priests and prophets. And God literally would not speak to him.
Did God permit Saul to know the
truth, via the medium? Yes, though why Saul should have expected a speaker of unreliable pronouncements to give him insight only shows how far he had fallen.
God influenced Ahab through a "
lying spirit" in the mouth of his false prophets. God can do what he likes.
God can speak through an donkey, but
1) people aren't typically trying to access secret knowledge through verbalizing animals,
2) there was no God given
law against accessing the verbalized thoughts of animals, and
3) Balaam wasn't trying to get his donkey to talk to him.
There was Law against witchcraft. Ex.22:18; Lev.19:31; 20:27; Dt.18:10-11
Saul had harried mediums out of the land (1 Sam. 28:3,9), in accordance with the Law's prohibition. Saul knew these were agents of evil standing against God. But he somehow thinks one of these creatures will be able to compel Samuel's attendance?
If God wasn't going to speak through legitimate means to Saul, even though he sought them out (recall God even spoke truth to Ahab, when he sought out Micaiah), I don't believe that he gave Saul even a message of judgment through his ghostly prophet, summoned buy a medium.
A careful study leads me to think it was a demonic seance, and it was attended by a demon. But I don't think that anyone
should have been inclined to believe the word of a demon, a medium, or any "
spirit" message produced in that environment.
AMR