1 SAMUEL 28, 29, 30 and 31
Meanwhile, back to the Samuel, Saul, David, and the Philistines story! David had impressed his Philistine host, Achish, so highly that he and his men were invited to be Achish’s bodyguard from then on. Achish was totally unaware of David’s other battle exploits that were not against Israel.
Samuel’s death meant that King Saul had no means of hearing from God – not that it really mattered, since God was not inclined to speak to Saul anyway. Saul suddenly became aware of the Philistine army and was petrified and became desperate for reassurance. So he did a very strange and wicked thing: he enquired of a medium (one of a group that he had previously expelled from Israel, on the grounds that contacting the dead in any way was forbidden by the Lord) and asked for the spirit of Samuel to be consulted and brought up from the grave. Whichever way you look at this action, it was evil, and Saul knew better than this – but his fear of the Philistines and his grief over Samuel’s death probably combined to tempt him to go against God’s commands and to dabble in the occult.
Theologians debate what really went on here; my own view is that is really was Samuel’s spirit, that he really did speak to Saul – and that God permitted it. Prior to the death and resurrection of Christ, it seems that anyone who died was obviously separated from their body, but also went to Sheol, a place of unconscious ‘sleeping’ for the spirit, ready to be awakened at the Final Judgment. When Jesus died and rose from the dead, those same righteous men and women were awakened and taken into heaven to be with him; those who now die in the faith of Christ go to be with Him in heaven instantly. On the Last Day (of this age) he will return with all the Faithful Departed to meet those who are still alive. We will all receive new bodies fit for eternity. Those who died in their sins (the unrighteous) will remain ‘asleep’ until the Great Day of Judgment. (Sceptics might want to see a few bible verses to prove this series of events – and rightly so. But that is for a future posting!)
So Samuel’s spirit was temporarily awakened by Saul, but it did Saul no good at all. All Samuel said was to reiterate what he had prophesied to Saul whilst alive, adding: “…and tomorrow, you and your sons will be with me” (i.e. dead)! This turned out to be true. The next day the Philistines gathered a huge force of men and began their attack against Israel and Saul. David’s presence became extremely uncomfortable for the Philistine commanders (who probably remembered that ‘Goliath’ incident!) and they were concerned that David might double-cross them in order to reconcile himself to Saul. David himself was probably in a dilemma about what side to fight on in the battle, and so he was grateful that the Philistine commanders insisted that he be sent away – so therefore he didn’t have to choose!
Instead, he returned to base camp to discover that his family and his men’s families had been kidnapped and they had been robbed. “David found strength in the Lord his God” – some great words! They pursued and caught their kidnappers and put them to the sword, rescuing their wives, children, and possessions – all fully intact. Clearly God had given them the victory, which is why David insisted that every man had an equal share of the spoils – since every man belonged to the Lord equally.
On the other side of the battle lines, the inevitable happened: Saul and his sons perished in their battle with the Philistines, along with most of Israel’s army. The rest ran away. Saul took his own life to avert the final shame of being captured. So ended a sad life that began so promisingly and ended in fear, jealousy, and defeat. Failure to obey God and a lack of trust in him seem to be the pitfalls that Saul always found. He was Israel’s first failure as a king.
The Big Picture 