Links for today’s readings:
Read: 1 Samuel 28 Listen: (4:04) Read: Revelation 8 Listen: (2:15)
Scripture Focus: 1 Samuel 28.5-7
5 When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart. 6 He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets. 7 Saul then said to his attendants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.”
11 Then the woman asked, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” “Bring up Samuel,” he said. 12 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!” 13 The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?” The woman said, “I see a ghostly figure coming up out of the earth.” 14 “What does he look like?” he asked. “An old man wearing a robe is coming up,” she said. Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. 15 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.” 16 Samuel said, “Why do you consult me, now that the Lord has departed from you and become your enemy? 17 The Lord has done what he predicted through me. The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbors—to David.
Reflection: Religious But Not Godly
By John Tillman
There are many interpretive theories about Endor’s medium and Samuel’s “spirit” who speaks to Saul.
Modern Westerners struggle to imagine that true witchcraft exists. We’d be more comfortable claiming the medium was a fraud and that this type of spiritual power is absent from our world.
However, accounts in the gospels and Acts show spirits operating in Christ’s day and afterward, working and speaking through humans. (Matthew 8:28-33; Mark 1.32-33; 9.38-39; 16.17; Luke 9.1; Acts 16.16-18; 19.13) We reasonably infer they did so in Saul’s day and continue in ours. Endor’s medium could have been a fraudster, but we are not let off easily by saying that her proffered services were impossible.
The more difficult question is the nature of the spirit. Did God allow Samuel’s true spirit to speak? Or did an evil spirit, perhaps the same one that tormented Saul, impersonate Samuel to torment him one last time? Whether Samuel or an evil spirit, either way, Saul’s fear once again drove him farther from God, deeper in sin, and closer to disaster.
The 20th-century atheistic prediction that religion (especially Christianity) would disappear as science advanced has proved false. Christianity is declining in the West but soaring elsewhere. And those leaving churches aren’t becoming atheists. They still seek spirituality. Many call themselves “spiritual but not religious.” The spiritualist obsessions of the 1920s (including Ouija, tarot, astrology, etc.) are roaring back in the 2020s.
Saul was a religious man, but not a godly one. He strictly enforced religious laws, putting to death those (like the medium) who violated God’s law. He worshiped fervently, enacting public sacrifices to give his troops religiously motivated morale boosts and “prophesying,” losing control of his body in worship before God. He invoked God’s name in rash, unwise vows and promises he soon broke.
Saul had plenty of religion. What he didn’t seem to have was faith. What he had most often was fear, jealousy, anger, or all three. Saul’s use of the medium showed that religion was just a tool for him. Religion was a means to what he wanted and a weapon against what he feared.
We must examine ourselves. Are we religious but not godly? Like Saul, are we enforcing God’s law, worshiping fervently, and using God’s name in vain with selfish fear? Are we in danger of treating Christ as Saul treated Samuel, calling him up to rubber-stamp our desires? Is God a means to what we want or the chief end of humanity?
Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise. — Psalm 51.16
– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle
Read more: Revealing Actions
There’s a truism that says, “When people show you who they are, believe them.” Saul revealed who he was through his spear
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