SERIES: Leadership in Hard Times
Saul and the Medium of Endor
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: There is a phenomenon sweeping our country that is as old as civilization and as new as the past week’s headlines. It is “the occult.” Shirley MacLaine has sold over 10 million books advocating channeling. George Lucas, perhaps the most successful movie producer of all time, has succeeded in substituting “the Force” for God in the vocabulary of millions of America’s youth. Nancy Reagan has for years consulted an astrologer in San Francisco and even forced the President’s chief of staff to keep a calendar that was color-coded according to the stars. Over 2,500 New Age bookstores have sprouted up all over the country. Fortune 500 companies spend millions of dollars training their executives in Transcendental Meditation.
In addition, there is a great deal of dabbling in, as well as serious practice of, clairvoyance, mental telepathy, precognition, astral projection, levitation, materialization, fortune-telling, and yoga. Witchcraft, both black and white, is a serious pursuit for millions of Americans, and right here in the state of Missouri there is evidence that several recent murders of young people are connected to covens of witches.
My principal concern today is to convey the fact that God’s Word is uncompromising in its denunciation of all forms of occultism. In our study of 1 Samuel we have watched King Saul deteriorate from his position as a promising, dynamic, courageous leader to a wicked, paranoid, murderous tyrant. Now in chapter 28 we find him in the virtual depths of apostasy, violating one of God’s clearest commands and receiving the prophecy that he has but hours left to live. Please follow along as we read from 1 Samuel 28:3-25:
3 Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in his own town of Ramah. Saul had expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land.
4 The Philistines assembled and came and set up camp at Shunem, while Saul gathered all Israel and set up camp at Gilboa. 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.”
“There is one in Endor,” they said.
8 So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. “Consult a spirit for me,” he said, “and bring up for me the one I name.”
9 But the woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?”
10 Saul swore to her by the Lord, “As surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this.”
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[a] 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. 18 Because you did not obey the Lord or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this to you today. 19 The Lord will deliver both Israel and you into the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.”
20 Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, filled with fear because of Samuel’s words. His strength was gone, for he had eaten nothing all that day and all that night.
21 When the woman came to Saul and saw that he was greatly shaken, she said, “Look, your servant has obeyed you. I took my life in my hands and did what you told me to do. 22 Now please listen to your servant and let me give you some food so you may eat and have the strength to go on your way.”
23 He refused and said, “I will not eat.”
But his men joined the woman in urging him, and he listened to them. He got up from the ground and sat on the couch.
24 The woman had a fattened calf at the house, which she butchered at once. She took some flour, kneaded it and baked bread without yeast. 25 Then she set it before Saul and his men, and they ate. That same night they got up and left.
I want to begin this morning with a clear proposition:
God’s Word forbids all contact with witchcraft, spiritism, astrology, or occultism of any kind. (Deut. 18:9-12)
Turn to Deut. 18:9-12, where God tells His people in no uncertain terms,
“When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God.”
And lest we think that the prohibition of occultism is limited to the OT, I point your attention to Paul’s visit to Corinth, as recorded in Acts 19, were Paul challenged the powers of evil. It says, “Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their occult practices. And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of all; and they counted up the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.” (Acts 19:18-20)
The question naturally arises as to why God forbids His children from becoming involved in the occult. It seems like a relatively harmless pastime to some. I would like to share with you five reasons:
Such practice involves putting oneself under the control of a power that is not from God. (Is. 8:19) The occult works; there is power there. Of that there is no question. The only question is, “What is the source of that power?” I believe the Bible makes it clear that the power that is tapped through the occult is Satanic power. Virtually every time a medium is mentioned in the Scriptures, spiritism is mentioned in the same verse. The implication is that the power behind the occult is the spirit world, the world of Satan and his demons. It certainly is not God. Listen to Isaiah 8:19, which asks, “When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people instead inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?” Mediums and spiritists do not speak for God. Unfortunately, they often claim to, which raises our second reason as to why God forbids the occult:
It is deceitful in the extreme, presenting itself as religious, or even Christian. (1 Cor. 11:14) Many psychics, channelers, astrologers and clairvoyants pass themselves off as believers in Christ. They do not cast spells or drink blood or sacrifice cats; they are upstanding citizens who simply claim to help their clients maximize their potential as creatures of God. And we shouldn’t be surprised at this. In 2 Cor. 11 the Apostle is defending himself against his detractors in the church at Corinth, men who have lied about him and impugned his motives. Then he says in verse 13: “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness.”
For too long many Christians have assumed that when Satan gets a hold of a person, you’ll invariably find that person on skid row or in an insane asylum or doing drugs or joining a cult. The fact of the matter is that such people, while they may be useful to Satan, are not his real trophies. He gets his greatest glory from his efforts to make good people better, but without Christ. His greatest goals are to counterfeit the power of God and focus people’s attention on anything other than the cross of Christ.
It is motivated by a lust for knowledge beyond the boundaries set by God. (Deut. 29:29; 1 Sam. 28:6-7) I have a great thirst for knowledge and have always admired people who read a lot, study extensively, and have inquiring minds. But there are limits to the knowledge men ought to seek. Deut. 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”
People are getting so desperate for certain kinds of knowledge today that they are willing to do anything for an edge. My understanding is that many law enforcement agencies are employing psychics to find bodies and help solve crimes. During the flap over Nancy Reagan’s use of an astrologer it has been revealed that many major Wall Street firms employ astrologers. (It’s curious that with all that help from the stars, virtually none of them predicted the crash of last October).
God has revealed some things to us about the future in His prophetic Word. And he has given us certain legitimate means of finding guidance for our lives, but when we seek guidance in forbidden ways or demand to know the future out of wrong motivations, we are making a serious error.
Saul was desperate for guidance when he faced the Philistine armies, for he was filled with terror. He even inquired of the Lord, but the Lord refused to answer him. My strong feeling is that had Saul cast himself completely on the Lord at this point and demonstrated true repentance for his disobedience and rebelliousness, God would probably have answered him. But his basic wickedness of heart is evident as he turns to a medium when faced with God’s silence.
When God has set the boundaries, it is dangerous to try to remove them.
It defiles and degrades its devotees, even adversely affecting future generations. Lev. 19:31 warns, “Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.” The defilement spoken of here is moral defilement, and the fact is that you cannot dabble in the occult without moral defilement. There is an inevitable breakdown in one’s moral defenses when Satan gets even a small foothold in a person’s life.
I don’t think it’s a mistake that the occult is listed right in the middle of the deeds of the sinful nature in Gal. 5:19-21: “immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envyings, drunkenness, carousings, and things like these.” All these behavior patterns are likely to be more evident in the life of one who gets involved in the occult.
It becomes progressively dangerous—easy to get in but difficult to get out. (1 Sam. 16:14; 18:10; 19:9) I personally believe there is a great deal of similarity between drug addiction and occult involvement. There is a certain attractiveness to drugs, a certain promise of benefit, a certain “reality” the person didn’t know existed before. He chooses freely to participate, but before he knows it, his freedom is gone, and he is a slave to the habit. That also is the case with the occult. People dabble in it through playing with a Ouija board or attending a seance just for fun. There’s a certain attractiveness that fascinates them, a “reality” not experienced before, but soon they’re hooked.
I find it most interesting that three times in the book of I Samuel we are told that an evil spirit came upon Saul: 1 Sam. 16:14; 18:10; 19:9. I take it these were incidents in which Saul was oppressed temporarily by a demon. That should have frightened him and driven him to the Lord, but it did not. And now we see him at a new level of entrapment—seeking contact with the dead through a medium. There’s no way out now for Saul. His life is about to be snuffed out.
God’s Word specifically denounces the use of mediums to attempt to contact the dead.
We have already seen this fact in numerous Scripture passages, but since it is consultation with a medium that is the theme of our text for today, I want to focus some specific attention on that subject.
Mediums, if not downright phony, are tools of Satan; they work with “familiar spirits.” (Lev. 20:6) I see only two possibilities in evaluating mediums: they’re either fakes or they are demon-influenced. And believe me, there are a lot of phonies in the business. They use all kind of trickery to gain and keep their clients. They will deceive through tape recorders, visual techniques, prior research, auto-suggestion, you name it. But not everything that mediums do can be explained as chicanery. Some of it is clearly supernatural.
My great-uncle on my father’s side, along with several other relatives, was involved in seances and tablet-writing. At one seance a medium called up a departed relative who seemed to appear in human form in ectoplasm in the corner of the room and spoke clearly with the human voice they remembered. Further, they regularly received messages on a tablet, written without human hand, which gave guidance purportedly from this relative.
I say “purportedly,” because my father was convinced that they were in contact, not with that relative but with evil spirits. That would be the clear teaching of the Scriptures. What usually happens is that a medium begins to work with one or several demons who cooperate in imitating the departed person. It shouldn’t surprise us that demons are able to do this, for they are of superior intelligence, they have a vast network of helpers, and they are very clever. It’s no problem for them to do sufficient research to copy the form or the voice of someone who has died. But the “clients” are often so desperate to contact the departed loved one that they fail to consider that they are really dealing with the power of the Evil One.
Mediums cannot contact the dead; the situation at Endor was unique. (1 Sam. 28:12) This is an important fact for us to understand: though mediums can sometimes perform supernatural feats through their demon-counterparts, they cannot actually contact the dead. The witch of Endor did, but it is the only such recorded event in human history. And it wasn’t the witch who made the contact, but God, so as to pronounce judgment upon Saul and everyone who follows his path of disobedience.
Let’s examine the text more closely. The Philistines are gathered against Israel near Shumen, the same location where the great battle of Armageddon will take place. Saul saw that he was greatly outnumbered, and terror filled his heart. When God was silent in the face of his plea for guidance, Saul said to his attendants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her,” and he was told there was one at Endor.
Saul had earlier expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land, according to verse 3. Apparently, he had done this at the beginning of his reign when he was still following the Lord. But now he is not willing to practice what he himself preached. It’s amazing how many leaders somehow consider themselves above the rules established for everyone else. In the last issue of Christianity Today I read with interest that just this past year Jimmy Swaggart published an article in the denominational magazine of the Assembly of God, calling for a minimum two-year suspension for any pastor guilty of conduct unbecoming to a minister of the Gospel. But he has decided that he himself is above that standard.
Years ago, there was a fundamentalist evangelist in Tulsa named Billy James Hargis. He was well-known for his denunciations of sin, particularly homosexuality, until he himself was exposed for molesting young men in the school he operated.
Saul, too, considered himself a special case. He disguised himself and proceeded to Endor. When the witch protested that she could lose her life if caught doing a seance, Saul promised her that she would not be punished. He asked her to contact Samuel, who had died a short time before. Now notice verse 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!'” This woman had been a medium for years, and she had conducted an untold number of seances. Why is she stunned and shocked? The answer is simple: something happened that had never happened before. Always before her demons had appeared and mimicked the departed person. But this time the departed person himself appeared.
The king tried to calm her down and asked what she saw. She described the sight as a spirit coming out of the ground. We would expect the spirit of a believer to be coming down from heaven, but you have to remember that this is a pre-cross event, and that the dead are all represented in the OT as being in Sheol or the grave, which had two compartments—Abraham’s bosom for the righteous and Hades for the wicked.
She further described the visitor as an old man wearing a robe, and then, it says, “Saul knew it was Samuel.” That doesn’t sound like a sufficient description to identify the visitor as Samuel, except for a little hint back in chapter 15:26-27. Saul had just sinned grievously, had excused himself, but then asked Samuel to forgive him and return with him. And it says, “But Samuel said to him, ‘I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!’ As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore.” My suspicion is that the medium of Endor told him that the visitor from the grave was an old man wearing a robe with a tear on the lower left. And Saul knew.
We’ll come back to the story in a few moments, but first I want to establish a third fact about mediums:
Mediums are under a curse from God. (Ex. 22:18; Lev. 20:27; Deut. 18:12) What does God think of those who traffic with evil spirits, purporting to contact departed relatives? It’s quite clear. Listen to Exodus 22:18: “Do not allow a sorceress to live.” Lev. 20:27: “A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.” Deut. 18:12: “Anyone who does these things (serves as a medium or consults the dead) is detestable to the Lord.” Now the death penalty for these crimes is not carried into the NT, but the denunciation of their sin is. We don’t count witchcraft as a capital crime today, but we should denounce their activity as an abomination to the Lord and keep ourselves from the occult at all costs.
God’s judgment falls on everyone who forsakes His guidance in favor of occult guidance.
First, a word about legitimate means of guidance for a Christian.
The Word of God should be the principal source for a believer’s guidance. (Is. 8:19-20)Turn with me to Isaiah 8:19-20. We have already looked at verse 19, but I want us to read it again and then read the following verse: “When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.”
I like those words, “To the Law and to the Testimony!” That is a battle cry that we need to hear more than any other in the church today. Our guidance should come from Scripture, and any guidance that is contrary to that is not from God. Even the personal guidance that comes to a believer from the Holy Spirit through prayer and meditation must be judged by the standard of God’s written Word.
What happens if a person rejects the Word of God and seeks guidance through horoscopes, Ouija boards, or mediums? I suggest to you that …
Resorting to occult guidance invites fear, depression, and even death. (Is. 8:19-22; Lev. 20:27; 1 Chron. 10:13-14) Once again I call your attention to that passage in Isaiah 8 where the prophet says, “To the Law and to the Testimony.” Listen to what comes next by way of description of those who follow the occult instead: “Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.”
Isn’t that a pretty fair description of Saul’s last hours on this earth? First, we see him in great distress or fear. It says in verse 20 that “Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, filled with fear because of Samuel’s words.” Samuel had pronounced judgment upon him, informing him that on the very next day he and his sons would join Samuel in the grave. There may be no fear worse than that described by many individuals who have found themselves helplessly caught in the grips of demonic influence through the occult.
Then follows depression. Saul’s strength was gone, and he was unwilling even to eat. What’s the use of eating if you have only a few hours left? What’s the use of eating if you are hopelessly estranged from your Creator? Those who have worked with people in the occult, who are oppressed or possessed by demons, see depression as a very common result.
Finally, death comes to Saul as he commits suicide on the battlefield. Listen to 31:1-4:
“Now the Philistines fought against Israel; the Israelites fled before them, and many fell dead on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines were in hot pursuit of Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua. The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him critically.
Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me.”
There’s a passage in 1 Chron. 10:13,14 that summarizes the life of Saul in a tragic sort of way: “Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord; he did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance and did not inquire of the Lord. So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.”
I want you to think about that one phrase, “He did not inquire of the Lord.” But, you say, he did; the Lord just didn’t answer him. The fact of the matter is that he didn’t seek the Lord when he should have, and God counts that as not having sought Him at all. And that brings me to my conclusion:
Conclusion: Failure to seek God in the normal times of life may result in silence from God in a time of crisis. (Is. 55:6,7)
Isaiah 55:6,7 reads: “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” The implication is clear: there comes a time in the course of human events when the Lord may not be found, when He is not near. Saul found that time. Listen to his own words as he answers Samuel’s demand to know why Saul has disturbed him in the afterlife: “‘I am in great distress,’ Saul said. ‘The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has turned away 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.” And Samuel responds, “Why do you consult me, now that the Lord has turned away from you and become your enemy?”
Samuel had been available for years to help Saul seek the mind of the Lord and obtain guidance for his rule, but Saul was not interested. Now it is too late. I think Saul is one of the most pathetic characters in all the Bible at this point. He finally knows that God is the only one who can help him, but it’s too late.
Friend, there’s a great warning here for unbelievers and believers alike. First, let me apply this to those who have never responded to God’s command to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps we have stressed God’s grace and His patience a little too much. We have conveyed the notion that so long as there’s a breath left in your body you can turn to God and be saved. But it’s evident from this passage that it’s possible for a person to pursue a life of disobedience and selfishness for so long, rejecting periodic convictions by the Holy Spirit, that when he finally decides it’s time to get serious with God, it’s too late.
The most awful thing about Hell is evident from the following description of the person who is sentenced to eternal punishment (quoting Rev. 14:10): “He will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.” The torment, I believe, consists primarily in the fact that those who are there finally know the truth, they can finally see Jesus Christ for who He is, but they cannot fellowship with Him or enjoy Him.
But there’s a word here for believers, too. I am inclined to think that Saul was a believer, albeit a very carnal one. We can get to the point of unfaithfulness and disobedience that God will not listen to our prayers. He simply says, “That’s it. You’re finished. I’m taking you home.”
I don’t know if anyone here, believer or unbeliever, has reached the point that Saul reached. I do know that it’s dangerous to wait even one more day to repent. I want to suggest three simple actions to you:
1. Stay away from the occult and keep it out of your home. Do not consult horoscopes; do not wear astrological symbols; do not play with Ouija boards; do not read New Age books. If you’re not sure if something is part of the Occult movement, don’t denounce it as demonic, but stay away from it.
2. Keep your eyes and ears open for similar influences in your children’s school or the company you work for. When you see evidence of Transcendental Meditation or other occult influences, speak up against it. It’s not easy because you may be labeled a reactionary, or worse yet, a fundamentalist. But all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
3. Seek your guidance from the Lord through His Word. Don’t just have this as your philosophy of life, do it! Know the Word, study it, live it.
DATE: May 22, 1988
Tags:
Witchcraft
Astrology
Occultism
Demons