“Now Sh’mu’el was dead; all Isra’el had mourned him and buried him in his city, Ramah. Also Sha’ul had expelled from the land those who tell the future by communicating with the dead or with a demonic spirit.”-1 Samuel 28:3
To set the scene for what’s about to happen, 1st Samuel reminds us that one of Israel’s greatest prophets Samuel was dead.
I say “reminded” because Samuel had passed away before David abandoned Israel to escape to Philistia.
We’re also told that upon Samuel’s passing, some crazy religious fervor overtook Saul and he booted out all of the diviners and necromancers from Israel.
No doubt it was Samuel’s death that prompted this.
What exactly is a necromancer?
It’s a diviner who calls up the spirits of the dead to get secret information from them.
The Torah forbids such activities.
“Do not turn to
spirit-mediums or sorcerers;
don’t seek them out,
to be defiled by them;
I am ADONAI your God.”
-Leviticus 19:31
“The person who turns to
spirit-mediums and sorcerers to
go fornicating after them-
I will set myself against him
and cut him off from his people.”
-Leviticus 20:6
Yikes!
God really detests diviners.
So obviously, one clear takeaway is we should avoid all attempts to try and communicate with the dead.
But why do some people try to do so?
There are many reasons.
They may seek comfort or closure after the death of a loved one.
They may seek guidance, believing deceased loved ones can offer advice or insights.
Or it may simply be curiosity.
They want to explore the unknown and understand what happens after death.
Nevertheless, God says NO and forbids any such involvement with sorcery.
Even if we succeed, the dead person we call up may not be who we think it is.
It could be a demonic spirit pretending to be the person you wanted to speak to.
Another takeaway is how this shows there was an abundance of necromancers in Israel in the first place.
We can see how far the people had fallen from worshipping the one true God who brought them out of Egypt.
Volumes could be written on this one topic alone.
Finally, I’m getting ahead of myself here, but this also paints the picture of a religious hypocrite.
One who says one thing but does another.
Here we have Saul piously driving the necromancers out of the land.
But in the next verses, we’ll see him seek out a diviner to bring up Samuel from the dead.
Need I say any more?
Time and time again, Saul’s behavior tells us how he truly felt about obeying God’s commandments.
Remember folks, faith without works is dead.
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