Don’t Miss the Point (1 Sam. 28)

Recently, some friends and I were discussing Saul’s experience with the medium in I Samuel 28. I had never really thought about the chapter being controversial or having different interpretations but rather had read it as an indication of the depravity of Saul’s heart and his desperation to escape judgment that was surely coming to him. Yet apparently, the argument had been presented in a previous discussion that Samuel (as called up by the medium) wasn’t really Samuel but an evil spirit, and they were asking what I thought. It had never occurred to me, as I have read the passage in a very literal sense each time I have encountered it, seeing only what it reveals about Saul and his heart  

By the time this incident occurs in Saul’s story, he already knows that the LORD has rejected him from being king over Israel because of the disposition of his heart, his open disobedience and rebellion. Earlier in the book, Samuel had spoken to Saul these words: “Rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king” (NASB, I Sam. 15:23). In the past, I had tended to readily see the instructions in the previous verse where Samuel relates the LORD’s delight in obedience over sacrifice (v. 22), but I had somehow skimmed over the part about rebellion and idolatry.

Sin is sin, and sometimes I need reminding, especially when my heart wants to sit in judgment and make my own neat categories to rank sin and the people who commit different ones. (Of course, I only thought of this point after the conversation with my friends about Saul’s desire to speak with Samuel and his use of a medium to do so.) Yes, divination is evil, and the dabbling in the spirit world is demonic, and we certainly want to avoid such things as commanded, but what Samuel had previously told Saul is also true. Rebellion equals divination in God’s sight, and insubordination is equal to idolatry. Sin is sin. Saul had already failed to fear God, to worship Him; he had rejected His word for the purpose of pleasing himself, of doing what he felt was best. This man who had trembled in fear at being a king and had hidden behind the baggage had quickly transformed himself into a king who was his own god, and he sat in judgment of God Himself and what He had commanded. In the context of these verses, Saul calling on a medium is no worse than his rebellion and insubordination; rather it is equal and indicative of the state of his heart.

In looking at this passage a little deeper this week, I saw something else. The last verse of chapter 15 seems also to affirm that it is Samuel who appears before Saul to judge him after the medium calls him up: “And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death; for Samuel grieved over Saul” (v.35). In addition, Samuel is presented as a mighty judge rising up out of the earth when the diviner sees him and describes him to Saul. This fits Samuel’s context throughout his time in scripture as a judge. Samuel also questions Saul’s disturbance of him, suggesting he has been at rest, content. This sits in stark contrast to Saul who has found no rest, no peace, no direction (not that he would readily accept it as shown by his previous actions) because of God’s absence from him. God had departed from him and taken the changed heart He had given him (I Sam. 10:9) leaving him truly alone and without help. 

The problem with Saul is that he doesn’t want God, only His help when it correlates to his own desires. At the same time, he wants the success that comes when God is on his side, but the two desires conflict with the truth of who God is. Idolatry clouds the heart, hiding the truth of the word. Saul’s rebellious idolatry prevents him from seeing God as LORD. The desire for God is still there but it is warped by selfish ambition, even in this desperate act Saul commits in asking a medium (of which he had previously cleared the land) to intercede and communicate with a dead man. 

At the same time, Saul’s act shows that he has become like the people in the land around him, which God had warned against. The neighboring nations were idolators, worshipping false gods and dabbling in cheap spiritism, rejecting the divine. Saul, in his own depravity and desperation, now accepts the same practices he had formerly rejected. Saul is beyond help, and Samuel rises up to judge him just as he had judged Israel before Saul’s arrival on the scene as king at God’s command. Just as they rejected God, their king had done the same.

When the people of Israel first ask Samuel for a king, he is displeased and cries out to God in prayer. God tells him that their rejection was not of him but of God’s kingship. When God first tells Samuel he has rejected Saul from being king, Samuel again becomes very distressed and spends the night crying out to the LORD (I Sam. 15:11). Afterwards, he confronts Saul in his sin, judging him rightly as the LORD has told him, speaking hard truth. When Saul begs Samuel to allow him to worship the LORD again, he first denies him, but Saul, grasping for Samuel, tears his robe, providing yet another chance for God to illustrate through Samuel that He has torn the kingdom of Israel from him. 

Unlike Saul, who wavered back and forth in his desire to obey God, God is constant and unchanging (I Sam. 15:29). When Saul again admits his sin, he begs to “worship the LORD your God” (v. 30), showing with his words his understanding that God wouldn’t repent from His judgment of Saul. God was now Samuel’s God, not Saul’s. Samuel allows Saul to worship the LORD one last time before departing from him for good.

Saul’s story is a cautionary one, and the context of Samuel’s appearance to him lessens in the light of the truth of God’s word. God is sovereign. He alone reigns, and any who would attempt to move God off His throne and place himself on it is deceived and will become God’s adversary and will be utterly destroyed. God will not share His throne. He alone deserves to receive our worship at all times, not when it is convenient to us or doesn’t stand in opposition to our own desires. Lest we miss the point, sin is sin. Rebellion equals divination, and insubordination equals idolatry.