Witch of Endor
What do you think of when you hear the word, “Halloween”?
If you think of ghosts and witches, you are not alone!
And guess what? There is a story in the Bible that contains a witch and a ghost! And yes, there is plenty of creepy artworks of this biblical scene, which is admittedly terrifying.
So, why is there a witch and a ghost in the Bible? Good question! But first, a little background to the story…
King Saul is trying to hold his kingdom together in what would soon be his kingdom’s last stages. The problem? God does not favor him as king. Instead, God wants David to assume the throne. In fact, long before this particular event happens, God sends the Prophet Samuel to basically anoint David as the rightful king, which he does. Then, God calls on the Prophet Samuel to tell Saul that he needs to step down, or else. Which Saul has refused to do. And so, God has already made His Opinion quite clear on this matter: give the kingdom to David, and all will be well.
But Saul doesn’t want to give up his throne. After all, it’s good to be king! And so, before this story takes place, basically Saul has been doing everybody he can to kill David. And destroy the Philistines. Which is not going very well, to put it mildly. In fact, the only person who seemed to intimidate the Philistines was David — after all, David killed their Philistine giant, Goliath. And, as previously mentioned, Saul is currently trying to kill David.
Anyway, Saul is doing everything he can to somehow hold together his kingdom. And finally, in a fit of desperation, he searches out a witch to summon the Prophet Samuel, who has just recently died, for some advice. After all, the Prophet Samuel previously gave him advice for ruling, and he desperately wants that advice now when everything looks hopeless. Plus, God doesn’t seem to be interested in giving him advice, other than the usual advice (step down and let David be king) and so he is very much desperate.
Of course, it would be a lot easier to find a witch… if he hadn’t killed all of the witches around. And so, he puts on a disguise and finds a witch who is slightly unwilling to do what he asks since it’s dreadfully illegal, but she does it anyway.
This… turns out to be a bad idea.
This is how the bible describes this scene:
NABRE
1Samuel 28
3Now, Samuel was dead. All Israel had mourned him and buried him in his city, Ramah. Meanwhile Saul had driven mediums and diviners out of the land.4The Philistines rallied and, coming to Shunem, they encamped. Saul, too, mustered all Israel; they camped on Gilboa. 5When Saul saw the Philistine camp, he grew afraid and lost heart completely. 6He consulted the LORD; but the LORD gave no answer, neither in dreams nor by Urim nor through prophets. 7Then Saul said to his servants, “Find me a medium through whom I can seek counsel.” His servants answered him, “There is a woman in Endor who is a medium.”8So he disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and set out with two companions. They came to the woman at night, and Saul said to her, “Divine for me; conjure up the spirit I tell you.” 9But the woman answered him, “You know what Saul has done, how he expelled the mediums and diviners from the land. Then why are you trying to entrap me and get me killed?” 10But Saul swore to her by the LORD, “As the LORD lives, you shall incur no blame for this.” 11“Whom do you want me to conjure up?” the woman asked him. “Conjure up Samuel for me,” he replied.12When the woman saw Samuel, she shrieked at the top of her voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!” 13But the king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What do you see?” “I see a god rising from the earth,” she replied. 14“What does he look like?” asked Saul. “An old man is coming up wrapped in a robe,” she replied. Saul knew that it was Samuel, and so he bowed his face to the ground in homage.
Here is a picture of him kneeling down at the first appearance of Samuel!
The meeting between Saul and Samuel quickly goes downhill from there. Samuel basically yells at Saul and predicts his imminent death.
I love that look that Samuel gives us during this whole scene. It’s like it has finally dawned on him that he is doomed in every possible way and there is no going back now. When he initially had the witch contact Samuel, he was hoping that there would be words of comfort. But there were no words of comfort.
And yes, even though the woman is kind and feeds him as a last sort of meal thing, it is not enough to save him. The next day, as Samuel predicted, Saul’s three sons die in battle and Saul, realizes what has happened, kills himself. The bible describes the scene this way:
So, what does this story teach us?
- It is a bad idea to consult the dead. First of all, they don’t really seem to like it at all. Second of all…
- If the spirits don’t lie to you outright (which is always a possibility!), they might just tell you the stuff which God has revealed to you previously that you didn’t really want to listen to before.
Basically? If you pray to God and listen very closely to God and do what He wills — even if you really don’t want to do it — it’ll probably turn out better than if you deliberately go against God and try to take things in your own hands and follow your own selfish and base urges.
As it turns out, following God is really the best way!
The other way simply leads you to your doom.
