A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

dead. Every legitimate means of discerning the will of God was unavailable to Saul because he
had refused them.
In his desperation, Saul turned to the illegitimate practice of divination. Earlier in his
reign, Saul himself had launched an all-out campaign against occult practices and killed many of
those who practiced as mediums. But some mediums had escaped his purge, and now he turned
to one of them for help. When he asked for a medium, his advisors directed him to a woman of
En Dor who practiced witchcraft. Disguising himself, he and his servants left under the cover of
darkness for a meeting with the witch.
Initially, the witch of En Dor was cautious, fearful the stranger and his friends who had
knocked on her door might have come to set a trap for her. Once assured her guest was sincere in
his expressed desire to communicate with the dead, she agreed to call up Samuel the prophet as
requested.
Suddenly the woman shrieked with terror as she saw what she had not expected to see.
Conservative theologians are divided in their interpretation of what exactly happened at that
moment. Some claim she had expected a demon or familiar spirit and was shocked when God
sent Samuel instead. Others argue the woman was a hoax who had planned to con her distraught
customer but was terrified when a demon appeared impersonating the deceased Prophet Samuel.
Almost immediately, she realized who her guest was and, in her fear, identified him as Saul.
Saul tried to calm the woman and asked her what she had seen. She described her vision
as that of an old man covered with a mantle (symbol of a prophet). With the mention of the
mantle, Saul began to remember. At his last meeting with Samuel he had torn that mantle and
been told that God would tear away the kingdom from him. Just prior to that act almost forty
years earlier, Samuel had uttered those words which now seemed significantly prophetic: “For
rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft” (15:23). Now Saul had gone from rebellion against the Lord
to witchcraft. “And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground
and bowed down” (28:14).
The message Saul received that night was not encouraging. God was about to give the
kingdom to David. Israel was about to lose its battle against the Philistines. And within twentyfour
hours, Saul himself would be dead.
“Then immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, and was dreadfully afraid because
of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten no food all day or all
night” (v. 20). Saul’s response to the severe message of judgment is similar to reported cases of
extreme conviction coming on those who are deeply involved in sin during times of great revival
power. So convicted of his sin was Saul that he was unable to move and had no appetite for food.
Similar cases have been reported where a person lies prostrate for up to three days before
repenting of his sin and being aware of a restoration to fellowship with God. Some commentators
believe this was Saul’s final call to repentance.
If that is so, it is particularly significant that it was the witch of En Dor that first spoke to
Saul, offering him food and urging him to get up. When he refused initially, his friends, who
knew where to find the forbidden witch and how to set up a meeting with her, also urged him to
get up and eat. They tried to deal with the symptoms of his guilt feelings by giving him a meal
and getting him rested rather than allow him to deal with the spiritual cause of his problem and
resolve it by repenting of his sin.
The witch and Saul’s false friends were ultimately successful in convincing Saul to rise
from the floor and eat. In doing so, they broke the spell of conviction that had possessed Saul.