Saul and the Witch of Endor (Part II) The sin of King Saul had been the cause of God s rejection. He was aware of it, but he kept on sinning. He thought he could sin, and God would let him off with it He had been given a clear command, I Sam. 15:2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember [that] which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid [wait] for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. 3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. Did he do it? Well, on his return from the mission, he greeted Samuel, v.13 Blessed [be] thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD. So, he reckoned he did! Samuel replied, Then what s that I hear? (v.14 What [meaneth] then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?). Oh, that, said Saul, v.15 They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. Saul heard the tone in Samuel s voice, and he knew Samuel wasn t pleased And Saul thought all he had to do was say, I m sorry, and everything would be alright v.24 And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord 25 pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD 15:30 Then he said, I have sinned But Saul, your words mean nothing. God says, Num. 32:23 be sure your sin will find you out Gal. 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And so Samuel told him the devastating message from God, v.23 Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king. And look at him, - the king, - grovelling, v.27 as Samuel turned about to go away, he [Saul] laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle. Why? What was the great sin he had committed? It is described in v.26, And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. This, then, was the spiritual state of King Saul as he made his way to the home of the witch of Endor Samuel had died (25:1), and 28:5 Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled. 6 And when Saul enquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. The Lord wouldn t speak to him! The Lord wouldn t acknowledge him! What must it be like for those in Hell who have heard the Gospel, but who repeatedly resisted and refused it! What must it be like for them to cry to the Lord, and He will not listen?! That s where Saul was the LORD answered him not.
2 He then went to a woman who, previously, he had outlawed. He knew it was wrong what they did, and it was in opposition to Jehovah. The king had made it illegal for this woman, - and her kind, - to practise. But, how things had changed for when Saul wasn t getting any help from the Lord, he sought help from someone he would not have imagined himself going to. He had hoped the Lord would speak to him in a dream, or by the prophets, or maybe by the Urim. What is the the Urim? When the Urim is mentioned here it is shorthand for the Urim and Thummim In the garment of the high priest there was a breastplate, and it doubled to make a pouch, and in this pouch there were two implements, - the Urim and Thummim. Nowhere in Scripture does God make it clear what they were, but it is very probable they were two precious stones How were they used? Well, we are not told that either, so therefore, we mustn t speculate but what we do know is that the Urim and Thummim were intended to be used by the high priest to make known the mind and will of God to His people However, this communication with God was withheld from King Saul. That is how serious the Lord considered Saul s disobedience! Something else that sheds light on the spiritual darkness in the land The high priest was Abiathar, - the great-great-grandson of Eli the last of the family belonging to Eli. However, he had to escape from King Saul because Saul has slain the Lord s priests (I Sam. 22:20,21). Saul had murdered the priests! When Abiathar fled to the fugitive David, he had brought with him the ephod and other priestly implements (I Sam. 22:20f; 23:6-9) thus, Saul was denied this means of asking for God s help. And so, the king resorted to breaking his own law and he contacted the woman who has become known as the witch of Endor. Endor means the fountain/spring of Dor [cf. Ein Gedi, the spring of the goat-kid ]. We are not sure what Dor means. It probably refers to a settlement of some local people. It was a Canaanite city to the west of the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee, and four miles to the north, - between the Hill of Moreh and Mount Tabor in the Valley of Jezreel. Endor first features in Joshua 17:11 where it fell within the allotments given to the tribe of Manasseh. It s also mentioned in Ps. 83:9-10 as being on the road Jabin and Sisera took after having been defeated by Barak and Deborah (Judges 4-5).
3 So, Saul was in Gilboa (28:4) and the witch was in Endor (v.7) and in between lay about seven or eight miles of difficult terrain, - Saul had to put himself to considerable discomfort to get to this woman! This woman was well-known to belong to those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards (v.3) whom he had put away. Not only had he disobeyed God, and the prophet Samuel he was even disobeying himself! He was in a mess! He was making no sense. He had become a fool to everyone around him. He had given himself over to the spirit of disobedience, - he was walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience (Eph. 2:2,3). That was how low he had sunk! Remember how, when we are first introduced to Saul, he was described, I Sam. 9:2 Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he. But, here is how he was coming to the end of his disastrous reign, 28:5 when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled. Once, when he had begun, he was choice and now, at almost the end of his life, he was cursed! There is something else very sad in v.7 It s sad that he was in the dire state to want to ask where to find a woman with a familiar spirit and it is also very sad that those close to him, - his servants, - knew right away where he would find such a woman. That wasn t the kind of company Saul should have had around him! He had none associated with him of the calibre of Samuel! Were there other faithful prophets? Yes, there were If Saul had behaved himself and remained obedient and faithful to the Lord, he would have found them! And the Lord would have spoken to him by dreams, by Urim, or by the prophets If he would have remained obedient, he would have been given the proper Godly wisdom but the sad thing was the Lord had quit speaking to him! Saul had turned away from the Lord, and so the Lord turned away from Saul! If you like, Saul had been once enlightened (Heb. 6:4) and he tasted of the heavenly gift and the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come (v.5) but he had fallen away, - he had turned his back and renounced them, - and it was impossible for him to be renewed again unto repentance (v.6)! Rulers are subject to the Lord. He puts them in their positions of power, Rom. 13:1 there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. They are answerable to Him.
4 No matter what the calibre, - professors of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, secularism, - they have been put in their places of authority by God, and they are answerable to Him. He had established Saul as king, and was about to remove him. He would put David on the throne, and Solomon, and Rehoboam and He would raise up Jeroboam for His purposes and all the kings of the northern kingdom and the southern. He would bring the kings of Babylon and Assyria, Medes and Persians, Greeks and Romans and He would establish them in their positions. He builds them up and He pulls them down! He set Saul on the throne of Israel, and now He is about to remove him The Lord had rejected him and so Saul sought an alternative, and he turned to the opposite direction to a woman who had a familiar spirit. A woman who had a familiar spirit what does that mean? This was an ordinary woman ('ishshah), but, - in particular, - she was a ba alah, a mistress, - one who controlled and directed and evoked, - the dead. She was a spiritist, - people who wanted to speak to their dead relatives came to this woman, and she claimed to be the contact. This was a religious alternative and it was rife at a time when God was withholding Himself from His people. And so, Saul removes the clothes that were fitting to be worn of a king, and he disguised himself. He dressed up, and he shamefully made his way across the seven or eight miles over the rough terrain to meet this woman whose religion was totally at odds with what he was brought up to believe. It was at night he went to see her (v.8) and yes, he was journeying further and further into the dark, even spiritually. That s what happens when those in authority reject God. They take others with them into the darkness and no matter how rough and difficult the terrain, - if they had any common sense they would turn and go back, - but common sense does not prevail when men and women remove themselves and declare their intentions against God! They become lost in a darkness that takes them to the multiple places of evil, and then they become engrossed and they know not how to return. Saul was already in the dark but he proceeded even further. He had slain the priests of the Lord, and now he was seeking out the wisdom of a woman steeped in idolatry in the darkness. Indeed, he was travelling in the same direction Judas Iscariot travelled when the traitor departed from the company of the Lord Jesus at the Last Supper for we read about how after having received the sop from the Saviour he, - Judas Iscariot, - went immediately out: and it was night (Jn. 13:3).
5 Yes, Saul was in the darkness and he was bringing people along with him in the darkness. He was the nation s ruler, - the man who guided and directed his citizens, - and yet here he was leading a number of his people, - for he would have been too afraid to go on his own, - and he was leading them in the darkness as they went to seek out this woman. It wasn t just Saul who had forbidden contact with a woman like this Such prohibitions went back to Lev. 19:31, Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I [am] the LORD your God. But, also, take a look at the verse before that, v.30 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I [am] the LORD The people had gone away from keeping the Sabbaths, - the Sabbaths had become desecrated, and had become like every other day. The commandment of God had been rejected, Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy (Ex 20:8). And the sanctuary, - the place where God s honour and holiness had been upheld, - had become dishonoured and a place of reproach And, as for the Name of the Lord, He had become reduced to the level of the other gods. He Who had declared, Ex. 20:2 I am the LORD thy God... 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them Well, they had! They had rejected Jehovah, and the king and his government, and those associated with him, were leading the people deeper into rebellious and godless darkness. And God warned, Lev. 20:6 the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. We haven t arrived at the finale of our study yet but maybe we shall stop here and see the obvious correlation between the society of Saul and his people, with the similar society in which we live. God had been good to Saul, - He had raised him up as a leader to defeat the Philistines And God has blessed our United Kingdom. There were times when the forces of Napoleon and Hitler could have conquered it and sought to bring it into their empires but God prevented them. God defended the people of this nation who upheld His word and His truth in their daily lives, in parliament, and right across the spectrum. That has all been replaced, though, and like Saul those in authority are leading their people in the darkness of the night towards that woman who shamelessly opposes the only one and true God.
6 And in Saul s time, he was pursuing after David with all the venom he could muster He knew David would be the next king (I Sam. 24:20), and yet he was flagrantly going against the Lord s will. It is the same today. Many in authority know the road they are travelling along is the wrong road, but they will not change direction! In the darkness of their night, they are travelling at great and increasing speed into the clutches of that woman who Scripture refers to as the great whore, Rev. 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. That doesn t simply refer to Rome, - that s a far bigger conglomeration of God-deniers that stretches across the globe! That s all those who would look and say, Is. 14:13 I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Her hand is full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication (Rev. 17:4), and she is drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus (v.6) but she is not finished yet, for she has her sights set on the people of God! She will make war with the Lamb, but the Lamb and His army of the called, chosen, faithful and redeemed will overcome the enemies of darkness (v.14), and she will be brought down she will be defeated! Saul was heading in the wrong direction, in the dark and he was going further into darkness! He had no compulsion, whatsoever, to stop. There is a warning for us that we must take great care in these days, not to follow in Saul s footsteps but, instead, to take heed of the words Paul wrote to the believers in Thessalonika, I Thess. 5:5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober... 8 putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.