Wednesday: Necromancy and Ancestor Worship
The word “necromancy” derives from the Greek terms nekros (dead) and manteia (divination). Practiced since ancient times, necromancy is a form of summoning the alleged active spirits of the dead in order to get knowledge, often about future events. Ancestor worship, meanwhile, is the custom of venerating deceased ancestors because they are still considered family and whose spirits can, it is believed, influence the affairs of the living. These pagan practices can be very attractive to those who believe in an immortal soul and who also miss their deceased loved ones.
Read 1 Samuel 28:3-25. What spiritual lessons against any supposed communication with the dead can be drawn from Saul’s experience with the woman medium at Endor?
Image © Pacific Press at Goodsalt.com
The Bible stated very clearly that all spiritists, mediums, sorcerers, and necromancers, in the ancient Israelite theocracy, were abominations to the Lord and should be put to death by stoning (Leviticus 19:31; Leviticus 20:6, Leviticus 20:27; Deuteronomy 18:9-14). In accordance with this law, Saul had destroyed all mediums and spiritists from Israel (1 Samuel 28:3, 1 Samuel 28:9).
But, then, after being rejected by the Lord, Saul himself went to the Canaanite city of Endor to inquire of a woman medium (1 Samuel 28:6-7, , 1 Samuel 28:15; compare with Joshua 17:11, Psalm 83:10). He asked her to bring up the deceased prophet Samuel, who supposedly came up in a necromancer apparition and spoke with Saul (1 Samuel 28:13-19). The deceiving spirit, who pretended to be Samuel, told Saul, “tomorrow you and your sons will be with me” (1 Samuel 28:19, NKJV). While predicting Saul’s death, that deceiving spirit, merely by assuming the form of Samuel, reaffirmed the unbiblical theory of the natural immortality of the soul. It was a powerful deception, and Saul should have known better than to become involved with what he had previously condemned.
More than two centuries later, the prophet Isaiah wrote, “And when they say to you, ‘Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,’ should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:19-20, , NKJV; also Isaiah 19:3).
| How often, under stress, do we do things that we know are wrong? Why are faith, prayer, and obedience to the Word of God our only sure defense against our own selves? |
(15)
Difficult to "be still!", hum? Under stress, very often I jump to do things in my own way! And that's exactly when I fall! I solve things in my mind the way I think is best, even overpassing God's utterances. That's when I fall!
But TODAY I want to be thankful because I am not God! And I will never be He... although sometimes I quickly forget who I am and act like I were the god of "my world". How many times have I broken my relationship with Jesus because I denied His everlasting presence?
But TODAY I need to be thankful! Because I am the one to break God's heart! Instead, He never breaks mine! He longs to fix me, and give me peace, and LOVE! What a reward!
Why would I do crazy things under stress when I have God's Word telling me that He is GOOD? I must learn to trust in God because He will never fail me, nor you!
We need to remember that deception is the game in the end time. And Satan's main target are the Seventh-day Adventist Church members from top to bottom. When Jesus was warning his disciples about the end time deceptions, he was not talking to Muslems, or Buddhists or Amalekites or Philistines, or atheists. He was talking to his own people, His church. So, we are on very dangerous grounds if we don't stick to the Bible as the foundation of our faith. Saul was a top leader for the Jewish nation, a king. He was anointed by a prophet. He was in a very high position. He killed those who practiced necromancy because God had prohibited the practice. Saul was a "Seventh-day Adventist" of that time. Even after knowing the truth, and when he prayed and God never answered him, he looked for plan B. He consulted the spirit of the dead because God was silent to his prayers. Why was God silent? He disobeyed God. Are we not the same as Saul today? When we pray to God, and we see as if He is deaf, then we go plan B like Saul to make our prayers to be answered? We do our own ways, like even consulting the witch? We need to make our foundation on the Bible alone. May God bless us all
King Saul had no business going to the witch of Endor for anything. He was already lost to the God of Israel when he went to see that witch.
King David never went to any witch for anything during His administration as King of Israel.
The final question in the lesson makes it appear that it was stress that caused Saul to turn to a medium. There is no doubt that he was stressed. But we have to remember that Saul had been turning from God over and over for many months and years. This was not a sudden fall from stress but the outcome of many bad choices, over and over. In a sense, I feel we can say he committed the unpardonable sin. There is really no comparison between what he did and our day to day struggles and failings. Not excusing them as Jesus gives us power to overcome, but they are not really alike.
I think it was a question to get us to see that those everyday stress factors can add up and cause people to do things they would never dream to do before. Saul went step by step, spiralling to fall away from God. The stress of the pending war attack by the enemy caused him to search for answers in all the wrong places. People today often search for answers in all the wrong places when under stress.
Why was God silent? Why didn't He answer Saul? Was it because Saul had disobeyed God? Yes, he had disobeyed, but haven't we all? Are we all rejected? Why was God silent when Saul prayed for help?
When Samuel (several years earlier) had pronounced Saul's rejection, Saul had cried out, "I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice."
Yes, Saul acknowledged his guilt, which he had before stubbornly denied; but he still persisted in casting blame upon the people, declaring that he had sinned because he was afraid of them.
In PP 632 we read:
God was silent because Saul did not repent of his sin. He did not see the sinfulness of his sin. He lost sight of his dependence upon God. The honor bestowed on kings had made him self-centered, caring more for the prestige and power, not about humbling himself before God.
Once he willfully separated himself from God, he had no defense against Satan. That was not Samuel that "came up". Samuel would have had to come down from heaven, if part of him was still alive. But Samuel was dead, sleeping in the grave. What "came up" was an evil spirit, who was more than happy to gloat over his victory in destroying Saul.
We have Jesus and we have The Holy Spirit and we have The Father too. But if we grieve The Holy Spirit then we have nothing left. King Saul had nothing left when he went to the witch of Endor. And I agree with Christina Waller. The stresses (maybe mistakes) when we are serving Jesus are not the same as what King Saul did in going to a witch such as he had already removed from Israel. We who serve Jesus still have promises like 1 John 1:9 and 1 John 2:1,2 to help us get back on track and still not fail off God's Eternal Kingdom.
What Saul did was very wrong and was one of the reasons he died - 1 Chronicles 10:13. But why is only Samuel’s name used? Why is it never referred to as an evil spirit? Why was the necromancer surprised at the apparition that appeared when she was used to calling up evil spirits? Why did the evil spirit give a message that could have come from God? It didn’t give Saul false hope, lie or mislead him and the prediction came true. (Saul fell on his sword, but only after he had been critically injured). I’m not saying that it was Samuel. The principle of the following text could apply. Ezekiel 14:7, NKJV. “For anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, then comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I the LORD will answer him by Myself”.
Food for thought. I like a good discussion in my SS class.
Well, Carolyn, let's see. Are there any possible answers to your questions?
Why is only Samuel's name used? Probably because it should have been obvious to any reader of Scripture, and to Saul himself, that he had crossed a line in his violation of God's prohibitions. What could he have expected?
Why was the necromancer surprised? I think you answered that one, yourself. The evil spirit warned her that she was dealing with Saul, who had been executing every necromancer.
Why did the evil spirit give a message that could have come from God? That's depends on what we think of the character of God. The message itself left Saul no room for hope. It only drove him to despair. He went into battle with zero morale, so that the prediction of his doom brought about its own fulfillment. Would God or Satan be more interested in hastening Israel's king on to his ruin?
Anyway, can we really belief that an agent of Satan would have had the ability to call God's prophet up from the grave at her bidding?
Hello Carolyn, Ezekiel’s words in context underline the points that RG has made:
This was exactly what happened to Saul, who was unwilling to give up the idols in his heart. To the day Samuel died, he grieved over Saul, but never saw him again. (1 Samuel 15:35) The Woman of Endor was a prophetess, but not of the Living God. The “Samuel” that she “called” up from the dead had no heart for Saul, no grief for his impending doom—nothing but the cold-hearted words of a murderer. And no wonder, because that “Samuel” was an agent of the one who “was a murderer from the beginning” and “a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44.)
There is much for the Christian to learn from the life of Saul, but especially that we need to see God as he is rather than how we wish him to be. If we have an idol in our heart that has the form of God (and godliness) and cling to it as did Saul, we will find ourselves defenseless against the Adversary in the time of our deepest distress.
How God must grieve our unbelief as he did Saul's. (1 Samuel 15:35)
Saul regarded iniquity in his heart. How. He hated David, and tried to kill him more than one time, because David was anointed to succeed him as King.
Read Psalms chapter 66, how David praises God. Psalm.66:18-20 begins with "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Unlike Saul, He continues to praise God because he knew that God had heard him! What a contrast between Saul and David at that time.
The Bible says very clearly that God accepts "contrite heart." And that is why 1 John 1:9 and 2:1,2 is there for us as followers of Jesus who sometimes fail and make mistakes along the way. And this is also why King David was considered by God to be "A man after God's own heart," because he always sought after God's mercy and grace too when he made mistakes in his service to God. And yes, it is true that "if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord wil not hear me." But that does not mean that God will not accept my repentance when I seek for it.