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“’Consult a spirit for me,’ [Saul] said, ‘and bring up for me the one I name.’ But the woman said to him, ‘Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?’ (verses 8-9)
The statement of the witch revealed a terrible fear enshrouding her, forcing her to hide away. It appeared that the fear of God continued to be seen in Saul even as the Spirit had already departed from him. The dread was so great that no bitter grumbling or vengeful slander against the king was noted of the woman.
A Life for a Life: Saul Saves the Witch from God
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“Then the woman asked, ‘Whom shall I bring up for you?’ ‘Bring up Samuel,’ he said. When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, ‘Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!’” (verses 11-13)
For a person who had worked with death, she was certain that the ghosts she summoned by her sorcery had now come for her. But Saul assured her her life:
“Saul swore to her by the Lord, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this’” (verse 10).
According to 1 Chronicles 10:13, Saul committed this violation: “he was unfaithful to the Lord; he did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance.” It was yet another case of Saul changing his mind. He allowed a sorceress to live when the Law of Moses stipulated death (Exodus 22:18). He himself consulted one when the Law prohibited it (19:31). Saul sealed his fate more when he protected the medium from his hand. While God prescribed severe judgment on any Israelite who turns to an occultist (Leviticus 20:6), how much graver it would be for a king who does the same!
“So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse” (1 Chronicles 13:14).
The king’s weakened physical condition grew worse after the séance. In gratitude for her life, the medium returned the favor to Saul by successfully pleading to him to dine on the slaughtered calf she prepared. After this, we no longer have anything on the witch again. All we can surmise is that she was delivered from her fear, which is more than what we could say about Saul.
The Sin of Witchcraft and the Evil of Idolatry: The Link Between Idols and Demons
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When King Saul forced his own directives against God’s specific orders, he had deliberately carved a path from rebellion to witchcraft. Hence, the Prophet Samuel’s prophetic denunciation: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft” (1 Samuel 15:23, King James Version). Equally as important, note that the Prophet also exposed the king’s arrogance in the context of idolatry—“and arrogance like the evil of idolatry” (Ibid., New International Version). The Prophet was precise when he cited Saul’s “stubbornness” (Ibid., King James Version). Saul continued to hold on to the throne as Israel’s king even when the Prophet Samuel declared two times, in their final encounter in 1 Samuel 15, that God had rejected him as king right then; the Divine verdict was even reinforced through the allegory of the Prophet’s robe being torn away (verses 27 to 28). After all this, Saul started down a trail haunted by demons. In 16:14, with the Spirit of the Lord gone from his life, an evil spirit came to terrorize him; in 18:10, another evil spirit oppresses him and arouses him to kill David; in the twenty-eighth chapter, he decides to consult a witch. After his grim death, the Philistines take his body and offer it up as a victory offering to their idols.
“The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. They cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and they sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temple of their idols and among the people. They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan” (31:8 to 10).
It is uncanny how the Bible substantiates with several references the unholy bond between idolatry and witchcraft, in the premise that both are devises of demons.
It is uncanny how the Bible substantiates with several references the unholy bond between idolatry and witchcraft, in the premise that both are devises of demons.
The Apostle Paul taught about the collusion idols and demons in 1 Corinthians 10:20 to 21:
“No, but the sacrifice of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s Table and the table of demons.”
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The Apostle John the Revelator documented how people of the future would “not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood” (Revelation 9:20). In association to idolatry, the Apostle identifies into its web the wickedness and perversions all “murders, the magic arts…sexual immorality” and “thefts” (verse 21). Even in enumerating those condemned to everlasting torment, the mere mention of “those who practice the magic arts” provided him the inclination to include “the idolaters” (21:8).
[More to come! Oh, yeah. The Bible version I used, unless indicated otherwise, was the New International Version.]
Yes, of course. Voodoo, transcendental meditation, yoga, kabbala et al... have common characteristic indeed. These are inspired by the power of darkness, differentiating them is affirming their collusiveness, ascribing power(s)
ReplyDeleteotherwise than God.
It is a grim fact that though the heritage of the Israelites or Jews is divine and directly related to the high-calling of God, the majority of present populace who are seculars have been followers of inferior beliefs, beliefs founded by men and not of God. Like what the precedent comment states, kabala, is aligned with mysticism, of occultism.
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