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Saul and the witch of Endor: what really happened

The night before his last battle, King Saul sought a medium at Endor. Here is the setting, what happened, whether it was really Samuel, and why God forbids it.

On the night before his last battle, Israel's first king put on a disguise and went to a medium to ask for the prophet Samuel, who was dead. The woman is usually called "the witch of Endor," but the King James Version calls her "a woman that hath a familiar spirit" (1 Samuel 28:7): a medium, someone who claimed to speak with the dead.

Where it happened

The events take place around the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel:

• Shunem, where the Philistines camped, is identified with the village of Sulam, on the Hill of Moreh.
• Mount Gilboa, the ridge across the valley, is where Saul gathered Israel, and where he died.
• Endor is placed by tradition on the far side of the Hill of Moreh from Shunem. If that is right, Saul had to slip around the enemy camp by night, which may be one reason for his disguise. Some scholars place it elsewhere, so the site is debated.

How Saul came to Endor

Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land. (1 Samuel 28:3)

Samuel, who had anointed Saul and brought him God's word for years, was gone. When the Philistines gathered, Saul "was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled. And when Saul enquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets" (1 Samuel 28:5-6).

His trouble had started long before. He offered a sacrifice he had no right to offer (1 Samuel 13), and he kept back what God told him to destroy at Amalek. Samuel warned him then: "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft" (1 Samuel 15:23). Later he had the priests of Nob put to death (1 Samuel 22). Saul had cut himself off from the ways God spoke to His people, and there is no sign he turned back in repentance.

What happened that night

Saul came to the woman by night with two men and asked, "Bring me up Samuel" (1 Samuel 28:11). When she saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice and realized her visitor was the king. "An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle," she said, and Saul bowed to the ground (1 Samuel 28:14). Samuel repeated what God had already said: the kingdom was going to David, because Saul had not obeyed the LORD. Then came the sentence:

Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the LORD also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. (1 Samuel 28:19)

Was it really Samuel?

Some Christians have thought a demon pretended to be Samuel, or that the woman staged a trick. We follow GotQuestions.org, which concludes that it really was Samuel, allowed by God to appear this one time to pronounce judgment on Saul. Three things point that way:

• The woman cried out in shock. She seems to have expected her usual "familiar spirit," and something she could not control appeared instead.
• The text simply calls him Samuel, not something that only seemed to be Samuel.
• What he foretold came true.

This does not mean mediums can call up the dead. It was God's doing, not hers, and it was a single exception. As GotQuestions explains, the dead do not come back to visit the living, and when a medium claims to reach a departed loved one, the spirit behind it is a deceiving one.

Why God forbids it

There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)

Leviticus says the same: "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God" (Leviticus 19:31). Turning to the dead is turning away from the living God, and it opens the door to spirits that lie. Isaiah asked, "should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?" (Isaiah 8:19).

Saul's end

The Philistines broke Israel's army on Mount Gilboa. Jonathan and two of his brothers were killed, Saul was badly wounded by archers, and "Saul took a sword, and fell upon it" (1 Samuel 31:4). Scripture gives the verdict:

So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it; And enquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse. (1 Chronicles 10:13-14)

Saul had asked God for an answer, but he had not truly sought God Himself.

How it points to Christ

Saul was tall, chosen and gifted, and he still failed. Like every one of us, he needed a Saviour. But God's plan did not fail with him. The kingdom passed to David, and a thousand years later the angel told Mary that God would give her Son "the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:32-33).

Saul went into the dark to hear from the dead. We never need to. God has "in these last days spoken unto us by his Son" (Hebrews 1:2), and the risen Jesus says, "I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death" (Revelation 1:18).

Sources

• GotQuestions.org: Did the witch of Endor really summon Samuel from the dead (1 Samuel 28:7-20)?, What is a medium?, Who was King Saul in the Bible?
• Bible Hub Atlas, En-dor (Endor) and Shunem; Bible Gateway, Encyclopedia of the Bible, Shunem.
• Wikipedia, Endor (village), on the debate over the site.
• Scripture quotations: King James Version.