Samuel Coming Up out of the Earth

Every human being has weakness. However rich, however powerful, however famous, all carry the weakness of being human, and so they despair and lose heart. People wrestle with how to overcome this suffering. To resolve it, some overcome it by their own will, while others go to a god and try to shift their pain onto it. Human beings are so weak that a multitude of gods has arisen in the world.

But human weakness began when humanity left God. People bow down before gods made to suit their own wishes, asking for worldly blessing and praying for long life. They go to shamans and fortune-tellers seeking a guarantee that they will be blessed, and try to change their lives by borrowing their power. Exploiting this wavering human weakness, Satan uses everything from dead ancestors to trees, stones, and water to deceive people, and people live as slaves of false gods. When someone with a spirit at their back takes a somewhat forceful tone, people hand over their future to the medium and cling to a person rather than to a god.

Watch the news and you will see many people swindled and hurt by shamans. This shows how spiritually ignorant human beings are. Once people believe something can cover their weakness, they cling to it blindly, whether it is a shaman, money, or honor. This is because human beings, estranged from God, have become such frail creatures that they cannot live without clinging to something. In other words, it springs from a spiritual ignorance that does not know the almighty God.

People of the world may sneer that believing in God is just another way of believing in a god. But God is not one of the gods; he is the Creator. If you too believe in God as one more god, you are no different from the world’s religions. If we who believe forget that God is the source of all things, we are no different from a shaman worshiping Satan. For if we give offerings to God in order to get what we want, it is no different from paying a shaman’s fee for a ritual.

If we believe in God for the sake of worldly blessing, how is that any different from worshiping idols? The gods of the world were made only for getting on well in this life, since prospering in return for believing is the very reason those religions came into being. Of course, they too will say there is truth in the religion they follow. But Christ alone is the reality, and everything else is illusion. We are called narrow-minded for stressing Christ alone like this, but we cannot help stressing him, because it is Jesus who created heaven and earth and who saves souls.

And what of Christianity today? Many believers serve God as their Father, yet it is also true that some believe in God to get what they want from him. They too worship God, speak of salvation, and give offerings, serve, and care for the poor according to the rules the church has set. But they do not serve God as Father, because they want something else. If, instead of puzzling over how to obtain worldly blessing from God, we consider with what love God came to us, we will not reduce him to a god who hands out blessings.

I once saw on the news an absurd case of some women who were tricked by a shaman who promised them the winning lottery numbers, and who lost 1.4 billion won. They probably did not lose the whole sum at once. Having been cheated by the shaman again and again, the women could not easily walk away; lied to and fleeced over and over, they would have ended up in the sorry farce of losing 1.4 billion won. Considering that the amount is close to what a first-prize lottery jackpot is worth, you can see how foolish they were. The case came to light because the women lost their money; but if the numbers the shaman gave them had won first prize, they would not have reported the fortune-teller to the police, and would have served the shaman all the more devotedly.

What I want to say is that the women’s greed is what made the shaman invent a false god, and so that god came into being. Even now, human anxiety and greed are setting up idols everywhere. But if we believe that God exists in and of himself, and that the world and humanity alike were created through his word, human greed will fade away.

I have spoken all this time about shamans, fortune-tellers, and idol worshipers, the servants of Satan, because a medium appears in the account of King Saul calling up the dead Samuel. For his own security Saul sought out the medium, and she said she saw Samuel coming up out of the earth. I have given this long explanation so that we can tell whether the Samuel who came up out of the ground was really Samuel, called up by the medium, or a trick of Satan.

Hebrews 1:2 tells us that God loved his Son, appointed him heir of all things, and made the worlds through the Son’s word. By his word God created not only the angels but heaven and earth, the universe, and humankind. But Jude 6 tells of angels who did not keep their first domain but deserted their own dwelling place, and they are the ones who corrupted human beings, made in the image of God. God made humankind to share heaven’s glory with him; he gave them free will so that they would come to him of their own accord. Human beings received the singular blessing of being able to enjoy God’s glory. Before God created such beings, a small band of angels fell, set themselves against God, and were cast out. They are Satan, the angels who did not keep their domain and left their dwelling. The fallen angels will be thrown into the eternal lake of fire on the day of judgment.

As another way of opposing God, Satan tempted people to defy his word, and spiritually ignorant human beings fell for the deception and sank into grievous sin. Because of Adam’s sin in defying God’s word, all his descendants fell into death and were shut up in a darkness they could not escape on their own. To take that sin upon himself and become the atoning sacrifice, Jesus came in the flesh and led sinners out of darkness into light. The one and only way to be forgiven the original sin Adam committed is to believe in Jesus Christ, who is God’s righteousness. Although God exalted Jesus as Savior of all and appointed him Judge, he was always humble.

Philippians 2:6-8 records that the Son, though existing in the form of God, did not take a seat equal with the Father, but took the form of a servant and was obedient to the point of becoming, in the likeness of a sinner, the atoning sacrifice. God, who loved the Son who willingly bore the cross, highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name. He made every knee bow at the name of Jesus, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and caused every tongue to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, so that glory would be given to the Father through him. Turning from the God who loves humankind like this, the evil nature of man, craving a glittering world and abundance, began to produce the gods of this world.

Satan used that craving to make people his slaves, and set up mediums to serve in idol worship. Satan’s servants keep appearing because there are foolish people who believe in the gods of the world. So when shamans call up dead ancestors in their rituals, it is not the ancestors at all but Satan’s trickery. That is because when people die, the body returns to dust and the soul goes to one of two places, heaven or hell, so the dead do not come when they are called. Since it is true that everyone goes to one of the two, heaven or hell, whatever shamans claim to summon in their rituals would all be Satan’s doing.

In Isaiah 8:19, God tells Isaiah that those who have familiar spirits and wizards are the dead. So a medium, being one of the dead, cannot call up souls whose destiny God has already decided, and that have gone, some to heaven and some to hell. Of course, when people see mediums summon an ancestor and tell the past with accuracy, they will grow excited, insist it really is their ancestor, and harden in that belief.

Satan, though, is a spirit God created in the beginning to do his work, and so he was an angel able to grasp God’s intentions exactly and carry them out. That angel fell and became an evil spiritual being, but we must not forget that, being a spirit, he has the power to bring down fire from heaven and to work wonders. Whether it is telling the past accurately or making the voices of ancestors heard, all of it is a trap Satan has set to drop souls into the fires of hell, so it may be that even the shamans themselves are being deceived by him. Those taken in by the voices of their ancestors will want to hear from the fortune-teller that their ancestors will help their future go well. That desire hands Satan an easy pretext to drag them to hell, and so they are shut up all the more in darkness.

Made from dust, human beings cannot defeat Satan, a spiritual being, so we must know with certainty who the Lord of all things is and not be deceived. If we fail to trust in the almighty God and go to fortune-tellers, we will be caught in their snare and live ever farther from the light. I hope you will trust that God will guide you through this life and beyond death, and that you will hold fast to your faith.

King Saul had experienced God’s work in saving him and his nation, and had received God’s absolute help. Yet that same man could not withstand Satan’s temptation, became Satan’s servant, and is now committing a grave sin. He seeks out a medium of the very kind he himself had driven out, bows his head, and longs to hear about the future. Under Philistine attack, with the battle turning against him, Saul grew anxious when God did not answer him, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. When God does not answer, we ought to recognize that there is sin and repent; yet instead of repenting, Saul went to a medium. If it came out that he was the king, the Philistines might attack him, and it would also be awkward if it became known that the king was consulting a medium; so he disguised himself to meet the woman.

I have heard that there are churchgoers who, instead of praying and waiting patiently on God when trouble comes, go to mediums because they want to know the future, kneel before them, and listen to the words of the dead. Such behavior shows that, though they go to church, they do not believe in God. Even without seeking out a medium, anyone who, out of a craving for power, says and does what a Christian should never say or do is like Saul in disguise.

The medium cried out with a loud voice that she saw a god coming up out of the earth. When she said it was Samuel, Saul bowed with his face to the ground. The Samuel who came up out of the earth angrily rebuked Saul for disturbing him, and told him that Yahweh had done to him as he spoke by Samuel, had torn the kingdom out of his hand, and given it to his neighbor, David. The reason, he said, was that Saul had not obeyed Yahweh’s voice, and so Yahweh had done this thing. He then foretold that the next day Saul and his sons would be delivered into the hands of the Philistines and would be with him; the prophecy came true, and Saul died together with his sons.

Do you think this one who came up out of the earth was Samuel? Samuel is in heaven; if the Samuel who came up out of the earth told Saul that tomorrow Saul would be with him, that would mean Samuel was in hell. Unless we believe that whether we go to heaven or to hell turns on Christ, even believers can be confused by what happens in the world. If we make heaven and hell, and Jesus, the heart of how we see every event, the answer will be clear. But if we fix our attention on the fact that the words of this so-called Samuel, called up out of the earth by a medium, came true, our faith will be shaken.

If we think with God at the center, though, the answer comes easily, because by the law God has set, the human soul goes only to eternal life or to eternal punishment. Then the answer is that the Samuel who came up out of the earth was not the real Samuel but Satan imitating him. We can say so because God does not send Samuel through a medium whenever someone as evil as Saul asks for him. True, when Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration, Elijah and Moses came down from heaven and spoke with him about his atoning death. But that was heaven’s own work, which God did to help perfectly with Jesus’ atonement, and a work of salvation for Israel. Coming up from under the earth is not God’s way; the ground of this world belongs to the flesh.

Satan is God’s creature, and so he is a spirit that obeys God’s command. But God made Satan a spiritual being powerful enough to oppose him, so when Satan schemes, weak human beings cannot help being deceived, and when he tempts, they cannot help going so far as to abandon God. That is why, to escape the attacks of Satan, whom God commands, we must remain in God. Once we step outside God, as King Saul did, we come under Satan’s attack from that moment on, and we cannot help going to a medium of our own accord. The prophecies of the Samuel who came up out of the earth all came true, but that was God using Satan to rebuke Saul.

Job 1:6

6Now on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan also came among them.

In 1 Kings 22:19-22, Micaiah saw a vision: Yahweh was sitting on his throne, with all the army of heaven standing by him on his right and on his left, and he asked who would entice King Ahab to his death. Then a spirit came forward and said that he would be a lying spirit, make all the prophets lie, and so deceive Ahab to his death. This is how well Satan knows God’s heart. Just as David, moved by the Holy Spirit, foretold that Saul would die in battle, Satan hears God’s word in his presence, so this was a prophecy well within his power to make. Satan will go on working diligently, until the time of judgment God has appointed, to corrupt souls and cast them into hell. Having met the Samuel the medium called up, Saul would have come to put blind trust in the medium.

May you come to understand the deep truths of the word. Without the word, we are shaken by even the smallest temptation; and without the word as our standard, we try to handle things by the knowledge and experience the world has taught us, so we cannot help drifting away from God. Though Satan may tempt us with words as sweet as candy, all he has is darkness, and so following him ends at last in the second death.

King Saul’s behavior springs from a sense of inferiority. He knew he could not beat David, yet he could not shake off the thought that David was the cause of his misery, and that is where his behavior came from. You can recognize people with an inferiority complex by how they act: they are inconsistent. Their moods swing wildly, so instead of acting well with any consistency, their conduct shifts with every passing change of feeling, and that is how you will be able to tell. If Saul had helped David go David’s way while going his own, God would have rewarded them both, David and Saul alike.

But those who cannot shed their inferiority, as Saul could not, live unhappy lives even when, like Saul on his throne, they have every reason to be happy. Inferiority is the inability to accept anything the other person says or does, whether they are better than you or you are better than they. That is why, although David gave himself to serving Saul, Saul could not stand anything David said or did, and at last tried to kill him. Had Saul honored David and walked with him, his life would have been peaceful and he would have grown even stronger. Nor would he have suffered the tragedy of his sons’ deaths. For Saul, the reality his inferiority produced was misery itself. It was the road he chose, and an unhappy life.

May you build your life on the truth, stand firm against Satan’s temptations as God’s people, and live a blessed life by his grace. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.

1 Samuel 29:6-11

6Then Achish called David, and said to him, “As Yahweh lives, you have been upright, and your going out and your coming in with me in the army is good in my sight; for I have not found evil in you since the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, the lords don’t favor you. 7Therefore now return, and go in peace, that you not displease the lords of the Philistines.” 8David said to Achish, “But what have I done? What have you found in your servant so long as I have been before you to this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?” 9Achish answered David, “I know that you are good in my sight, as an angel of God. Notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have said, ‘He shall not go up with us to the battle.’ 10Therefore now rise up early in the morning with the servants of your lord who have come with you; and as soon as you are up early in the morning, and have light, depart.” 11So David rose up early, he and his men, to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines, and the Philistines went up to Jezreel.