Consulting the Dead- Is it Dangerous?: 1 Samuel 28:1-25

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of The

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Super exciting stuff.

Yeah, but by the way, you don't even know where

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have asked me a secret. Yeah.

People have actually a secret bunker, and if we tell you,

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but it's not. It's not a podcast offsite.

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Hey, So we are going to start the week and

the day in this episode with some of the best

news that you've ever heard in your life.

Well, I mean, I think our longtime listeners know how

dedicated we are. Yes, only the finest news for our people. Yes,

and this one is it's more of a special interest piece.

It's definitely it's probably funnier to us.

Yes, yes, but I mean if they're trying to figure

out what kind of pastor. Should they follow? Yes, well,

these are some of those qualifications. So Babylon B has

a list here, do you have what it takes to

be a pastor? Here are nine qualifications? So I think

maybe we can measure each other to see if you

have what it takes. I'm asking you if you have

what it takes to be a pastor? Don't look at yourself. Well,

I've already looked through some of these and i think

I'm more than qualified. But humility not being on this list.

So do you have what it takes to be a pastor?

Here on nine qualifications. There are many glamorous occupations people

pursue movie star, doctor, satire writer, but perhaps the most

prestigious and sought after line of work is that of

being a pastor. Yeah, though many want such a job,

few are qualified. So do you meet the requirements? The

Babylon B has compiled the following hell full list of

the nine more important qualifications to become a pastor? More important,

more important.

Yes.

Number one, you must be perfect and never make a mistake,

because everyone knows pastors don't.

Do anything wrong. That's right, right, So how you doing?

How you doing on that one? Pretty good? Doing? Pretty

good so far. I'm feeling good.

I'm checking the box.

Feeling great about this one. Yeah yeah, Okay.

Number two must be thin enough to not be a glutton,

but fat enough to not be hot. Wow, I'm doing

pretty good on that one.

Wow. I can't even believe they wrote that. That's actually

pretty hilarious.

It says, you don't want to be morbidly obese, but

you don't want to distract anyone with your handsomeness. Okay,

number three, you must always jump out the nearest window,

if ever in the same room with a woman while no.

One else is present.

That's really funny.

This is known as the Billy Graham rule.

It's so funny that they took that, which is a

good rule, winning stream with it because it's it's pretty funny.

Billy Graham had a rule that he would never be alone,

and so that's probably one of the reasons why at

ninety nine years old when he died, he never had

a controversy either, right, because he was particularly careful. Okay,

number four must be able to survive on a diet

made up solely of castle roles.

Did you ever go to church? I had lots of

Oh yeah, lots of.

And those are my favorite moments in life.

Yeah, pot luck, potluck, dinner's man, all the ladies bring

their cast roles.

Yes, some may be better than others.

The heart of Atlanta, Yes, oh that was where I was. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

it was really good.

Okay.

I used to serve in Southeast Texas and it was

all the Cajuns and they'd always bring gumbos, gumbos and

John Balaias.

It was so good. Okay.

Number five must be willing to work weekends, weekdays, nights, mornings, afternoons,

and holidays. That's awesome, right, Marriage counseling experience, theological knowledge,

and carpentry skills are also preferred.

Oh my goodness, this was really well written.

Yeah.

I worked for a pastor that did everything. He mowed

the lawn, right, I mean he did everything to do

all the repairs.

Okay.

A number six must be willing to drive a twenty

year old vehicle and never flash your wealth. And this

is for white pastors ownly. Yeah, if you're a urban pastor,

if you're a neurban pastor, this doesn't this doesn't apply

to you. But for rural white pastors, you have to

drive twenty year old vehicles and never flash.

Well, if you don't live in church world, this may

not be funny to you, but I'm telling you right now,

this is ministry gold stuff. This is gold. It's so good.

It's so funny. Okay.

Number seven, uh and and by the way, a bunch

of my friends they know, they know which side of

that that line that they're sitting on. Yes, yes, Number seven,

you must enjoy attending twelve funerals per week.

Wow.

Right, be aware you'll.

Probably be expected to say something at all of them too, right,

So right, yeah, funerals. They're like your favorite thing, aren't

they They are not? No, no, no, okay, but I

just wish somebody would. Okay, it's kind of like it's.

Kind of like death and taxes. Right, It's like it's

job security for anybody who does funerals.

Okay.

Number eight, you must possess a willingness to suffer all

things for the sake of gospel, including weekly conversations with Steve.

Right whoever Steve is.

Oh, you know who you are.

Steve, but he has a Steve everybody.

And then number nine you must have read the Bible

at least once.

This is kind of important, right, This is kind of important.

So if you check all the boxes listed above, you

may have what it takes to be a pastor.

Just make sure you're a Christian first, oh.

My goodness yours, and have read the Bible at least once.

At least once.

So hey, if you're one of our listeners and you're

wondering should you go into the ministry, well, those nine

would be bare minimums. Yes, bare minimums would be so funny.

Yeah, that is ministry gold. I'm telling you whoever wrote

that has been around church world for a very very

long time. Because pastors we have our own just like everybody, right,

you know, like you know, electricians have their own little

inside jokes, lawyers, attorneys, cab drivers, I mean, everybody does,

office workers, dental assistants. And I'm telling you that's that's

right there, it's right in the niche.

Yeah.

If if you've never gone to Babylon B, you should.

You should go check it out. Very very funny Babylon

b dot com and the headlines are hysterically funny. I

was going to read some headlines, but I'm not going

to read them. You should go check them out. Yeah,

they do a lot of political commentary, a lot of

political satire. They've been shut down by most of the

social media companies over the last couple of years at

various times for quote unquote fake news, which is hysterically

funny because it's a satire website, right, right, so everything

they write is fake, right, But it's it's it's just a.

Really funny, funny group of people.

So Okay, well, hey, we are not talking about a

funny topic today.

Well we're going from laugh to not.

It's not funny, ha ha, but it is kind of funny, weird.

It's kind of odd, yeah, a little spooky.

Yeah, well it's kids. It's all consulting a medium.

Yeah.

Now, hey, before we even dive into this topic, I

know this is like probably a controversial topic for some people.

Uh did anybody has anybody in your family ever gone

to like a poem reader or a psychic or a

fortune teller. No, all the time, in my family, really

all the time.

Yeah, not even in your current household.

Yes, wow, yes, I have a very big family. First

of all.

Yeah, yeah, I say in your household.

Oh not my household, not like my I was like

three chills.

I was like, well, we should have brought this up

in the interview.

Right, No, I'm talking about my immediate face.

What should I do for Christmas series this year?

Right? Right?

Let me look at your poem? Oh this right?

Yeah? Yeah, yeah, so yes, I mean I I U.

I mean it probably has been a few years, but

I would say in the last five years I probably

have had at least two family members that I know

of who went either to a fortune teller or a psychic.

Oh yeah, yeah, well Saul does and it costs him

a lot. So we're reading in First Samuel, chapter twenty eight,

and we'll just read. Looks like the whole chapter says

about that time the Philistines mustered their armies for another

war with Israel. King Aikish, he was the king of

the Philistines, told David, let me just tell you the

David was.

Hiding out from Saul.

Decided that for a while the heat was too too much,

and so he went and hit out in the Philistine region.

And in order to hide there, he would pretending.

To be the enemy of Saul in the front of

the film, yeesh.

And he was raiding all kinds of enemy villages. But

he kept telling King Aikish that he was raiding you

know some of the suburban Jewish villages and stuff like that.

So anyways, he had this really weird relationship with King Akish,

and Akish thought David's an ally, and David wasn't. He

was doing his own thing and living in the area.

So that being said, King Akish told David, you and

your men will be expected to join me in battle.

Very well, David agreed. Now you will see for yourself

what we can do. Then Aikish told David, I will

make you my personal bodyguard for life. Meanwhile, Samuel had

died and all Israel had mourned for him. He was

buried in Rama, his hometown, and Saul had banned from

the land of Israel all mediums and those who consult

the spirits of the dead. The Philistines set up their

camp at Shunem, and Saul gathered all the army of

Israel and camped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the vast

Philistine army, he became frantic with fear. He asked the

Lord what he should do, but the Lord refused to

answer him, either by dreams or by sacred lots, or

by their prophets. So Saul then said to his advisors

find a woman who is a medium, so I can

go and ask her what to do? His advisers replied,

there is a medium at endoor. So Saul disguised himself

by wearing ordinary clothing instead of his royal robes, and

then he went to the women's home at night, accompanied

by two of his men. I have to talk to

a man who has died, he said, Will you call

up his spirit for me? Are you trying to get

me killed? The woman demand, you know that Saul has

outlawed all the mediums and all who consult the spirits

of the dead. Why are you setting a trap for me?

But Saul took an oath in the name of the

Lord and promised, as surely as the Lord lives, nothing

bad will happen to you for doing this. Finally, the

woman said, well, whose spirit do you want me to

call up? Call up Samuel, Saul replied, And when the

woman saw Samuel, she screamed, you deceived me. You are Saul,

don't be afraid. The king told her, what do you see?

I see a god coming up out of the earth.

She replied, what does he look like? Saul said, he's

an old man wrapped in a robe.

She replied.

Saul realized it was Samuel, and he fell to the

ground before him. Why have you disturbed me by calling

me back, Samuel asked Saul, because I am in deep trouble.

Saul replied, the Philistines are at war with me, and

God has left me and won't reply by prophets or dreams,

so I've called for you to tell me what to do.

But Samuel replied, why ask me? Since the Lord has

left you and has become your enemy. The Lord has

done just as he said he would. He has torn

the kingdom from you and given it to your rival, David.

The Lord has done this to you today because you

refuse to carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites.

What's more, the Lord will hand you and the army

of Israel over to the Philistines tomorrow, and you and

your sons will be here with me. The Lord will

bring down the entire army of Israel and defeat Saul

fell full length on the ground, paralyzed with fright because

of Samuel's words. He was also faint with hunger, free

to eating nothing all day and all night. When the

woman saw how distraught he was, she said Sir, I

obeyed your command at the risk of my life. Now

do what I say, and let me give you a

little something to eat so you can regain your strength.

For the trip back.

But Saul refused to eat anything. And then his advisers

joined the woman and urging him to eat, so he

finally yielded and got up from the ground and sat

on the couch. And the woman had been fattening a calf,

so she hurried out and killed it, and she took

some flour and kneaded it into dough baked on leaven bread.

She brought the meal to Sol and his advisers and

they ate it, and then they went out into the night.

There's a lot there.

Okay, yeah, there's a lot there.

And so first of all, Saul decides to do something

that he knows is wrong. Right, let's just let's just

uh right. So let's just start with the fact that

Saul was so desperate to uh, you know, uh not

do the right thing. Right. It's like it's almost like

the last thing that Saul wants to do is repent.

The last things all wants to do is fall to

his knees and say, oh God, let me just do

whatever it is that you will, you know, if it's

your will that David should win, and let me just

hand over the kingdom to David or whatever it is.

But we don't see any evidence of that. The only

thing we see is a couple chapters ago and a

couple of podcasts ago. David comes out of the cave

spares Saul's life, and Saul publicly says, oh, David, you're

such a good guy. And then Saul basically says the

same thing again because David refuses to kill him, and

then all of a sudden, we launched it in the

next chapter, and David's fearful of his life again and

has to run into the Philistine camp or the cities

right of Gath. So it almost seems like the last

thing that Saul actually wants to do is to do

what is right, and he's so desperate to do anything,

and he's so mournful. He's mournful because he no longer

has God's blessings in his life. He's so sorry that

he doesn't have favor. He's so sad that David has favor.

It's almost like he has all the head knowledge of

Christianity and of God and of church culture that be

us today. Right, But yet he fails to understand the

one thing that God wants, which is just complete and

utter surrender of your will and the consulting directly to God.

But there's no evidence of that. We don't see anything

where Saul falls to his knees and says, God, please

help me and forgive me of everything that I've ever done.

Yeah, in Saul's life, it was only ever about him,

it was never about God.

And so even God was a tool.

Yeah, right, God was a tool for Saul. And then

when God finally said, Hey, I'm not going to talk

to you anymore, You're you're not getting any any indication

of what you should do next. I'm not going to

send you any prophets. I'm not going to answer any

of your dreams. I'm not gonna you know, the the

casting of the lots was the was it the it

was a priestly garments, remember them?

And the thumbum? Is that what it was called?

I think there's notes here in the and and so.

So sometimes they would do, uh, it's almost like a

rolling of the dice, just kind of a well we

have this option or this option which one?

Right?

So even then God wouldn't give any guide He wouldn't

give them any guidance at all, Saul. And so Saul

decides he's going to go to a witch. He's going

to go to sometimes she's called the witch of Indoor, right,

or or this medium. And it's really amazing because early

in his in his life leadership, he banned all witches,

all sorcerers, all wizards.

All mediums. He banned them all.

And then, hey, isn't Endoor in Return of the Jedi?

Isn't that where the Ewoks were?

Was it?

I think that was the planet of Endor?

Yeah, well, sorry about maybe maybe they borrow interrupt thought,

maybe they borrowed that.

From this this name?

What planets?

You gotta be kidding me?

Were the ewoks on?

Okay?

It was Endoor, the forest, the forest Moon of Endor.

It's such a good name. So that that's what happened.

So and then he did that, he banned all of them,

not just because it was a political move, but because

in in Deuteronomy and in Exodus, it made it really clear, one,

you don't consult witches and mediums. You don't go and

fuller with witchcraft at all. As a matter of fact,

when it came to two sorcerers and witches, they were

supposed to be put to death. It was a death penalty.

Yeah, yeah, specifically outlying anyone who consults with the dead

Deuteronomy eighteen and Extodus twenty two. Right, And you know

what's so interesting is that something that may get overlooked here,

but it says that the woman shrieked when she saw Saul, right,

and so people or excuse me, sorry Samuel, then she

realized it was Saul.

Right.

But people often have asked me over the years and said, wow,

I guess this woman did have power. And if she

has power, that's outside of God, like you know, satanic power,

forces of evil power, you know those kinds of things,

anything outside of God. You know, how could she call

up Samuel? But yet she shrieked when she saw Samuel.

And I have to believe that it was a combination

of this was different. I believe that God probably used

in my opinion and say so, but in my opinion,

I believe that God probably used something bad or evil

and decided to use this for good. And I think

that God was the one that brought back Samuel. Yeah,

because because I don't think that this. I think it's

way too much credit to give to this woman, even

if she did have powers of darkness, uh, to accomplish this,

you know, to actually get a hold of Samuel and

and you know the Samuel from you know Heaven, you know,

eternity with God and uh. Yeah. So I just believe

the reason why she probably shrieked is because she probably

wasn't used to what she just saw.

Oh absolutely, she she was, like you know, she was.

She would have been accustomed to the demons that brought

her messages and all of a sudden to see the

real Samuel would have freaked her out right, even even

in that level. So yeah, I think that you know,

when when you're dealing with people that are fooling around

with witchcraft, there are the ones who fool around with

it they don't really know what they're doing.

But there's the others. You know. I was just in.

Togo and Benin, where voodoo is the national religion, and

it's very very real. The kind of witchcraft that they're doing,

and there's a lot of that kind of stuff is

very real. But they know that they're dealing with demons,

right They're trying to appease the demons. They're trying to

get the demons to do them favors, and they know

that they're dealing with demons. And this woman would have

known the same thing. Right, So people working witchcraft, they

know that they're dealing with demons. They might lie to

you and tell you, oh, this is a good thing,

not a bad thing. But that's what Satan does. Satan's

the father of lies. Everything he does is always a

twist of the truth. He never tells the truth. He

takes truth and twists it in order to have it

be a lie. And so there are people who have

spiritual power that are able to tap into the spiritual realm,

but it's always from an evil perspective.

And in this instance, I.

Think that this is similar to when Jesus was on

the Mountain of Transfiguration and God sent Moses and Elijah

to minister to him. Right right, he God can say, okay, hey,

this thing is going on and we need to send

a message to Saul.

And so Samuel I needs to go back and take

this message.

Because Samuel seems a little put out, doesn't he.

Yeah, he says, hey, why have you deserved me?

Well?

First calling me back. Come on, man, I think I made.

Reference to this a long time ago when we talked

through the New Testament. But remember how John Chris talked

about Lazarus coming back and he says, what kind of

a what kind of a day was that for Lazarus

to leave Heaven and say, uh, you know, we're going

to send you back, right, but you know, because that's

not a good that's not a good day to go

back to Earth for reading heaven. But can you imagine Samuel,

I mean, you know, Samuel's with God and then all

of a sudden, he says, hey, but what's going on?

I'm in a tent whife. You disturb me right right?

So it's it's you know, hey, apparently you wanted me

so bad that somehow I'm here. And you know, I

believe that God is the one that brought him there.

But can you imagine somebody looking at you. Let's not

overlook this fact. And Samuel says, hey, tomorrow you're gonna

be with me.

Yeah, that's you and your sons.

You and your sons. Hey, by the way, what do

you think that means? Do you think that means that

Samuel still goes or excuse me, Saul still goes to

heaven like because you know, there there's a question, because

you know, if if Samuel is with God and then

and then Samuel says, hey, tomorrow, you'll be here with me,

could it be that Saul was a God fearing man

who just lost his way and yet still is spared

even though that he ran away from God.

Yeah, good thing. God's the judging that me, right right.

I don't know, right, I don't know it. Certainly Samuel

is saying tomorrow you're going to be dead too, right right.

That's because that's it's the one thing we know, right right,

That's that's the part we know, right. So I'm not

sure beyond that what would have happened.

It is interesting to think about it.

God is good.

I think you have if you look at it, you

have Jonathan. The Bible says, feared the Lord his son,

right right. And so it seems like Samuel is saying

to both those who didn't fear God and those who did,

you're both going to be with me. It seems like

he's saying that you're both you're all going to die,

right right, you and your sons. That that seems to

be the reference he's making. He's not making a heaven

or hell declaration. I don't think, because I think you

have very very different people involved their circumstances. But I

don't know, I don't know what it's talking about. So

I think it's important for us to just say the

Bible is very clear. If you're tempted by you know,

palm readers and people who claim to communicate with the

dead and all that kind of stuff, the Bible is

really clear. Those are things not just to be avoided.

Those things had capital punishment consequences, right death penalty. Things

God says, do not mess around with this stuff, and

others would dismiss it. Oh, that's just silly, it's fake,

it's not right. So there's the physical realm in the

spiritual realm. When humanity sinned, we lost the ability to

really to spend time in the spiritual realm. But it's

very real, and the devil will for what we'll trade

a little bit of information, he'll trade a little bit

of power to people in order to have influence and

to perpetuate a lie among groups of people with regard

to fear, with regard to you know, rejecting God or

following after demons or whatever. And it's a very very

very real thing. So don't play with it, don't don't

mess around with it. And in this situation, God chose

in the middle of Saul deciding he was going to

flirt with this medium thing and try to get information.

God decided, Okay, in that moment, I'm gonna freak everybody out,

Samuel is going to show up.

Right right, And once again Samuel holds a prophecy for Saul. Yeah, right,

And on the back end, he says, the Lord has

done everything that he told you to do. This is

the ultimate I told you so, right, right? I mean,

think about how many times we want to say I

told you so. Samuel gets the he's the only one

whoever got the opportunity to come back from the dead,

which means drop the mic, I told you so much, right,

and and he says, yeah, and then this is what's

going to happen tomorrow. So once again, Samuel is still

fulfilling his role as a prophet by uh as a judge.

He was a judge.

He was a judge. Yeah, with prophetic power, who's able

to say and here's what else is going to happen.

So Saul then with no doubt thought, okay, like it's

probably going to come true. He believes Samuel at this point, Yes,

he knows that this is his last day.

And the fact that she screams it really freaked her

out too. So she's accustomed to the demons, but she's

not a custom to actual truth happening, right, the real

solution actually shows up. She's accustomed to the demons coming

in and you know, doing some magic stuff, and the

real Samuel shows up, she screams. So every once in

a while I'll hear somebody say, see that stuff's real,

because in the Bible happens.

No.

Even the lady who did it was accustomed to talking

to demons freaked out.

When she saw Samuel.

Right, So what you're getting what she normally was peddling

was not what happened on this day. What happened on

this day was Legit was she normally pedaled to everybody else.

Who ever came and gave her money was some kind

of demonic falsehood. It wasn't real, right, And that's why

she screams in this moment. So don't use this passage

as a as a justification for Hey, some of this

is legit, we should go and right, yeah, because it's not.

And this is not congruent to the moment when Whoopi

Goldberg finally heard Patrick Swayze in the movie Ghost. Oh no,

what there's a moment where this person was peddling false

things and then this supposed to be the moment where

Patrick Swayze was actually a real ghost, and she's like,

oh my goodness, it's real. But this is not congruent

to this.

Well, we finally got back to the movies.

Yeah, there you go, Yeah, there it is. Well, hey,

that is our time, and that was a fantastic exploration

and there's some great warnings in there too, So hopefully

we'll see you next time on the Bibble Gosh