Readings for today: 1 Samuel 28-31, Psalms 86
(Note: Looks like I got us off track! I will get us back into it next week starting Monday, April 1st.)
As a culture, we seem somewhat obsessed with ghost stories. There’s a city in my part of the country where you can go and take a “ghost tour” of the main building and grounds. They tell stories about the strange things that have taken place there over the years. Weird noises. Bumps in the night. Supposed apparitions that have appeared out of nowhere. All of it’s nonsense according to Scripture and certainly nothing for any believer to be afraid of. 1 John 4:4 says, “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” In other words, because we have the Holy Spirit living inside us, we do not need to be afraid of anything in this world or the world to come. We do not need to fear principalities or powers or rulers or authorities or any spiritual forces of evil that might exist in the heavenly realm. We have Christ and He is more than enough to overcome anything that might come against us. This is the truth King Saul lost sight of in his fear.
Fear makes us do funny things. Stoke up enough fear and we may even be willing to compromise some of our most deeply held convictions. In an earlier season of his life, Saul had been faithful to the Lord and had expelled all the mediums and necromancers out of the land. These were people who specialized in communing with the dead. They spoke to spirits. They regularly trafficked in the demonic. And Saul rightly drove them out. But now Samuel is dead. The Philistines have gathered against him. When Saul saw the size of their army, he became afraid so he turned to the Lord for help. But the Lord did not answer him. So Saul did what he always did. He went his own way. He sought out a medium to see if he would be victorious in the battle to come. He did not get the answer he wanted. The medium did indeed summon the ghost of Samuel who, in turn, gave Saul the bad news about his own death and the death of his sons. It was so terrifying Saul became paralyzed with fear and couldn’t move. Eventually, the medium convinced him to eat and he was able to return back to his camp.
What do we learn from such a story? I think the main point is clear. Saul’s chief sin was not calling up Samuel’s ghost. It was abandoning the Lord. All of Saul’s sins had now come home to roost and he would pay for his transgressions with his very life. Second, fear is a powerful motivator. It will cause us to do all sorts of things we wouldn’t normally do. Saul would never have consulted a medium unless a mortal fear had taken hold of him. Third, ghosts are real. Spirits are real. But they do not aimlessly wander the earth. They are not cursed to haunt humankind. They have no power or authority that we need fear.
Readings for tomorrow: 2 Samuel 1-3, Psalms 87