The Witch of En Dor

 


Miracles without Faith, part 3

 

Introduction

When the mother of magician Harry Houdini died, he made an effort to contact her through mediums. As he visited them, it came to his attention that they were nothing more than charlatans preying on innocent people claiming to be able to speak to their ancestors.

Houdini spent that latter half of his career debunking mediums, fortune tellers, and spiritualists as they were nothing more than magicians claiming to be someone important. This is similar to Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8.

Back in the Old Testament, part of The Law was a list of abominations of the land that the Israelite were forbidden to take part (Deut. 18:9-12). King Saul, however, was in need of one of these people and the end result was quite surprising.

 

A King Gone Wrong

Saul was chosen king of the Israelites because of his stature (1 Sam. 9:2). However, his reign was rife with problems:

He performed a sacrifice for the people instead of waiting for Samuel—1 Sam. 13:5-14, He made his men swear to not eat anything until the enemy was vanquished—1 Sam. 14:23-31, He was to utterly destroy the Amalekites but brought back “souvenirs” instead—1 Sam. 15:3-28.

Because of Saul’s disobedience to God, his kingdom was torn from him and given to another. David was to become his successor and, through the next several chapters, Saul saw David as his enemy.

 

Seeking God’s Help

In 1 Sam. 28 we see the Philistines preparing for war against Israel. David was ready since he knew that God was on their side (1 Sam. 17:44-47). However, King Saul was fearful and wanted to consult God. Unfortunately, God refused to respond to him and Samuel was dead. In addition, he had cleared the land of all mediums and spiritists (1 Sam. 28:3, 6).


He manages to find a medium at En Dor and, disguising himself, asks for her help. She at first refuses because of the King’s command but he assures her that no harm will come to her. We pick up the story in verse 11, Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up for you?" And he said, "Bring up Samuel for me." When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, "Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!" And the king said to her, "Do not be afraid. What did you see?" And the woman said to Saul, "I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth." So he said to her, "What is his form?" And she said, "An old man is coming up, and he is covered with a mantle." And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed down (vs. 11-14).


Notice in verse 12 it says, When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice… This proves the woman was a charlatan as she was surprised that she actually summoned a spirit. It was God’s way of proving to King Saul that he was no longer on his side. This miracle took place even though the medium had no faith in her ability to do such a thing.

Samuel’s spirit said as much, “Why then do you ask me, seeing the LORD has departed from you and has become your enemy? And the LORD has done for Himself as He spoke by me. For the LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did not obey the voice of the LORD nor execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore the LORD has done this thing to you this day. Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The LORD will also deliver the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.” (vs. 16-19)

 

Conclusion

Of all people who should have faith, in regard to miracles, it should be the person who performs them! All faith healers today do not have such powers. What they have is a business and a way to convince people that if they put their mind to it, they can accomplish most things. Miracles, however, is not one of them.

If you want salvation, remember what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1:16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. Miracles cannot, and will not, save you from your sin.

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

09. Number Your Days

Image
  God’s Bucket List for You, part 2   Introduction In Psalms 90:10-12, Moses prayed, The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath. So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom. We’re only give so much time here on Earth and it is up to us to make everyday count. Each day breaks down into just 1440 minutes and when you subtract to amount for school/work and sleep, it’s even less. We should appreciate the amount we have daily.   I’ve Got Plenty of Time How often have we said, or heard someone say, that they have plenty of years ahead of them to do this or that? Most young people believe that religion is for the older people; those headed into their twilight years that are “closer to death” than they were in their youth. Yet, they do...
Read more

06. Realize Your Self-worth

Image
  God’s Bucket List for You, part 5  Introduction to the series, click here Introduction One of the problems I suffer from, as do a lot of people, is a low self-esteem. We often make the mistake of basing our self-esteem on our family, friends, occupation, area we live in, and our home. Although all of that factor into our lives, they don’t have to be the main basis of our self-esteem. As part of His bucket list for us, God wants us to realize our self-worth by examining our lives according to His scriptures. If we are not following His word, as written, then we need to change and build up our self-esteem.   Moses’ lack of Self-worth In our previous article , we looked at Moses and the excuses he made to God as he didn’t want to lead his people out of Egypt. One of his excuses was a lack of eloquent speech. Here’s what he said in Exodus 4:10, Then Moses said to the LORD, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant;...
Read more

IMMORTAL (I’m Mortal)

Image
(from 2013) Introduction “Do No Try This at Home” is a phrase generally seen as a disclaimer on certain television shows that feature dangerous stunts or other things in which professionals have been training to do for many years. Teenagers and young adults will attempt to imitate these very same stunts themselves. Why? Because it’s the thrill of the stunt and an opportunity to gain approval of their peers. To them failure is not an option as well as death. It’s a certain level of immortality that young people feel because, to them, their whole life is ahead of them and death only happens to old people. But as a preacher once said, “The Old must die and the young do die.” Definitions of Immortal The dictionary definition for immortal is ‘Exempt from Death’ or ‘Imperishable’.   In other words, you can never die or you live forever. But this is not true and we all, eventually, will die. In addition, the dictionary also defines immortal on the basis of a noun in...
Read more