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The Beginning of the End
Samuel as he could assume that of an angel of light when he tempted
Christ in the wilderness.
The message to Saul from the pretended prophet was, “Why
have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul answered, “I am
deeply distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God
has departed from me and does not answer me anymore, neither by
prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may
reveal to me what I should do.”
When Samuel was alive, Saul had hated his counsel, but now,
in order to communicate with Heaven’s ambassador, he had gone
to the messenger of hell! Saul had placed himself fully in Satan’s
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power, and now he whose only pleasure is found in making people
miserable and destroying them made the most of his opportunity
to ruin the unhappy king. In answer came the terrible message,
supposedly from the lips of Samuel:
“The Lord has departed from you and has become your enemy.
... 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.”
Satan had led Saul to justify himself in defying Samuel’s reproofs
and warning, but now he turned on him, hoping to push him to
desperation by showing the enormity of his sin and the impossibility
of pardon. Nothing could have been better chosen to destroy his
courage and confuse his judgment, or to drive him to despair and
self-destruction. Saul was faint with fasting, terrified, and knowingly
guilty. His body swayed like an oak tree in a storm, and he fell flat
to the ground.
The sorceress was filled with alarm. The king of Israel lay before
her as if he was dead. She begged him to eat some food, urging that
since she had risked her life in granting his desire, he should give
in to her request in order to preserve his own. Saul yielded, and the
woman gave him the fatted calf and bread that she quickly prepared.
What a scene! In the wild cave of the sorceress, in the presence
of Satan’s messenger, the man who had been anointed of God as
king over Israel sat down to eat, getting ready for the day’s deadly
battle.