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Patriarchs and Prophets
answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore
I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall
do.”
When Samuel was living, Saul had despised his counsel and had
resented his reproofs. But now, in the hour of his distress and calamity,
he felt that the prophet’s guidance was his only hope, and in order
to communicate with Heaven’s ambassador he vainly had recourse
to the messenger of hell! Saul had placed himself fully in the power
of Satan; and now he whose only delight is in causing misery and
destruction, made the most of his advantage, to work the ruin of the
unhappy king. In answer to Saul’s agonized entreaty came the terrible
message, professedly from the lips of Samuel:
“Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed
from thee, and is become thine enemy? And the Lord hath done to
him, as he spake by me: for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of
thine hand, and given it to thy neighbor, even to David: because thou
obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst His fierce wrath
upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this
day. Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand
of the Philistines.”
All through his course of rebellion Saul had been flattered and
deceived by Satan. It is the tempter’s work to belittle sin, to make
the path of transgression easy and inviting, to blind the mind to the
warnings and threatenings of the Lord. Satan, by his bewitching power,
had led Saul to justify himself in defiance of Samuel’s reproofs and
warning. But now, in his extremity, he turned upon him, presenting the
enormity of his sin and the hopelessness of pardon, that he might goad
him to desperation. Nothing could have been better chosen to destroy
his courage and confuse his judgment, or to drive him to despair and
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self-destruction.
Saul was faint with weariness and fasting; he was terrified and
conscience-stricken. As the fearful prediction fell upon his ear, his
form swayed like an oak before the tempest, and he fell prostrate to
the earth.
The sorceress was filled with alarm. The king of Israel lay before
her like one dead. Should he perish in her retreat, what would be the
consequences to herself? She besought him to arise and partake of
food, urging that since she had imperiled her life in granting his desire,