- 56 - Then Saul commanded his servants to find him a woman who conjures up the dead. He wanted to go and consult her. As the good spirit world would not send him a message, he decided to try the evil spirit world instead. His servants told him that there was a woman in Endor who conjured up the dead. So, Saul disguised himself and went to see her. He came to the woman by night and said to her, ‘Tell my fortune by conjuring up the dead. Bring me up from the underworld someone whose name I will give you.’ The conjurer did not want to do this, because she was afraid that she would be reported and put to death. However, Saul reassured her. So, the woman said, ‘Whom shall I bring up for you?’ ‘Bring up Samuel,’ he said. When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed and said to Saul, ‘Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!’ The king said to her, ‘Have no fear! What do you see?’ The woman said to Saul: ‘I see a superhuman being rising out of the earth.’ He said to her, ‘What does it look like?’ She said, ‘It is an old man coming up; he is wrapped in a cloak.’ Then Saul knew that it was Samuel; he bowed with his face to the ground, showing him reverence. Then Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why do you disturb me in my rest by bringing me up?’ Saul answered, ‘I am in dire need. The Philistines are waging war against me, and God does not answer me. That is why I have called you, to find out what I should do.’ Samuel said, ‘Why ask me when God has abandoned you and become your enemy? The Lord treated you just as he declared through me that he would. The Lord has taken your kingdom and given it to another, to David. It is because you did not obey the Lord’s command that He has done this to you today. And the Lord will let Israel fall into the hands of the Philistines along with you, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me.’ There is much in this account that needs explaining, as you will find it hard to understand. Does it not strike you as odd that Saul trembled deep inside at the sight of the Philistine hosts? That was not at all like Saul, who was a brave man and had been in countless battles, always facing death fearlessly. Why then this sudden attack of trembling? Here you find one of those remarkable things you so often come across in life. It is what you call a ‘premonition of death’. The expression is not well chosen; it would be more correct to speak of a ‘certainty of death’. • At the very first sight of the army of the Philistines, something within him told Saul that the hour of his death was at hand. That hour is indeed appointed for all by their fate. But what is the nature of this inner voice, that it caused Saul to be certain that he would meet death in the coming battle? What was the inner voice that called to so many of your soldiers in wartime: ‘You will not live through the next attack.’ or ‘You will not live through the day.’ or ‘This is your last leave; you will not return to your family and friends.’ Why did so many soldiers, who had after all been home on leave often before, find it so hard to return to the front on the occasion when they would not return? In the case of Saul, as in all the others who know for certain that their death is at hand, it was the guardian spirits that made him aware of this most important hour in life. They have been sent to you as your leaders and friends. Often during your lifetime their voice has warned you of impending danger. They were your protectors. Often they have intervened in time to save you, but when the inevitable final moment of your life approaches, these spirit friends shake your innermost being so violently that the approaching hour of your death resounds in your ears too loudly to go unheard.
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