1 Sam 28:3 Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in his own town of Ramah. Saul had expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land.
Sometimes our words don’t match our actions. We say one thing and do another. We all have a little bit of hypocrite in us. As we grow in the grace of Christ, that part of us should get smaller over time. The statements we make about ourselves should match the statements made by other people about us. Public and private should be the same. To say it in the terms of today, “Have the authentic you show up!”
Saul was the first king of Israel and his life got messier and messier as time went along. There were times when he seems to have been on track with the LORD. But then almost without any hint that a change is coming, the real Saul shows up. And it isn’t a pretty picture.
Saul has tried to do right by the LORD by expelling the mediums and spiritists from the land. He was trying to keep the second commandment. The neighboring peoples had many idols and many false beliefs and those beliefs had crept into Israel. Saul had kicked out of the county all the leaders of those false religions.
But Saul is a contradiction. When things get tough for him, like an invading army, he then goes and consults a spiritist. He runs right back to his old ways. He knows he is in rebellion against the LORD, and that the LORD isn’t going to provide him the answer he feels he needs.
In one sense, Saul knows what is coming. He knows that rejecting the LORD comes with a price to be paid. Saul is getting ready to pay that price, and he doesn’t want to face the music.
He publicly stays mediums and spiritist are bad, but then goes to visit one! Hypocrite.
The plot takes a funny turn when the demon spirit that answers calls out Saul for his duplicity. Imagine a demon speaking the truth!
You see, we can’t run so far that the LORD can’t reach us. And the LORD is always waiting for us to return, but he doesn’t sit back and wait. He seeks us out. He comes after us.
Run toward Him! He has the solution to your difficulty.
The Arnold Journey 