Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Monday, November 5, 2012 Read – 1 Samuel 27 & 28 The story is moving toward the climax of Saul’s story with speed and determination. In yesterday’s reading we heard another story of David sparing Saul from certain death – David will not destroy “God’s anointed”. But we can tell from the story that Saul’s demise is approaching. As previously noted David has taken refuge among the enemy – the Philistines. Is David a traitor? What will happen when push comes to shove in the battle with Saul? The story does let the reader in on the fact that David is not as loyal to his protector, Achish the Philistine, as might be thought. David raids against the non-Israelites who surround the city of Ziglag which Achish has given to David as stronghold. Likely some of those “neighbors” may have been Philistines but others were not. David hides this from Achish and lies when asked where he has been raiding, telling Achish that he has been attacking the Israelites. We might wonder what God thinks about these lies, not the first lies we have heard about. Abraham lies about Sarah, calling her his sister; Isaac lies about Rebekah, also calling her his sister. Both did it thinking that if they told the truth they would be killed. One can’t help but wonder what God is thinking amid all this deception. We are never told what God thinks. Chapter 28 brings the conclusion to the story of Samuel that seemed to end so abruptly a few chapters earlier. In his desperation Saul seeks the advice of Samuel one more time. Saul had been seeking God’s advice through the regular channels – “dreams, Urim, and prophets” – but God was not speaking through any of them. By the way, we don’t know much about “Urim and Thurim” which we hear about occasionally in the OT, but they most likely were a form of dice that were used to cast lots. That may not sound very much like something God would use, but there it is in the Bible. The point is that the regular channels aren’t working, so Saul resorts to a practice that has been strictly forbidden – the use of a medium. Mediums were fortunetellers, connected with the use of magic. The point of the whole story is to highlight the desperation of Saul. The surprise might be that the medium works. God speaks through the medium – Samuel’s spirit is brought forth and the word for Saul is not good – in fact Saul is reminded of the words of Samuel from earlier that Saul’s fate is sealed. He and his sons will die. Incidentally we should not think of this as a resurrection of Samuel from the dead. The story is far too mysterious for that. Like me, you probably have a difficult time identifying with it. This kind of thing is just not part of our experience. Whatever happened, the point is that Saul’s story is coming to a dreadful end and Samuel can rest in peace.