1 Sam 28-31 - On seers and faith

The readings - Day 94 - 1 Samuel 28-31

So in case anybody hasn't noticed, it turns out the Middle East (and particularly Israel/Palestine) has pretty much always been a bloodbath region. Here in the closing chapters of 1 Samuel, we get a couple of snapshots of that - the picture painted by the Bible shows a land of nearly constant conquest and re-conquest. Not only are the Philistines still causing problems for Saul and the Israelites, but while David is on campaign with the Philistine king (and he wasn't even gone that long, since he was sent back before the fighting even started) the Philistine region (as well as chunks of Judah) were ransacked and pillages by Amalekite armies, who carry off David's wives and stuff, along with the wives, children and stuff of all the others who are away at the time trying to carry off the wives and stuff of other cities and countries.



Naturally, David goes all Bruce-Lee-after-tasting-his-own-blood on the Amalekites, and proceeds to lay a whomping down that lasts for 24 hours and leaves nobody left alive, all with only a force of 400 stalwart soldiers.

*side note: can you believe that Google Image Search doesn't come up with a single relevant picture of Bruce Lee tasting his own blood? It happens in like every single movie he made... jeez...

Anyway, before all of that, something interesting happens with Saul. As per God's instructions, Saul had ordered the removal of all seers, mediums and other occult practitioners from Israel. Now, however, that God's given up on him and Samuel's dead (oh yeah, Samuel died - and yes, it was sufficiently unceremonious that I completely forgot to mention it) he decides that the time is right to send for a seer from wherever one can be found.

Here's the bit that I find interesting: she's actually legit. She raises Samuel (in some form) from the dead, and he communicates with Saul. He's pissed, naturally, both because he's been disturbed and also because Saul's just begging for it now, and he informs Saul that this is basically the last thing he'll ever do, but the point is that he's there. Despite the rather formidable inconvenience of being pretty dead at the time.

This is right up there (and possibly beyond) the Egyptian wizards being able to perform minor miracles of their own with sticks and snakes, etc, as proof that while God's clearly got the ultimate authority and power, there are other forces at work in the world on a physical and metaphysical level, and the Bible makes no bones about it. There's no indication whatsoever that A) this whole thing was staged and phony, or B) that it was actually God communicating with Saul.

Whether or not either of those things were actually true is, in my opinion, completely irrelevant. The interesting thing to me is that the author of the book (like the author of Genesis) seemed to be completely unphased by the possibility that such powers existed. It makes sense, in a way, because why would God instruct Saul to remove seers and mediums if all they were were frauds and hucksters? It also, I think, demonstrates an impressively solid faith in God's supremacy to be able to admit freely that there are other forces and powers present in the world without that necessarily posing a great and dire threat to the belief that God's still ultimately in control and supreme.

I also find it interesting that God still uses Samuel to communicate truth to power, even when the circumstances of that communication have been forbidden. It's not like Samuel says something like "this isn't cool, Saul, I'm not talking to you anymore." It's actually closer to "this isn't cool, Saul, but while I'm here, you should know that God's really mad at you and you're going to die tomorrow."

It sort of underscores to me the idea that, in addition to other powers and realities existing in the world, they can still be used by God to teach truth and get ideas across - something that I think the world could use a lot more understanding of.