Wicked Women Of The Bible DevotionsSample

The Medium of Endor: Day 4

Painting of a fortune teller with a crystal ball

Doom. He feels it coming closer though he cannot see it, snarly and bristling with malice. No matter how quickly he moves, pivoting to check his back, he can't seem to get out of its way.

Though Saul has had his victories, the thing he wants most, he cannot have—to be at peace. To rest secure. After more than forty years of sitting on the throne of Israel, he is still uneasy. Philistines plague him. David eludes him. God abandons him. He is alone.

The woman is alone, too. Today she feels restless and unsettled. Late in the day, when night has fallen, she is startled to find three strangers asking entry to her home in Endor. One of them is taller by a head than any man she has ever seen. "Consult a spirit for me, and bring up the one I name," he says.

"Surely you know," she replies, "what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?" (1 Samuel 28:9)

But the big man, the one who had to fold himself in half to get through her door, invokes an oath, promising her, "As surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this." (1 Samuel 28:10)

Believing him, she asks whose spirit he wants her to invoke.

"Bring up Samuel," he says.

But when she does, the words of the prophet Samuel strike the king with nightmare force. "The Lord will hand over both Israel and you to the Philistines," he says, "and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me." (1 Samuel 28: 19)

Feeling pity for her visitor, she feeds him his last meal. Then she watches as he and his men depart. Staring out, she notes a shadow that is darker than the moonlit night. Hungry and bristling with malice, it trails a little distance behind the king. She knows that it will not be long until it overtakes him.

Closing the door with a shudder, she wonders when it will come for her. For she has heard what Scripture says about those who practice divination and witchcraft—that they are an abomination to God, a thoroughly wicked lot. (Deuteronomy 18: 9-12).