Seeking Strength

Reflections on 1 Sam. 28:15-25

Perhaps you have watched your favorite basketball team or football team being trounced by their opponent. Your team seems to have no energy, no strength. Then you notice their body language. The problem is not just that they are physically exhausted, but they are mentally exhausted as well. They are in despair in their mind and have ceased to believe in themselves. At that moment, something happens that changes everything. Someone steals the ball and breaks away for a dunk at the other end of the court, or someone recovers a fumble. Suddenly body language changes. Heads are lifted, shoulders squared, and steps quickened. What happened? Were their bodies strengthened with a healthy meal? No. Their minds were nourished with hope.

FOR SOUL. When Saul went to the witch in En-dor, he was looking for hope in his soul. He was in “great distress” because God had turned away from him and answered him no more. When Samuel appeared, perhaps to the witch’s surprise, Saul asked Samuel to tell him what to do. In reply, Samuel asked rhetorically why he was seeking advice from one he had made an enemy. Then he repeated the last words he had spoken to Saul: “The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor” (compare 1 Sam. 28:17 with 1 Sam. 15:28). Finally, he told Saul that he and his sons would die the next day, and the Israelite army would be defeated. Saul found no strength for his soul. Whatever spiritual strength Saul may have had left was then exhausted, and Saul collapsed on the ground.

FOR BODY. Perhaps due to his spiritual distress, and perhaps due to the intense preparations for battle, Saul had not eaten anything all day. He needed physical strength too. Although the woman could not provide him with any spiritual strength, she did provide physical strength with food she prepared and set before him. After eating, he rose and went his way. We read no more of Saul until he is mortally wounded on the battlefield the next day. The last meal Saul ate was probably from the hand of the witch of En-dor.