Let's look for hidden pearls (10 mins.)
1Sa 28:15. Who did Saul “see”? (w10 1/1 20 ¶5-6)
We are sure that it was not Samuel, because we know well that when a person dies his thoughts perish completely, so that "Samuel" that Saul contacted through a medium was a demon that pretended to be Samuel.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
And it is very obvious that Jehovah would not allow a spirit medium to get around and communicate with a dead prophet and have him deliver a message from him to Saul, moreover, during the latter part of his life, Samuel himself, a faithful prophet of God, had ceased to have all kinds of dealings with Saul, so it would be unreasonable to say that Samuel was willing to speak with Saul through a spirit medium, something that was condemned by God.
As the Bible teaches, when a person dies, "he returns to his ground" and "his thoughts perish." Furthermore, both Saul and Samuel knew that God disapproves of spiritualistic practices. In fact, some time before, the king himself had taken measures to eradicate them from the country. So, even if faithful Samuel's spirit was still alive, would he have disobeyed God by working with a medium to communicate with Saul? Furthermore, if Jehovah did not want to respond to Saul's pleas, could a mere medium force God to speak to the king through Samuel? No, far from it. It is clear that this "Samuel" was not the prophet of God who had died. In reality, it was a demon posing as Samuel.
Because of Saul's disobedience, hatred, and envy for his brother, Jehovah stopped answering his prayers. Let us never disobey, get angry or feel envy for our brothers, although it is something that no one else can see or review, Jehovah does and as this text says, he could stop answering our prayers.
The "Samuel" that Saul saw was not the prophet of God who had died, in fact, it was a demon that pretended to be Samuel, and we can say that because both Saul and Samuel knew that God disapproves of spiritualistic practices and in the event that the spirit of the faithful Samuel was still alive, he would not have disobeyed God by collaborating with a medium to communicate with Saul.
What spiritual gems have you found about Jehovah, the ministry, and other topics in this week's Bible reading?
1 Samuel 27:1. It is interesting how David behaved in the face of this injustice that he was suffering and above all the danger of death for David from Saul was very latent and almost inevitable, we see that David displays prudence and good judgment when leaving with the enemies of his enemy, and it worked, when Saul knew this the story says that he stopped looking for him.
1 Samuel 27:4. It can be said that this was the last news that Saul heard about David, seeing that David definitely no longer wanted to have conflicts with him, Saul realized that chasing David was useless and because he also realized that David still respected him, he understood that David would continue on his way and Saul would also return to his position as king of Israel, thus concluding this story that can leave us too many lessons that we can extract in our personal study.
1 Samuel 27:5. This teaches us that as pioneers and future ministerial servants or elders, we must always be humble, not wanting to wear the best clothes, wanting to attract attention with our speeches or wanting to lead a life of luxury, like David, that our mind and heart live in « rural area” not in the “real city”.
1 Samuel 27:5,7. It teaches us that David's fear of the Lord strengthened him to act wisely and decisively in difficult times, because when he fled from Saul, David and his men took refuge for a year and four months in Ziqlag, in Philistine territory, and in Today, God's servants also face situations that require trust in Jehovah and courage to act decisively, so let us strengthen our faith in our God day by day.
1 Samuel 27:7. David lived a year and 4 months in the rural area of the Philistines. That means that he did not go to Israel to celebrate the Passover, nor the feast of the booths nor other Israeli festivities, even so Jehovah understood the circumstances and continued to support him so that he would be king. This teaches us that although there are brothers whose illnesses or age do not allow them to attend all the theocratic events that we have, it does not mean that Jehovah disapproves of them, let us help them but if it is impossible for them to attend, let us encourage them with this text.
1 Samuel 27:8. It says that when David was in Ziqlag, he made incursions into populations dominated by Israel's enemies, in the south, to secure the borders of Judah, from this we learn that we should not allow circumstances to immobilize us, because perhaps we worry so much what we cannot do, that we overlook what we can do, and circumstances begin to dominate us.
1 Samuel 27:7,12. We see that David, while living as a fugitive in Philistine territory, took advantage of the opportunity to fight against the enemies of Israel, in this way he protected the limits of the territory of Judah, this teaches us something very important and that is that we must always take advantage of all the opportunities that arise. present us to serve Jehovah and his people.
1 Samuel 27:11, 12. David and his army took refuge in the lands of King Akish and he assigned him to live in Ziklag, during that stay again David used war strategy when dealing with this enemy of Israel, the people of Israel. David, and hid his true movements from him, so that Akís did not bother David and his men, in this way he managed to act cunningly during all this time in which he remained a fugitive.
1 Samuel 28:6. We can see that Jehovah himself gives us the example of how our treatment with the expelled should be, since Jehovah cut all ties with Saul, in the case of the expelled, we must bear in mind that he has been cut off from the congregation in a spiritual sense, the previous spiritual ties have been completely broken, that is why the members of the family, although they recognize family ties, no longer have spiritual fellowship with the expelled.
1 Samuel 28:6. When men reject Jehovah and move away from the only one who knows the end from the beginning, they easily fall victims of demonic spiritualist influence, Saul is the example of this since at first he turned to Jehovah for knowledge of future events, but after he lost communication with God due to his unfaithfulness, we must always remain faithful to Jehovah if we want to keep our communication with him.
1 Samuel 28:5-7. Due to Saul's fear of the Philistines, he acted hastily and decided to seek out a medium or diviner to help him make decisions about the battle despite knowing that God disapproves of spiritualistic practices, we too will face situations where which we will feel fear, but that should not be an excuse to disobey Jehovah's commands.
1 Samuel 28:8,14. It makes it very clear to us that Jehovah hates all kinds of spiritualism, and it may be unthinkable for us to go to a medium, but what can we say about astrology, the horoscope, it may seem harmless to us, but if we want to please Jehovah we must eliminate of our life all kinds of superstition.
1 Samuel 28:16. God blesses those who listen to him and obey him, he certainly becomes their Father, Friend and God, but when someone insists on disobeying God and doing things his way, and his motives are selfish, such a person cannot expect God's blessing. God in your life, there are inevitable consequences, that's why this example serves as an exhortation to repent of our sins, seek God's forgiveness and continue serving him, it's good to know that some have had this good attitude right now.
1 Samuel 28:18. When someone disobeys Jehovah there is nothing that can save him from the consequences, in fact, the Bible says that no one can mock God, unfortunately King Saul realized it very late, seeing all this it is clear to us that we things go better in life when we obey Jehovah.
1 Samuel 28:19. We note that the supposed prophecy that the supposed "Samuel" told the medium was not fulfilled in the way it had been said, we can say this because first Saul was seriously wounded in battle against the Philistines, but he died by his own hand and second, contrary to the prediction that all of Saul's sons would die with him, his son Ish-bosheth outlived him, showing that the supposed predictions of the spirits about the future are never fully fulfilled in the end.
1 Samuel 28:3,20. It tells us that King Saul of Israel, after being rejected by Jehovah due to his disobedience, tried to consult with the prophet Samuel, who had already died using a medium, and in reality, Saul received information from a demon who He pretended to be Samuel, and we well know that demons are enemies of God, and establishing contact with them is very dangerous, besides it would be an act of infidelity to Jehovah.
1 Samuel 29:2,6. It says that Achish defended David and his men against Philistine lords and princes like him, so Achish unknowingly served as Jehovah's instrument to help David, which teaches us that Jehovah can even use authorities to protect his loyal ones. or to people who at first glance may seem like our enemies.
1 Samuel 29:3. David's strategy of posing as Akís's "ally" was working because in the end after a year or more he had managed to trust him, that is why David, as an experienced warrior, was very useful to be cunning with his enemies, in the same way, we servants of Jehovah must show cunning and ingenuity when we have to go through difficult situations.
1 Samuel 29:5. The fame that David had achieved as an excellent warrior must have been great, since even the Philistines knew of that time in which the people had said that Saul had defeated thousands, but David, tens of thousands, this shows that David arrived to be well known both by his town and by other nearby towns and enemies.
1 Samuel 29:3,5. Not everything is what it seems, the king of Akis thought that David was his ally, but the rest saw something strange and their intuition made them see that it was not what it seemed, sometimes our brothers, our parents see things that we do not see, and because they love us and want to see us well they warn us of some danger with something or someone, we do well to listen and thank the advice, and of course, take it into account, this can save our lives and save us a lot of suffering.
1 Samuel 29:4. Axis lords dominated Philistia by ruling over individual city-states, but when matters of common concern arose, they formed a council of co-equals. Akis is called the king of Gath. He doesn't seem like he was a king in the usual sense of the word, but rather a prince. For this reason, the title of "prince" is sometimes applied to these rulers.
1 Samuel 29:8. Let us trust in Jehovah. On many occasions he moves matters to protect us, David was not allowed to go to the battle where Saul would die so that people would not say that David killed him treacherously. If for some reason, a privilege, an assignment or some other goal does not come when we want, let us trust that Jehovah will bring us back from that battle for some reason. But he will eventually give us as Psalm 37:4 says, "the desires of our heart."
1 Samuel 29:9. Like David, let us be such good pioneers, publishers, ministers, elders that people feel that we are like an angel of Jehovah, an angel that demonstrates maturity, holiness, love and loyalty to Jehovah and no one else.
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