Homily on Saul and the Medium of Endor

Four readings; the bishop chooses the medium§1

1The things read aloud are rather many, and since one must speak by cutting them short, there are four sections. There was read what follows after the matters concerning Nabal of Carmel. Then after that the story of David’s being hidden among the Ziphites and being slandered by them, and of Saul’s having come wanting to seize David and, having come, watching for a moment; and of David’s having come upon Saul and taken, while he and his guards were sleeping, “the spear and the water-flask,” and after that of his having brought a rebuke against those entrusted to guard him who had fallen asleep. Then next was the third story—that David fled “to Achish son of Maoch, king of Gath,” (1 Samuel 27:2) and how much favor he found with him after his many brave deeds, to whom Achish says, “I will make you chief of my bodyguard.” (1 Samuel 28:2)

Next after these was the notorious story concerning the medium and concerning Samuel—that the medium seemed to have brought Samuel up, and Samuel prophesies to Saul. There being four sections, each of which has no small matters, and matters able to occupy even those who can examine them for hours not of one assembly but of several—let the bishop propose whichever of the four he wills, so that we may be occupied about this. “Let the matters concerning the medium,” he says, “be examined.”

Some stories do not touch us; this one touches every hope§2

2Some stories do not touch us; some are necessary for our hope. I have said “stories” (Psalm 99:6–7) thus, since we do not yet arrive at the things of the ascent—useful to everyone who knows how to ascend or to hear those who ascend. Of the things of the story, then, some are useful to all, some not to all. For example: the story concerning Lot and his daughters—if it has something useful according to the ascent, God knows, and the one to whom he grants to examine those words; but if according to the story, you might ask: what benefit to me from the story concerning Lot and his daughters? Likewise what benefit to me is the story of Judah and Tamar and the things about her, simply told?

But since the story that has Saul and the medium touches everyone, a necessary truth according to the Word. For who, released from this life, wants to be under a demon’s authority, so that a medium may bring up not some chance believer but Samuel the prophet?—of whom God says through Jeremiah: “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before my face, I would not listen even to them” (Jeremiah 15:1); of whom the prophet says in hymns: “Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call on his name; they called on the Lord, and he himself listened to them; in a pillar of cloud he spoke to them” (Jeremiah 15:1); and elsewhere: “If Moses and Samuel stood…” and what follows.

Therefore—if so great a man was under the earth and the medium brought him up—does a demon have authority over a prophetic soul? What shall we say? These things are written: are they true, or are they not true? To say they are not true drives toward unbelief—it will come down on the heads of those who say it. But to say they are true supplies us with inquiry and difficulty.

Brothers refuse the medium; then Samuel in Hades cascades§3

3And indeed we know some of our brothers who have looked the Scripture in the face and say: “I do not believe the medium. The medium says she has seen Samuel—she lies.” (1 Samuel 28:12)

“Samuel was not brought up; Samuel does not speak. But just as there are some false prophets saying, ‘Thus says the Lord,’ and ‘the Lord has not spoken,’ so also this demon lies, promising to bring up the one Saul commands. ‘Whom shall I bring up?’ she says; ‘Bring Samuel up for me.’ And these things are said by those who claim this story is not true: Samuel in Hades? Samuel is brought up by a medium—the exceptional one among the prophets, the one dedicated to God from birth, the one said before birth to be in the temple, the one who at weaning put on the ephod and the double cloak and became a priest of the Lord, to whom while still a child the Lord gave oracles by speaking? Samuel in Hades? Samuel among the underworld—the one who succeeded Eli when he was condemned by providence for the children’s sins and lawlessness? Samuel in Hades, whom God heard at the time of wheat harvest and gave rain to come from heaven? Samuel in Hades—the one who spoke so boldly: Did he take anyone’s desire? He did not take the calf; he did not take the ox; he judged and condemned the people while remaining poor; he never desired to take anything from so great and so large a people.” (1 Samuel 12:17–18)

“Samuel—why in Hades? You see what follows from Samuel in Hades. Samuel in Hades? Why not also Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in Hades? Samuel in Hades? Why not also Moses, paired with Samuel according to what was said: ‘Not even if Moses and Samuel stood, not even of them…’? Samuel in Hades? Why not also Jeremiah in Hades, to whom it was said: ‘Before I formed you in the belly I know you, and before you came out of the womb I consecrated you’? In Hades also Isaiah, in Hades also Jeremiah, in Hades all the prophets, in Hades.” (Jeremiah 1:5) (Jeremiah 15:1)

The Spirit’s narrative voice saw Samuel—not a pretended demon§4

4These things the one who does not want to accept the contest will say—that it is not really Samuel who was brought up. But since one must be fair-minded in hearing the Scriptures, and the argument has plausibly buzzed around us and can truly disturb and move us, let us see whether the Scripture has been understood by the one who does not accept this, or whether he argues from reputable points yet says things contrary to what is written.

For what things are written? “And the woman said, ‘Whom shall I bring up for you?’” (1 Samuel 28:11–14) Whose person is it that says, “the woman said”? Is it the person of the Holy Spirit, from whom the Scripture is believed to have been written, or of someone else? For the narrative person everywhere—as even those practiced in all sorts of discourses know—is the person of the writer; and the writer for these words is believed to be not a human being, but the Holy Spirit who moved human beings as writer. Therefore the Holy Spirit says: “And the woman said, ‘Whom shall I bring up for you?’ And he said, ‘Samuel for me.’ Who says: ‘And the woman saw Samuel, and the woman cried out with a great voice, saying…’?” (1 Samuel 28:11-12)

We will say to that one who has so buzzed against us and said countless things as though Samuel were not in Hades: “The woman saw Samuel”—the narrative voice said this—“and the woman cried out with a great voice and said to Saul, ‘Why have you deceived me? And you are Saul.’ And the king said to her, ‘What is it? Do not fear; what have you seen?’ And the woman said to Saul, ‘I have seen gods coming up from the earth.’ And he said to her, ‘What is their appearance?’ And she said to him, ‘An elderly man coming up, and he himself wrapped in a double cloak, an ephod.’ She says she has seen even the priestly garment.

I know that the one from that argument says: “No wonder; for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. So it is no great thing if his servants also transform themselves as servants of righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 11:14–15) But what is it that “the woman saw”? “Samuel.” And why has it not been said: “The woman saw a demon that pretended to be Samuel”? But it is written that “Saul knew that it is Samuel.” If it were not Samuel, it ought to have been written: “Saul supposed him to be Samuel.” But now it is written: “Saul knew”—and no one knows what is not; therefore “Saul knew that it is Samuel,” “and he fell on his face on the earth and worshiped.”

Then again the person of the Scripture: “And Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you provoked me to bring me up?’” “Said,” says the Scripture that must be believed—“Samuel said, ‘Why have you provoked me to bring me up?’” Then Saul answers this: “The foreigners are fighting hard against me, and God has stood away from me and has not answered me any longer, and even by the hand of the prophets and in dreams I have called, that he might show me what I should do.” Again the Scripture has not spoken otherwise, but that Samuel himself said: “And why have you inquired of me? And the Lord has stood away from you.” Does he speak truly or falsely when he says these things: “The Lord has stood away from you and has become against you and has made another for himself, as he spoke by my hand, and he will tear the kingdom from your hand”—and a demon prophesies about Israel’s kingdom? What does the opposing argument say? You see how great a contest there is in the Word of God, needing also hearers able to hear holy words—great and secret words about the departure—while the earlier things are still being questioned and the later are not yet clear.

A demon cannot know David’s kingdom or tomorrow’s death§5

If Christ went to Hades, prophets went ahead as heralds§6

6These things, then, show that the words are not false and that it is Samuel who has come up. What then is a medium doing here? What is a medium doing about the bringing-up of the righteous man’s soul? That first speaker fled—so as not to seem to have a contest against so many other questions in the passage—and says: “It is not Samuel; the demon lies, since the Scripture cannot lie.” (Psalm 16:10) But the Scripture’s words are not from the demon’s person but from her own: “And she saw Samuel,” (1 Samuel 28:12) “Saul said…”—the things spoken from Samuel. How then will the medium’s matters in the passage appear when solved?

I ask the one who said the earlier things (“Samuel in Hades?” and what follows) and let him answer the question: Who is greater, Samuel or Jesus the Christ? Who is greater, the prophets or Jesus the Christ? Who is greater, Abraham or Jesus the Christ? Here no one who has once come to know the Lord as Jesus Christ, the one proclaimed beforehand by the prophets, will dare to say that the Christ is not greater than the prophets.

When therefore you confess that Jesus Christ is greater—Christ in Hades, or did he not come to be there? Is what was said in the Psalms not true, interpreted by the apostles in their Acts, concerning the Savior’s having gone down into Hades? It is written that the fifteenth Psalm is borne upon him: “For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will you give your holy one to see corruption.” (Acts 2:27–31) Then Jesus Christ is in Hades. Do you fear to say that yes—and there too he goes down to prophesy and to come to the other souls?

Then after this if he answers that Christ has gone down into Hades, I will say: Christ has gone down into Hades to do what—to conquer, or to be conquered by death? And he has come down into those regions not as a slave of those there but as a master wrestling—as we said earlier when interpreting the twenty-second Psalm: “Many calves surrounded me; fat bulls enclosed me; they opened their mouth at me, like a lion seizing and roaring. My bones were scattered.” (Psalm 22:12–14) We remember, if we remember, the sacred writings; for I remember them said toward the twenty-second Psalm. Therefore the Savior has come down to save; has he come down there proclaimed beforehand by the prophets, or not? But here he was proclaimed beforehand by the prophets, and elsewhere he comes down not through prophets? And Moses proclaims him as about to sojourn with the human race, so that it is well said by our Lord and Savior: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:46–47) And Christ has sojourned in this life, and Christ is proclaimed beforehand as sojourning in this life. But if Moses prophesies him here, do you not want him to have gone down there also, so that he may prophesy that Christ will come?

What then? Moses—yes—but not the prophets after him? And not Samuel? What is out of place in physicians going down to those who are badly off? And what is out of place in the chief physician also going down to those who are badly off? Those were many physicians; but my Lord and Savior is chief physician; for even the desire within, which cannot be healed by others, he himself heals—which “could not be healed by anyone” of the physicians; Christ Jesus heals it. Do not fear; do not be stunned: Jesus has come to be in Hades, and the prophets before him, and they proclaim beforehand Christ’s sojourn.

Gods ascending; John in prison doubts the descent§7

7Then I want to say something else from the Scripture itself.

Samuel comes up, and what does the woman say to Saul she has seen? She does not say she has seen a human; she shrank before this one she saw. Whom does she see? “I have seen gods,” she says, “gods coming up from the earth.” And perhaps Samuel has not come up alone then also to prophesy to Saul; but likely—just as here “with a holy one you will be made holy, and with a blameless man you will be blameless, and with a chosen one you will be chosen,” (Psalm 18:25) and there are here sojourns of holy ones with holy ones, not of holy ones with sinners, and if ever, the holy ones’ sojourn with sinners is for saving the sinners too—so perhaps as Samuel came up there also came up with him either other prophets’ holy souls or angels who had come up with the spirits. Perhaps you will ask whether angels were upon their spirits? The prophet says: “the angel who speaks in me”; and everything is filled with those who need salvation, and “all are ministering spirits sent for service because of those about to inherit salvation.” (Hebrews 1:14)

Why fear to say that every place needs Jesus Christ? The one who needs Christ needs the prophets; for he does not need Christ while not needing those who prepare Christ’s presence and sojourn. And John—than whom no one greater among those born of women, according to our Savior’s witness saying, “Among those born of women none is greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11)—do not fear to say that he has gone down into Hades proclaiming my Lord beforehand, so that he may foretell him as about to come down. For this reason, when he was in prison and knew the departure lying upon him, sending two of his disciples he inquired—not “Are you the one who is coming?” (for he knew)—but “Are you the one who is coming, or should we expect another?” (Matthew 11:3) He saw his glory; he spoke many things about his wonder; he first bore him witness: “He who comes after me has come to be before me” (John 1:15); he saw his glory, glory as of an only-begotten from a father, full of grace and truth. Having seen such things about Christ he hesitates to believe, doubts, and does not say: “Tell him, ‘You are the Christ.’” For now some, not understanding what was said, say: “John so great did not know Christ, but the Holy Spirit stood away from him.” (Matthew 11:3) And he knew this one to whom he bore witness before birth and over whom he leaped when Mary also came to him, as his mother bore him witness saying: “For behold, when the sound of your greeting came into my ears, the baby leaped in exultation in my womb.” (Luke 1:44)

This John, then, who leaped before birth, who said, “This is he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has come to be before me,’” (John 1:15) and “He who sent me said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit coming down and remaining, this is the Son of God’” (John 1:33)—this one, they say, no longer knew Jesus Christ? For in the womb he knew him. But through excess of glory he has done something like Peter. What like? This one knew something great about Christ. “Who am I? Whom do people say I am?” And he: such and such. And you? “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:13–17)—for which he is also blessed, because “flesh and blood did not reveal” it to him, “but the Father in the heavens.”

Since therefore he heard great things about Christ and supposed great things and did not accept the divine word toward him—“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and it will be finished,” (Matthew 16:21–22) and “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the chief priests and elders, and be killed, and on the third day rise”—he says, “Mercy to you, Lord.” He knew great things about Christ; he did not want to accept the more humble thing about him. Think of John as some such person for me. He was in prison knowing great things about Christ; he saw heavens opened; he saw the Holy Spirit coming down from heaven upon the Savior and remaining on him; seeing such glory he doubted and perhaps disbelieved whether the one so glorious would also go down as far as Hades and as far as the abyss; for this reason he said: “Are you the one who is coming, or should we expect another?”

A holy one stays holy in Hades; physicians enter the wards§8

Prophetic grace still builds; the flaming sword blocked paradise§9

9And this too must be added to the argument: if it was Samuel, and when he went out the Holy Spirit stood away from him, and prophecy stood away from him, then the apostle who says is not true: “Now I prophesy in part, and I know in part; but when the perfect comes, then what is in part will be abolished.” (1 Corinthians 13:9–10) Therefore the perfect is after this life. And if Isaiah prophesied anything, he prophesied in part with all boldness; and David has been witnessed here unto the perfect of prophecy. Therefore Samuel did not cast away the prophetic grace.

And that he did not cast it away—he used it thus, as those who speak in tongues, so that one might say: “My spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful” (1 Corinthians 14:14)? And yet the one who speaks in a tongue does not build the church; for Paul says that the one who prophesies builds the church, saying in those very words: “But the one who prophesies builds a church.” (1 Corinthians 14:4) But if “the one who prophesies builds a church,” (Psalm 51:11) and he had prophetic grace—for he had not lost it, not having sinned; for only the one loses prophetic grace who after prophesying has done things unworthy of the Holy Spirit, so that it leaves him and flees from his ruling part—which David also feared then after the sin, and said, “And do not take your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11)—if therefore the Holy Spirit prophesies, and Samuel was a prophet, and “the one who prophesies builds a church,” (1 Corinthians 14:4) whom does he build? Does he prophesy into heaven? To whom—to angels, who have no need? “It is not those who have need, but those who are badly off.” (Matthew 9:12) Some need his prophecy; for prophetic grace is not idle, and none of the gifts in the Holy One is idle. Therefore of the prophetic grace the souls of those who sleep (if I may also say so) had need. But here Israel had need of the prophet; and the one who sleeps, released from life, also had need of the prophets, so that again the prophets might proclaim Christ’s sojourn to him.

Besides, before my Lord Jesus Christ’s sojourn it was impossible for anyone to pass through where the tree of life is; impossible to pass the things appointed to guard the way of the tree of life: “He placed the cherubim and the flaming sword that turns to guard the way of the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:24) Who could make a way? Who could make anyone pass the flaming sword? Just as no one could make a way through the sea except the one of the fiery pillar, the pillar of light from God; just as no one could make a way through the Jordan except Jesus— of whom that Jesus was a type of the true God—so through the flaming sword Samuel could not pass, nor Abraham. For this reason Abraham also is seen by the one being punished, and the rich man, being in torments, lifting his eyes sees—even if from afar, yet he sees—and Lazarus in the bosom. Therefore patriarchs and prophets and all were waiting for my Lord Jesus Christ’s sojourn, so that he might open the way. “I am the way; I am the door.”

There is a way to the tree of life, so that you may become one who passes through fire—“a flame will not burn you”: of what fire? “He placed the cherubim and the flaming sword that turns to guard the way of the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:24) So for this reason those blessed ones were waiting there, doing an economy and unable to be where the tree of life is, where God’s paradise is, where God is farmer, where the blessed and elect and holy ones of God come to be.

We at the ages’ end pass the sword and take the denarius first§10

10There is therefore no stumbling-block in the passage, but all things have been written wondrously and have been understood by those to whom God may reveal them. And we who have come upon the completion of the ages have something extra. What extra? If we are released from here, becoming good and excellent, not bringing on ourselves the burdens of sin, we too will pass through the flaming sword and will not go down into the country where those who slept before his presence were waiting for Christ; but we will pass through, harmed in nothing by the flaming sword.

And each one’s work—of what sort it is—the fire itself will test. If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved thus, as through fire. We will therefore pass through; and we have something more, and we cannot, having lived well, depart badly. The ancients did not say—nor the patriarchs nor the prophets—what we can if we live well: “For it is better to depart and to be with Christ.” (Philippians 1:23) Therefore, having something more in this way and much gain in having come upon the completion of the ages, we receive the denarius first; for hear the parable—that beginning he gave the denarius from the last; but the first thought they would receive something more. You therefore first—you who came last—receive the wages from the householder in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of the ages (Philippians 1:23) (Matthew 20:8–12) (Hebrews 9:26).

Amen.