“And Saul knew that it was Samuel.” Saul was deceived. Here in 1 Samuel 28:14, what Saul saw was not Samuel, but a demon impersonating Samuel. It is well known that ghosts and apparitions impersonate the dead, and that is the situation here.

The text says that Saul “knew” it was Samuel, but in this case, the Bible is telling us Saul’s state of mind, what was true for him even though it was not actually true. We see the same kind of thing in Genesis 3. Just before Eve sinned and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the text says, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food….” But it was not “good for food!” What she “saw” was not real and it resulted in her and Adam’s death and the death of all humans after her. When the Bible says that Eve “saw” that the tree was good for food, it is giving us her point of view, not the truth, and that is what is happening in 1 Samuel 28:14.

There are many lines of evidence to support that Saul was deceived and that what he saw was a demon impersonating Samuel.

• The text says that God would not answer Saul’s questions by prophets (1 Sam. 28:6). Even Saul himself said, “God has turned away from me and no longer answers me” (1 Sam. 28:15). So why would God answer Saul through a dead prophet? He would not.
• Saul went to a medium to get answers (1 Sam. 28:7), which should alert us to the fact that what was happening is ungodly.
• God forbade people to communicate with the dead (Deut. 18:9-14). That was an abomination to Him. Samuel had been faithful to God throughout his life, so even if he were alive in some form, would he really disobey God now and do something “abominable” to God and appear to Saul to answer his questions? He would not.
• Getting information from mediums and people who dealt with familiar spirits was evil and defiled a person in the eyes of God (Lev. 19:31; 2 Kings 21:6). Godly kings like Josiah got rid of the mediums in Israel (2 Kings 23:24). Would Samuel participate in something that to God was evil and defiling? He would not.
• According to the Law of Moses, mediums and those people who dealt with spirits were to be put to death (Lev. 20:27). Would “Samuel” appear to Saul at the behest of this female medium and thus force her to do something which would, if the king and people followed the Law, mean she would be put to death? No, godly Samuel would not do that, but a demon certainly would.
• According to the Law of Moses, anyone who used mediums was to be “cut off” from the people. God said, “The person who turns to those who are mediums and to those who have familiar spirits to prostitute themselves after them, I will even set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people” (Lev. 20:6). The godly prophet Samuel would not participate in something that would have such horrendous consequences for those involved, but a demon would.
• The “Samuel” that appeared to Saul was exactly what Saul would have expected to see, “an old man…covered with a cloak.” But does a disembodied soul (or spirit) have the shape and age of the person when they die? Is that what old and infirm Christians have to look forward to, something like “Samuel” apparently had, an elderly spirit-body? Why would the soul of Samuel be old if the soul is immortal? And would that mean that the soul of an infant who died before he or she could walk or talk would be an infant-like soul forever? No, thankfully, no. In this case, the demon manifested itself in the form that the people would have been expecting so it could fool the people, and it worked. Saul and the medium were fooled. Sadly, that demon is still fooling lots of people who think that the prophet Samuel actually appeared and gave a prophecy to Saul.
• Still another reason that points to the fact that it was a demon and not Samuel that appeared to Saul was the terrible and fatalistic message that the demon gave. While it is true that Saul was an ungodly king, there are times when God helped other ungodly kings in war. Also, although there are times when God’s prophets deliver messages of doom, there is a difference here. One is that when Saul originally asked about the war and what to do, God would not answer him (1 Sam. 28:6). So similarly, God would not answer Saul now in a forbidden and “abominable,” “evil,” and “defiling” way. That God would not answer Saul when he first asked (1 Sam. 28:6), should have told Saul that he was on his own and that he should call a war council and make a sound decision about what to do. Options could have included retreating or hiring soldiers from other countries like some other kings did (cp. 2 Chron. 25:5-6). Had Saul done that, he and wonderful people like David’s friend Prince Jonathan could have lived. As it was, the fatalistic prophecy given by “Samuel” mentally devastated Saul and gave him no option but to fight the superior Philistine army, which, predictably, resulted in the death of many, including Saul and the royal family.

It has sometimes been objected that a demon could not have predicted the future the way that “Samuel” did when he appeared to Saul. But actually, demons have a lot of power and influence over future events, which is why people have gone to mediums and diviners for many thousands of years. If the mediums were mostly wrong, their profession would have died out long ago, but mediums and diviners are thriving today. Some events are hard to foresee, but if Saul went to war against the Philistines, his death, and the death of the royal family, was pretty much inevitable. But because the Devil is the “god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4) and has considerable sway on earth (1 John 5:19), and because Saul had sinned so badly he and his troops were not being protected by God (Lev. 20:6), and because the Philistines had a larger, better-equipped army, it was not hard for the demon to predict that Saul and his sons, who would as a matter of custom be in the heat of the fight, would die in the battle the next day.

The prophecy given by the demon “Samuel” is in line with how demons communicate. They give enough truth to convince a person that they really know the situation and the future, but they mix it with lies and probability (see commentary on 1 Samuel 28:15).

Many centuries ago, the Church Father Tertullian (c. 155-220 AD) realized that the “Samuel” who spoke to Saul was a demon, and he wrote: “God forbid, however, that we should suppose that the soul of any saint, much less of a prophet, can be dragged out of (its resting-place in Hades) by a demon. We know that “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14)—much more into a man of light—and that at last he will “show himself to be even God” (2 Thess. 2:4), and will exhibit “great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, he shall deceive the very elect” (Matt. 24:24). He hardly hesitated on the before-mentioned occasion to affirm himself to be a prophet of God, and especially to Saul, in whom he was then actually dwelling. You must not imagine that he who produced the phantom was one, and he who consulted it was another; but that it was one and the same spirit, both in the sorceress and in the apostate (king), which easily pretended an apparition of that which it has already prepared them to believe as real—(even the spirit) through whose evil influence Saul’s heart was fixed where his treasure was, and where certainly God was not. Therefore it came about, that he saw him through whose aid he believed that he was going to see, because he believed him through whose help he saw. But we are met with the objection, that in visions of the night dead persons are not infrequently seen….”^a

Tertullian is correct. Saul saw a demon. The demon in the medium at En-dor did not have the power to raise the dead, but it, or other demons in the area, did have the power to impersonate the dead, which is what happened.

So in summary, we see that King Saul asked God about the future in several different ways and God would not answer him. So Saul went to a medium who dealt with familiar spirits. Saul was deceived and sinning in what he did, and God did not give in to his desperation; in fact, He could not since Samuel was dead. However, a demon gladly fulfilled Saul’s desire and appeared as Samuel the prophet and gave a prediction that Saul would die, which came to pass.

[For more information on the dead being genuinely dead and not alive in any form, see Appendix 4, “The Dead are Dead.” For more on the soul not living on after a person dies, see Appendix 7, “Usages of ‘Soul.’” For more information on the abomination of witchcraft, necromancy, using mediums, and other similar “black arts,” see Deut. 18:9-14 and the commentary on those verses. For more information on this record of Saul and the medium at En-dor, see the commentary entries on the verses in the chapter.]

“kneeled and bowed down.” This kneeling preceded bowing down to the ground. The two actions, kneeling and then bowing to the ground blended into one act of homage or worship. The common biblical way of bowing down before people or God was to fall to one’s knees and bow the upper body and face to the earth. Also, instead of “kneeled and bowed down,” the text could be translated, “bowed down and worshiped,” with “kneeling” being understood as part of the process of bowing down, and “bowing down” was the act of worship. The same Hebrew verb, shachah (#07812 שָׁחָה), is translated as both “bow down” and “worship;” traditionally “worship” if God is involved and “bow down” if people are involved, but the verb and action are the same, the act of bowing down is the worship.

[For more on bowing down, see commentary on 1 Chron. 29:20.]

Additional resource:

The Demon called “Samuel” (27:32) (Pub: 2022-09-09)

The Bible testifies that dead people are dead in every way and will only come to life when they are raised from the dead by God or Jesus Christ. Yet the Devil works hard to convince people that the soul is immortal, and one way he does that is by demons impersonating dead people. A good example of that is 1 Samuel 28, when a demon comes in the form of Samuel and convinced King Saul, the medium at En-dor, and even many modern Christians that Samuel was actually alive. But as this teaching shows, the “Samuel” Saul thought he was addressing was actually a demon, and the prophet Samuel was dead. Verses: 1 Samuel 28:1-20 Teacher: John Schoenheit Watch on Youtube