King Saul lost his counselor-prophet when he died of old age. (1 Sam 25:1) Saul’s unstable conduct and unfaithful behavior precluded him from getting an answer from the Lord. “And when Saul enquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.” (1 Sam. 28:6) So Saul went to visit a woman who could conjure the dead. Saul had the woman conjure the deceased Samuel.
Saul had prohibited conjuring as a matter of law within the kingdom. (1 Sam. 28:3) So think about what he’s doing:
– it’s illegal to go see a conjurer, so he’s breaking his own law.
– he goes to see the witch of Endor in order to get access to the dead prophet.
– so are we to trust the witch? or are we to trust the spirit that the witch conjures to be reliably Samuel?
Life really gets complicated for the superstitious and foolish.
I thought you might find this interesting. This is found in the George Laub Nauvoo Journal.
Quoting Hyrum Smith the Patriarch:
” The 28th Chapter of First Samuel, 13 vers. The woman was a woman of god, possessed of the Spirit of God,& as Samuel was sealed to his wife & family in the everlasting Covenant of the sealing power with god to go to the world of Spirits and bring him forth. Therefore She cried with a loud voice and then said, I saw gods ascend out of the Earth as being Many.”
A very strong implication, by Hyrum that this “witch” was actually the wife of Samuel.