Saul - Scriptural Dossier - God Honest Truth Live Stream 05/26/2023

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King Saul is not generally counted amongst the great men of scripture and for good reason. However, there are still things that we can learn from the life and reign of the first king of Israel. Join us in this teaching as we learn more about the life and times of King Saul. Join us as we learn the truth: the God Honest Truth. https://godhonesttruth.com/wp/2023/05/26/saul-scriptural-dossier-god-honest-truth-live-stream-05-26-2023/

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TitleSaul - Scriptural Dossier - God Honest Truth Live Stream 05/26/2023

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Duration51:09

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Uploaded27 May 2023

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Tonight's Drash is about Saul, the first king of Israel. Saul was tall, handsome, and from the tribe of Benyamin. He was anointed by Samuel and had the spirit of Yahweh. However, Saul disobeyed Yahweh's command to destroy the Amalekites completely, and as a result, he was rejected as king. So like I said, tonight's Drash is going to be all about Shaul or Saul, the first king of Israel. And make sure to have your notes ready, we're going to get into a lot of scripture. There's not going to be that many slides tonight, there's only about 30 or so, 35. So it's not that bad, it's not going to be a long Drash, but it is going to be sweet and to the point with lots of scripture. So make sure to have your notes ready. And as always, if you have missed anything or if you would like to go back and re-watch something, you can do that starting tomorrow morning. Go to our website, GodHonestTruth.com, click on the post for tonight's Drash, that is Saul or Shaul. And there you'll find it, along with the Drash slides. I meant to also put up the Drash notes, but that should be available by tomorrow morning when the on-demand video is ready. But you can also click on the link in the description below, whether you're watching on a video platform or if you're listening on an audio podcast platform, you'll be able to find that link down below to take you directly to the link for this Drash. So the first mention we find of the man that would eventually become King Shaul is in 1 Samuel 9, verses 1 through 2. And there was a man of Benyamin, whose name was Kish, son of Abiel, son of Zerub, son of Bekareth, son of Aphiab, a Benyamite, a mighty man of power. And he had a son whose name was Shaul, young and handsome, and there was not a more handsome man than he among the children of Yisrael, taller than any of the people by the shoulders and upwards. So this is the first time we see the mention of the man who would become King Shaul. And we get a pretty good description of him right here. We find that he's tall and handsome, he's good to look up on, and that he comes from a wealthy family, and he also comes from the tribe of Benyamin, still an Israelite, so no tribalism here, but he's from the tribe of Benyamin. And Shaul's name means called for or asked for, something like that. Here for my fellow nerds, oh, that's not coming up, hang on just a minute, there we go, there we go. So for my fellow nerds, here's the Strong's definition, and did you see this is Hebrew lexicon definition for Shaul, that's Strong's H7586, and of course here is the Brown Driver Briggs entry for that word as well. Now some things to note about Shaul, he was the first king of Israel. Before King Shaul, there were judges, right, remember there was Samuel that we learned about in the last scriptural dossier we did, he was the last judge of Israel, but you also had before him people like Samson, you had people like Deborah, and you had leaders like Moshe as well, Moses, and Joshua. But if you remember, there's a difference between judges and kings. Judges were only the leaders for a certain period of time, they weren't for life or for an election term or whatever, they were just for a certain period of time, for a certain area, not the entire land of Israel, and they also could not levy taxes or keep a standing army or have a personal guard, stuff like that. They were just for a certain purpose at a certain point in time in a certain area. Kings were completely different, and Shaul was the start of the kings of Israel. Kings had a standing army, kings to levy taxes, kings were over all the land of Israel, not just a certain area, so that's the difference between kings and judges. And like I said, Saul happened to be selected as the first king of Israel. He was anointed by the prophet Samuel, who like we said was the last judge of Israel also. As we just read, Saul was someone that had the appearance of a king. He was good looking, he was tall, he was muscular, stuff like that. He was a stereotypical looking kind of king. Now Saul reigned for approximately 42 years, and there's some discussion on that that we'll get a little bit into here a little bit later. But the mention of King Saul in the Brit Hadashah comes from Acts chapter 13, and in there the Apostle Paul or Saul, the Apostle Paul or Shaul, or the Apostle Saul, too much information one time. But the Apostle Saul or Apostle Paul mentions that the King Saul reigned for about 40 years. Looking at Scholar Consensus, it's somewhere about 42 years. Again, there's going to be a very interesting point that comes up regarding this, but stay tuned and keep your notes ready. Now King Saul or Shaul started out good. He had a good start up, he was good off the line, but eventually he fell. Okay? And we're going to learn about that in tonight's Drash. Contrast that with the Apostle Saul or Apostle Paul, and the Apostle started out bad. He was persecuting and killing Christians, right, or Messianics. But he had a conversion experience and then turned good and remained good for the rest of his life. So we can see the contrast between the two Sauls there. Now King Saul's family was decent, maybe a little bit on the small side for people of those times. But as we read already, his father's name was Kish. Kish actually means boat. It's not really relevant, but like I said, there's nerds like me out there if you want to write that down. Um, excuse me, Saul's wife was Ahinoam. He had four sons, well three by his wife, and those three are Yohanneson, Malkishua, Abinadab, and then he had a concubine and she had him a son whose name was Eshbaal or which also goes by the name of Ishbosheth. Now this fourth son by his concubine is going to be of particular importance coming up in our next episode in Scriptural Dossier, which is on King David. So make sure to stay tuned for that to learn more about this fourth son as it relates to King David. He had two daughters and their names were Merab and Michal. He had a grandson and a great-grandson, both of these through the lineage of his son Yohanneson. Like I said before, he had a concubine and her name was Rizpah who gave him the son Eshbaal or Ishbosheth, and his sons by Rizpah, sorry, were Armoni and Mephibosheth, excuse me. And if you're reading 2 Chronicles, I'm sorry, 1 Chronicles, you find many, many, many descendants of King Saul, not just the ones we have listed here. Now the beginnings of the first king actually predates, in Scripture a little bit, King Saul himself, okay? Instead of starting in verse 9 where we first see King Saul, we go back to chapter 8 and we read here in 1 Samuel 8, 4 through 20. The ruling of the sovereign who does reign over them. And Shemuel spoke and said, This is the ruling of the sovereign who does reign over you. He shall take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and they shall run before his chariots and appoint commanders over his thousands and commanders over his fifties, or to plow his ground and reap his harvest, or to make his weapons and equipment for his chariots, and your daughters he is going to take to be perfumers and cooks and bakers, and the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive trees he is going to take and give them to his servants, and a tenth of your grain and your vintage he is going to take and give it to his officers and servants, and your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys he is going to take and use for his own work. A tenth of your sheep he is going to take and you are to be his servants. And you shall cry out in that day because of your sovereign whom you have chosen for yourselves, but Yahweh is not going to answer you in that day. However, the people refused to listen to the voice of Shemuel and said, No, but let a sovereign be over us, then we shall be, we also, like all the nations, and our sovereign shall rule us and go out before us and fight our battles. Now if you remember from the scriptural dossier on Shemuel, Samuel, that at a certain point Samuel, the prophet Samuel, tried to make his two sons to be in charge as judge like he was and rule for a little bit. But they did not do right and so they were rejected. They were done away with for good reason. So this is where we pick up here with the start of the kingship of Israel. The people are coming to the prophet Samuel, they are saying, Hey, we want a king, we want to be like everybody else, everybody around us, we want to be like them and have a king. And Yahweh tells him, it's like, they're not rejecting you Samuel, they're rejecting me from reigning over them. Instead, they want a king. So Yahweh tells Samuel to warn them, let them know what's in store if they really want a king. Samuel tells them and people say, Yep, we still want a king, we still want to be like everybody else around us, okay? So this brings us up to the kings of Israel because the people requested it, they wanted a king. But even way back in Moshe's time, it was already kind of, I don't know if it's really a prophecy or not, but they were warned about having kings. Okay, if we look back at Deuteronomy 17 verses 14 to 20, and it says, When you come to the land which Yahweh your Elohim has given you, you shall say, Let me set a sovereign over me like all the nations that are around me. Set a sovereign over you from among your brothers. You are not allowed to set a foreigner over you who is not your brother, only he is not to increase horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Mitsrayim to increase horses. And he is not to increase wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor is he to greatly increase silver and gold for himself. And it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his reign, that he shall write for himself a copy of this Torah in a book from the one before the priests and the Levites, and it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, so that he learns to fear Yahweh his Elohim, and guard the words of this Torah and these laws to do them, so that his heart is not lifted up above his brothers, and so as not to turn aside from the command, right or left, so that he prolongs his days in his reign, he and his children, in the midst of Israel." It's a long, long time before we get to Samuel and the beginning of the kings of Israel. There's already regulations in place for kings. We can see this back in the time of Moses. One of the things that's very interesting, and I've always found this interesting, is that in these commands that you see right here, in Deuteronomy 17, 14-20, it says that the king shall write for himself a copy of the Torah, which is very, very interesting. I think that's a pretty good commandment. I mean, it would be beneficial not only for kings, but probably for all of us to physically write our own copy in whatever language. Hebrew would probably be best, but if you don't speak Hebrew, do it in the language you do speak. I've always found that very, very interesting. I don't know if you did or not. But we can see here, all the way back then, that there is a sort of prophecy that says that the people, when they get into the land, they will request a king. And we get back to Samuel and Saul, and we see there that people are requesting a king. Even though they have been warned by Yahweh, through Samuel, what's going to happen if they get a king, still the people said, we want to be like everyone else. We want a king, too. So the very first person they found was Saul, and this was the person selected and anointed by Yahweh himself. We read back in 1 Samuel 9, 1-2 again. And there was a man of Benyamin, whose name was Kish, son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becareth, son of Aphiah, a Benyamite, a mighty man of power, and he had a son whose name was Shaul, young and handsome, and there was not a more handsome man than he among the children of Israel, taller than any of the people by the shoulders and upwards. Now another thing to note, too, is that the tribe of Benyamin was one of the smaller tribes. And that kind of goes into the people of Israel, speaking of the nation, being one of the smaller nations as well. And Yahweh didn't choose Israel and the Hebrews because they were the largest and mightiest, right? We read that in scriptures as well. That kind of relates to the tribe of Benyamin here, and Saul the Benyamite coming from this small tribe. Then we go and we read, excuse me, in 1 Samuel 9-17. And when Shemuel saw Shaul, Yahweh said to him, see the man of whom I spoke to you, let this one govern my people. So this one, this Saul, was already selected by Yahweh himself. Then in 1 Samuel 10, 1 and 24-25. And Shemuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, is it not because Yahweh has anointed you leader over his inheritance? And Shemuel said to all the people, do you see him whom Yahweh has chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people? And all the people shouted and said, let the sovereign live. And Shemuel declared to the people the rulings of the reign and wrote it in a book and placed it before Yahweh. And Shemuel sent all the people away, each to his house. So not only was Samuel or Shemuel the last judge of Israel, but he ended up anointing the very first king of Israel who was chosen by Yahweh himself, which is a very special thing to have happen, right? If you're selected by the almighty creator of heaven and earth, that is a very special thing. You're not going to be selected for anything, much less king. Then we go on to see in 1 Samuel 11, 6, and the spirit of Elohim came upon Shaul mightily as he heard these words and his displeasure burned greatly. So he's selected by Yahweh to be king. He was anointed with oil in front of all the people by Shemuel. And then the spirit of Yahweh came down and came upon Shaul. So we see that the giving of the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of the Holy was not in Acts. It was way before Acts, right? We can see it here in one example with King Saul, the very first king of Israel. Then we get to 1 Samuel 13, 1. Shaul was years old when he began to reign. And when he had reigned, two years over Israel, and then it continues. This is the interesting part that I was referring to earlier when we were talking about how long King Saul's reign was being about 42 years or somewhere around there. This gets very, very interesting and really gets into the weeds. Probably could have had a lot more information for you this week on tonight's dross if I hadn't gotten into the weeds over this one verse. But I found this very interesting because different translations translate this in different ways. As you see on the screen right here, this is how the Scriptures 2009 translation translates 1 Samuel 13, 1. But others translate it as Saul had been king for one year, or Saul was 40 years old when he began to reign, or Saul was 30 years old when he began to reign, or like the Scriptures 2009, they omit the number of years and still other translations completely omit verse 1 and chapter 13 all together, and they just start with chapter or verse 2. So what's going on here? This is, you know, is this a discrepancy in Scripture? No. No, no. Some of the things we've come to find out is there is actually some missing words within the Masoretic text, okay? In the footnote of the Jewish Publication Society, they write that the number for 1 Samuel 13, 1 is lacking in the Hebrew text. Also, the precise context of the two years is uncertain. And in the Revised Standard Version footnote, they say that 2 is not the entire number. Something has dropped out. And the thing is, the Scriptures, Torah, etc., etc., are the inspired word of Yahweh in their original format. Unfortunately, we don't have the original that was written down. And if you'll notice, even back with the Septuagint, they even omit verse 1 because of this discrepancy. And the Septuagint came before the Masoretic text, right? So we know that sometime way back when, there was a missing number here in 1 Samuel 13, 1. What happened to it? I don't know. I wasn't able to get that far into the research on this particular verse. I didn't want to get too much into the weeds and not complete a drosh. But I would invite you to go and do your own research, as always, further and longer than what you get in this drosh. And if you come upon some kind of research that illuminates more on this subject, by all means, please let us know. Write down in the comments. Send us an email so that everyone can learn about this. Because my fellow nerds out there who are watching this right now, you're probably getting as interested in this as I am to find out exactly what in the world is going on here. But that's why we said that King Saul's reign was for about 42 years or so. We correspond with 1 Samuel 13, 1, and then Acts 13, and come up with a number for about 42 years. It doesn't really make a difference in doctrine. It's just a statistic, it's just a fact, something that people like me would like to know a definite answer on. But Saul, like we said, started out good, okay? And he was chosen by Yahweh, anointed by Samuel. The spirit of Yahweh came upon Saul, and he had a good run for a while. But then we get into the fall of Saul. And we start out in 1 Samuel 15, verses 1 through 3. And Samuel said to Saul, Yahweh sent me to anoint you sovereign over his people, over Israel, and now listen to the voice of the words of Yahweh. Thus said Yahweh of Hosts, I shall punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way when he came up to Mitzrayim. Now go, and you shall strike Amalek, and put under the ban all that he has, and you shall not spare them, and put to death from man to woman, from infant to nursing child, from ox to sheep, from camel to donkey. So the order here given by Samuel from Yahweh is to completely annihilate and obliterate the Amalekites, okay? Every person, young and old, man and woman, livestock, everything, just absolutely destroy it, do away with it. Well, this seems kind of harsh, don't it? I mean, thinking from our modern mindset, this seems kind of high level, I mean, very harsh. Why is this? Well, if you remember back when the people came out of Egypt, the very first kingdom or peoples to attack the Israelites were the Amalekites, and they had absolutely zero reason for attacking them. I mean, the Israelites were just going from Egypt through the wilderness, they weren't bothering anyone. But the Amalekites nonetheless attacked them, came up from behind trying to attack them from the rear, and Yahweh never forgot this. So even now, long, long time after the exodus from Egypt, Yahweh still remembers this and he tells the first king, King Saul, to obliterate all the Amalekites. Everyone that is an Amalekite, do away with them, everything they have, all their animals, get rid of them, right? So there's no more remembrance of the Amalekites, he'll blot out their name. Okay? So that's the command given to the first king, King Saul, by, I'm sorry, through Samuel, by Yahweh. Then we go on to read in 1 Samuel 15, 9. But Shaul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and the cattle and the fatlings and the lambs and all that was good, and would not put them under the ban, but all goods despised and worthless, that they put under the ban. So when they went against the Amalekites, they kept all the good-looking stuff, right? All the stuff they found pleasing to their eye. All the stuff they didn't like, they did away with that. So they did not follow what Yahweh had told them to do. And because of this, Saul is rejected as king because he disobeyed Yahweh. 1 Samuel 15, 10-11. And the word of Yahweh came to Shemuel, saying, I am grieved that I have set up Shaul as sovereign, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my words. And it displeased Shemuel, and he cried to Yahweh all night. 1 Samuel 15, 12. And Shemuel rose early in the morning to meet Shaul, and it was told to Shemuel, saying, Shaul went to Carmel, and see, he set up a monument for himself, then turned and passed over and went down to Gilgal. So we can see that not only did Shaul not do what Yahweh told him to do when it came to the Amalekites, but he's also setting up monuments for himself as well. I mean, that's rather narcissistic, right? To set up a monument for yourself, that makes you think of people like the Emperor Constantine or Napoleon or et cetera, et cetera. This is not good, he's kind of adding to it. I would say, even though it's not good, it's not as bad as not following what Yahweh told you to do, but still bad. And now, Shaul, or King Saul, gets rebuked, and this is the official version. 1 Samuel 15, 17-19, and 22-23. And Shemuel said, though you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Yisrael, and did not Yahweh anoint you sovereign over Yisrael? And Yahweh sent you on the way, and said, Go, and you shall put under the ban the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. And why did you not obey the voice of Yahweh, but swoop down on the spoil, and did evil in the eyes of Yahweh? Then Shemuel said, Does Yahweh delight in ascending offerings and slaughterings, as in obeying the voice of Yahweh? Look, to obey is better than a slaughtering, to heed is better than the fat of rams, for rebellion is as the sin of divination, and stubbornness is as wickedness and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of Yahweh, he also does reject you as sovereign. So Yahweh chose Saul to be the first king of Israel. Saul disobeyed Yahweh, and now Yahweh regretted that he had made Saul king. And now he is rejecting him as the king. It continues in 1 Samuel 15, 24-26. And Shaul said to Shemuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the mouth of Yahweh and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice. And now, please pardon my sin, and return with me, and let me bow myself to Yahweh. But Shemuel said to Shaul, I do not return with you, for you have rejected the word of Yahweh, and Yahweh does reject you from being sovereign over Israel. So now we see kind of the reason behind why Shaul did what he did. He was caving to the demands of the people. It says right here that he feared the people and listened to their voice, instead of fearing Yahweh and listening to the commands of Yahweh. And that is a lesson for our leaders today, is that instead of playing to the populace and doing what the people want to do, our leaders should instead be doing what Yahweh wants them to do, and going in the way that Yahweh would have them to go. And that's why a lot of the countries around the world today are in the shape they are in, especially here in America. And for those of you who live in America, you know exactly what I'm talking about. But, anyways, after this, well just to recap real quick, Yahweh told Saul to obliterate the Amalekites. Saul did not do this because he was listening to the people instead of listening to Yahweh. He's just been rebuked by the prophet Samuel. And now in 1 Samuel 15, 35, we read that and Shemuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, for Shemuel mourned for Saul, and Yahweh was grieved that he had made Saul to reign over Israel. So time and time again, we're told in scripture that Yahweh regretted making Saul king over Israel. I mean, that's how much scripture wants us to know, how much Saul messed up, okay? And something that we can learn from there and not do like Saul. Instead, we should listen to Yahweh and do what Yahweh wants us to do, and it's right here in scripture. So now, we see that the spirit of Yahweh has left Saul. He's not got the blessing of Yahweh anymore, okay? Things get bad for Saul, okay? At this point, Saul is still king, right? But there is another that is anointed as king. You know who that is? That's David, okay? Or David, which we'll be learning about in our next upcoming scriptural dossier. But there is a spirit of jealousy that comes over king Saul regarding David. And after this, after the rebuke by Samuel, things happen, lots of things happen. And one of the things that happens is that Saul ends up, on several occasions, trying to kill David. He doesn't succeed, obviously, but he tries to kill him. And during this time also, he's warring against the Philistines. On and on it goes, the war against the Philistines, and even David has a role to play in that as well, including killing the Philistine giant Goliath. But since he gets rebuked by Samuel, and then he doesn't see Samuel anymore, until Samuel dies, he doesn't have a way to Yahweh, because Yahweh has rejected him, okay? So that's unfortunate, and Saul goes and tries something that he really shouldn't do. He should have just corrected himself. He should have listened to Yahweh in the first place, but he should not go and make things worse. Well, how did he go and make things even worse? He goes and he consults a witch, or a medium, or a spiritist, or fill in the name of whatever it is you want to put there. But we see in 1 Samuel 25, 1, So after Saul was rebuked by Samuel, he didn't see Samuel anymore, and then Samuel dies, and King Saul is still having all these troubles, and he doesn't know what to do, or how to contact Yahweh, et cetera, et cetera. So he goes, and he's scared. We read in 1 Samuel 28, 5-6, And when Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly, and Saul inquired of Yahweh, but Yahweh did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by the prophets. So like we saw already, Yahweh has rejected Saul, and now Saul doesn't know what to do. And he goes and he contacts a medium, 1 Samuel 28, 7-9, Saul then said to his servants, Find me a woman who is a medium, to go to her and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, Look, there is a woman who is a medium at Endor. And Saul disguised himself, and put on other garments, and he went, he and two men with him. And they came to the woman by night, and he said, Please divine for me, and bring up for me the one I shall name. But the woman said to him, Look, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the spiritists from the land. Why then do you lay a snare for my life, to put me to death? Now scripture, time and time again, condemns witchcraft like this, mediums, speaking to the dead, etc., etc. And back during the time that King Saul was in his prime, doing good, he had put out people like this. He put out the mediums, and the spiritists, and the witches, etc. Because he was doing the right thing at that time. However, this is one who happened to remain here at Endor, and because Saul had put out all these demon worshippers, or those who consult with demons, before, he knew he couldn't go in as king because this medium would recognize him as king and be afraid for her life and not do what he wanted her to do. So King Saul goes in in disguise. And then in 1 Samuel 28, 11-13, I'm sorry, 11-13, and the woman said, Whom do I bring up for you? So he said, Bring up Shemuel for me. And when the woman saw Shemuel, she cried out with a loud voice, and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, Why have you deceived me? You yourself are Saul. And the sovereign said to her, Do not be afraid. What do you see? And the woman said to Saul, I saw a spirit, or Elohim, coming up out of the earth. So this gets very, very interesting. There's an entire drash that can be done just on this one incident. But there's various interpretations that go along with this story. Okay. First of all, let's recap real quick what we just read. It says that the man, we'll call him the man for right now, tells the witch or the medium to bring up the prophet Samuel for him. So she does whatever it is she does, and something comes up, and she then realizes that who she's talking to, the man, is King Saul. So she's afraid for her life now that she knows who he is and what he's done to those of her kind in the past. But Saul says, Don't be afraid. You're going to be okay. Your life is all right. Who did you see? Or what did you see? She says, I saw a spirit. I saw Elohim coming up from out of the earth. Now, quick grammatical stop here. Elohim is not a name, okay? And some people get that confused. Elohim is actually a title, and it's a very interesting Hebrew word because it's an invariant noun. And what that means is that it has the same spelling in both the singular and the plural. And the way you tell whether Elohim is singular or plural is by the context of the surrounding words, okay? There's various constructions that go into Hebrew that tell you this. But here we see that the word Elohim is actually in the singular. So a Elohim, or an Elohim, rather, come up out of the earth. And it's also very interesting that they would translate Elohim here as spirit. Because generally, Elohim is translated as God, God's judges, mighty ones, things like that. Rare, rare, they translate it as spirit. But that's just a tangent. Anyways, there are multiple ways to interpret this incident and what happened. For one, the first interpretation is that it was actually Samuel, the spirit or soul of Samuel that came up, and that's what the witch saw, okay? Second interpretation is that it wasn't actually Saul, that this woman actually conjured up a demon, okay? And there's a lot of evidence to go behind that, but that's just another interpretation. And the third interpretation is that nothing actually came up. This woman does like the mediums of today do and just make things up and pull the wool over people's eyes. That's what she could have been doing to King Shaul here as well. If you've ever seen that channel on YouTube called Unlearn the Lies, he does a great video on this right here. But just to let you know, there's three different interpretations that can go along with this, maybe more, but those are three main ones. Decide for yourself. Personally, I'm not telling you what to believe, but personally, it's the way I read it and the way I study it and stuff like that, it would seem as though this witch or this medium was actually conversing with a demon and not actually Samuel for multiple reasons. If you'd like to know one of those reasons, go back and watch our teaching that we did on what happens when we die. That'll kind of back up a little bit, but just so you know that once we die, there is no more consciousness until the resurrection, which is one way or one reason why I don't believe this is actually Samuel, that this is actually a demon that this witch is conversing with. But that's just my two cents. Yours is just as valid, so you make up your own mind. And then we go on to 1 Samuel 28, 15 through 19. And Shemuel said to Shaul, why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? And Shaul answered, I am deeply distressed for the Philistines are fighting against me and Elohim has turned aside from me and does not answer me anymore, neither by prophets nor by dreams. So I have called you to reveal to me what I should do. Then Shemuel said, and why do you ask me seeing Yahweh has turned aside from you and has become your enemy? And Yahweh has done for himself as he spoke by me, for Yahweh has torn the rain out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, to Dawit. Because you did not obey the voice of Yahweh nor execute his burning wrath upon Amalek, therefore Yahweh has done this matter to you today. Further, Yahweh also gives Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons are with me. Yahweh also gives the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. So after all this and after the witch and everything has been said, we see that there is most likely impending doom upon Shaul and his sons and the army of Israel. As we read on, we see that, yeah, this is actually pretty true. First Samuel 31, 2-4. And the Philistines followed hard after Shaul and his sons. And the Philistines struck Jehonathem and Abinadab and Melchishua, sons of Shaul. And a battle went hard against Shaul, and the archers hit him, so that he was severely wounded by the archers. And Shaul said to his armor-bearer, Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and roll themselves on me. But his armor-bearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. So Shaul took the sword and fell on it. So he was getting absolutely obliterated by the Philistines. He didn't want to be killed himself by them. So he first asked his armor-bearer if he would kill him, but his armor-bearer wouldn't do it. He didn't want to kill the king. So Shaul then took his own sword and committed suicide. And we read right after this that the armor-bearer then committed suicide himself. But that was the death of the first king of Israel, King Shaul, and the death of three of his four sons. Like we said, the fourth son we'll be getting into a little bit more when it comes to the dossier on King David, because that's actually a rather interesting story itself that a lot of people don't really know about. But like I said, you'll have to wait until the next dossier on King Dawid. So like I said, it's not going to be that long, and we're going to wrap it up now. In summary about King Shaul, the first king of Israel, that Shaul was chosen by Yahweh himself as the first king of Israel at the behest of the people. Remember how we read that it wasn't in the plans of Yahweh for Israel that Yahweh wanted to be the one reigning over the people, but the people said they wanted to be like everyone else, like all the other nations, and have a king. They said to Samuel, give us a king. So the very first one they got was Shaul. And Shaul caved to the will of the people and disobeyed what Yahweh had told him to do. He was supposed to absolutely destroy and obliterate the Amalekites and blot them out. But he didn't do that. He caved to the will of the people and disobeyed Yahweh. Then to make things worse, Shaul then went out and consulted a spiritist or a medium because he wanted to inquire of Samuel one more time. But that didn't turn out well either. And that even though King Shaul was a flawed man and he had many downsides, especially disobeying the command of Yahweh as king, there are still things that we can learn from the life and times of Shaul. Number one, obey Yahweh. If Yahweh says to do something, whether directly or through his scriptures, then we should do it. If he says eat this, then we should eat that. If he says don't eat this, then we should not eat that. If he says rest this day, we should rest that day. If he says keep this muad'dim, we should keep this muad'dim. Okay? That's a lesson we can learn from the life of Shaul, to obey Yahweh. Another lesson, don't try and be like everyone else. This goes more along the lines of the people, but it's in the same story. We can learn not to be like everyone else. We are to be like Yahweh wants us to be. And this is reiterated somewhat in the Brit Hadashah also, where it says we are to be in the world, but not of the world. Right? So don't be like everyone else. Be like what Yahweh wants you to be like. And again, we highly invite you to go on and do your own study and further into the life and times of Shaul. Go deeper into word studies. Find out more about 1 Samuel 13. Like I said, if you find out anything more about that, then please, please write us and let us know what it is that you found out. And if you would like to read the scriptures about the life and times of Shaul, you can read about that in 1 Samuel chapter 8 through chapter 31. And of course, some in the Book of Chronicles as well. We'd like to thank you for joining us tonight. We hope that you got something out of this. And if you did, please let us know down in the comments below. And we'll see you next time. Bye.