Question: Help me to understand 1 Samuel chapter 28...

Question: Help me to understand 1 Samuel chapter 28. This chapter disturbs me greatly, and I have found no one who can explain it. How can someone living communicate with someone dead? If this is possible, why aren't we doing it now? I am sure many others could benefit from your position on this. Thank you for your help.

Response: The Bible forbids communication with the dead (necromancy). Leviticus:19:31Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
See All...; Deuteronomy:18:9-12 [9] When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. [10] There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, [11] Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. [12] For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
See All..., 15; 1 Samuel 28; 1 Chronicles:10:13-14 [13] So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it; [14] And enquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.
See All...; Isaiah:8:19And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?
See All... are some of the scriptures that may be cited.

The passage in Isaiah is quite to the point regarding communication with the dead: "And when they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." (Is 8:19-20).

First Samuel 28 is a special case. Saul was the king of Israel, and he had violated the Law by seeking out a spirit medium to conjure up Samuel. The woman complied, and, instead of a deceiving spirit (demon), she was startled to see Samuel actually appear (1 Sm 28:12). That it was Samuel is beyond question, for the inspired writer of Scripture specifically calls him "Samuel" five times. Furthermore, the prophecy given by Samuel is spoken as the word of the Lord (vv. 16-19).

Samuel also specifically tells of Saul's upcoming judgment and death (1 Sm 28:19), no doubt for his necromancy as well as his other acts of disobedience. There is no encouragement in this verse to engage in communication with the dead. Indeed, this passage stands as a severe warning against this practice.

If someone needs communication with someone wiser than himself, should he not consider the biblical promise of our Lord? James tells us that "if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not..." (Jas 1:5). The writer to the Hebrews urges us to "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb:4:16Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
See All...).