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The Forbidden Council

The Forbidden Council: Saul and the Warning Against Consulting the Dead

Introduction: The Final Act of Desperation

The reign of King Saul, already marred by partial obedience, culminated in a terrifying final act of spiritual rebellion. Facing certain defeat by the Philistines and utterly abandoned by God due to his previous disobedience, Saul desperately sought supernatural counsel. Ignoring the very Law he was commanded to uphold, he consulted the Witch of Endor to conjure the spirit of the deceased prophet Samuel.

This clandestine meeting is a crucial Prophetic Hotspot, demonstrating the terrifying consequences of abandoning divine truth for forbidden spiritual practices and serving as a direct warning for the final, lawless days preceding The Lord’s Return.

The Foundational Law: The Holiness of Separation

Saul’s action was a direct violation of one of the most critical and severe commandments in God’s Law: the prohibition against consulting familiar spirits and engaging in divination.

The Clear Command

The Law given at Sinai explicitly forbade the very act Saul performed, establishing a mandatory boundary between the holy and the profane:

“Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 19:31, KJV)

“A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.” (Leviticus 20:27, KJV)

  • The Law of Accountability: Saul himself, early in his reign, had enforced this law by driving out those with familiar spirits (1 Samuel 28:3). His final act was thus a willful and hypocritical rejection of his own covenant duty and God’s Law.
  • The Source of Defilement: The command establishes that seeking counsel from these sources does not bring truth, but defilement. By running to a forbidden source when God refused to answer him, Saul sealed his fate, confirming his complete departure from the authority of God.

Prophetic Hotspot: The Spiritual Deception of the Last Days

Saul’s experience serves as a direct, visible type of the pervasive spiritual deception that will characterize the period just before Christ’s return.

  • The Search for Forbidden Counsel: In the last days, when prophetic voices are silenced or ignored, and global uncertainty reigns, humanity will seek solace and guidance through every available supernatural source except God’s appointed means (His Word and the Spirit). The rise of false prophets, lying wonders, and spiritualism mimics Saul’s desperate search for answers outside the truth.
  • The End-Time Delusion: Saul was utterly rejected because he embraced the darkness. Similarly, the New Testament warns of a great delusion sent upon those who reject the truth, leading them to believe the lies and spiritualism of the age:“And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12, KJV).

Saul’s final sin and death are a profound warning against abandoning the light for the forbidden counsel of the spiritual darkness.

The Return Question: Where Do You Seek Your Answers?

Saul’s life ended in ruin because, when confronted with overwhelming difficulty, he sought answers from a source explicitly forbidden by the King’s command, demonstrating a lack of faith in God’s ultimate timing and sovereignty.

If the moral and spiritual standard for God’s first anointed king was so uncompromising that a single act of consulting the occult led to his death and rejection, are we, the believers awaiting the final judgment, protecting ourselves from the subtle but pervasive spiritualism, divination, and forbidden counsel of the modern world as we prepare for the pure and righteous throne established at The Lord’s Return?