Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

God rules the world^[a]

King Saul visits a woman who uses magic

³ Samuel had died before this. All the Israelites had been very sad at his death. They had buried him in Ramah, the town where he had lived. When Samuel had been alive, Saul had removed magicians from Israel. Saul removed everyone who used magic to speak to the spirits of dead people.

⁴ The Philistine army came together and they put up their tents at Shunem. Saul called together the whole Israelite army. They put up their tents at Gilboa. ⁵ Saul saw the camp of the Philistine army. He became very afraid. ⁶ Saul asked the Lord what he should do. But the Lord did not answer him in any way. He did not give Saul a dream. He did not use the Urim. He did not give a message to the prophets. ⁷ So Saul said to his servants, ‘Look for a woman who can talk to dead people. Then I will go and ask her what will happen.’

His servants replied, ‘There is a woman at Endor who can do that.’

⁸ Saul changed his clothes so that no one would recognize him. At night, Saul and two of his men went to see the woman. Saul said to her, ‘Use your magic to bring up the spirit of a certain dead man. I will tell you his name.’

⁹ But the woman said to him, ‘You know what King Saul has done. He has removed all the magicians from Israel. Are you using a trap to catch me? Do you want me to die?’

¹⁰ Then Saul promised the woman very strongly. He said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, nobody will punish you if you do this.’^[a]

¹¹ The woman said, ‘Who is it that you want me to bring for you?’ Saul replied, ‘Bring Samuel to me.’

¹² The woman screamed when she saw Samuel. She said to Saul, ‘You have deceived me! You are King Saul!’

¹³ The king said to her, ‘Do not be afraid. Tell me what you can see.’

She replied, ‘I can see a spirit that is coming up from the ground.’

¹⁴ Saul asked, ‘What does he look like?’ She said, ‘I see an old man who is wearing a long coat.’

Saul realized that this was Samuel. He bent down low on his knees with his face towards the ground.

¹⁵ Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you caused this trouble for me? Why have you brought me back?’

Saul said, ‘I have a lot of trouble. The Philistines are fighting against me. God has turned away from me. He will not use the prophets or give me dreams to answer my questions. So I have called you to come here. Please tell me what I should do.’

¹⁶ Samuel said, ‘The Lord has turned away from you and he has become your enemy. So do not ask me what you should do. ¹⁷ I told you what the Lord would do. Now he has done it! The Lord has taken the kingdom away from you. He has given it to another Israelite, David. ¹⁸ The Lord has punished you today because you did not obey him. The Lord was very angry with the Amalekites. He told you to destroy them all. But you refused to do that. ¹⁹ The Lord will put you and the Israelites under the power of the Philistines. Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me in the place for dead people. The Lord will also let the Philistines win against Israel's army.’

People are guilty

¹⁸ God in heaven shows that he is angry with people. He is angry because they do not respect him and they do bad things. Because they continue to do those bad things, they choose not to accept God's true message. ¹⁹ They should understand what God is like, because God himself has shown it to them clearly. ²⁰ Ever since God made the world, he has been showing people clearly about himself. We cannot see God. But the things that he has made show us clearly what he is like. We can understand his great power that continues for ever. We can know that he is the true God. So there is no reason for anyone to say, ‘We could not know about God.’

²¹ Those people really knew about God. But they did not respect him as a great God, and they did not thank him. They did not even think clearly any more. Their minds became confused and they did not understand God's message. ²² They said that they were wise, but really they became fools. ²³ They refused to worship the great God who can never die. Instead, they made false gods for themselves. They worshipped idols that were like people who must die. They also made idols that looked like birds, animals and snakes, and they worshipped them.

²⁴ So God let those people do all the bad things that they wanted to do. God let those disgusting things rule their lives. As a result, they did bad things with each other's bodies. They did things that people should be ashamed to do. ²⁵ They refused to believe the true things about God. Instead, they chose to believe lies. They worshipped things that God has made and they became servants of those things. But they refused to worship God himself who made those things! Everyone should praise him for ever! Amen. This is true.