Tuesday May 20

1 Samuel 26-28

John 11:11-54

Psalm 117:1, 2

Proverbs 15:22, 23

In 1 Samuel 28, Saul still has the same problem: God was not responding to his desperate pleas. But instead of trying to figure out why God was not pleased with him, he decided to go a different route.

By this time, Samuel was dead. Saul thought his only solution was if he could somehow speak to Samuel again. Saul consulted a medium was able to conjure a spirit. Most likely this wasn't really Samuel though. I'm not sure if this spirit was from God or from the evil one, but I know that a person's spirit does not return to the earth after they have died. This spirit (whoever it was) warned Saul that the Lord was angry and that he would be defeated by the Philistines.

From the passage in John 11, we learn that Lazarus has died. His sisters were grieving and asked Jesus why He didn't arrive sooner. They both believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but it was outside their realm of understanding to even consider that He could bring Lazarus back to life. And yet He did.

In both these passages, we see that someone has died and there was an attempt to bring them back. In Saul's case, he went to someone besides the Lord for help and ended up with an impostor. This medium did not really have the ability to reach beyond the grave. However, Jesus was different. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Not even death can contain His power. When He raised Lazarus from the dead, it was really Lazarus. There is no limit to Jesus' power and love.

This stood out to me because so often when we need help we are quick to turn to the impostor who doesn't really have any power at all. Turn to Jesus, the resurrection and the life. He has demonstrated time and time again that He is the only One in who we should be putting our hope and faith.