I have a question:
When you go to a spiritualist today or a medium to speak with the dead, do you see the spirit or speak with it, or does the medium act as an intercession between you and the supposed spirit which you never actually see or coherently hear?
But that also tells us something else. David did not know that this was the battle that Saul would be “swept away” in. (1Sa 26:10) Jehovah did not reveal that to him. But several days later, after David had been sent home, the spirit entity that spoke to Saul spoke as if he knew for sure that Saul would die in this battle. If it was a demon, then how could he speak with such certainty? How did he know for sure what David did not know at all. And how could he know for sure that the battle would end disastrously in just one day? (1Sa 28:19 – “tomorrow”)
also as to the above statement, this is an assumption to suggest the demons could not have known. In the book of Job satan is recorded as walking right in among the Angels in heaven during a gathering- so clearly in the Old Testament the devil and the demons had freedom to come and go as they please- there is no reason they could not have known the battle would be Sauls last.
further, Saul had had the spirit mediums run out and killed. So this woman, who pretended to see and speak with and for Samuel could have been getting revenge on Saul, who was known to have been being terrorized by a spirit (1 Sam 16:14).
This was therefore 1 of 2 things:
1. It was the evil spirit terrorizing him, which was actually from God.
2. It was the spirit medium getting revenge for her fallen and murdered brethren.
as to the comment that the bible should just say that- I've never had any problem understanding this was likely not Samuel. And when you read the entire context of the book it does speak for itself, as it says a spirit was terrorizing him- therefore this was likely that spirit. Pretty easy conclusion to reach IMO. Also, if a person said they went to a psychic and spoke with their dead mother- you would know that they meant a ceyonce was held and the medium spoke in a creepy voice or otherwise for this supposed spirit- the person would not need to include those details. Point being, at the time of the writing of this, the process and events were inherent in the culture and those details were unnecessary. But I would argue they still aren't, because spirit mediums havent changed much...