1 Samuel 28:9
And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die? And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?
This verse belongs to Saul's final conflict with the Philistines, when he was afraid and felt defenseless because God had forsaken him.
He had previously cut off, expelled, and driven out of the land those with familiar spirits, mediums, spiritists, and wizards, under penalty of death.
Despite that ban, he in disguise secretly sought out the woman at Endor, who was still continuing her illicit practice of communicating with a familiar spirit.
The woman understood that consulting her exposed her to the very punishment Saul had enforced, so she feared his request was a snare laid to expose her and cause her to be killed.
Even in disguise, his appearance and gifts made the woman suspect who he was.
She did not recognize him as the king until he asked her to bring up Samuel, when she then feared he was laying a trap that would cost her life.
His appeal to her exposed his contradiction and rebellion in consulting a sorceress rather than seeking the Lord, showing how seeking forbidden spiritual guidance turns a person from God and places him under Satan's influence and deception.
The figure presented as Samuel was a counterfeit and not the prophet himself, for God did not allow Satan to raise Samuel from the grave; Satan and his angels can impersonate the dead, and Satan used his knowledge of Samuel and Saul to make the apparition speak accurately about Saul's fate and doom received through the woman.
The deceptive message was used to deceive Saul, give Israel a correct description of his fate, and urge him toward ruin.
The mystic voice at Endor was lying communication with evil spirits, not the dead communicating with the living, for the dead know nothing, their thoughts, love, and hatred have perished, and they hold no communion with the living.
What spoke was Satan presenting himself under the guise of departed friends to gain control of minds and mislead people, true to his early cunning when in the form of a serpent he deceived Eve.
The ancient system of magic at Endor is the same as modern Spiritualism, with its counterpart in present-day spiritualistic mediums, clairvoyants, and fortune-tellers and in the mysteries continued in secret associations and seances whose disclosures mislead thousands who refuse light.
Seeking counsel through a medium is dangerous and gives evil spirits access to the mind, with the lure being the claimed ability to reveal the future that God has withheld, extending even to agents' claims to cure disease by electricity, magnetism, or so-called sympathetic remedies, whose boasted magnetic power is Satan's sorcery casting its spell over body and soul.