Saul, after the death of Samuel, went to the witch of Endor for help. He, who had openly turned from God, got his answer from the aged prophet of God. God thus met the unhappy man and did not allow a demon to impersonate His servant. It was Samuel whom Saul saw. It was an unusual sight the witch beheld. She confessed it, when she told Saul she saw gods ascending out of the earth. Her familiar spirit was unable to act, for God Himself had taken up the matter against Saul.
Samuel was dead, yet he existed in the unclothed state, and in the woman’s house at Endor he conversed with Saul and told him what would befall him and his sons on the morrow. The king’s course of departure from God is plainly recounted, and the future is clearly declared. He would be on the morrow with this Samuel. Death does not terminate existence for the righteous or the wicked. Samuel was dead, but he had not ceased to exist. Saul would die, but he would be with Samuel in the place of departed spirits, called, in the New Testament, “hades.” The existence of such a place, and who are there, is all that Samuel by his word declares. The condition and distinctive position of each in hades he was not commissioned to reveal. But this at least is clear, that the prophet was better off there than here. He had no desire to come back to earth. He had been disquieted by being brought up (ch. 28:15). His peaceful state had been interrupted by appearing on this occasion to Saul. Two things about the other world are then made clear. Death is not the end of any man’s existence, and the righteous dead have no desire to be brought back upon the stage of this world again. Saul got his answer, one of no uncertain sound, but one which could give him no ray of comfort. God, he felt, had forsaken him. Samuel confirmed this. It was true. Nothing now remained for him but death, and after death the judgment. His reign, which commenced to outward eyes so auspiciously, ended disastrously. Victory attended him at the beginning; defeat, followed by death at his own hand, closed his career. He went out of this world to meet an offended God. Thus ended the course of the responsible man.
The Bible Treasury, 12:229