So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. “Consult a spirit for me,” he said, “and bring up for me the one I name.”
But the woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?”
Saul swore to her by the Lord, “As surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this.”
Then the woman asked, “Whom shall I bring up for you?”
“Bring up Samuel,” he said.
When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!”
The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?”
The woman said, “I see a ghostly figure coming up out of the earth.”
- 1 Samuel 28:8-13
When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God.
- Deuteronomy 18:9-13
“Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.”
- Luke 11:44
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
- John 11:43-44
Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.
- John 6:53-56
“‘This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live: You must not eat any fat or any blood.’”
- Leviticus 3:17
And wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal. Anyone who eats blood must be cut off from their people.’”
- Leviticus 7:26-27
In that day,
The Lord will punish with his sword—
his fierce, great and powerful sword—
Leviathan the gliding serpent,
Leviathan the coiling serpent;
he will slay the monster of the sea.
- Isaiah 27:1
“Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox.
- Job 40:15
The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”
- Revelation 13:1-4
All glorious is the princess within her chamber;
her gown is interwoven with gold.
- Psalm 45:13
Boilerplate
I’m Harold Dykstra. I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story. My time is well spent. A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel. I did not know she was an angel at the time. The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone. And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy. She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others. She changed my life.
In her leaving, she said someone would come. I had thought that was Jesus, in His second coming, but a new Babs, a little older, the model for the posable action figure arrived. While I had no desire to start over with romance, Morrie helped her move in, thinking she was the other Babs who had returned.
This Week’s Question
Last week, Babs was about to cancel the wedding. She had found a wrinkle, and she thought herself unworthy.
This week, Babs was so made up that no one could find a wrinkle anywhere. We were parked in the church parking lot and all the children were going from one car to the next. There were various adults dressed in creepy costumes and the children were in their costumes. One guy had a skeleton attached to his car trunk so that when the trunk was opened, it looked like the skeleton was trying to escape. Some had creepy music.
We decided to think a little differently and use the make-up skills Babs had learned from her former (unmentionable) life. The problem was that I had to shave my head. Sure, I could have gone with a bald wig, but I went bald instead. If my hair did not grow back, I would wear a wig for the wedding. Babs made up both of us to have pale complexions, with my eyes darkened to look like they were sunken. She wore a body hugging floor-length black dress. I wore a black robe. She had a long black wig, straight hair.
If you had not guessed it. She was Morticia Addams from the Addams family, and I was Uncle Fester.
And our car was a normal looking car, with steps up to the trunk for the little ones. But when you lifted the trunk lid, by snapping your fingers twice (or so it seemed), hot water poured into a bucket of dry ice, far enough from where the children were to be safe. Hot water poured onto dry ice creates a dense fog. The fog would quickly fill the trunk and spill out of the trunk onto the parking lot before dissipating.
The first group of children who came up were from five-years-old to twelve.
I tried my best Uncle Fester imitation, “Reach into the fog to get a bag of candy… if you dare.”
Babs, with her expert imitation of Morticia, said, “Uncle Fester, don’t make it sound so appealing. We want some left over for Itt and Thing.”
“But Morticia,” I asked, “What about Wednesday and Pugsley?”
Babs sighed. “Uncle Fester, you know that Wednesday does not eat sweets, and poor Pugsley, he’s on a diet.”
The children in this first group all looked at each other. No one dared get anywhere near the trunk, but then the five-year-old, a girl in a princess costume, climbed the steps and reached into the fog.
I said, “Princesses get two bags.” Babs only shook her head.
One of the other kids asked, “What made you so brave?”
The little girl giggled. “That’s my new sunny schoolteacher.” Babs broke character for a second to give her a smile and a wink.
With the ice broken, the rest of the kids reached into the fog to get an unseen bag of candy.
As each group left, the trunk would close. But with a new group arriving, the trunk would open again, only after two snaps of the fingers, and the trunk would fill to overflowing with fog. The fear of the unknown was gone for the most part after the first couple of groups. The word got around that the only weird thing was that our candy was a little cold. Otherwise, the candy bags had the good stuff.
The pastor congratulated us on our costumes and fog machine. He insisted that we work behind the scenes for special effects at the Christmas pageant and the Spring pageant. I guess that goes under the heading that no good deed goes unpunished.
We sat on a bench in front of the car after it was over. Babs buried her head in my chest, “I had so much fun tonight. How much do we have left in the trunk? With all the fog, I never saw what was in there.”
I laughed, “Babs, we barely have enough for Itt and Thing.”
Babs sighed, “I am too tired to get into my Itt costume, and at this moment, I just want to get out of this girdle and body stocking. I am amazed that I did not faint. I had to measure my breathing.”
I laughed, “Babs, you wore a girdle?”
I felt Babs nod against my chest. She said, “That’s as good of a name as you would understand. The body stocking would show every imperfection and too much of me in certain places, so I had an undergarment to smooth out those places. But this dress is almost like someone painted it onto my skin. You are lucky. You have a bulky robe and there might be two of you inside the robe and no one would know. But tell me Harold. How did all this get started?”
I sighed, “Let’s see. The Addams family started as a single panel cartoon in the New Yorker in 1938. The family was eccentric, macabre, and grotesque, but it drew a following and the cartoon continued until the cartoonist’s death in 1988. Morticia and Wednesday got their names in 1962 when a doll maker wanted to market dolls like the cartoon characters. Gomez and Pugsley did not have names until the television show premiered in 1964. But since then, the Addams Family has been a television show, a series of movies and spinoffs of both of those, a cartoon show or two, a musical, whatever.”
Babs groaned, “No, Uncle Fester, I was asking about Halloween, Candy, and do not give me the origin of candy. The trunk or treat. My Dad was a cheap skate. He did not want to buy me a costume. My former stripper of a mother did not want me eating sweets and messing up my figure. So, we were the dark house with no lights on, and we never answered the door.”
I laughed, “Okay, to explain how Halloween got started, we need to look at the next day, All Saints Day.”
Babs groaned, “I would like just once for you to give me the Cliff Notes answer instead of the encyclopedia answer. No, that is part of your charm. I am just low on patience tonight.”
I snickered, “All Saints Day was a Christian holiday where all the saints were celebrated. The children would dress up in costumes of their favorite saint. It was a celebration that those people were now in Heaven. That was on November 1. But the reason for the timing was that there was a Celtic pagan holiday about that time, Samhain. Samhain was celebrated at the end of the harvest season and the looming cold days of winter that approached. From that, the pagans saw life ending and death looming. To the pagans, the barrier between the two worlds was weakest at Samhain. Then the Catholic church built on that so that we were closest to our dead relatives on All Saints Day. And before you ask, All Saints Day never became Halloween. Since the fabric between the living and dead was weakest, we had to guard against the dead sneaking back into our world on All Saints Eve. Some people called All Saints Day, All Hallows Day, Hallowed, Hallows. Okay, then over time, All Hallows Eve or Evening, turned into Hallows E’en, and then Halloween.”
Babs said, “If you don’t get to trunk or treat quickly, Thing will have nothing to eat, not that a disembodied hand can eat anything.”
I sighed, “Babs, you are impatient tonight. We have not even started with Bible verses.”
Babs moaned, “Please, Harold, you can tell me how trunk or treat got started on the way home. I have to get out of this body stocking.”
After we got in the car, I continued, “Trunk or treat became a safe alternative to Trick or Treat. You get candy from people that you trust at church instead of going door to door. But costumes went back to Samhain. Remember the fabric between dead and alive was weak and people would dress in costumes to scare off evil spirits. Then, guarding All Saints Eve, the poor would dress in costume and say a prayer for a family’s lost loved one’s souls in exchange for food. That was called ‘souling.’ And then there were costumed people who would perform songs, poems, or do tricks in exchange for food or money. That was called ‘guising.’ In the nineteenth century, the immigrants to the USA carried their traditions with them, but in the early 20th century, the communities tried to rid Halloween of both the religious side and pagan and superstitious side of things and have it a friendly family holiday. But it wasn’t until after World War II that people would give treats to ward off the threat of having pranks, or tricks, played on them, like egging the house, toilet papering the lawn, or shoe polishing the car. And those pranks are nasty. I have seen egging take off paint and shoe polish ruin the paint job on a car. So, now you are up to date.”
We pulled into the driveway and Babs would have run up the stairs but her costume almost prevented her from climbing the stairs. She had to turn around and walk up backwards. In twenty minutes, she was back downstairs in a light bathrobe.
Babs groaned, “Harold! I can breathe!”
I laughed. “I am glad of that. Now, what do you want to study tonight?”
Babs asked, “What is the connection between the classic monsters and Halloween costumes and the Bible?”
I gasped, “That is a rather broad topic. But let’s look at the classics. Turn to 1 Samuel 28.”
Babs sighed, “This is the story about how Saul visited a medium instead of enquiring of God.”
I smiled, “Yes, but Saul had made so many mistakes by this point, God was not talking to Saul. So, Saul went to a medium who conjured up an image that looked like a ghost. We don’t know if this woman ever conjured up true spirits, evil spirits playing tricks, that sort of thing, but the ghostly figure of Samuel scared her. So, God was using this medium and even the medium was scared. Of course, In Deuteronomy 18, it talks about all kinds of witchcraft and sorcery. When it says in Exodus 22:18 that sorcerers must die, you might get the bright idea to change your title to a witch or medium, but Deuteronomy 18 encompasses both what they call themselves and what they do. Basically, it is believing in something other than God, so horoscopes and crystal balls are just as bad. They are not innocent fun.”
Babs blew out a long breath, “We had a film once where we used a Ouija board in one of the scenes, and the set was plagued by every kind of accident that you could imagine. One light stand fell on some production staffers. It killed one young girl and put three others in the hospital. I became very superstitious after that. No movies about witches, goblins, or Ouija boards. And that was long before I met Jesus.”
I smiled, “Strange, what you were doing was sinful in itself, but when you crossed that line, God needed to send a message. But we have mentioned ghosts and witches, two classics. Now let’s look at things that associate with unmarked graves and such like that. Luke 11 does not say kind words about that.”
Babs asked, “What about mummies?”
I smiled, “Babs, turn to John 11:43-44.”
Babs groaned, “This is just Lazarus being raised from the dead.”
I snickered, “But look at how Luke describes him. He was walking and he was wrapped with grave clothes. It is describing a mummy.”
Babs gasped, “You’re right! But what about vampires?”
I shrugged. “In John 6, we have a lot going on. Jesus feeds the five thousand men, and then all the uncounted women and children – maybe 10,000 in all. Then Jesus walks on the water. But then, Jesus speaks of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Why did so many of His disciples abandon Him at that point?”
Babs grimaced, “Sounds like cannibalism.”
I smiled, “Good, but Leviticus states in the third and seventh chapters to not eat meat with the blood in it. Drinking blood would be even worse. So, the Bible does not talk about drinking blood in order to live forever. The Bible says that you just cannot do that, live forever that is in this earthly body. But when the authors grabbed historical stories about people who drank blood to obtain their youthful appearance, they gravitated to vampirism in fictional stories. That immediately made the vampire an enemy of Christians and Jews due to Levitical law.”
Babs sighed, “Okay, no vampires, but it puts vampires on the bad guy category. What about just a monster?”
I smiled, “What about Isaiah 27:1, the Leviathan, the sea monster, Job 40:15, the Behemoth, and Revelation 13:1-4?”
Babs, doing her impression of a young Shirley Temple, “What about Revelation 13:1-4?”
I groaned, “You must be breathing better and rested. You are starting to play. Revelation 13 starts with the dragon. And the dragon is with the beast. We know the dragon is the Devil, but this beast is the best Satan can conjure with parts looking like a leopard, a bear, and a lion, but besides that, it had ten horns. Now it could be that the beast was a human, but really nasty, and this was the image John saw of the beast’s character. But it is rather a scary sight.”
Babs huffed, “Harold, I am getting tired of all these monsters and witches. I want to be a princess.”
I laughed, “There is only one reference to princess in the Bible, Psalm 45:13. And I will not see your wedding dress until your wedding day, but I am sure you will look like the princess in that verse. You are the princess in my heart, Babs.”
Babs said, “That was a nice enough answer for a big kiss.”
Babs and I hugged and kissed.
Credits
All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife. We would talk about anything and everything. And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.
A lot of internet research on this, multiple sources. But many of the Bible references came from a quiz that I wrote (probably with a few typos), Biblical Halloween Quiz.
The two finger snaps to open the trunk lid is in reference to the Addams Family television show theme song. I saw a video once that explained that the finger snaps were added as a joke by cast members or maybe staff, since the tune “needed” something, and it became part of the music.
As for the fog, I used this trick for a Cub Scout meeting. I had a black plastic cauldron. I put a #10 can (about 6 inches in diameter and seven inches tall, large) full of dry ice in the cauldron. I put a wire mesh over the top so that the boys did not touch the dry ice. Then I filled the cauldron to the top of the can with candy bars, the miniatures. Then, I put the cauldron on the stage. I made a silly incantation. And then I poured hot water into the can. The air circulation in the auditorium was just right for the fog, to pour from the cauldron and down the steps where the audience was. I invited the boys to form a line. They did that just fine, but when I said that they each had to come up and reach into the boiling cauldron, they froze. It was one of the youngest boys, one who was smallest in his class and constantly picked on, that got the idea that their cubmaster had never steered them wrong before, so he cut to the front of the line. When he showed them his prize, the rest came up with no problem. Funny how these boys that are so conscious of wanting to act brave crumbled over a silly parlor trick.
And my wife was playful and goofy most of her life. The combined diseases took the starch out of her a little, mostly due to exhaustion and only having me around to be her “audience.” I don’t think I ever heard her imitate the young Shirley Temple though.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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