Intro to First Samuel

And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 

1 Samuel 8:7 

Just as Ezra and Nehemiah were originally a single book, so too First and Second Samuel were originally combined in the Hebrew Bible. It is for this reason that these two books retain the name of the prophet Samuel who was the principle character of the books. Although Samuel is nowhere to be found in Second Samuel and his death is recorded in First Samuel 15 and 28, Samuel played a pivotal role in the book as he was the person who anointed both Saul and David for kingship.

First Samuel can be neatly divided into two major sections, the ministry of Samuel (1-12) and the kingship of Saul (13-31) as it documents the life of Israel's last judge and first king. The book opens by introducing us to the Samuel's parents, Elkanah and Hannah, who are unable to get pregnant but are eventually blessed by God to have a child. Their first child together (Elkanah has children from another wife) is Samuel. He is described as growing in stature and in "favor with the Lord and also with man" (2:26), which is very much different than what we read about the children of Eli, the current standing priest who sinned greatly against the Lord. Samuel reforms the nation for a time although repeats the same mistake as Eli in not leading his sons well.

Eventually the nation of Israel clamors for a king and, in so doing, reject God. Samuel anoints Saul as king and he seems to be the man who would lead the people well and would serve the Lord faithfully, but Saul rebels against God as well and is ultimately rejected by Him and replaced with David. The rest of 1 Samuel describes the tension between Saul and David until Saul's Death.

One of the major themes in First Samuel is about how important godly leadership is. It was under the leadership of Eli and his sons that the ark of the covenant was taken and the Israelites suffered defeat from the Philistines (4:1-11). Under Saul, many Israelites lost their lives and were devastated by the Philistines as well (31). However, under Samuel and David, the Israelites were able to experience great victories over their enemies (7:13; 23:1–5; 30:1–31).The difference between those two sets of leaders were that in the former, they lacked covenant faithfulness and moral responsibility, while the latter were men who had hearts after God.

This is a lesson we would all do well to learn. That God desires faithfulness. Obedient faithfulness to Him which is motivated from a heart that desires to please Him. Saul was a man who seemed to have it all, good looks, height, honor, authority, and power, and yet he thought he could please God through disobedience (Ch 15). Even when he was confronted by Samuel, he attempted to blame shift and exonerate himself rather than admit to his sin. And we are very much like Saul, rebels against God's will knowing that what He actually desires and commands is our obedience. We too often try to reason or rationalize why it would be better for us to keep bad behavior for a future good which we think is worthy. This is to think too high of ourselves and our intellect, and too little about God’s Word. Ultimately, we are pointed to the Messiah who was perfectly obedient to the will of God the Father. The captain of our souls, Jesus Christ, who brings real and permanent salvation from our enemies and is faithful in all.

Grace and Peace,
Alex Galvez

To never miss an article, click on the "Subscribe" button at the top of the blog page (https://aogalvez.blogspot.com/)
****************************************************
These articles follow the current Bible Reading plan for Overflow Ministries. If you would like to join the reading plan, simply download the plan here: Overflow Reading Plan

You may follow Overflow Ministries @ https://faithlife.com/overflowtx/activity
or on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/OverflowChurchTX/