A WHOLE MAN

Jonathan once again swore to David in his love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.  1 Samuel 20:17  The series of events which follow David’s anointing by Samuel as Israel’s next king are not exactly what we would expect. In just the two chapters that follow his anointing in chapter 16, we see David in multiple battles with the Philistines starting with the giant Goliath (1 Sam 17), he has a clash with his own brother (1 Sam 17:28), and direct/indirect attempts on his life by Saul a total of seven times; one of those occasions, he evades Saul’s murder attempt by having a dummy placed in his bed. And even after the many failed attempts, we read in chapter 20 that Saul is still seeking to kill David. In contrast to Saul’s envy, disloyalty, and unwillingness to submit to God, Jonathan, Saul’s son, displays humility, loyalty, and covenant faithfulness. In this chapter, Jonathan evidently believed that the covenant that Saul had made in 19:6 was still in eff...

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 b...