the books of first and second Samuel
there are two separate books in our
modern Bibles but that division is due
simply to scroll length it was
originally written as one coherent story
we're just going to cover the book of
1st Samuel in this video so after Israel
was rescued from slavery in Egypt they
made a covenant with God at Mount Sinai
and eventually came into the Promised
Land and their Israel was supposed to be
faithful to God and obey the Covenant
commands before the book of Samuel
Judges showed how Israel failed at that
task big time it was a period of moral
chaos and it showed Israel's need for
wise faithful leaders the book of Samuel
provides an answer to that need
the book of Samuel story focuses on
three main characters the prophet Samuel
where the book gets its name and then
King Saul and after that King David and
all three of them transitioned Israel
from a group of tribes ruled by judges
into a unified Kingdom ruled by King
David in Jerusalem and the book of
Samuel has a fascinating design that
weaves the story of these three
characters together in four main parts
Samuel he's the key leader and prophet
in the first section of the book but
then he also plays a key role in the
next section which is Saul's story and
it's told in two movements Saul's rise
to power and then his failures and the
second part is about his downfall and
his tragic death and then the drama of
Saul's demise is matched by David's
exciting rise to power and then David's
story is told in two movements first he
rides the wave of his success followed
by his own tragic failure and the slow
self-destruction of his family and then
his kingdom the book concludes with an
epilogue that reflects back over the
whole story so let's dive in and see how
this all unfolds part 1 picks up from
the chaos of the book of Judges and were
introduced to a touching story about a
woman named Hannah and she's grieved
because she has never been able to have
children and by God's grace she finally
has a son named Samuel and enjoy she
sings this amazing poem in chapter 2 and
the poem is all about how God opposes
the proud and exalts the humble about
how despite tragedies and human evil God
is
working out his purposes in history and
also it's about how God will one day
raise up an anointed king for his people
now Hannah's poem has been placed here
at the beginning of the book to
introduce these key themes that we're
going to see throughout the whole story
like the next one samuel grows up and
becomes a great prophet and leader for
the people of israel at the same time
that the philistines rise to power as
Israel's arch nemesis and in this
crucial battle the israelites get
arrogant and instead of praying and
asking God for help they trot out the
Ark of the Covenant as this kind of
magic trophy that will automatically
grant them victory in battle and so
because of their arrogant presumption
God allows Israel to lose the battle and
the ark is stolen so the Philistines
they take the ark and they place it in
the temple of their God Dagon and then
the God of Israel defeats the
Philistines and the god doggone without
an army by sending plagues on the people
and then the Philistines don't want the
Ark anymore obviously and they send it
back to Israel and the point of this
little story seems to be this God is not
Israel's trophy and he opposes pride
among the Philistines but also among his
own people and so Israel needs to remain
humble and obedient if they want to
experience God's covenant blessing which
opens up into the next large section the
Israelites come to Samuel and they say
hey we want a king like all the other
nations have go find one for us and so
Samuel he's kind of ticked off and he
goes to consult with God and God says
yes their motives are all wrong but if a
king is what they want give them one
and so we're introduced to the figure of
Saul now Saul is a tragic figure because
he begins full of promise he's tall he's
good-looking he's a perfect candidate
for a king but he has deep character
flaws he's dishonest he lacks integrity
and he seems incapable of acknowledging
his own mistakes and so these flaws
become his downfall he wins some battles
at the beginning but his flaws run so
deep he eventually disqualifies himself
by blatantly disobeying God's commands
and so the aging Sam
ille confronts saul and israel he had
warned the people that they would only
benefit from a king whose humble and
faithful to God otherwise the kings of
Israel will bring ruin so he informs
Saul that God is going to raise up a new
king to replace him and so Saul's
downfall begins as God at the same time
is working behind the scenes to raise up
that new king it's an insignificant
shepherd boy named David he's the least
likely candidate to be king but the
famous story of David and Goliath shows
that God's choice of David is not based
on his family status but simply on his
radical and humble trust in the God of
Israel and so this story embodies all of
the themes of Hannah's poem proud Saul
and Goliath are brought low while humble
David is exalted from here we watch Saul
slowly descend into madness while David
rises to power so David starts working
for Saul as a general and he's winning
all of the battles and he's also winning
all of the fame and so Saul gets jealous
and he starts chasing David around
hunting him trying to kill him
David's done nothing wrong and so David
simply runs and waits in the wilderness
and here we see David's true character
he has multiple opportunities to kill
Saul but he doesn't he simply trusts
that despite Saul's evil God will raise
up a king for his people what's
interesting too is that many of the
poems of David that you find in the Book
of Psalms are linked to this very period
of his life and they all expressed the
same attitude of trust so this section
of the book ends with Saul coming to a
grisly death after losing a battle with
the Philistines first samuel tells some
of the most intricate well told stories
you find anywhere in the Bible and the
character Saul and David they're
portrayed very realistically and the
author's putting them forward as
character studies so that you can find
yourself in them so in Saul's story we
see a warning it's crucial that we
reflect on our own character flaws and
how they harm us and other people and
with God's help we need to humble
ourselves and deal with our dark
so that sols story doesn't become ours
David on the other hand is presented as
an example of patience and Trust in
God's timing in our lives and so he's
running in the wilderness being chased
by Saul David had every reason to think
that God had abandoned him but that's
not what he thinks and so David's story
encourages us to trust that despite
human evil God is working out his
purposes to oppose the proud and to
exalt the humble and that's what First
Samuel is all about