This is part of a series of articles, describing each of the 66 books of the Bible and how it relates to the one overall story of God’s relationship with man. The story is examined in terms of the five recurring themes below. The series cover page can be reached here.
| God’s Sovereign Plan | God’s Majesty, Holiness & Justice | God’s Love & Pursuit of Relationship | Man’s Rebellion & Sin | God’s Solution: A Redeeming Sacrifice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
This book tells of the prophet Samuel and his dealings with the first of Israel’s kings. It includes all five of the major themes presented in this article series. Both 1st and 2nd Samuel (originally written as one book but divided by later translators) are about the prophet Samuel but were not written by him. Scholars accept them as a compilation of the work of multiple historians.
As for date written, the books refer at times to the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, so they must have been written after that division occurred (which happened under David’s grandson Rehoboam in about 930 B.C.) They do not show awareness, however, of the fall of Israel to the Assyrians in 722 B.C. so the compilation must have been complete before that point.
They tell the history of Israel’s transition from being governed by a series of judges 1 to being ruled by kings. Samuel was instrumental in identifying and guiding the first two of those kings, Saul and David. The historical date range covered by both books is from Samuel’s birth in about 1100 B.C. until near the end of David’s reign in about 970 B.C. First Samuel covers the reign of Saul, the anointing of David, and Saul’s efforts to eliminate David. Second Samuel starts with David becoming king, and covers until near the end of his reign.
The literary style of the book is literal, historical narrative. The tone is matter-of-fact, even when describing obvious miracles. People and places are named in real-world context, with nothing “once upon a time” or “in a galaxy far, far away”.
Note: Even with “Samuel” split into “1st Samuel” and “2nd Samuel”, these two books have too much good content to cover in a single article. Use these links to see everything.
- 1st Samuel: Saul (this article)
- 1st Samuel: Saul to David
- 2nd Samuel: David’s Kingdom, The Early Years
- 2nd Samuel: David’s Kingdom, Continued
Samuel’s Birth and Calling
Chapter 1 tells how Samuel came to be born as an answer to his mother’s prayers. His father, Elkanah, was a righteous man who honored God and cared for both of his wives, Peninnah and Hannah. Hannah had borne no children to Elkanah. Peninnah had, and taunted Hannah with that fact. When the priest Eli overheard her distressed prayer, he told her to “Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him.” When God did so, Hannah dedicated the boy Samuel to Him. She took Samuel to Eli to be raised in the temple.
Chapter 2 begins with Hannah’s prayer of thanksgiving for her son (verses 1-10). It goes on to describe the flaw in the line of Eli as priest: His two sons were both corrupt and unfit to follow in his footsteps. Eli was warned that God was going to raise up another priest in their place, one who would be faithful to Him.
Chapter 3 describes God’s call to Samuel to be his next prophet. Samuel heard someone call him in the night and ran to see what Eli wanted. But it was not Eli who had called. When that happened three times in a row, Eli advised Samuel to answer the next call with “Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening.” Samuel was worried when he heard God’s message, though: It was that the time had come for Eli’s sons were to be punished, and Eli as well for not correcting them. To his credit, Eli received that message with “It is the LORD; let Him do what seems good to Him.”
When Samuel grew up, all of Israel accepted him as God’s prophet (verses 19-21).
Adventures of the Ark
The next chapters tell of the misuse of the sacred Ark of the Covenant, and the tragi-comic results 2.
In chapter 4, Israel was defeated in a battle with the Philistines. They thought to win the next time by taking the Ark with them, removing it from its place in the temple and carrying it to the battle. Instead, they lost heavily, and the Philistines were able to take the Ark from them. In the process, Eli’s two sons were killed. Not only that, but Eli himself died upon hearing the news, and his daughter-in-law died in childbirth at the same time. Her last act was to name her newborn son “Ichabod”, which means “no glory”, for “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God was taken.“
Chapter 5 tells that the capture of the Ark did not do the Philistines any good. When they triumphantly put it into the temple of their god Dagon, the idol statue was found fallen flat on its face the next morning. They stood it back up; it went down again, and with its head and hands cut off! They moved the Ark to another location, and then another, but everywhere it went a plague followed and killed the people of the town. Finally, the Philistine people begged their leaders to return the Ark to the Israelites.
Chapter 6 describes that return. The Philistines put the Ark onto a cart, along with offerings of gold. They hitched it up to two cows and let the cows make their own way. If the cows went to the Israelite town of Beth-shemesh, it would be evidence that God had indeed been the source of the plagues. “… the cows took the straight way in the direction of Beth-shemesh … and did not turn aside to the right or to the left.“
The people of Beth-shemesh at first reacted well, with joy and sacrifice to the Lord. But apparently curiosity got the best of some of them: They opened the Ark to peek inside, and the Lord punished them by killing over 50,000 men. The townspeople then sent word to another town, Kiriath-jearim, to come and get the Ark from them.
At the start of chapter 7, the Ark was given a home in Kiriath-jearim with a man named Abinadab. His son Eleazar was appointed as keeper of it. The Ark stayed there for twenty years.
In the rest of chapter 7, Samuel led the people to deal with the real reason the Philistines were defeating them: their idolatry. He led a national revival where the idols were burned and the people confessed their sin. The next time the Philistines came calling, “the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines and confused them, so that they were routed before Israel…and the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.” Samuel set a marker stone, named “Ebenezer” (“stone of the help”) because “Thus far the LORD has helped us.“
Saul Becomes King
In chapter 8, the people demanded a king. Samuel’s sons were proving unworthy to becomes prophets after him (a sad parallel to Eli and his sons 😔). The people asked him to appoint a king for them instead, so they could be like all the neighboring peoples. Samuel did not like that idea at all, but God told him to go ahead anyway “for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them“. At God’s direction, Samuel warned the people that a king would impose hardships on them. They didn’t care: “No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.“
Chapter 9 and the first part of chapter 10 tell how Samuel encountered Saul and learned that he was God’s choice for Israel’s first king. Saul was a young man simply out on an errand, looking for his father’s donkeys that had wandered off. Not having any luck, he decided to ask the prophet for advice. God had told Samuel in advance that the young man who would approach him for help was the chosen one. Samuel welcomed Saul, “took the flask of oil, poured it on his head, kissed him and said, “Has not the LORD anointed you a ruler over His inheritance?‘” He gave Saul signs that would confirm his word, which then came true on Saul’s way back home. And…he let him know that the donkeys had returned safely!
In the rest of chapter 10 and on into chapter 11, Samuel presented Saul to the people. Many were fine with that choice, but others were skeptical. When Saul raised an army to defeat an enemy Ammonite who was threatening the town of Jabesh-gilead (who said “I will make a covenant with you on this condition, that I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you, thus I will make it a reproach on all Israel.“), the skeptics were silenced. Saul was confirmed as king, and everyone celebrated.
In chapter 12, Samuel reminded the people of their history, how they repeatedly promised to obey God but then rejected Him…then got into trouble as a result and God kept rescuing them. He told them that they were repeating that history by insisting on a human king rather than being content with God alone: “…you will know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the LORD by asking for yourselves a king“, Samuel asked God and He sent a thunderstorm right at the height of the wheat harvest. When the frightened people asked Samuel to intercede with God for them, he answered:
Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which can not profit or deliver, because they are futile. For the LORD will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because the LORD has been pleased to make you a people for Himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way. Only fear the LORD and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, both you and your king will be swept away.”
1 Samuel 12:20-25
Saul Fails His First Big Test
Chapter 13 verses 1-14 give a major plot twist. Verse 1 acts as a bookend marking the start and length of Saul’s reign (starting at age 30, reigning for 40 years). His son Jonathan won a skirmish with their perennial enemy, the Philistines, which apparently kicked off a new phase of hostilities. The Philistines mustered a huge and well-equipped army. Saul had summoned his own army to muster to him at the town of Gilgal, but they were out-classed and frightened.
Saul had been told to wait seven days for Samuel to arrive to present offerings to God and counsel to the king. Saul waited almost the full time. But he was losing people, losing momentum, and growing impatient. So he decided to present the offerings himself, and do without the counsel. Bad choice: Samuel arrived just as Saul was presenting the offering, and he was NOT happy.
Because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, therefore I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the LORD.’ So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering.
Saul, verses 11-12
You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, for now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not endure. The LORD has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.
Samuel, verses 13-14
This turning point is when Saul lost his kingship, although his reign continued for three decades or more afterward. But throughout those decades, he knew that there would be no dynasty. The kingdom would go to another, and not to his descendants … even though Saul’s son, Jonathan, was a righteous man and a great warrior. Saul was to be king under God. When he decided to be king on his own, he lost that privilege.
There is a curiosity about that seven-day waiting period at Gilgal. It was mentioned in 1 Samuel 10:8 before Saul was even confirmed as king. But the event in 1 Samuel 13:8 appears to have been a bit later, not immediately after Saul assumed the kingship. Why was this the time that it was important for Saul to wait for Samuel? The Bible doesn’t say. However, Saul waited days before striking out on his own, and he made excuses when Samuel confronted him. It is clear that he understood it was the time!
More Battles, More Disobedience
The end of chapter 13 has Saul still preparing for battle, even though in disgrace. Things were not going well: Saul had about 600 men with him; the Philistines had three companies of raiders who were pecking away at the Israelites; and the Philistines had co-opted all the blacksmiths. The lack of blacksmiths meant that the Israelites could not make their own weapons. They had to go to the Philistines to pay to have even farm implements sharpened; swords and spears were out of the question. Ouch!
Chapter 14 has a good start: Trusting in God, Saul’s son Jonathan made a daring and successful raid. It didn’t hurt that God sent an earthquake at just the right moment! Saul followed up the disarray in the Philistine camp with an all-out attack that completely routed the enemy.
Then it has a bad ending: Saul gave a foolish order that no soldier was to eat or drink anything until the victory was won, on pain of death. An army runs on its stomach, and dehydration is alway debilitating, especially when fighting hard! Jonathan didn’t know about the order (He was off on the initial raid, remember?). He ate some of the honey that was abundantly available, and that everyone else was avoiding. When Saul asked God if he should continue chasing the Philistines, God was silent. Saul assumed there must be sin in the camp that offended Him. When he discovered that Jonathan had eaten against his orders, he was ready to kill his son. The people intervened; Jonathan’s life was spared; and Saul gave up on the Philistines for the moment.
The end of the chapter says that war with the Philistines, among other enemies, was a way of life: “Now the war against the Philistines was severe all the days of Saul.“
Chapter 15 tells of another battle, with another enemy, the Amalekites. And, another disobedience by Saul: not killing all the enemy — including livestock — as instructed. Samuel has passed along God’s command: “Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.“…”But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly…“
When confronted, Saul tried to tell Samuel that they kept the best of the livestock only to be proper sacrifices to God. That didn’t fly. The rebuke made history:
Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
1 Samuel 15:22-23
As in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
He has also rejected you from being king.
Even though Saul tried to escape his punishment, God — and Samuel — had had enough. Samuel killed the Amalekite king Agag as Saul has been commanded to do. He led one last worship service that he allowed Saul to attend. But…
“The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor, who is better than you.“
1 Samuel 15:28, 35
…
Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death; for Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.
One Story
Continue to the second half of 1st Samuel.
Footnotes and Scripture References
- At least, nominally governed. A frequent theme in Judges is “every man did what was right in his own eyes.“
- See also article “God of the Ark“.
