1 Samuel
Saul is Chosen as King
God had told Samuel all about Saul (vv. 15-16). As soon as Samuel sees Saul the Lord tells him this is the man who shall reign over my people (v. 17). He was a man who impressed even Samuel. When Saul asks to see the seer, Samuel identifies himself and instructs Saul to precede h …
David Spares Saul’s Life
After Saul had turned back the Philistine attack, he returned to his pursuit of David with an army of three thousand. The king came to the sheep pens but found no one there. He decided to go to the bathroom in one of the caves nearby and actually walked right into the cave where …
Hannah’s Prophetic Prayer & Eli’s Fatherly Failures
This is one of the great prayers of Scripture. Hannah praises God through a poetic prayer for a son and all that God has done (vv. 1-10). We can learn from this passage that God sometimes withholds His blessings from those who walk uprightly, but only for a time …
Saul is trapped in compromise while David narrowly avoids it
This chapter opens with a new act of war being declared by the Philistines against Israel. David found himself in a compromising situation as King Achish asked David and his troops to join forces with the Philistines against Israel. If he said no, he would be in big trouble and if he said …
Saul’s Disobedience & the Resulting Predicament
This chapter starts to reveal Saul’s true nature. After reigning two years his army consisted of 2,000 troops under his command at Michmash (to the north of Jerusalem (vv. 1-3) and an additional 1,000 troops with his …
The Lord Rejects Saul as king
Saul was given specific instructions, through Samuel, to utterly destroy the Amalekites (vv. 1-3). Saul and his men smote the Amalekites but he did not utterly destroy them, as God had commanded (vv. 4-7). He spared Agag, the king, and kept the best of the spoil …
David Marries Michael – Saul’s Sister
When Saul realized that he could not destroy David personally, he was determined to let the Philistines kill him. His scheme was that he would give his oldest daughter to marry David (v. 17). However, before he was able to pull this off, she married another man (vv. 18-19). Then …
The Philistines go Back to Ziklag
To a devout Hebrew, the land of Canaan was the Lord’s sanctuary, the place where the Ark and Tabernacle rested and where the presence of Jehovah dwelt. To live outside the limits must have been very difficult for David and his followers. With this in mind, you can understand how …
Saul is Anointed as King
When an Israelite king took office, he was both crowned and anointed. The coronation was the political act of recognizing the new king as ruler of the people. The anointing was the religious act of making the king God’s representative to the people.As this chapter opens, we find …
Birth of Samuel And Samuel Taken to Eli
The chapter begins by telling about Elkanah and his two wives, Peninnah and Hannah, who lived in Ramah about five miles north of Jerusalem (vv. 1-2). Although God tolerated polygamy in the Old Testament, it was not part of his original intention for marriage (Gen 2:24) and caused …