Summary #15

Weekly Summary
1 Samuel 4-Psalm 52

So back before the story of Ruth, we left the Israelites in a mess. Again. Samson was dead, although so were a lot of Philistines as the book of Judges ended. We start I Samuel today with the story of Hannah, who desperately wants a child but has to watch her husband's other wife have child after child while her prayers go unanswered. Finally she goes to the house of the Lord and promises that if he gives her a child, she will dedicate him to the Lord's service. God sends her a son, Samuel, and she does as she promises, and brings Samuel to Eli, the priest, as soon as Samuel is weaned.

Eli's sons, unlike Eli, are not much in the leadership department. They took the offerings that should have been given to the Lord, and sleeping with the women who served at the tent of meeting. Eli rebuked them, but to no avail -- because "it was the will of the Lord to put them to death." (A sort of sobering thought..) God told Eli that because of the sins of his sons, his household would no longer serve as priests, but he would raise up another line to serve him. Samuel, meanwhile is growing strong and true in the presence of Eli and the Lord. He responds to God's midnight call and finds out that he will be the one to take over the priestly office from Eli. Eli accepts this decision, and he serves God faithfully into his old age.

Camping at Ebenezer, the Israelites take on the Philistines and loses, and the Philistines kill about 4000 Israelites. Devestated, the Israelites try to figure out why the Lord didn't give them the victory, and decide that the next time, they will take the Ark of the Covenant with them into battle. Surely, they think, they will be victorious next time! Hophni and Phineas, the wicked sons of Eli, are more than happy to escort the Ark from Shilo down to the front. This battle was even worse: 30,000 soldiers captured, Hophni and Phineas killed, and the ark captured. As soon as Eli was told about the horrible outcome, he fell over and died.

Rigging a place for the ark in the temple of Dagon, the Philistines enjoy the idea that the God of the Israelites is now subject to their god. Until they come in the next day and find Dagon face down in front of the ark. After setting their god back up the right way, the next day they find him headless and handless. That's enough for the Philistines, and they send the ark on the grand tour of Philistia, but everywhere the ark goes, there is affliction: tumors, panic, and death. Getting wise to this, the Philistines eventually send the ark back to Israel, hoping that sending along some very interesting peace offerings (golden tumors and golden mice) will smooth things over.

Eli's death, meanwhile, meant that Samuel was now judging Israel. He called on them to put away all the false gods, and follow the one true God by assembling them at Mizpah. When the Philistines heard about this assembly, they saw their chance to attack -- and the terrified Israelites begged Samuel to petition God for protection. They offered sacrifices, and fasted, and God threw the Philistines into great confusion, and God kept the Philistines at bay for the whole time that Samuel judged Israel. As he grew old, Samuel appointed his sons judges, but they didn't do much better than Eli's sons had done: they took bribes and perverted justice. Fed up with this, the elders of Israel demanded that Samuel annoint a king. Samuel was insulted by this... but God reminded him that it was not Samuel that the people of Israel were rejecting, it was God himself. God told him to warn the people just what a king would do to them, but when they said they were fine with that, to go ahead and give them what they had asked for.

The choice for this first king was tall, good-looking, and rich, from the small, little-regarded tribe of Benjamin who was looking for some donkeys. Samuel anointed Saul prince over Israel, as God had directed him, and after calling together the Israelites, God confirmed through the casting of lots that Saul, indeed, was his choice. Saul goes back to his home, taking with him men of valor that the Lord had inspired to accompany him. Soon, the Ammonites attack Jabesh-Gilead, and when Saul hears of it, he sends word via parts of oxen that the whole of Israel needs to come to the defense of this city. When they muster, there are 300,000 plus 30,000 from Judah, and they decisively beat back the Ammonites and save the city. After seeing this leadership, Israel truly takes Saul as their king.

Samuel, meanwhile, calls the people together for his farewell address, and reminds them of all the amazing things that God had done for them, and how their response has been to try very hard to be just like the people around them that they were supposed to stand against. He reminds them that asking for a king to rule over them had been a mistake that they will pay for, and they repent some, asking Samuel to continue to pray for the country. Samuel does, and again pleads with them to follow the Lord's commands.

Once Saul is anointed, it takes him no time at all to fall short of God's expectations: As he prepares for battle against the Philistines, Saul sees his men slipping away in fear, and instead of waiting for Samuel to arrive to offer the sacrifice, he does it on his own, and as the offering is being burned, Samuel arrives. And boy, is he ticked. He tells Saul that if he had waited, as instructed, the throne would have stayed in his family forever, but as it stood, God was already looking for a new man for the position.

Unlike his father Saul, Jonathan listens intently for God's voice. He takes his armor-bearer on a little scouting trip, and with prayer and obedience, the two of them walk into the Philistine camp and immediately kill about 20 men, throwing the Philistines into a panic. When the hiding Israelites see the confusion, they pour in from the hills and Israel routes the Philistines, as Saul looks on. Although Jonathan has defied his father's decree to eat nothing, and his father finds out, the people of Israel rally around Jonathan and keep Saul from killing him. Nice family dynamics, again.

The king continues to fight Israel's enemies, but does not comply with the order to completely destroy Agag and Amalek. God sends Samuel to chastise Saul, and Saul argues with him, but finally repents from his stubbornness, but it is too late. The Lord has rejected Saul, and Samuel, a priest and not a warrior, ends up having to kill the captured king. God has promised to take the country away from Saul. Meanwhile, he sent Samuel to seek out David, the youngest of a large family, and anoint him as the next king of Israel. It turns out that David is quite the lyre player - he has a reputation that extends to the king's court. Saul summons David to play for him, and he is such a help that David is promoted to be his armor-bearer. So here we have the man from whom God has promised to take away the kingship, and the boy that he has decided will be king in the same room.

Now we get to one of the most familiar stories in the Bible: Goliath is bedeviling and taunting the Israelites, and scaring the pants off them. Only David, sent to bring food to his brothers, dares stand up for the name of the Lord, and the Lord gives him the victory over Goliath, leading to a routing of the Philistines. Both Saul and Jonathan come firmly into the camp of the David admirers... along with a great many of the Israelites. This proves to be a problem, as Saul is not happy that the people like David more than they like him. After hearing songs sung in David's praise, "Saul eyed David from that day on." ( I love how the ESV puts that!) He tries to kill David, but David evades him, and eventually Saul sends him out as a commander, where he had great success. This did not improve his standing with Saul as much as it improved his standing with the people.

Outwardly, though, Saul attempts to claim David's loyalty by giving him his oldest daughter as a wife. Somewhat obliquely, it says that when the time came, though, she was given to someone else. That's okay, though, because the youngest daughter, Michal, loved David. Saul came up with a great plan: send him on a mission that would likely kill him! So he told David that the only bride-price he would have to pay was 100 Philistine foreskins. Inspired, David killed 200 Philistines and took his bride-price back to Saul, and married Michal. This did not make Saul love David any more, though, and they were enemies from that day on.

With that, Saul begins trying to kill David in earnest. David has to rely on two of Saul's children, Michal and Jonathan to help him escape the predations of the king, but even as he runs, his reputation grows throughout Israel. He and his men are given food by a priest that was meant for the table of the Presence, and also Goliath's sword, and then David flees to Gath, where he feigns madness to keep out of THAT king's way. He sets up in a cave at Adullam, where his family and many other dissatisfied Israelites gather around him. He becomes captain over about 400 men. This sets Saul off in earnest, and he starts tracking David. He starts by killing the priest who had given David and his men food, and keeps hunting him after David and his men save the city of Keilah from the Philistines. Finally, David has a chance to kill Saul when he steps into the cave where he's hiding to relieve himself. Instead of killing him, though, David merely slices off a corner of his robe, the presents it to Saul later as proof that he is not trying to kill him. Saul accepts this, and asks David to swear that he will not kill any of his children in order to gain the throne. David agrees.

So there's a continuing war with Philistia, Saul is losing his grip on both himself and Israel, and David is trying to follow God's orders. Come back next week as the gripping saga continues...