1st Samuel

  1 Samuel Chapter 12 - Samuel's Farewell Address v1-18: Three Messages from Samuel Having anointed and established Saul as Israel's king, Samuel handed over his leadership to Saul in this speech to the public, most likely attended by the leaders of all the tribes. Samuel divided his speech into 3 topics: 1. Samuel announced the hand-over Samuel had completed what they have given him to do, to turn them into a country with a king. (v1-2) They have asked Samuel to turn the country's political system from Theocracy into Aristocracy.  Theocracy looks to God as the King and obeys God through the prophets. Aristocracy means "rule of the best" in greek, where the nation has a human king that makes the decisions. In most cases, the kingship will pass down to his descendants.  With this done, Samuel was no longer needed. Samuel was the last judge in Israel's history. The rulership will be handed to Saul, and his sons will continue to lead the worship to the Lord. 2. S...

  1 Samuel Chapter 15 -  Importance of Obedience v1-9: Saul's Compromised Obedience Over 400 years ago, the Amalekites attacked the Israelites as they were escaping from Egypt. God made a promise at that time that He will one day wipe out the Amalekites. Samuel gave specific instructions to Saul to not let anything live be it adults, children or animals.  Saul advanced with 210,000 troops to the city of Amalek. However he let the Kenites in the city to leave, as they had never done anything evil to the Israelites.  Saul had a great victory, but left the king Agag alive and took all the best of the sheep and oxen. Saul compromised the instructions of God to eliminate every living thing. Does that mean that Saul was right to show mercy, when God did not? While it is a usual thing to allow the enemy's king to live as a prisoner, and to take the abundance of the enemy's assets, it was made clear that this is not just a war, but to fulfill God's promise to destroy the Ama...

1 Samuel Chapter 14  - Fear versus Faith v1-5: Stalemate Saul, Jonathan and their soldiers (probably less than 1500) were camped at Gibeah (near to Giba), while the Philistines were camped at Michmash. These two camps were divided by a gorge with rocky cliffs.  Not all the Philistines soldiers were there for 3 companies have marched out to attack different parts of Israel (1 Sam 13:17). However, in order to attach each other, you would have to climb up the cliffs and you will become a sitting duck from arrows.  At this point, there's a stalemate between the two sides.    Saul has the priests and the ephod, wear he can seek for God's direction. But he did not do so. Perhaps he does not want to accept God's answers, especially being fearful if God says to attack. v6-15: Jonathan's Fearless Decision Jonathan decided to do a solo attack (with his armor bearer) without informing his father or anyone. Was this due to a young man's impulsive behavior or has this been t...

 1 Samuel Chapter 13 - Presumptions and Impatience v1-7: Jonathan's Victory Verse one may have missed out the age of Saul before he become king. It just said "lived for one year", but some commentaries said he was probably 30 to 40 years old. In his second year as king, he planned to go to war with the Philistines with 3000 soldiers.  Jonathan and 1000 soldiers were sent to Geba to attack a Philistine garrison and had a great victory. However Saul, being insecure, gave the credit to himself.  In reaction, the Philistines sent a huge reinforcement to Michmash (over a gorge from Geba), with 6,000 horsemen and uncountable troops. The number of chariots were assumed to be 3,000, rather than the written 30,000.  At that time, Saul's company of 2,000 soldiers were also at Michmash and they all were afraid and hid themselves in the caves and tombs. Saul and some soldiers escaped to Gilgal to meet Samuel.  v8-14: Saul's Disobedience  Samuel had asked Saul to w...