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1 Samuel 15-16

The Israelites have the king the asked for, but like most politicians, the power has gone to his head.  Saul thinks his decisions are better than God’s and when God tells him to totally destroy the Amalekites, Saul applies his own interpretation and spares the king, Agag, and the best of the sheep and cattle.  God’s eyes saw what Saul had done, and when he tells Samuel, he is so troubled that ‘he cried out to the Lord all that night.’ – 1 Sam 15:12 NIV
Saul, however, is not experiencing the same remorse.  Instead, ‘”he has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.” 
When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The LORD bless you! I have carried out the LORD’s instructions.”
But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”
Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”
“Stop!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.”
“Tell me,” Saul replied.’  – 1 Sam. 15:12 NIV

Samuel lets Saul have it, and Saul pleads his case saying he saved the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to God.  Samuel is not impressed and replies:
“Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD ?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has rejected you as king.”  – 1 Sam 15:22-23

It is too late for Saul.  Another king will be anointed by Samuel.  A king who will be after God’s own heart.  A king who may not be perfect, but one who will always obey the voice of the Lord.

1 Samuel 11-14

Saul has been declared the king , but it is not in his heart or in the heart of the people…until the crisis comes.  Saul was out plowing with his oxen when the weeping messengers come to Gibeah to report how the Ammonites promised to gouge out the right eye of every citizen of Jabesh Gilead.  Immediately, the Spirit of God came on Saul and a righteous indignation rose up in him that caused all of Israel and Judah to answer his call to arms.  They went out to battle the Ammonites and Israel’s success was so great that, ‘The people then said to Samuel, “Who was it that asked, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring these men to us and we will put them to death.”
But Saul said, “No one shall be put to death today, for this day the LORD has rescued Israel.”
Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and there reaffirm the kingship.”  So all the people went to Gilgal and confirmed Saul as king in the presence of the LORD. There they sacrificed fellowship offerings before the LORD, and Saul and all the Israelites held a great celebration.’– 1 Sam. 11:12-15 NIV

The Israelites now have their king, one who is not afraid to go up against their enemies and fight.  But the hearts of the people are already turning toward Saul and his armies and away from the Lord God.  Samuel gives them one final warning that if they serve the Lord they will prosper and if they do not, ‘both you and your king will be swept away.’‘

 ‘Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel forty-two years.’ – 1 Sam 13:1 NIV  But those years were not exactly what the Israelites were hoping for.  As Samuel had warned, they paid a price for their king.  ‘All the days of Saul there was bitter war with the Philistines, and whenever Saul saw a mighty or brave man, he took him into his service.‘ – 1 Sam. 14:52 NIV

Allegiance to any king results in continual battles and giving up the best.

1 Sam. 10

His actions in later years as king make it difficult to believe, but Saul really was a reluctant leader to begin with.  He told Samuel he was not the man as he was from an insignificant clan of the most insignificant tribe in Israel. But Samuel knew that nothing was impossible with God and he told Saul that “The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.  Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.” – 1 Sam. 10:6-7 NIV

And that is exactly what happened.  “As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed Saul’s heart, and all these signs were fulfilled that day.” – 1 Sam 10:9 NIV

Saul met the procession of prophets as Samuel said he would, and the next thing you know, he is prophesying with the best of them, to everyone’s amazement.  Samuel proceeds to Mizpah and summons the people, to announce that God has chosen the king they have been asking for.  From all of Israel, he chooses the tribe of Benjamin, and from the tribe of Benjamin he chooses Matri’s clan and from Matri’s clan he chooses Saul.  But Saul is nowhere to be found.  Where is this king chosen by God?   Where is this guy with the change of heart?  Where is the person who heard the voice of the Lord and prophesied with all of the other prophets?  The King James Version puts it this way.   “And the LORD answered, Behold he hath hid himself among the stuff. ” -1 Sam. 10:22

This brave king, this chosen one, was hiding in the stuff.  Was he busy counting what he would lose if he became king.  Tallying up his computer games, cell phones, i-pods, designer wardrobe and fast cars?  Or was he counting up his accomplishments:  his family, his awards, the organizations he belonged to, his title, his six-figure salary.  Whatever the stuff he was hiding in, he was not hidden from God who saw right through him along with the stuff.   The stuff was not what God had chosen him for and not what God wanted Saul to use to guide the people of Israel.   The Spirit of the Lord was all Saul needed.  All of the stuff he was hiding in was useless.

1 Samuel 8-9

Samuel had been a faithful servant to the Lord God, but his sons did not follow his lead.  Much like the sons of Eli, his predecessor, they were more interested in ‘what’s in it for me?’ than in serving God. This was obvious to even the Israelites, so they ask Samuel for a king.  God told Samuel that he, Samuel, was not the one the people were rejecting, but the kingship of the Lord God himself.  God also tells Samuel to relay to the people what their life will be like under the king.  How the King will take the best of everything, their crops, their land, their flocks, and even their children, for his own benefit.  That does not discourage the Israelites.  ‘But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us.  Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” ‘ – 1 Sam. 8:19-20 NIV

So Samuel goes looking for a king.  And where does he find him?  He finds him wandering about, looking for a bunch of donkey’s.  He’s a big, strapping boy, but he’s lost, and furthermore, he’s from the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest tribe in Israel.  They became so small when the rest of the Israelites almost annihilated them because of their sinful treatment of the Levite and his concubine.  Even Saul protests that he should not be king.  ‘Saul answered, “But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?”  – 1 Sam. 9:21 NIV

But Saul was not of Samuel’s choosing, he was chosen by God.  The people asked for a king, they would get one.  Saul may have not been what they needed, but he was what they deserved. 

1 Samuel 4-5

Eli had been warned that his sons would die because of their wickedness in disrespecting the sacrifices to God.  If Eli passed that information on to his sons, they paid no attention.  The next time the Israelites were defeated by the Philistines, Hophni and Phinehas grabbed the Ark of the Covenant out of the temple and carried it into their camp.  That excited the Israelites, but scared the Philistines to death.  “A god has come into the camp,” they said. “We’re in trouble! Nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the desert.”  – 1 Sam. 4:7-8 NIV

The Philistines knew better than the Israelites that you cannot mess with the Lord God.  They had heard of his power and they were afraid, in contrast to the Israelites who thought that God was theirs to use as they saw fit; to drag around whenever and wherever they needed victory.

Boy were they wrong.  The Philistines slaughtered thirty thousand Israelites, captured the Ark, and all hell broke loose.  Hophni and Phinehas are killed.  When he hears the news that the Ark has been captured, Eli falls backwards off his chair and dies.  Then his daughter-in-law, Phinehas’ wife, gives birth to a son and names him Ichabod which means ‘no glory’, just before she dies.

There is no glory when God is taken out of the temple, off the throne, and away from his dwelling place.  The Philistines discover that immediately, and the Ark is passed from place to place like a hot potato.  It went from Ebenezer, to Ashdod, to Gath, to Ekron.  Wherever the Ark went, gods were destroyed, people developed tumors, death and panic filled the cities.  A power had been loosed in the land and it was too powerful to be consumed.

“Ichabod,” Phineas’ wife cries, “the Glory has departed.”  Woe to all, the Israelites and their enemies as well.  The Glory has departed.

1 Samuel 3

‘The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.’ So begins the Third chapter of First Samuel.  ‘One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place.  The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was’. – 1 Sam. 3:1-3 NIV

Eli is an old man going blind, and the blind eye he has cast towards the sins of his two sons, has resulted in being blinded spiritually as well.  All he has to rely on is the familiar, so he is lying down in his usual place while Samuel is lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.  But the lamp of God had not yet gone out.  Samuel, the one prayed for and consecrated to the Lord, still has eyes and ears.  At first he thinks the voice he hears is Eli, so in obedience he runs towards the voice.  But it is not Eli, it is the voice of God, and Samuel runs towards that voice.  He runs toward the Lord for the rest of his life.

 ‘The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground.  And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD.  The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word.’ – 1Sam. 3:19-21 NIV

Throughout his life, God gave Samuel the ability to hear and see what others could not.  Even as an old man, he sees God’s hand on a ruddy faced shepherd boy who will become the king of Israel.  Samuel hears and sees from the Lord until the day he dies. 

1 Samuel 1-2

The first book of Samuel begins with the story of another barren woman.  This time it is Samuel’s mother, Hannah, however, instead of an angel appearing to her, she pursues God on her own, weeping, praying and finally vowing that if God will give her a son, she will consecrate and dedicate him to God.  She was so engrossed in pouring out her soul to God that Eli, the priest, thought she was drunk.  When she told Eli the truth, he told her to go in peace, and a miraculous thing happened, she was overcome by peace.  Her mood changed; she was able to eat, smile, and she had a lilt in her step when went back home with her husband.

It wasn’t long before Hanna received the answer to her prayer; a son she named Samuel, which can mean ‘name of God, asked of God or heard by God’.  Who knows exactly which meaning Hannah was referring to, but it is clear she recognized that Samuel was a gift from God.  As soon as Samuel was weaned, she keeps her vow, presents him to the Lord to become a priest, and then prays the following prayer,
“My heart rejoices in the LORD;
in the LORD my horn is lifted high.
My mouth boasts over my enemies,
for I delight in your deliverance.
“There is no one holy like the LORD;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
“Do not keep talking so proudly
or let your mouth speak such arrogance,
for the LORD is a God who knows,
and by him deeds are weighed.
“The bows of the warriors are broken,
but those who stumbled are armed with strength.
Those who were full hire themselves out for food,
but those who were hungry hunger no more.
She who was barren has borne seven children,
but she who has had many sons pines away.
“The LORD brings death and makes alive;
he brings down to the grave and raises up.
The LORD sends poverty and wealth;
he humbles and he exalts.  – 1 Sam. 2:1-7 NIV

This must have given the priest Eli some thought as his own sons, who should have been consecrated to the priesthood, were wicked men.  They abused the people’s sacrifices and offerings to God until finally God sends a messenger to tell Eli that the priestly line will be cut short because of their sins. “But now the LORD declares: ‘Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained. The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your family line and you will see distress in my dwelling. Although good will be done to Israel, in your family line there will never be an old man. Every one of you that I do not cut off from my altar will be spared only to blind your eyes with tears and to grieve your heart, and all your descendants will die in the prime of life.
” ‘And what happens to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you—they will both die on the same day.  I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his house, and he will minister before my anointed one always.'”  – 1Sam. 2:30-35 NIV

 Hannah’s words are true.  The Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.  By him the barren becomes plentiful and the plentiful become barren.

Ruth 1-4

Much is written about Ruth.  The title of this book of the Bible is after all “Ruth”, not “Naomi”, and Ruth is the central character, but what about Naomi?  She was a young wife when she went with her husband and two sons to Moab to escape the famine in their town of Bethlehem in Judah.  Although her husband died, she remained in Moab with her sons and eventually was blessed to witness the marriage of both of them, to wonderful local girls, Orpah and Ruth.

But times change, and although news eventually came from Judah that the famine was over, both of her sons died in Moab before they could journey back home.

“Oy vey, my life is over.” she may have cried.  “What am I going to do without my sons.  I’m never going to be a grandmother.  And wouldn’t you know it, there’s food in Bethlehem, and I’m here.  I may as well lay down and die.”

But Orpah and Ruth would not let her down.  They started out for the old country with their mother-in-law and had no sooner started their journey than Naomi changed her mind.  “What am I doing,” she asks them, “schlepping you two shikses back to my country.  Stay here in your own country, where you belong.”

That argument worked for Orpah, but for Ruth, it was a different story.  When she married Kilion, it was for better or worse.  This may have been the worst she could have imagined, but Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.” – Ruth 1:16-17 NIV

“Call me Mara,  because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.”  Naomi told the women of her home town when they greeted her.  But for this typically pessimistic, Jewish woman, it was not the bitter end.  It was the beginning of a great dynasty, and later, as she held her new grandson on her lap, the women of the town said to Naomi: “Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel!  He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”  – Ruth 4:14-15 NIV

The baby she held was Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David, whose lineage produced “Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. – Matt. 1:16

Judges 19-21

The last few chapters of Judges keep emphasizing the fact that in those days there was no king, as if that was an excuse for the human condition.  Things had deteriorated so far in Israel, that it was no longer just the aliens who were out of control, but the Israelites as well.  So it is not unusual that the story of the Levite and his concubine occurs. 

This unnamed Levite lived in a remote area of Ephraim.  He took a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah, but she ran away to her father’s house.  The Levite went to Bethlehem to bring her back to his home, but was forced to spend the night on the road.  Not wanting to stop in the alien town of Jebus, they proceeded on to Gibeath in Benjamin, where an old man invited them to spend the night at his house and:

“they had something to eat and drink. While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him.”  

The owner of the house went outside and said to them, “No, my friends, don’t be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don’t do this disgraceful thing.  Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don’t do such a disgraceful thing.”

But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go.  At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight.

When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold.  He said to her, “Get up; let’s go.” But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.” – Judges 19:21-28 NIV

The Levite is so angry when he gets home that he cuts his concubine into twelve pieces and sends one to each of the tribes of Israel and they arm themselves to go up against Benjamin.  It finally comes to this, covenant people against covenant people, brother against brother, God’s chosen against God’s chosen.

And so the book of Judges ends with these words:  In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.

Joshua 17-18

What do men do when they are in a land filled with milk and honey, and they have no king?  In Israel’s case, they should have functioned as a ‘nation under God’, because that’s what they were and they had the law to prove it.  They had the law, and they had their history which should have been enough to order their steps, but it was not.  The last few chapters of Judges show just how far from God’s intent Israel had come.  It seems that once the tribes went their separate ways, they forgot all of their lessons and commandments.

Judges 17 tells of Micah from the hill country of Ephraim who stole money from his mother, and when he confessed to the crime, she gave it to him to make an idol.  So he set up a shrine, made an ephod and several idols.  Reading the story you expect the earth to open up and swallow them, but instead a Levite from Bethlehem is convinced to stay with Micah and be his priest.  Then, if that wasn’t enough, five warriors from the tribe of Dan see the priest and return later and steal both the idol and the priest.  Micah calls his neighbors together, they go after the Danites and the following scene takes place:

As they shouted after them, the Danites turned and said to Micah, “What’s the matter with you that you called out your men to fight?”

He replied, “You took the gods I made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you ask, ‘What’s the matter with you?’ “

The Danites answered, “Don’t argue with us, or some hot-tempered men will attack you, and you and your family will lose your lives.”

So the Danites went their way, and Micah, seeing that they were too strong for him, turned around and went back home.

With the priest and the idols in tow, the Danites raid the peaceful and unsuspecting town of Laish, burn it to the ground, build their own city, and install the idols. What happened to the ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me, Thou shalt make no graven image, Honor thy father and mother, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, Thou shalt not kill’?