Samuel Survey of the Old Testament: The Prophets Fall 2005

Download as a PDF file Listen to the mp3

[Next: The Reign of King Saul]

Introduction

Background

Name: The original Hebrew bible calls this book “Samuel” after the primary character from the early part of the book. Beginning with the Septuagint the book has been divided into two: 1 st and 2 nd Samuel.

Author: Anonymous. However, the Jewish Talmud indicates that Samuel was the author up to the record of his death, and that Nathan and Gad completed the book. 1 Chronicles 29:29 states that the acts of David were written in the chronicles of Samuel, Nathan and Gad. It is not clear, however, whether or not that reference is actually this book or not.

Date: The date of the events recorded in Samuel cover just over 100 years from the birth of Samuel in 1080 BC to the death of David in 970 BC.

The book was most likely written after the reign of King Solomon due to references to Israel and Judah, but before the fall of Israel in 722 BC, as the author does not refer to the end of the northern kingdom [1].

Audience: The nations of Israel and Judah in the time of the kings.

Structure

The book is divided into three sections:

• The judgeship of Samuel (1 Sam. 1 – 8).
• The reign of King Saul (1 Sam. 9 – 31).
• The reign of King David (2 Sam. 1 – 24).

Purpose

Samuel was most likely written to defend the institution of the monarchy. Samuel presents the monarchy as a gift from God [2], established to restore order and promote the worship of the true God of Israel. Samuel begins with the moral chaos of the time of the judges, including the corruption of the priesthood, the loss of Ark of the Covenant to the Philistines, and imminent threat by the Ammonites. Under the reign of Saul and David, order is brought to the chaos. The worship of the true God is restored, the ark is brought to Jerusalem, and all of Israel's enemies are finally subdued.

Samuel also defends the house of David as the rightful royal family (2 Samuel 7:16), and that someday it would be a son of David who rules from the throne forever (2 Samuel 7:12-13).

Theme

The book of Samuel begins with the story of a barren woman named Hannah. Hannah's husband had two wives, and the other wife had born children. Hannah, distraught over her barrenness, goes to the tabernacle and fervently prays for a child, promising that any child granted to her would be dedicated to the service of the Lord. The Lord hears the prayer of Hannah and blesses her with a son, Samuel.

In response to the blessing of the Lord, Hannah prays a poem of thanksgiving to the Lord. This poem sets the theme of the entire book of Samuel.

The LORD makes poor and rich;
He brings low, He also exalts.
He raises the poor from the dust,
He lifts the needy from the ash heap
To make them sit with nobles,
And inherit a seat of honor;
For the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S,
And He set the world on them.
(1 Samuel 2:7-8)

Throughout Samuel, God, in his sovereignty, lifts the lowly to places of prominence. Hannah, the unfortunate barren woman gives birth to the great judge and prophet of Israel, Samuel (1 Sam. 1:20). Saul is from the least family of the smallest tribe of Israel, but is lifted up to become Israel's first king (1 Sam. 9:21). David is a young shepherd boy who even his father did not consider worth mentioning, but is lifted up to become the greatest of the Israelite kings (1 Sam. 16:11). Indeed, God raises the lowly for:

God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7)

Likewise, God, in his sovereignty, brings down the arrogant. Eli's sons, the corrupt priests, are cut off from the priest hood (1 Sam. 2:31). Saul who arrogantly offers a sacrifice to God without Samuel and disobeys God by not destroying the Amalekites (1 Sam. 15:11), has his family removed from the throne. Even David arrogantly takes Bathsheba from Uriah and is brought low by God through the prophet Nathan (2 Sam. 12:13-14). Finally, at the end of David's life he takes a census as an arrogant admiration of his own reign, only to be humbled by the Lord (2 Sam. 24:10).

While the book of Samuel affirms the monarchy as a good and vital institution for Israel, the author shows that the monarchy only works when the king is following after the Lord. God is the one who is sovereign, and he is the one who establishes and strengthens the king.

Those who contend with the LORD will be shattered;
Against them He will thunder in the heavens,
The LORD will judge the ends of the earth;
And He will give strength to His king,
And will exalt the horn of His anointed.
(1 Samuel 2:10)

The Judgeship of Samuel (1 Sam. 1 – 8)

Israel's Low Point

The books of Samuel begin at a low point in the history of Israel. The nation is at the end of the period of the judges, where the nation is in virtual anarchy and is facing the ramifications of its moral decay. It is the time when “there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Joshua 21:25).

Failure of Eli's Sons (1 Sam. 2 – 3)

The moral failure of Israel is even found within the priesthood of Yahweh. Eli the priest seems to be a good man, but his sons are corrupt using the power of the priesthood for their own pleasure and gain. Eli's sons would steal the best meat from the temple sacrifices, intended for God, and use it for themselves. In addition, Eli's sons were sleeping with the women who came to worship at the tabernacle. Eli was upset at the behavior of his sons, but he did little about it. As a result, God used the young man Samuel to deliver the message to Eli that his family would be cut off from the priesthood forever.

The Ark Captured (1 Sam. 4 – 6)

As if the corruption of Eli's sons was not enough, Israel would soon loose the most holy item of worship, the Ark of the Covenant. This ark contained the tablets of the law delivered by Moses, and more importantly was considered the throne of God kept inside the holy of holies of the tabernacle. The ark was where the glory of God dwelt inside the tabernacle.

However, Israel decides to take the ark out of the holy of holies and to carry it into battle against the Philistines. The ark was seen not as an illustration of God's holiness, but as a good luck charm that would bring them success in battle. By carrying the ark into the battle it illustrates Israel's contempt for the true worship of God.

But this good luck charm did not work, and the Philistines captured the ark. Now the ark ended up being a curse to the Philistines, as any town that possessed the ark would suffer from a plague of tumors. As a result, eventually the Philistines ended up sending the ark back.

The loss of the ark represented the removal of the presence and glory of God from the nation of Israel [3]. God no longer dwelt among his people because his people had such disregard for him.

Samuel's Judgeship

Samuel's Success (1 Sam. 7)

This low point in Israel's history only has one bright spot: the rise of the last judge of Israel and one of her greatest prophets, Samuel. Under Samuel the nation experienced a revival, repenting of their worship of Baal and Ashtaroth. In the tradition of the judges, Samuel also led Israel into battle against the Philistines. With the help of the Lord they defeated the Philistines and liberated towns which had been under Philistine rule for years. Under Samuel's rule as judge, Israel saw peace from her neighbors, returned to the worship of the true God. Therefore, God caused Israel to start to prosper.

Samuel's Failure (1 Sam. 8)

Towards the end of Samuel's life he set up his sons as judges over Israel. However, his sons were dishonest, taking bribes from the people. Samuel, who saw Eli unwilling to confront his sons' corruption, now seems to be ignorant of his own sons' sins.

The elders of Israel come to Samuel concerned about his sons and concerned about who would lead them after Samuel was gone. They are looking for a king to lead them.

Samuel was very much against a king. He warned them that a king would draft their sons into his army and a king would tax them heavily. Furthermore, by asking for a king, the people were rejecting Yahweh as their king and substituting a human for the role of God.

The request for a king was not necessarily sinful. First, the book of Judges clearly demonstrated the need for a strong central leader. Secondly, the Torah made provision for a king to rule Israel (Deut. 17:14ff). Certainly, having Israel ruled by Samuel's sons was not better than having a king (vs. 5).

However, the nation wanted a king for other reasons as well. They were under threat from the nations around them, and they saw a king as being able to fight their battles (vs. 20). They no longer trusted God to defend them in battle and instead wanted to see the establishment of a king's standing army to defend them [4]. In so doing, they rejected Yahweh as their king (1 Sam. 8:7).

Footnotes

1. Eugene H. Merrill. “Judges.” The Bible Knowledge Commentary. John F. Walvoord & Roy B. Zuck, ed. (Victor Books, 1997). Electronic edition STEP file.
2. Ronald F. Youngblood, Ph.D. “Judges.” The Expositor's Bible Commentary . Frank E. Gaebelein, ed. (Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 1998). Electronic edition STEP file.
3. Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible Book by Book . (Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 2002), 84.
4. Youngblood.

[Next: The Reign of King Saul]