Table of Contents
1 Samuel
1 Samuel opens with a barren woman praying at Shiloh and closes with a king dead on his own sword. In between, the book turns Israel from a loose tribal confederacy into a kingdom. Samuel is the hinge — the last of the judges and the first of the writing prophets — and through him God gives the people the king they demand (Saul), rejects that king for disobedience, and quietly anoints the one He has chosen: a shepherd boy from Bethlehem named David.
The book is built on a single contrast, and Rembrandt caught it: a tormented king who kept the crown but lost the LORD, and the young man with the harp who had neither yet, and had God. “The LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7) is the sentence the whole book is written to prove. These studies go through it in order.
List Of Articles
For This Child I Prayed
a barren woman taunted year after year, a vow poured out in silence at Shiloh, and a son given back to God as soon as he was weaned
1 Samuel 1My Heart Rejoiceth In The LORD
Hannah’s song — the LORD who kills and makes alive, brings low and lifts up — against the backdrop of Eli’s sons fattening themselves on the offerings
1 Samuel 2Speak; For Thy Servant Heareth
a voice in the night three times mistaken for Eli’s, a boy who did not yet know the LORD, and a first hard word to carry — the word was precious in those days
1 Samuel 3The Glory Is Departed From Israel
the ark carried into battle like a charm and lost, Eli fallen backward, a child named Ichabod, Dagon face-down, and a plague that sent the ark home on a cart
1 Samuel 4-6Hitherto Hath The LORD Helped Us
twenty years of mourning, the idols put away, a nation gathered at Mizpeh, thunder against the Philistines, and a stone set up called Eben-ezer
1 Samuel 7Make Us A King To Judge Us
the elders ask for a king “like all the nations”; God tells Samuel it is not him they have rejected, but Me — then spells out what a king will cost
1 Samuel 8Is Saul Also Among The Prophets?
a tall young man out looking for lost donkeys walks into a kingdom; God gives him another heart — and on the day of his crowning he is found hiding among the baggage
1 Samuel 9-10God Forbid That I Should Cease To Pray For You
Saul’s one good day at Jabesh-Gilead; then Samuel’s farewell, thunder and rain in wheat harvest, and a promise to keep praying for a people who had wronged him
1 Samuel 11-12Thou Hast Not Kept The Commandment
the army melting away, Samuel late, and a king who could not wait seven days — one unlawful sacrifice, and “thy kingdom shall not continue”
1 Samuel 13To Save By Many Or By Few
Jonathan and his armourbearer climbing a cliff against a garrison, a rash oath that nearly killed him, and honey on the end of a rod
1 Samuel 14To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice
Amalek devoted to destruction, the best of the sheep and oxen kept back “to sacrifice unto the LORD,” a torn robe, and a kingdom torn away
1 Samuel 15The LORD Looketh On The Heart
seven sons pass by and none is chosen; the youngest is out with the sheep; man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart
1 Samuel 16The Battle Is The LORD’s
forty days of a giant’s challenge, an errand with bread and cheese, five smooth stones, and a shepherd who came in the name of the LORD of hosts
1 Samuel 17The LORD Was With David
the women’s song that lit Saul’s jealousy, a javelin thrown twice, a wife let down through a window, and a friendship that crossed the throne
1 Samuel 18-19The LORD Be Between Thee And Me For Ever
a test at the new moon feast, a father’s spear aimed at his own son, three arrows shot as a signal, and two friends weeping in a field
1 Samuel 20The Priests Of Nob
hallowed bread for hungry men, Goliath’s sword behind the ephod, madness feigned at Gath, the cave of Adullam — and Doeg the Edomite sent to kill eighty-five priests
1 Samuel 21-22Mine Hand Shall Not Be Upon Thee
Keilah delivered and ungrateful, the wilderness of Ziph, and Saul asleep in a cave with the man he was hunting standing over him, cutting only a corner of his robe
1 Samuel 23-24Withholden From Shedding Blood
a rich fool who would not feed the men who had guarded his flocks, and the wise woman who rode down the ravine to stop a massacre
1 Samuel 25The LORD’s Anointed
a night walk into a sleeping camp, a spear and a cruse of water taken from beside the king’s head, and a shout across the valley: who can stretch out his hand against the LORD’s anointed?
1 Samuel 26David Encouraged Himself In The LORD His God
sixteen months among the Philistines, a king who consulted a medium at Endor, Ziklag burned and the families gone — and a man who strengthened himself in God and recovered all
1 Samuel 27-30So Saul Died, And His Three Sons
the last battle on Mount Gilboa, an armourbearer who would not strike, a king falling on his own sword, and the men of Jabesh-Gilead marching all night to bring the bodies home
1 Samuel 31