I SAMUEL CHAPTER ONE

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Looking for Samuel

1 Samuel 10
Samuel anoints Saul as king of Israel and tells him where to go and what to do and he will receive God’s spirit and will prophesy and become another person. Then they will meet again and Samuel will make a sacrifice and he will tell him what to do next.

- Samuel tells Saul what to do!

- Everything is well organized!

- Of course because it comes from God!

- Nothing is left to chance!

 

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Looking for Samuel

1 Samuel 11
Saul and Samuel organize Israel to fight against the Ammonites and they defeat them and Saul is made king by israel in Gilgal and sacrifices are offered!

- Saul’s kingship is validated by the victory over the Ammonites!

- Everything starts well!

- Saul is put forward!

- Samuel is behind!

- Israel rejoices!

- But it won’t last!

 

[JLG]

Looking for Samuel

1 Samuel 15

Samuel tells Saul that God has sent him to anoint him as king over Israel. Saul will have to strike the Amalekites and destroy them (man, woman, child and infant and all the animals) with all that they have because they opposed Israel. So they killed all the Amalekites except king Agag and the best of the flock and all that is good. But they destroy everything which is worthless. Then God tells Samuel what Saul and the Israelites have done and Samuel is very upset and he keeps crying out to God all night long. When Samuel arrives, Saul tells him he has done everything according to God. So Samuel asks about the flock and Saul says that the people have spared the herd for sacrificing to God. And Samuel tells him to stop. Because he hasn’t done according to God’s word, obeying God is better than a sacrifice. As a consequence, God has rejected Saul and he will put somebody else as king over Israel. Ans Saul kills Agag. And Samuel leaves and will never see Saul again.

- All the time God says one thing to Israel and all the time Israel rebels!

- But they never understand!

- And he strikes again and again!

- And when they can’t stand it they call for God’s help again!

- And when things get better, they start again to rebel against God!

- What about humanity?

- It is exactly the same story!

- They never understand!

- Till the end they will never understand!

- And when the end comes, it will be too late!

- They may cry, but it will be too late!

- Justice implicate that everybody must pay for his actions!

- Why are human beings so stupid?

- Because they are too superficial?

- They think they are important!

- But they are good to nothing!

- That’s why the Bible tells about God and few faithful human beings!

- But being a human being is such a shame!

 

[JLG]

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- Get away from this old world of Chaos and prepare for the New World!
- don’t do like the Israelites who stayed in the old world and died!
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Looking for Samuel

1 Samuel 19

Saul tells his servants and Jonathan that he wants to kill David. So Jonathan tells David to be careful and to hide. Then Jonathan speaks well of David to his father. Then Saul swears not to kill David; So David comes back and serves Saul again. There occurs another war between the Israelites and the Philistines and David kills many. Later Saul throws his spear to David again and David escapes. Then Saul sends servants to kill David and he escapes again. David goes to Samuel. When Saul sends servants to kill David they end behaving like prophets. In turn Saul goes there and behaves like a prophet.

- So Saul is the king and he chose to oppose God!

- When he realizes that God is with David he wants to kill him!

- But each time he escapes because God is with him!

- God is teaching David to become his faithful servant!

- But when David becomes a king, he gets into trouble and sins against God!

- He will get into trouble!

- God will make him pay the price!

- In the Bible no king stay faithful till the end!

- Power corrupts people!

- When a man gets power, he wants more power and he starts to think he can do whatever he wants!

- But all the time, it is a personal choice!

 

[JLG]

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- Get away from this old world of Chaos and prepare for the New World!
- don’t do like the Israelites who stayed in the old world and died!
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Looking for Samuel

1 Samuel 22

All those who are in trouble join David about 400 men. Saul is told about Ahimelech giving food and Goliath’s sword to David. As a consequence he sends for Ahimelech and all the priests of his father’s house. And Saul tells his servants to kill God’s priests but they refuse. So Saul asks one of his men, an Edomite to kill them and he kills 85 priests and women and infants and animals. One son of Ahimelech escapes and goes to David.

- Saul has lost his mind!

- He kills 85 God’s priests and their wives and infants!

- He thinks he can oppose God without paying the consequences!

- He will die for that, he and all his sons!

- And the israelites will keep doing the same paying a high price!

 

[JLG]

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- Get away from this old world of Chaos and prepare for the New World!
- don’t do like the Israelites who stayed in the old world and died!
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Looking for Samuel

1 Samuel 26

- Once again Saul is told where David hides!

- So Saul goes with 3,000 men to look for David!

- At night, David comes to Saul’s camp with some men and they take Saul’s spear and water jug!

- Then David tells Saul what has just happened and that he could have killed him!

- So each one goes his own way!

- There again we see the big difference of David before and after he becomes king of Israel!

- Before, he follows God straight away!

- After, he goes in the wrong direction!

 

[JLG]

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Get away from this old world of Chaos and prepare for the New World!
don’t do like the Israelites who stayed in the old world and died!
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Looking for Samuel

1 Samuel 31- 2 Samuel

Israel loses and the philistines kill many Israelites. Saul dies and his three sons too. An Amalekite who was fighting with Saul tells David about saul’s death and his three sons’ death.

- End of Saul’s story, first human king over Israel!

- A bad one as Saul opposes God and was rejected by him!

- Next comes David, the new king who follows God but power will corrupt him!

- And he will be punished by God!

 

[JLG]

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Get away from this old world of Chaos and prepare for the New World!
don’t do like the Israelites who stayed in the old world and died!
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Looking for Samuel

2 Samuel 5

- David is anointed king over Israel in Hebron by all the elders of Israel. He is 30 and he reigns for 40 years!

- He reigns for 7 years and 6 months in Hebron over Judah!

- He reigns for 33 years in Jerusalem over all Israel and Judah!

- He takes Jerusalem from the Jebusites!

- David takes more concubines and wives in Jerusalem after he comes from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to David!

- Then the Philistines come against him!

- God tells him to go against them!

- And he beat them!

- Later they come again!

- And God tells him to go around behind them!

- And he beat them again!

- Every time David follows God’s instructions to beat the philistines!

- And he beat them!

- But maybe you have seen a problem starting at his coming to Jerusalem!

- He gets many concubines and wives!

- And later he will get into trouble because of that among his own family!

- And not only that but Solomon will perpetuate the tradition to a far greater extent!

- As a result he will get away from God because of all his foreign wives worshiping other gods!

- And the price will be excessively high!

- But Samuel had warned Israel!

- How true he was!

- When we think about today’s human kings elected or not, that’ s the same never-ending story

 

[JLG]

Looking for Samuel

2 Samuel 9-10

David takes care of Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son and he gives him everything that belongs to Saul and he eats at david’s table. Then he beat the Syrians and the Ammonites. Then the Syrians regrouped and are defeated another time and they make peace with israel.

- Everywhere in 2 Samuel we hear about wars!

- How Samuel was right!

- Israel asked for a human king and they had to fight wars all the time!

- What a heavy price!

- How many people had to die!

- How is it possible to be so stupid!

- Human beings are supposed to have brains!

- But they are not able to use them for man’s benefits!

 

[JLG]

Looking for Samuel

2 Samuel 16

David meets Ziba Mephibosheth’s attendant who has come with donkeys carrying a lot of food. And Ziba tells David that Mephibosheth is in Jerusalem because he thinks the house of Israel will make him king. And David tells Ziba to take everything. Then David goes to Bahurim and Shimei, a man of the family of Saul’s house curses David and all the men who are with him because he is a bloodguilty man. But David lets him alive. Finally they arrive at their destination. Absalom arrives in Jerusalem. He asks Ahithophel what he has to do. Ahithophel tells him to have relations with his father’s concubines to get more support from the people of Israel. It is considered to be the word of the true God.

- So as we can see, David keeps paying the price for his bad actions!

- Thus God blesses those who act in a good way!

- And he condemns those who act in a bad way!

- There is always a price to pay!

- God’s way is not man’s way!

- It’s not because men usually forget this basic but fundamental principle that it is not true!

- It will be the same when God will put an end to this society!

- MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN!

 

[JLG]

Looking for Samuel

2 Samuel 20
A man called Sheba tells the people of Israel to go away from David and the people of Judah stay with David. David sends his men after Sheba. Joab kills Amasa. Then Joab and his brother Abishai chase after Sheba who refuses into Abel of Bethmaacah. So they besiege the city. The people of the city kill Sheba and give his head to Joab who then returns to Jerusalem.

- David has learned the lesson from Absalom!

- Thus he puts an end to Sheba’s rebellion all at once!

- Joab killed Amasa to protect David!

- Joab was ready to do anything to get Sheba!

- He could have destroyed the city of Abel!

- We can then understand why God didn’t want David to build his temple!

- David is a man of war!

 

[JLG]

Looking for Samuel

2 Samuel 24

- Yes, Samuel is not there anymore!

- And David makes a big mistake once again!

- Apparently it is normal for kings and important people!

- Apparently that’s the only thing they can do!

- Because nobody can go against them except God or another king who is stronger at the time!

- So David wants to now the number of inhabitants in Israel which is against God’s will!

- Ok he is incited to do it!

- But it provokes God’s anger!

- So David tells Joab to register the people!

- Joab knows perfectly it is wrong but David doesn’t listen to Joab!

- So Joab and the chief of the army register the people of Israel!

- There are 800,000 warriors armed with sword among Israel and 500,000 men among Judah!

- Then David has remorse and he asks God to forgive him!

- Then God sends the prophet Gad to David!

- And Gad tells David that God gives him three options!

-David must choose between:

- Seven years of famine!

- Three months for David to flee from his adversaries!

- Three days of pestilence in the country!

- As a consequence, God sends a pestilence on Israel from the morning until the designated time, so that 70,000 of the people from Dan to Beersheba die!

- What a great king and a murderer too!

- Samuel was so right!

 

[JLG]

4) God and Samuel / Samuel and God

- Eli and his sons are dead!

- The ark has been captured by the Philistines!

- The Israelites have been defeated by the Philistines!

- God strikes the Philistines till they send the ark back to Israel!

- The people of Bethshemesh were reaping the wheat harvest in the valley plain. When they raised their eyes and saw the ark, they were overjoyed at seeing it… So they choped up the wood of the wagon, and they offered the cows as a burnt offering to God… The men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices on that day to God.

- Everything seems to be alright!

- Do you think so?

- Well, in fact, it’s the contrary, everything goes wrong!

- But God struck down the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked upon the Ark of God. He struck down 50,070 among the people, and the people began mourning because God hade struck them down with a great slaughter.

- The Israelites did something which was wrong and they paid a high price as usual!

- And you call them a chosen people!

- And they never behave properly and they are struck all the time by God!

- Think about today!

- They definitely needed a man like SAMUEL to help them to follow God’s will and not man’s will!

 

[JLG]

8) God and Samuel / Samuel and God

When Samuel had grown old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beer-sheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways; they were inclined to pursue dishonest profit, they accepted bribes, and they perverted justice.

- When Samuel used to judge Israel, things were going well in Israel!

- In fact, we get a summary!

- We don’t know everything in detail!

- Things started to go wrong when he stopped judging Israel!

- His two sons replaced him as judges!

- But they didn’t follow their father’s path!

- We don’t have any information about how they were educated!

- We can be sure that Samuel’s job was a full-time job!

- He used to judge Israel all the time!

- And they were a difficult people and a hard one to manage!

- It strange to think that he could see what happened to Eli and his sons!

- And apparently, Samuel’s sons were extremely corrupted!

- Of course, we are responsible for our children!

- But when they become adults, they can decide which way they want to take!

- Bad company can play a negative part in educating children!

- Unfortunately, we don’t have the information!

 

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12) God and Samuel / Samuel and God

The day before Saul came, God had told Samuel: “Tomorrow about this time, I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin. You must anoint him as leader over my people Israel, and he will save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have seen the affliction of my people, and their outcry has reached me.” When Samuel saw Saul, God told him: “Here is the man of whom I said to you, ‘This is the one who will govern my people.’”

- Yes, and Saul was handsome and the tallest man in Israel !

- But he disobeyed God after a short while !

- And Samuel would get away from him because God rejected him !

- And he would be killed by the Philistines !

- And God chose David to replace him !

 

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16) God and Samuel / Samuel and God

But if you do not obey the voice of God and you rebel against the order of god, the hand of God will be against you and your fathers.

- That’s the problem!

- But in fact it’s not a problem when it is usual!

- Everybody must bear the consequences of one’s actions!

- It is fair enough!

- When someone dies because of he is irresponsibility, you can’t expect anything else!

- Many people act in a bad way for their health, they don’t care, then they get into trouble, even death, they can’t complain afterwards!

- When it’s not your responsibility, that’s another story!

- God and Samuel have been warning Israel!

- And others before them!

- So that’s perfectly right!

- You can’t complain!

 

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20) God and Samuel / Samuel and God

- The philistines are hard-pressing the Israelites!

- Saul has been waiting for Samuel for seven days!

- It was a test!

- And Saul disobeyed God by offering a sacrifice to God whereas Samuel has to do it because he was the high priest!

- Saul has just offered his sacrifice when Samuel arrives!

- And Samuel tells Saul that he has acted foolishly!

- He has disobeyed God’s commandment!

- Thus God has rejected Saul!

- The first human king has just been chosen than he ie rejected by God!

- It means a lot of trouble for Israel!

- But they are used to it!

- They can’t avoid it!

- It’s in their blood!

 

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24) God and Samuel / Samuel and God

God eventually said to Samuel: “How long will you mourn for Saul now that I have rejected him from ruling as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, because I have selected from among his sons a king for myself.”

- God is fast in choosing a new king over Israel !

- No one can change his mind!

- Once again, it shows the special relationship God had with some faithful servants because when he wanted to annihilate Israel they were able to make God not do it!

- But each time Israel would pay a high price for their rebellion against him!

- They would never escape punishment!

- Twice Jerusalem was destroyed and Israel was sent to exile!

- After they kill Jesus, Jerusalem was destroyed and Judah disappeared!

 

[JLG]

28) God and Samuel / Samuel and God

- David and Jonathan, Saul’s son, develop a strong relationship!

- They make a covenant between each other!

- David stays at Saul’s service!

- Saul puts him in charge of his fighting men!

- David is more celebrated than Saul!

- So Saul becomes jealous of David!

- And he becomes to suspect David!

- On two occasions Saul tries to kill David with a spear but David escapes!

- And he is afraid of David because he is successful!

- He wants David to be killed by the Philistines!

- So Saul proposes one of his daughters to marry him!

- But he must give Saul 100 foreskins of the Philistines!

- So David and his men kill 200 Philistines and brings their foreskins to Saul!

- Thus Saul gives his daughter Michal as a wife to David!

- Saul realizes that David is with David so he becomes more afraid of him and he becomes his enemy for the rest of his life!

- As we can see, Samuel was completely right, Saul is a human king and he acts according to his will!

- And he wants to get rid of D avid and he is ready to do anything!

- It has nothing to do with God’s will!

- And God won’t let him succeed!

 

[JLG]

32) God and Samuel / Samuel and God

chap 22

- Saul now said: “Listen, please, you son of A·hiʹtub!” to which he replied: “Here I am, my lord.” Saul said to him: “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, by giving him bread and a sword and by making an inquiry of God for him? He opposes me and waits in ambush, as is now the case.” At this Ahimelech answered the king: “Who among all your servants is as trustworthy as David? He is the king’s son-in-law and a chief over your bodyguard and honored in your house. Was today the first time I inquired of God for him? What you are saying is unthinkable on my part! Do not let the king hold anything against his servant and against my father’s entire house, for your servant did not know a single thing about any of this.”

- Ahimelech tells Saul about everything but Saul doesn’t want to listen!

- We can see how Saul progressively goes away from God and from doing what is right!

- He is the king so he thinks nobody can oppose his will!

- Now he speaks against God’s priests!

- Once again Samuel’s words were too true!

- Saul lives in his own world away from reality!

- And it happens the same way with other kings when they don’t want to listen to anybody!

- You don’t care about your mistakes!

- You don’t learn from them!

- You make more mistakes and you go to a dead end!