1-2 Samuel

I have to apologize for how bad I've been at updating this!

Today's post is on 1-2 Samuel.  As I understand it, these were originally considered one literary piece.  This is one of the handful of Old Testament books that many of the classic Sunday School stories come from (e.g., David & Goliath, King Solomon's wisdom, the building of the temple, etc.)

The first book starts with the raising of Samuel, who will be the last great prophet from the era of the "Judges".  In fact, in addition to being a prophet, he is a judge as well.  It is during his time as prophet and judge that the tribes of Israel start asking for a king to rule over them, like the other nations have, instead of the more informal concept of local prophets and judges.  He warns them of the consequences that setting up a king over them will entail, but they demand one anyway.  So God has him pick a king fitting for their behavior.  A tall, young man named Saul, who doesn't really seem qualified to be the ruler of the country.  But God none-the-less ordains him for this purpose.  There seems to be a lot of tension in this book about Saul and his kingship.  He is shown to be a lousy king for the most part, but the text also says that he was ordained by God for the role, and refers to those who complained about him being made king as "scoundrels".  So there is this constant tension in the text about kingship in Israel.

Famously, Saul doesn't make for a great king, and God eventually takes away his kingship from him, and instead gives it to a young man named David, who had become an important leader in Saul's army.  Saul spends much time in the book trying to kill David, and keep him from being king.  He eventually commits suicide in the end.  Unlike Saul, David is described as being "a man after God's own heart", although he too was a flawed and sinful character.  So sinful, in fact, that he is not allowed to build the temple, and is told he must wait for his son to build it instead.  But unlike Saul, what made David so different was his attitude of repentance.  He sinned, but he repented of it, instead of continuing in his rebellion.  It is under David's rule that Israel for the first time really flourishes as a nation in its own right.  He is forever looked back as the first true great king of Israel.

The Ark of the Covenant features prominently in these books, and it's capture and retrieval often are an expression of how rebellious or obedient the Israelites are to God at that point in the story.  The pair of books are very action oriented, and it's easy to see why this is the material that often makes it into Sunday School classrooms.  It's actually interesting to me that there hasn't been more of an effort to make film(s) based on these stories, because they certainly have the plot lines to support it.  Maybe instead of making another film about Moses, somebody should contemplate giving some of these stories a chance.