1 Samuel Explained

This is perhaps one of the most gospel centered moments in the book of First Samuel. David, this shepherd boy king arrives on the battlefield, and as a representative, a willing servant. He says, I'll fight this giant, and so he not the nation. He representing the nation fights on behalf of the nation, he defeats him. The enemy of God is removed. The people of God are delivered and everybody celebrates. That's the gospel. David was a picture of Jesus who represented us all, who fights our enemy for us. That's how the nation of Israel got saved that day, and that's how we will later get saved on another day when our shepherd King Jesus dies for us and defeats Satan and gives us the victory.

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Hello and welcome to the You Can Learn the Bible podcast where we summarize complete Bible books in single episodes. I am Bodie Quirk from YouCanLearntheBible.com here with Joey Rozek, Lead Pastor of Living Springs Fellowship in New Jersey. What's up Joey? How are you today my friend,

Bodie, my brother. I'm doing great.

brother.

I

We're back man.

We are back to in our podcasting and we are coming into some great books ahead, historical books, right? First Samuel today.

Yep. I love it. And it's fun too because I think each book's a challenge like, and I think maybe our last episode was because it was the Book of Ruth, it was so short, we may have actually given people a reason not to read the book, cuz

That's right.

a good job.

I think we.

I hope.

I

I think we left out a few verses in the Book of Ruth for people to read on their own. But, we, no, we covered it well because we have the ability to really, dive into a book that's short like that and bring out so much of the richness of the redemptive plan of God in the Book of Ruth.

But we're not gonna be able to do that anymore because we're now in books that have loads of chapters now, coming into these historical books. But, uh, it is gonna be a great journey. You guys who are listening are gonna have a great podcast ahead to dive into the book, of first Samuel and the life of David. What a great story to unfold and to discover and to explore the riches of.

Yep, that's right. So it is first Samuel Explained. Our goal is by the end of this episode, you will have a working plan to really go and to study this book for yourself.

So we use a seven part framework to apply to each book. That framework includes the essentials of the book, the storyline, where it fits in the larger narrative of the Bible, the major themes and ideas, the structure of the book, what it teaches us about God, what we can learn for our own Christian lives, and maybe also some of our very favorite things as well. So that's our framework that we apply to each and every book.

So just a reminder, this is available in both audio and video. The audio is via the podcast app you're probably listening to now and on YouTube if you want to see us and see the slides that we use as we walk through this framework together. We do have some visuals, but we always make the listening experience primary, but that is an option for you. If you want to go watch it on YouTube, that's there as well.

Okay, so Joey, we now want to enter into this book of First Samuel. Let's start with the essentials. What do we need to know first when we go to study the book of First Samuel?

Well, first Samuel is a transition

from the time of the Judges, and it takes us right into the time of Israel's first kings. And so, what's great about First Samuel is, uh, If you want to gain great application from the Old Testament about living out a life for God and learning from the lessons and pitfalls of those who chose to do it their own way.

The book, the First Samuel, is a book on spiritual formation.

So what's great about this book is we get to actually explore the character of God as revealed through the Shepherd King David, but we also learn about the flawed character of those who follow their own hearts. So let me give you some of the essentials of the book that are really key as we dive in.

So, as always, let's consider the date period we're looking at. So 1100 to 1011 BC. As I've already mentioned, the judges are coming to an end with Samuel's birth. And then we're gonna go into the beginning of Kings. We'll see Saul, but eventually will arrive to King David. And that's of course the focal point of the books of Samuel.

Now, by the way, first and second Samuel is only one book in the Hebrew Bible called the Book of Samuel. And, in the genre that we're in, it's historical, so we're looking at from the judges to the Kings now the author of the book. Once again, we're not a hundred percent sure possibly, and probably most likely Samuel. Of course, this book is named after him, so, that would make sense here.

The setting is Israel and we're gonna see a focal point on the city of David called Jerusalem. And then we have the purpose of this book, which is really about God's rule in the nation of Israel, and we're gonna see not just God's rule, but we're gonna see where the heart is ruled by either God or man as a real focal point. That's huge.

And the audience is National Israel, and of course all generations who have faith in the living God. So this is gonna be a great book to dive into and if you've never really looked at the life of David before, and you're one of our listeners, I hope this will be a great launchpad for you to see how exciting it is to study his life.

Yeah. Well, and it's good too to know where it falls on the timeline, which we'll talk about in a second. But even more than that is we always wanna be mindful of the larger narrative as well. And you'd mentioned too already, Joey, this is a book about formation. It's, we're gonna see the formation of man, David.

But we're also gonna see that in light of two other very important characters, Samuel and Saul. So we'll get to that in a second. But it's interesting you mentioned that , it was just one book. In fact, I think the reason why it becomes first and second Samuel is just simply because ancient scrolls couldn't be long enough to hold both of 'em, and so they divided up into two.

But we want you to approach this as one story. That's how we find it in the Hebrew Bible, as Joey already mentioned. Okay. So I think we've gotten started at some of the basics. That's number one, the essentials.

So you'd mentioned a little bit of the storyline too. So this covers the end of one period and the beginning of another.

Right? So this is Israel's transition

from the time of the tribes where they were kind of operating as. Independent tribes with their own section of land, they're now going to become a nation. So the time of those cycles that we mentioned in the book of judges is now coming to an end. But there's another thing that's really starting to happen in this book, and that is the role of out outside nations on the heart of this one, right?

Because other nations are starting to have kings and Israel is starting to notice and want that for themselves. That's gonna be a key part. We'll get to the themes in a second. So cycles are ending, other nations have kings. The priesthood that was established through Moses and Aaron is starting to fail, there's starting to be corruption within that priesthood.

Israel itself has, its, immorality is starting to increase, but all this is the backdrop for the arrival of a very, very important figure called Samuel. So, What we wanna do is, let me go real quick, Joey, and I'd love to have you jump in on anything on the storyline number two,

but this is a graphic that shows what we're talking about, Samuel, is literally the transition between the end of the Judges, he is the last and final judge or deliverer, and he now is going to usher in the first King of Israel. And so this graphic kind of shows how some of the life of some of these key characters overlaps, if you can see it there. But just know Samuel is a transition point in the Scriptures.

And so, we've showed where first and second Samuel are at the very end of the Judges period. So Joey, I wanna hand it off to you, and I would love to have you read some of these verses and then add anything else you feel that our listeners need about number two, where it fits on the storyline.

But I think first Samuel chapter eight verses seven and eight are very good for us to start with as verses. Read us those if you would, and then add any other thoughts you want before we go into our themes and ideas.

All right, so let's hear from one Samuel chapter eight, verses seven through eight. It says, and the Lord said to Samuel, obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me. From being king over them according to all the deeds that they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you.

Now, what's really important about this passage that we've kind of started with is that the Lord is speaking to Samuel, and he's gonna speak through Samuel. You see, Samuel is the last of the judges and he's the first of the prophets in the Bible. And so Samuel's name in Hebrew means heard by God or asked of God.

Samuel is somebody who comes on the scene unexpectedly because as we are gonna dive in, in just a moment at the beginning of the book, He was the answer to a prayer of a mom who was barren. And there's a really powerful picture here, Bodie, that sets the tone for this book. What's going on in that little home where Hannah is praying for her womb to be opened is in many ways symbolic of what's happening in the nation of Israel.

There's a barrenness. We've already talked about the cycles and the judges. We've looked at God's redemptive plan in the life of Ruth, but now God is really focusing in on how the nation of Israel is going to operate. And they're gonna move kind of from a theocracy where God is in charge and they're gonna go into what's more called a monarchy, where human kings are ruling in human ways in the land.

And we're gonna see the good, bad, and ugly with that, aren't we? So, that's pretty much our storyline and I think you did a great job in just kind of giving us the transitional period. But there's some really key themes. And some really key ideas that are gonna be presented to us in First Samuel.

There are, and this is always so important. And so let's talk about this cuz we, what we wanna do is we wanna introduce this list to you and then we wanna show you, we wanna walk you through the book, through the structure so you can see how these themes come to life. Joey, introduce us, if you would, to some of these really important themes in first Samuel.

So, as I was just talking about

the barrenness of Hannah, the mother, that the story of First Samuel begins with is a picture of the bigger picture of Israel. So there's barrenness, there's conflict even in their home with Elkinah, the husband, there's two wives here, which we're gonna see the problems when you have multiple wives in polygamy.

But you also have this conflict in the nation of Israel that we continue to see with its surrounding peoples, the corruption that's within the hearts of man and the hearts of the priesthood. And this is key because there's the not hearing and the not heeding of the voice of God, that's a massive theme in this book.

And then of course, the Ark of the Covenant. Is a focal point. It's taken as a result of it taken, we can see that God's glory departs. We call it Ichabod. We're gonna see and learn about that. We see the difference between man's choice versus God's choice. That is a, a really key issue when the monarchy is being raised up.

And then we, of course we have the issue of once that monarchy is raised up or established in Israel, we get to really see the contrasting identities of men like Saul and David. And so we're gonna look at David's call and his line, his city, his covenant. That's key. And then we're gonna see the decline of Saul and the beautiful formation of David. This is what we're gonna really dive into as we look at the key themes and ideas of this book.

Yeah. Oh, thank you for walking us through that. And we will repeat some of these themes because these are big, big themes. And so it's so cool that the very last word of our last book, the Book of Ruth, was leading us up to David. Now, and this book is really gonna show us why he was such an important figure. But we can't understand David until we first understand. Samuel and Saul, they are the backdrop.

And so some of these themes that Joey just walked us through, we're gonna now see them come to life as we walk through the structure of the book.

So let's do that. So number four. So we've talked about the essentials of First Samuel, where it falls on the storyline. Joey just gave us some of the major themes and now we're gonna look at the kind of the next three parts of our framework, which is, What is the structure of the book? What are some of the major sections, but with each section, what does it teach us about God and what can we learn for our Christian life?

That's what we wanna do the rest of the episode before we end with just some of our favorite things that we can kinda add on at the end. Okay. So if you're ready, let's talk about the larger structure of the book. It's a pretty simple structure.

Chapters one through seven. Samuel's role in exposing the unholy priesthood. That's what the first section is about. The second section is Saul's Reign, expanding Israel's pride. So that's chapters eight through 15. So you got one through seven is about Samuel's role exposing an unholy priesthood. Eight through 15 is Saul's reign, expanding Israel's pride. But then once you get to 16, the second half of the book is where we really start to see David come on the scene. So part three is 16 through 31. David's Anointing, expressing God's heart. So before we even get into the structure, Joey, anything you want to add as we kind of look at it from this high level?

Well, you know, you can notice the three major characters that is in this outline. Samuel, his role, saw his reign. David, his anointing. I think that's really key that you kind of really hone in on that. For those of you who like to put outlines together. I think what's interesting is the exposing that's done by Samuel as a prophet reveals what's happening underneath the surface.

Saul expands what is already happening beneath the surface, which is pride and sin and rebellion. David is expressing something. He is allowing God to work through his life and we see a beautiful picture of a shepherd boy who was overlooked in many ways by his father when he becomes king. But then he, he goes from being overlooked to almost being overtaken when Saul pursues him.

So, as we dive into these chapters, there's so much application on real life scenarios that we all go through. Of course, the famous David and Goliath is gonna be in this book, this story that everybody's familiar with. So let's dive in. I'd like us to just get right into going into these sections.

Yeah, let's do it. Okay, so part one of First Samuel is chapters one through seven. So what's happening here is Samuel's role in exposing an unholy priesthood. So in this section what we're gonna see is the birth and call of Samuel. As Joey already mentioned, the last and final judge, the close of the judges period. Samuel is that transition. So here in the first. Seven chapters. We get to see that actually taking place. But it's not just that.

The loss and the recapture of the Ark of the Covenant to the Philistines also happens in this section. So in chapters one through four, you basically see God's calling Samuel and raising him up, amidst the backdrop of what should be a proper representation of the heart and character of God, the priesthood in Israel. But in fact it is full of corruption and wickedness.

And so, everything that we're gonna see in this episode, whether it's Samuel, Saul or David, is always in light of something else that's happening. We see these parallel realities and how they intersect throughout this whole book. So God calls up Samuel in a really cool and interesting way. But it's really to expose the wickedness of the priesthood. But then Samuel becomes and really begins to act as this judge, as a leader, as a deliverer inside Israel.

And so that's where the ark, which I'd love Joey for you to explain why the ark is so important, because it becomes a real important focus, in this section, but the arc is captured by the Philistines and then it is recovered, and God uses Samuel in a lot of really, really powerful leading ways to really realign Israel's focus back to where it should be.

In fact, first Samuel seven, three says, and. Samuel said to all House of Israel, if you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord. Serve him only and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.

So we see the rise up rising up of Samuel. We see the capturing and the retaking of the arc, but what is the ark, Joey, and why is it such a big part of this section of First Samuel?

Well, the Ark is certainly a focal point because it represents the power and the presence of God. Among his people. It's also called the Ark of the Covenant because of course it is representative of God's commitment to his people. And I think what would be good, for those of you that are listening in, if you have the opportunity to open up your Bibles, open up to First Samuel, so you can go along with us through this.

But I do wanna hit on a few things in this first section of chapters one through seven that I think are really key for our listeners to grab ahold of. First of all, the book of First Samuel in the beginning, starts with a broken family situation. Now, how many of you out there right now have had some problems in your family?

How many of you have had some dysfunctionality in your family? Listen, if you're living in a broken world, then you have some kind of brokenness in your family. And so what's interesting is that Hannah, the woman who's introduced to us in the beginning, She prays, she seeks God. She brings the family brokenness before the Lord and her barrenness before the Lord.

And what happens is God births something inside of her, a baby, not just any baby, a judge, not just any judge. A prophet. A prophet to the nation of Israel. And so that's so key as the whole prayer of Hannah unfolds in the first chapter and second chapter where you actually get to read her prayer. I would encourage you to take some time and read through the

Oh, it's beautiful. Yes.

prayer. But then right after that, Bodie, we go from the house of people to the house of God. And that's why the Ark of the Covenant is so important is because once you see at the end of chapter two, we see that the Sons of Eli were committing hideous Acts. Bodie, they were doing things that are not only so misrepresentative of God, but they were actually leading people away from God.

And I'll tell you, it breaks my heart, Bodie, how many things are done in our world that misrepresents the heart of God and that turns people away from the faith when in actuality, it's not God that's disappointing people. It's people disappointing people.

And I think that's so key, and so when you get to chapter three, you know what I love, Bodie, is God speaks. God speaks. He's like Samuel Samuel and he speaks out his name and, and I, you know what's interesting? So many people don't know how personal God is, nor did Samuel. He's thinking that when God's speaking to him, it must be Eli, the high priest, and so he's like, Eli, in the middle of the night, why are you calling me? And Eli's like, I'm not calling you. Go back to bed.

Sure.

And, uh, so, so Samuel goes back to bed and God calls again, Samuel Samuel, and, and same process goes over, you know, three or so time, four times. And then finally, Eli clues in, you can see how far apart he is from God, cuz he doesn't catch it until a few times later and says, I think God might be speaking to you, Samuel.

Next time you hear those words say, speak Lord for your servant. Is listening brothers and sisters out there. This is a great prayer and this is where everything in our life falls in alignment with God is when you listen to the voice of God, the voice of God should determine the choice of man. And if you are living by your own ways and your own heart, you're gonna see destruction.

But when you start living by God's ways and God's heart, you will start seeing deliverance. You will start seeing blessing. And that's really what we see in the life of Samuel. But it's not what we see in the life of the priesthood. And so you get into chapters five through seven, and it's like the ark is being removed. Eventually we have what's called Ichabod, the glory of God. Departs, Eli's sons die. And then eventually Eli hears the news, he falls back on a chair. He dies. And that's the tragic ending to our first section. What a sad tale of events. Bodie.

Well, I liked how you brought out the contrast between two houses, right? You have, you have the House of God, which there's corruption, and you have the house of Hannah, a barren woman who is seeking the Lord the way that they should be doing in the priesthood, and they're not. And what's interesting too is, is that the theme of barrenness is an Old Testament motif.

We saw it with Abraham and Sarah, we saw with Isaac and Rebecca. God is keeping the covenant. The covenant is the thread of the entire Old Testament scriptures up until the fulfillment in Christ. But I think, yeah, you're right. So now Samuel not only is called, but he acts as the final judge. And really at the end of chapter seven, Samuel Restores Israel, which now we see a big turning point, don't we, Joey, in chapter eight.

So in chapters one through seven, Samuel's role was to expose the unholy priesthood. He does that, he acts as the judge. The ark is captured, it is restored. Now what happens? Chapters eight through 15, our next section. Now we're introduced to another important character, aren't we? Where this is all about Saul's reign and expanding Israel's pride.

So what's going on? What we talked about earlier is the nation is now noticing that other nations have something they don't have and that is a king, and they start to lust after that. It's not that they're seeking God as their king, he already was their king. God isn't even in the thoughts anymore. We want what they have. It all goes back to the flesh. Now, what's crazy is God already had plans by King for them, but because they demanded it on their own terms, they are going to then reap those consequences, aren't they, Joey?

So chapter eight through 15 is really the introduction of Saul and we really break it up into two sections. So what happens here, we call it Saul's reign in expanding Israel's pride, the people choose Saul as their king, despite warnings that God gives directly through Samuel, and God ends up actually rejecting the king that they chose. So in this section, there's two important kind of subsections. In chapters eight through 15, they're real simple.

Eight through 12 is all about Saul becoming king. And 13 through 15 is how God rejects Saul as king. So what? Who cares? Joey, why is this important for us to understand the major ideas happening in this middle section of chapters eight through 15 of First Samuel?

Yeah. Well, I'm gonna start by reading first Samuel eight verse 19 because if you're in your Bibles or you're listening, carefully listen to these words. The Lord is showing the people by warning, listen. Be careful what you ask for. They wanna live like the world. They wanna look like the world. They wanna be like the world that comes with the world's problems. It's a broken world.

So here's what first Samuel eight, verse 19 says. It says, but the people refuse to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, no. But there shall be a king over us. They're demanding a king, and you know, this reminds me of in the New Testament when Paul is talking to the Roman believers and he says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.

You see, brothers and sisters, we can either let the world dictate for us what we believe and what we think and what we say, or we can let the creator of the world, God himself, be the director of our lives. And unfortunately, chapter eight just starts with mankind trying to fit in. Listen, if you try to fit in a world that you don't belong to, you are gonna end up into a situation where you will no longer belong to the people of God. You can't have it both ways. Jesus says you can't serve two masters.

And what's interesting is, is we really see in these chapters unfolding, it's not only is Saul chosen to be king, But you also see that Saul was, on all practical purposes, he seemed like the kind of guy that everybody would rally around, and he's sort of the tall, dark, and handsome guy. He's described to us as a man who is a son of a powerful family. He's. Got great appearance on the outside, but where does God look?

See, this is what is so key. God looks in a different place and we'll talk about that in a moment when we think about how man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart when we go to the next section. But, what I want you to realize, everyone who's listening right now is that when people take charge of their own lives, the Bible says there is a way that seems right to a man. But it's end is the way of death, and we're gonna just see the deterioration of Israel while Saul is reigning.

You know, righteousness exalts a nation. And of course people rejoice when there is a righteous king, but it doesn't. It happened this way, in the story of Saul. Saul, basically shows his flaws and his character, and eventually he's rejected as king as we get to chapters 13 through 15, he makes a foolish vow.

He can't wait for Samuel, and Bodie, how many problems have come because people didn't wait on the Lord. Didn't we see that in Genesis when Abraham and Sarah created an Ishmael because they just didn't wait on the Lord while the same thing happens with Saul, A lot of man's sins perpetuate in generations.

And we see the problem here and what eventually happens is God tells Samuel, he refuses him as king and, says that he's gonna raise up another, and that's, that's where I, I think we come to this most important transition. Unless you wanna add anything else, we'll, we'll go. Um, what do you wanna add into this section?

No, I, I just, no, this is great because what we really see on display, when we ask the question, what do we, what does this offer our Christian life? We see the flesh and the spirit. We see God's will, and we see man's will literally working themselves out together. Friends, you have the freedom to live however you want.

There is a cost to it.

Yes,

But if you choose, and you and I choose godliness, there is a cost to that, but there's a blessing to it as well. What we see with Saul is that because they demanded it a lot, like the, the son that came to the father in Jesus' parable of the lost son, right, he says, I want my inheritance now.

Well, he was always gonna get the inheritance, but it was the manner to which he approached it. That set the tone for his collapse, and he actually ended up repenting and coming back. And we'll see that kind of heart with David, but that's what's going on. When we demand God to operate on our terms, we set ourselves up for our own future pain.

That's right.

And that's what living in the flesh is, right? Rather when we trust God and we walk in his ways and at his pace and on his terms, it might not be the way we go about it, but it always ends up blessing us more in the long run.

And we, that's what we see. They get what they want. And one of the interesting things about Saul is that we see the word that he's gonna take, he's gonna take, he's gonna take mention all throughout and that, so they get what they want, but God has not left them, Joey, has He? God has something else in mind

as we now go into, in fact, this verse is, It is really gonna be our really important, you already mentioned this verse once. I'd love for you to read 1 Samuel 13:14, and then take us into really, it's really part two of the book. It's the second half, but it's our, it's our third section. Read this verse Joey, and then talk to us to it, why it's so, so important.

Yeah. Well, when we come to First Samuel chapter 13, what we see is that the Lord is revealing through Samuel that God has a plan to raise up another king. And here's how it goes. It says, but now your kingdom, this is speaking to Saul, but now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.

What a powerful verse, and of course, this is what really distinguishes the life of David from the life of Saul. Where is our pursuit in life? Jesus says, where your treasure is there, your heart will be, also. David was a man after God's own heart. Saul unfortunately was a man following his own heart, and there's a principle, and you kind of hinted on it earlier, Bodie, when you talked about the flesh in the spirit.

But think about it like this. Our trouble will always be our flesh. Our triumph will always be our spirit. If we align ourselves with God, we will start to see how God honors those who honor Him, words that Samuel himself will say.

And so we come into this third section, which is chapter 16 to 31, and we titled it David's anointing, expressing God's Heart. This is where we're gonna see he's anointed as Israel's true king. Not Saul. David was the one that God was choosing here. Saul doesn't like it though, this is the whole turning point. So, Of this next section is that Saul is threatened by David, he pursues David, but David keeps pursuing God. And that's the difference between a man who's being formed by God and then another man who's being conformed to the world, and missing his transformation. So this is a powerful section. So this begins really in chapter 16, right, Bodie?

Right, exactly. So everything that we have now seen Samuel, was the transition to the end of the judges. He exposes the un holiness and wickedness in the priesthood, God uses him, but then the people demand and God gives them what they ask for and they're like, oh gosh, this guy isn't all at all what we wanted.

But God, all the while had David in mind. So that's why chapter 16 is such an important turning point, and the way that David gets even on the scene, Joey is so interesting because it's nothing like anybody would've expected. His first, anointing is even is, no one's even around for it, It's, it's a private anointing.

So, there's so many insights in this section. Okay, but let's talk about what happens cuz we got a large chunk of scripture here. How do we break it down for people? Okay, let's talk about it this way. In chapter 16 through 18, you have David's rise to prominence. So 16 through 18 is where the Goliath moment happens, but that's only one part of it.

Okay, so that's the rise of David in 16 through 18. In 19 through 23. Then that's where we have what Joey talked about, Saul's jealous rage, and then we see the final parts of First Samuel 24 to 31 is basically about David's exile and then it actually ends up in the death of Saul.

So, okay. That's a lot. Joey, we got a lot to cover in this one section, but we wanna make sure that our listeners don't get lost. Let's just try and focus on the most important things. Let's start with David's rise to prominence, cuz that's some of the, the chapters you mentioned earlier, that people know what's important about chapter 16 through 18. And then take us anywhere in this section. And as we look at David anointing and expressing God's heart.

Well everyone out there listen to this, God's ways are not our ways. He sees things that we can't see with our human eyes. And what's beautiful about the rise of David is when Samuel shows up at Jesse's house, which is David's father, he basically, is led by God to be there to anoint the first king, but Jesse doesn't even mention David to Samuel.

He brings out all of his sons one at a time and lines them up. And each one is examined by Samuel. And Samuel realizes this is not what God has chosen. None of these men are. And so ask the question, is there anybody else? Uh, have you given me all of your sons? And then sort of Jesse, as an afterthought says, well, I do have another son, but he's

There is this one other guy. Yeah.

This is one other guy. He happens to be his own son. He's out taking care of the sheep. Now. Listen to that. He's out What? Taking care of the sheep. You see, this is the heart of God. God wants a shepherd to be king.

God wants somebody who knows how to protect people, how to feed people, tend to people, and David is gonna be that boy, so when he's anointed by Samuel, one of the beautiful things that comes out in one Samuel chapter 16, verse seven, is that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.

Something I alluded to earlier, and everyone out there understand this. God was working in David's heart. He was taking him through tests in life. Some of you have gone through some incredibly hard trials lately. Some of you have gone through great tragedies throughout your life. Some of you have felt overlooked and you felt like nobody's noticing you.

Well, listen, God notices you, God sees you. God has a plan to work through your life, and God shows that through David. And so that's the beautiful point of this first section of the, king that God is choosing. Is. he has a different criteria that he's looking for in his leaders. He wants servant leaders, he wants shepherd leaders. He wants spiritual leaders. And I would pray that all of us would desire to live a life that models after these beautiful characteristics. And so that's really what we

the people like demanding a king and God's like, okay, I guess you could have that. And then, but I got something way better over for you. And how many times have we demanded something and then later learned that was not what I thought it was.

That's

And God, all the while only ever has good for us, and the question that is always at the bottom of all the other questions is, will you trust me? And that's what we see. And so Saul, or I mean, sorry, Samuel is literally being obedient to God, but he, so he goes to Jesse's house, like you said, David gets privately anointed, but then, oh my goodness, a lot happens in the still. We're still in 16 through 18. What happens, Joey, after that anointing?

Well, as sure as there was a boy overlooked, then we go to the scene in Israel where Goliath is standing there. This sort of about nine foot, nine inches, roughly giant of Gath who represents the Philistines, the enemy people of the nation of Israel, and they're lined up in battle array, and David's not even a soldier at this time. He's not even lined up, but God sends him on a little mission.

Sends him on a little mission to go to the fields, and he discovers that when he goes to give some bread and cheese to his brothers, he discovers this massive battle array and listen very carefully, as sure as David was once overlooked, now he comes to a battle scene, where God's people are underestimating the power of God, and David looks and sizes everything up, and in a very short way says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that defies the armies of the living God?

And David shows great courage when all of these warriors and fighters in Israel are really cowardly, shrieking back and not willing to fight Goliath. It was, it was supposed to be a Battle of Mano io one-on-one, and each person was to represent their nation. And this is really powerful. I just wanna say this for all the listeners here.

This is perhaps one of the most gospel centered moments in the book of First Samuel. David, this shepherd boy king arrives on the battlefield, and as a representative, a willing servant. He says, I'll fight this giant, and so he not the nation. He representing the nation fights on behalf of the nation because of his faith in God, and he slings his stone on his slingshot, and he crushes the head of Goliath, well, what did we read in the book of Genesis chapter three?

He says that I will put enmity between your seed and her seed, and he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Well, what's amazing is David bruises the head of Goliath, by crushing him, he defeats him. The enemy of God is removed. The people of God are delivered and everybody celebrates. That's the gospel. David was a picture of Jesus who represented us all.

Who fights our enemy for us. Who wins the battles because the battle belongs to the Lord and salvation belongs to the Lord, and that's how the nation of Israel got saved that day, and that's how we will later get saved on another day when our shepherd King Jesus dies for us and defeats Satan and gives us the victory. Hallelujah.

That's the awesome part of this story in this section. Amen.

Oh, oh my gosh. I, I think we're done, friends. That was a good episode. I think Joey just, just landed the plane for us. No, that was so good, and my favorite thing, my favorite little detail here is, what is it that exactly enrages David against Goliath? It's that Goliath has defamed the name of the Lord. It's not that he called David names, and it's not that he was, I mean he was taunting the people. That wasn't what enraged David. It was the fact that he was standing up against the living God.

And it reminds me of Jesus, in the temple, the very place where God was supposed to be adored and worshiped properly when they were selling and ripping people off. That's much later, obviously during the life of Christ, it's the same, godly heart that brings out that rage is intended to preserve the honor of God, David has a God-centered heart.

That's what it means that he's a man after God's own heart. It doesn't mean that he does everything right. Second Samuel is about mostly David's mistakes and their problems, but David was a man who repented and sought God. We'll get to that in our next episode.

So Goliath dies. David becomes this national hero pretty much overnight, and Saul goes nuts and we have chapter after chapter after chapter where, where the phrase, and we see this phrase, Saul has slain his thousands, but David, his 10 thousands and like, and that becomes the banner of rage and jealousy that Saul, so in the next block of chapters, 19 through 23 so we're coming to the end of the book.

Saul pursues David's life, but the very interesting thing is that the next king who, the Saul's son, Saul, was the first king. They usually handed it down to their son, who's the son of Saul, Jonathan. Jonathan, who was the next king in line, is loyal, not to his dad, Saul, but to David, God's anointed. So he protects David. God is of course sovereign to keep David amidst Saul's jealous rage in 19 through 23. And then of course, we have basically a continuation of that toward the end of the book where David's life is spared. The Philistines. David even aligns with them, and of course Saul has a very tragic ending and death. And that's where the book kind of ends.

But the idea here is really, David is a man after God's own heart because he trusted God and cared about his honor, God's honor more than his own. Anything else? Joe, you want to add?

Yeah, you know, as we're looking at this final section, you know, this whole second half of the book, I. After David and Goliath, as you rightly said, there, there is the aftermath that kind of sometimes exposes where people's hearts really are at, you know, as Saul is eyeing David, I love the fact that God keeps his eyes on David, God keeps his hand over David. God keeps his love toward David.

And so we read in, uh, First Samuel 18:14, and David behaved wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him. And you really see that now through the unfolding chapters through the rest of this book. God just keeps being with him. God is providential.

God is showing himself strong on his behalf, but I love that you mentioned Jonathan. You know, one of the beautiful stories. That should never be lost when you read first Samuel is the closest friendship we almost see in scripture, between David and Jonathan. Now, Jonathan is the son of Saul, but Jonathan shows his loyalty to David, and I love the way that they made that truce kind of made a covenant together, that they would always look out for one another.

Eventually, when push comes to shove and everything goes really sour for David. Not only does Jonathan go out and see him and encourage him, but David remembers him and we'll see that in the next book of how David will honor his commitment to him, but there's one more thing I think that I should just mention, and when you get to chapter 22, which is a section where David meets the men who will later become his mighty men.

You know what it says about them? It says that they were discontented, they were in debt, and they were distressed. Now again, some of you out there, one of those things might relate to you today. Are you in debt? Are you discontented? Are you distressed? Well, what I love is that David is in the cave of Abdula, he's gone through so much hardship, but David, Is a worshiper, he played music.

Not only did he play music for Saul to soothe his distressing spirit earlier, but now he's soothing the distressing spirits of many other men. And if you ever get removed from your position, or you find yourself in a location of life that you didn't think you would be in, you don't have to stop being who God's called you to be.

You can keep being faithful right where you're at. You can keep worshiping God, as David would say in Psalm 34,:1, I will bless the Lord at all times and his praise shall continually be in my mouth. And I honestly believe Bodie, that's what changed the men who were around David, they saw a man who was looking at God and longing to be like God.

And those men came out of their depression, came out of their situations of distress and discontentment and found a reason to praise and worship God, and I think that's the beautiful kind of triumphant, redemptive part of this whole story with David is how David is still touching lives and restoring lives while he's running away from Saul, who's throwing spears at him, who's trying to kill him.

But, but David never

over.

Bodie, you and I were talking earlier about this, remember that time when he almost could have killed Saul, what does he say? I love what David says, right? Instead of killing him, you pick it up from

Yeah. Yeah. In fact, I think I was always kind of reflecting on like as you were talking, like what are one of my very favorite things? This kind of would be my answer. I'm saying it now cuz we're here cuz you brought me there. So David is, Saul hates David, he's jealous, he's in a rage.

He's pursuing him. Saul's son, Jonathan is helping David survive, and then David finds Saul asleep in the cave and David now has the chance to get him. He has the chance to kill him and he doesn't. And it's not the fact that David doesn't take vengeance, that is one of my favorite things about this book, it's how David talks about Saul. How David thinks about Saul. He says, who am I to attack or to kill the Lord's anointed?

So even though God has rejected Saul in favor of David, David's heart not perfect was still, there was a reverence, there was a respect to the position that he was in. Even though as a person he was horrible to David, David was not going to show vengeance.

And it wasn't because, oh, well I want to be a better person. It was because that person's made in the image of God, and Saul is the Lord's anointed, and it's not my place to take vengeance cuz vengeance belongs to the Lord. So good.

That was chapter 26, verse 11 that you were quoting from, it's so good because, a lot of us, we sometimes wanna retaliate, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, but you cross me and watch out, you know, David shows us a different way. He shows us how to leave matters in God's hands to be sacrificial and to trust that God will be the ultimate judge.

God determines who's in one place and who's another. This is so important and I'm so glad you brought that out, Bodie. I know it's one of your favorite things in the story and um, and one of the things that I think as we just kind of wrap up this section is that, isn't it tragic? What we see in Saul's life in the final chapters. I

It's so

do you know what's so sad? We're talking so much about David and how God's showing us his character and the formation of his life, but, the sad reality is Saul is deteriorating. This guy goes from bad to worse, and not only does he do the very thing that he commanded the nation not to do, which was to go see a medium to try to talk, you know, to Samuel, once he dies, he wants to talk to him in the end, and he's trying to get counsel not from God, he wants counsel from a dead guy.

And you really see that Saul has lost the plot. He is no longer fit to be king. He's no longer worthy of the crown, but he won't let go of it. Eventually, I. His own pride takes him down and he deteriorates from the inside, eventually takes his own life. And that's really where the book of First Samuel ends, doesn't it?

Is that there's this tragic ending to Saul's life and then we're gonna really turn all of our attention now on the different adventures that David goes on, the trials, the testings, the triumphs. So

Yeah, so good. Yeah, because Second Samuel is such a different book than First Samuel, but, of course we need all of this to see that, and what's interesting too is that if, for those of you who are watching,

you can see that the land now went from being kind of divided amongst the tribes originally with Joshua all through the time of the Judges, which we talked about is kind of ending during this season.

We see that Saul then becomes the first king, and he's now the first king of the nation as a single whole nation, but what we'll see in the next episode is that the land really expands.

David experiences a lot of favor militarily. He expands the nation and really fortifies the nation. And so there's just a couple maps that are here on the video for that.

We'll cover that next time. But, Joey, do you have anything else? I think I'm done. You set me up perfectly for my kind of favorite thing about First Samuel. Anything else you wanna add? Cause I'm good to wrap it up if you are my friend. This was a great

of shared all my favorite things really already.

I, I guess I would just leave our listening audience with just this thought, where is your heart today? Are you pursuing God? Are you trusting God? And how about this one, are you resting in God's plan for your life? Because, God has his timing for things. He makes all things beautiful in its time. There was a timing for David's anointing. There was a timing for Hannah to give birth to a child named Samuel. There was an appointed time of judgment for Eli and his sons. They weren't getting away with it. Sometimes you're thinking, why is there so much evil in our world and why isn't it being taken care of?

Don't worry, God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows that he will also reap, and that principle is really seen through the contrast of Saul and David, and so let's be men and women who are after God's own heart. Let's seek God and learn from David how to do that, that's what I, I pray you're gonna keep being blessed by, as you read the book and as we go into the second book, second Samuel. So, that, that's all I've gotta say. This has been awesome to study this book, on this episode, Bodie.

So good and I think, I hope that you feel more equipped to go into read it again, this is not intended to replace, but to supplement, to enhance, to equip and to inspire your study of the word of God.

So that is episode 15. First Samuel explained, we are now all, set to go to episode 16 and now see where the story goes with David, because there's gonna be some very, very important things that we're gonna see in Second Samuel, but we're not getting into it now.

That's for, that is for our next time. In the meantime, friends continue to seek the Lord. Keep your eyes on the Word of God, and may these episodes not only equip you, but inspire you because again, as always, with every episode, we believe that you can learn the Bible, and we pray that you will stay hungry for God's word more and more and more each day. So until then, friends, be blessed and be in the word. Until next time, we'll see you. God bless you.

Amen.

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