Looking for Samuel

[JLG]

21) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 6


- So the Philistines get into trouble because they take God’s Ark in their cities!


- Interestingly they ask their priests and diviners how they must return it!


- And they do exactly how they tell them!


- Now the Israelites rejoice when they see the Ark back!


- But they shouldn’t have looked at it!


- So God strikes them and many men die!


- Once again, we see the difference between man’s tradition and God’s word!


- Men usually do as they please!


- But with God it doesn’t work!


- What do you think will happen when he cleanses human society to establish his kingdom?

 

[JLG]

22) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 7


- After 20 years the Ark comes to the city of Kiriath-jearim and the house of Israel begins to seek after God!


- And the Israelites take away all the foreign gods they have!


- Then Samuel prays for the Israelites!


- And he begins serving as judge over the Israelites!

- There is a war between the Philistines and the Israelites ask for help from God!


- So Samuel makes an offering and asks God for help and God answers him!


- And he sends thunder against the philistines and he throws them into confusion and Israel defeats them!


- And the Israelites pursue them and kill many!


- And Israel recovers its cities and the territory taken by the Philistines!


- And Samuel keeps judging Israel traveling once a year through the country to do his job and returning to his house in Ramah where he also judges Israel.


- So most of the time Israel opposes God and when they are in a bad situation they call for him!


- That’s a strange way to be a special people!


- They have been struck so many times!


- Fortunately, Samuel is their judge and he follows God and he has a good relationship with him!


- And God listen to him!


- Thus all the time it is a relationship between God and one of his faithful servants!


- Without such a relationship between GOD and ONE MAN, they would have been rejected all at once!

 

[JLG]

23) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 8

When Samuel is old, he appoints his sons as judges for Israel. But they are corrupted and they pervert justice. So because of such a situation the Israelites want a king. But it displeases Samuel who prays to God to know what to do. And God tells Samuel to do as they want but it means once again they have rejected him but it is the very nature of Israel to constantly reject God and serve other gods and they started doing it right at the beginning when they left Egypt. But the Israelites are warned because the king will ask for their sons for his army and Israel will work for the king. And he will take the best of what they have. And they will become his servants. And they will cry out But God will not answer them. But as usual, the people don’t listen to Samuel. And they want to become like the other nations.


- End of the story!


- The Israelites will become a nation like the other nations!


- They will have to pay a high price for that!


- Because a human king won’t behave like God!


- And God warns them!


- But they never listen!


- What a chosen people!


- What a stupid people!


- They could have had everything and they lost everything!


- Is it possible to be more stupid!


- But the majority of humanity has been doing the same!

 

[JLG]

24) Looking for Samuel




1 Samuel 9

Saul belongs to a wealthy family, he is the most handsome man and the tallest in Israel. He meets Samuel who must anoint him as king over Israel. But before that, Samuel invites Saul to eat with him.


- God chooses Saul as king over Israel!


- He is rich, the most handsome and the tallest!


- Everything according to human standards!


- But not according to God’s standards!


- He is supposed to free the Israelites from the Philistines!


- But he will make the wrong choices and will oppose God!


- He will pay the price for it and so the Israelites!


- They will be defeated by the Philistines!


- Power corrupts man!


- It is true with religion, politics and trade!

 

[JLG]

25) 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!

 

[JLG]

26) 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]

27) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 12

Samuel speaks before Israel, he says he is old, he did his best as judge over Israel and Israel testifies about Samuel’s great job for them. And he speaks about all the sins of Israel and the price they have been paying for that. He warns Israel if the people oppose God. And he is going to call on God to bring thunder and rain as it is the wheat harvest so they can understand what they have done against God by asking for a human king. Thus the same day God made it thunder and rain so Israel was greatly in fear of God and of Samuel. And Samuel will continue to instruct Israel. But he warns them again to follow God if they don’t want to be punished.

- Israel is warned!

- Israel sins!

- Israel is punished!

- And the story repeats all the time!

- Except that the sins are so numerous that they will end up being rejected!

 

[JLG]

28) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 13

Jonathan, Saul’s son, strikes a garrison of the Philistines and Saul let the people know about it and they are told to follow Saul against the philistines. So the philistines go against Israel and the people are trembling. And they keep waiting for Samuel to come. But the people begin to leave Saul so he decides to make a sacrifice. But as soon as he has done it, Samuel arrives and tells him that he has acted foolishly. And because of that, his kingdom won’t last and somebody will take it from him because he didn’t obey what God commanded him. And Israel doesn’t have many weapons because it was forbidden by the Philistines.

- Once again we are warned!

- Only the High Priest could offer sacrifices to God!

- The king couldn’t do it himself!

- But Saul did it!

- As a consequence he will lose everything!

- And humanity never understands!

- And God warns again and again!

- It happened with Israel!

- It has been happening with humanity!

- The price will be very high to pay!

- A question of life and death!

 

[JLG]

29) Looking for Samuel

1 Samuel 14

Jonathan decides to go against a garrison of the Philistines without telling his father and he wins. And the Philistines are in great confusion and they fight against each other. And the Israelites who fled or went with the Philistines come back to Saul and they pursue the Philistines. And God saves the Israelites. But Saul had told the Israelites not to eat before the evening and having finished with the Philistines. But Jonathan doesn’t know so he eats honey and his face begins to shine and the people tell him. And Jonathan says it was a mistake from his father because the Israelites could have killed many more Philistines. But at the end the people are so hungry that they eat the cattle with the blood but it is forbidden by God. So Saul says to the Israelites to make sacrifices to be forgiven by God. And Saul wants to fight against the Philistines so the priest tells him to ask God but God doesn’t answer so Saul wants to know who has sinned. And Jonathan says that he ate a bit of honey. So Saul wants to kill him but the people oppose Saul because the victory is possible because of him. So the people rescue Jonathan and Saul stops pursuing the Philistines. Saul secures his kingship over Israel and fights all his enemies and he defeats all of them. There is fierce warfare with the Philistines all the days of Saul.

- We are told about a story of wars!

- Jonathan eats not knowing his father said the Israelites couldn’t do it till the evening!

- As a consequence of Saul’s sayings, the Israelites are starving and they eat the cattle with their blood which is a sin!

- Bad decisions lead to sins against God!

- And sins accumulate to a great extent!

- When we look at today’s society, it is so far away from God that it is nonsense!

- And the world is getting crazy!

- And the scientists are warning the political leaders!

- But political leaders are trying to survive now so they don’t care about what comes next!

- The problem is that everything accumulates and the pressure will become more and more unbearable!

- And history is a warning but they turned off the alarm a long time ago!

 

[JLG]

30) 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 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 implies 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 for nothing!

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

- But being a human being is such a shame!

 

[JLG]

31) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 16

God sends Samuel to Jesse and he anoints one of his sons David the youngest one. And Saul asks for David because he plays the Harp well so Saul can find relief.

- Man only thinks superficially and according to appearances!

- God knows the inside!

- That’s why he chooses David!

- But David will become king!

- And because of power he will do such bad actions!

- And the price will be high according to the gravity of his bad actions!

- And man never understands!

- And today we see the same story!

- How boring it is!

 

[JLG]

32) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 17

Israel and the Philistines are going to fight again. Then Goliath, a giant from the Philistines, provokes the soldiers and tells them to send their champion to fight against him. And David has come to bring food to his brothers. When he hears about Goliath, he wants to fight him. So he tells Saul and God will help him win. And David will use his staff and stones. And David kills the Philistine striking him with a stone in the forehead and he cuts his head. Thus the Philistines flee and they are pursued by the Israelites.

- David follows God and he is rewarded!

- He will keep following God till he becomes king!

- Then with the time and because of power he will act stupidly!

- And he will pay for it the rest of his life!

- We must remember this example!

- Being faithful doesn’t mean we will keep being so!

- It is a warning!

- Being faithful requires strong efforts and humility to stay faithful!

- It is easy for man to forget and start behaving foolishly!

 

[JLG]

33) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 18

Jonathan and David become close friends and they make a covenant. And David is successful wherever Saul sends him so he puts him in charge of the fighting men. But Saul becomes jealous at David because the people speak better of David than of Saul. So Saul tries to kill David twice with his spear. Saul is afraid of David because God is with him so he sends him away to lead the army into battle. And David keeps being successful. And Saul hopes that the Philistines will kill him. Saul wants David to marry his youngest daughter in exchange for 100 foreskins of the Philistines. So David and his men kill 200 Philistines. And Saul gives him his daughter Michal. Every time David goes against the Philistines, he wins.

- Saul keeps opposing God and acting badly and trying to kill David!

- On the contrary, David keeps acting according to God!

- And he is blessed by God again and again!

- And it will be so till he becomes king!

- Then he will start to forget God and try to follow his own desires!

- How easy it is for a man to change his attitude even if he knows it is stupid and it means getting into trouble!

 

[JLG]

34) 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 is 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 up 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 stays 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]

35) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 20

David is afraid of Saul trying to kill him again. So he has a discussion with Jonathan and they decide that David goes away. And Jonathan will check what to do with him. Then Saul asks after David and Jonathan invents a story. So Saul tells him he knows Jonathan is on David’s side so he becomes angry. He asks Jonathan to have him come so he can kill him. Then Jonathan goes away and tells David about his father. Then David leaves.

- Jonathan knows that God is with David!

- He knows that David will become king instead of him!

- But Jonathan is not jealous!

- Here we have an example of what real friendship is!

- But in this world real friendship is getting harder and harder to find!

- In fact, real anything is difficult to find!

- Because superficiality is corrupting everything!

- It is like a dangerous virus which spreads everywhere and there is no cure!

- A pandemic!

 

[JLG]

36) Looking for Samuel

1 Samuel 21

David goes to Ahimelech the priest who is afraid because David is alone. David explains Saul gave him a mission but nobody must know. Then David asks the priest for bread or whatever he has. There is only holy bread and they can have it if David’s men didn’t go with women. David answers it is the case. Then David also asks for a sword and the priest gives him Goliath’s sword. And David goes to king Achish of Gath and acts as if he is insane.

- God keeps teaching David as he keeps fleeing from Saul to survive!

- Adversity is the best teacher!

- Because you have no choice but to fight for survival!

- Then you get stronger or you die!

- The law of nature!

- When you don’t fight for survival, you don’t get stronger!

 

[JLG]

37) Looking for Samuel

- In fact, we are not told a lot about Samuel!

- We know about his youth!

- We know God was always with him!

- We know he was a faithful servant of God!

- We know he was jealous for God against the Israelites!

- We know he was busy working for God!

- And it is a protection!

- We know Samuel’s sons didn’t choose the same way!

- They were corrupted!

- We know the Israelites asked for a human king because of Samuel’s two sons’ corruption!

- Life is not always easy even for a faithful servant of God!

- But at least he knows the way if he found the right one, he doesn’t have to look for it! (Paul was lucky to be put into the right track, he didn’t know he was wrong but his heart was sincere)

- Of course, in God’s world, it will be possible to work with him to make things completely different!

- Something we can’t even imagine till we are there and till we work for it!

- But there will be nothing better than working for God in his world!

 

[JLG]

38) 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]

39) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 23

God tells David to strike the philistines and help Keilah. And he killed many and rescued the inhabitants of Keilah. Saul goes to besiege David in Keilah. David leaves Keilah because God tells him that the leaders of Keilah will surrender him to Saul. Then David stays in the wilderness. Then Saul goes to the wilderness in search of David. Saul’s men are close to David and his men. But a messenger tells Saul to leave and look for the philistines who have made a raid on the land.

- Saul keeps looking for David to kill him!

- But God protects David and helps him to survive!

- God blesses David in everything he does!

- David carefully listens to God to know what he must do!

 

[JLG]

40) Looking for Samuel

1 Samuel 24

Once again Saul looks for David in the wilderness with 3,000 men. There is a cave and Saul relieves himself whereas David and his men are inside the cave. David doesn’t kill Saul but cuts off the edge of Saul’s sleeveless coat. And David prevents his men from killing Saul. Then David calls out after Saul and tells him he could have killed him but he didn’t do it. Then Saul tells David that he knows he will become king of Israel so he asks David to swear that he won’t annihilate his descendants and Saul goes home.

- Once again God protects David!

- And Saul goes away!

- But he will try again to kill David!

- It is something stronger than him!

- Even if he knows it is against God’s will!

- But he has the power!

- Thus he only understands power and violence!