Looking for Samuel

[JLG]

41) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 25

Samuel dies and all Israel mourns him. David sends some of his men to Nabal, a rich man and asks him for food because his men protected him. But Nabal doesn’t care so David wants to kill him. So Nabal’s wife Abigail sends food to David and goes behind her servants. She asks David to forgive her husband and accept her gifts. Thus David listens to her. Later God kills Nabal and David takes her as his wife. And David marries other women.

- Abigail is a good and intelligent woman!

- David listens to her and doesn’t kill her husband!

- Later when God kills Nabal, David marries Abigail because he knows she is a good and intelligent woman!

- In fact, he takes care of her!

 

[JLG]

42) 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 with David before and after he becomes king of Israel!


- Before, he follows God straight away!


- After, he goes in the wrong direction!

 

[JLG]

43) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 27


- David decides to leave the land of Israel and looks for protection among the philistines!

- And Saul stops searching for him!


- At this time, David has only two wives, Jezreel and Abigail!


- He stays with the Philistines for a year and four months!


- And David would fight the Geshurtites, the girzites and the amalekites!


- He would kill men and women and keeps the animals and clothing!


- Thus they couldn’t speak to the Philistines!


- So Achish the Philistine king thinks David will always be his servant!


- Thus David shows himself cunning!


- Well, he has no other way to escape Saul even if God is with him!

 

[JLG]

44) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 28


- The Philistines are going to fight against Israel!


- Achish wants David to be his bodyguard!


- Samuel has died!


- Saul has removed the spirit mediums and the fortune-tellers from Israel!


- When he sees the Philistines, Saul is afraid!


- And God never answers him!


- So he asks his servants to look for a spirit medium!


- So they tell him about a woman!


- Saul disguises himself and goes to see her at night with two of his men!


- But she tells him that she can’t do it as it is forbidden!


- But Saul tells her she won’t have any problems!


- He tells her to call Samuel’s spirit!


- Of course, it can’t be Samuel’s spirit!


- Because Samuel wouldn’t get into contact with Saul when he was alive!


- And God wouldn’t answer Saul either!


- The woman understands that king Saul is in front of her!


- But Saul tells her not to be afraid!


- The spirit asks him why he inquires about him since God has departed from him and has become his adversary!


- The spirit then tells him that he will lose the battle!


- And Saul and his sons will die!


- And David will become king over Israel!


- According to man’s standards, God may take time to realize his decisions!


- But when the time has come, it happens!


- Thus time has come to put an end to Saul’s reign!


- Let’s David’s reign begin!

 

[JLG]

45) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 29-30


- Because of the other Philistine Lords, Achish tells David to go back to his city and not to fight!


- When David goes back to Ziklag, the Amalekites have made a raid against the city and have burnt it and taken captive the women and all the inhabitants in it!


- And David’s men want to stone him because of their sons and daughters!


- Then David asks God if he must chase after the Amalekites!


- And God tells him to go after them!


- David fights against the Amalekites and recovers everything!


- And God keeps blessing David who walks in God’s path!

 

[JLG]

46) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 31- 2 Samuel 1


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]

47) Looking for Samuel

2 Samuel 2


David asks God if he must go up into one of the cities of Judah and God tells him to go to Hebron. There he is anointed as king over the house of Judah. Abner, the chief of Saul’s army, makes Saul’s son Ishbosheth king over Israel. He is 40 when he becomes king of Israel and he reigns for two years. And David is king in hebron over Judah for seven years and six months. Then a fight occurs between 12 men of Benjamin and Saul’s son Ishbosheth and 12 from the servants of David. And David’s men win.


- David was anointed king by Samuel according to God’s will!


- He becomes king over Judah!


- But Abner, the chief of Saul’s army, makes Saul’s son king over Israel!


- He does so probably to stay chief of the army!


- He doesn’t care about God’s will!


- But it won’t be a good choice because he will die!


- It is always dangerous to oppose God!


- But it is a tradition in Israel!

 

[JLG]

48) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 3


The houses of Saul and of David keep fighting with David’s house becoming stronger and stronger. Then David gets six sons, each one from one of his six wives. Abner becomes stronger in the house of Saul. Abner makes an agreement with David so he can become king over Israel. And Joab decides to kill Abner because he killed his brother. David doesn’t know it. And David organizes Abner’s funeral.


- The story of Israel is complicated from the beginning!


- There always have been problems among Israel!


- And it will be so all the time!


- They will keep going that way!


- They will never listen to God!


- They will go into exile!


- They will be slaves!

 

[JLG]

49) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 4


Jonathan has a son, Mephibosheth who is crippled. Ishbosheth is killed. And David kills the men who have just killed Ishbosheth.


- Things are not going better!


- On the contrary, we are told about murders!


- And it will be so during all the stories of the kings of Israel and Judah!


- It happened as God told them!


- Bad actions lead to bad actions!


- It is a magnet attracted by the negative pole!


- We also understand why David couldn’t build God’s temple!


- He spent his life fighting and killing people!

 

[JLG]

50) 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]

51) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 6


David gathers 30,000 men to bring the Ark of the true God. It is placed on a wagon. Then it nearly falls so Uzzah grabs hold of it. Because Uzzah touches the Ark, God gets angry so he kills Uzzah. And David becomes angry and fearful at the same time. So David decides not to bring the Ark to Jerusalem. It stays in the house of Obed Edom the Gittite and God blesses him and all his house. So finally David decides to bring the Ark to Jerusalem. Michal Saul's daughter and David ‘s wife have an argument with David because he celebrated the coming of the Ark to Jerusalem. And he did it by dancing in front of everybody and Michal told him it was not correct for a king. And she kept barren all her life !

- There is often a great difference between God’s will and man’s will!


- And there are always consequences, often bad ones but men still don’t understand!


- Apparently that’s the same chorus centuries after centuries!


- And men still don’t understand!


- And they are surprised but if they knew just a bit more the Bible they shouldn’t be surprised!


- Unfortunately, the next surprise will be destructive!


- But a human being is supposed to evolve to become an adult!


- Apparently, it’s rarely the case because he keeps behaving like a baby who never understands!


- Sooner or later we must become adult and if we refuse we must assume the consequences!


- That’s life, nothing to be sad or happy about!


- We may decide to take the train or not!

 

[JLG]

52) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 7


- When David is settled in his own house and God has given peace to him, he says to Nathan the prophet that it is not proper for God not to have a temple. But God tells him that his son will build God’s temple. God blesses David and he will do the same with his son forever!


- But there are limits to God’s patience and David will go too far and his son Solomon will do worse by worshiping other gods because of his numerous wives and concubines.


- Warnings everywhere but men are deaf and superficial!


- And the Israelites lost their privileges!


- In fact, they never took advantage of them!


- Because they didn’t care about God!


- And men keep following the same path!


- Good luck!

 

[JLG]

53) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 8


David defeats the Philistines, the Moabites, King Hadadezer of Zobah and the Syrians and the Edomites. And David administers justice and righteousness for all his people.


- David keeps looking for God and he is blessed for that!


- He is successful against all his enemies!


- He becomes powerful!


- No nation can contest his power!


- Anybody would be happy!


- But when a man is too successful, he starts to think he can do whatever he wants!


- And then the problems start!


- Every man will always find his master, sooner or later and death can happen at any time!


- Can we say that PRIDE is man’s worst enemy?

 

[JLG]

54) 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 beats the Syrians and the Ammonites. Then the Syrians regroup 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]

55) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 11

Israel fights the Ammonites another time. One night he sees Bathsheba bathing and she is very beautiful. He knows she is married but he sends messengers to bring her and he has sex with her. She becomes pregnant. As her husband is one of his soldiers, he asks him to come back from war and stay at his home with his wife but he doesn’t want to because Israel is at war. Thus David organizes his murder on the battlefield. After the mourning period, Bathsheba becomes David’s wife.


- Before he was king, David used to follow God straight away!


- When he became king he took the woman of another man and murdered her husband!


- It is difficult to call such a man a man of God!


- Or is that when you get power it corrupts the mind!


- Thus Power is stronger than man!


- It happened with all kings in the Bible!


- A good lesson to remember!


- It is easy to turn one’s back!


- Humility vs pride!


- Goodness vs evil!

 

[JLG]

56) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 12


God sends Nathan to David. And Nathan tells him that God gave him everything and he could have given him much more. But because of what he did and thus despised God, God will bring calamity within his own house. God will take his wives and give them to another man. And all Israel will see it and hear about it. David will not die but the son he has just had with Bathsheba will die. Later Bathsheba has a child called Solomon.


- How is it possible to behave in such a way!


- First David follows God with all his heart!


- Second, he despises him by acting like a man without brain!

- As a consequence, he will pay a high price and will have unrest till the end of his life!


- And all the kings will end in the same way!


- Samuel’s mind and warning seems to go around!

 

[JLG]

57) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 13-15


One of David’s son, Amnon, falls in love with his sister Tamar and he rapes her then starts hating her. Two years later, Absalom organizes the murder of Amnon to avenge Tamar. Later Absalom starts opposing David and he organizes a conspiracy against David. Then David decides to run away. So he goes away with all his household except ten concubines. And Absalom enters into Jerusalem.


- David really despises God for what he has done!


- So he begins to have trouble in his own family!


- One of his daughter is raped by one of his son!


- Then the same son organizes a conspiracy against David!


- David has to run away!


- Absalom takes his place in Jerusalem!


- What unconsciousness!


- But man is unconscious!

 

[JLG]

58) 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 blood guilty man. But David lets him live. 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]

59) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 17


Ahithophel asks Absalom to let him choose 12,000 men and chase after David to kill him then all the people will be at peace. But before deciding what to do, Absalom asks Hushai for his advice. He tells Absalom to lead all Israel and chase after David. So Absalom decides to follow Hushai’s advice because God wants to bring disaster on Absalom. Then Hushai tells Zadok and Abiathar the priests to go to David to warn him.

- God wants to give a lesson to David and he wants him to pay a high price for what he has done!


- But he has not forgotten David!

- And Solomon must become king!

 

[JLG]

60) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 18


Then there is a battle between David’s men and Israel and Israel is defeated and 20,000 men of Israel die. And Joab kills Absalom despite David’s order not to harm him. And David weeps because of his son’s death.


- God favors David so his men are victorious!


- But his son is killed by Joab!


- Of course, Joab wants to be sure Absalom won’t have the possibility to rebel again against David!


- So he doesn’t follow David’s order!


- It is probably part of the price David has to pay for his bad actions!