Chapter 1
Key themes:
- Elkanah, an Epharimite, has two wives: Hannah and Penninah. Penninah has children, but Hannah doesn’t.
- Through persistent prayer and faith in the Lord, Hannah is able to conceive. The child is named Samuel.
Although Elkanah was Ephraimite by residence, he was a Levite by blood.
Chapter 2
Key themes:
- Hannah’s prayer. Starts similar to the Magnificat. Also remembers the Sermon on the mountain. It brings themes of contrast and how the Lord helps those in need and punishes the wicked.
- Eli, the priest, had two very corrupt sons. Prophecy of God of downfall of his house because of it.
- Samuel started to minister under Eli.
Chapter 3
Key themes:
- The Lord reveals to Samuel that He will punish Eli’s house for their sons’ blasphemy and the refusal of Eli of restraining them. Eli accepts God’s will.
Moral sense:
- We need to put ourselves close to the Lord to be able to hear His voice, just Samuel heard the Lord when he was sleeping within the temple.
Chapter 4
Key themes:
- Israel fights with the Philistines. After losing a battle, they bring out the Ark of the Covenant with them. But still, they lost, and the Ark was captured.
- The sons of Eli are slain in the battle. Eli died when he heard of the news.
Moral sense:
- Do not use God just as a tool to get whatever temporal goods you want. Truly holy objects and God Himself can become idols in our hearts.
- The Philistines showed more reverence and feared the Lord more than the Israelites.
Chapter 5
Key themes:
- The Philistines put the Ark in the House of Dagon - Dagon being an idol and the House some sort of temple. Every morning, while the Ark stayed there, Dagon appeared on the ground, broken.
- The people of the city were inflicted with tumors wherever the Ark was, so the Philistines decided (or just thought about it?) to return the Ark.
Chapter 6
Key themes:
- The Philistines sent back the Ark of the Covenant along with a burnt offering of golden figures.
- It arrived in Beth-shemesh, and people offered the cows which the Ark was on as burnt offering.
- Some men are killed for looking into the Ark, in breach of the law (Num 4:20).
Questions:
- What are these five golden tumors and five golden mice? Idols?
- What did the people at Beth-shemesh did with the golden figures?
Chapter 7
Key themes:
- After the slaughter of Beth-shemesh, the Ark is sent to Kiriath-jearim, to stay in the house of Abinadab, with Eleazar being responsible for it. It stayed there 20 years. Story of the Ark continues at 2 Samuel 6.
- Samuel convinces Israel to leave the idols (Baals and Ashtaroth) to serve the Lord alone.
- The people is united in Mizpah to ask forgiveness for sins, and for Samuel to pray over them.
- The Philistines attack Israel at Mizpah, but through the Lord’s intercession, Israel wins, and liberates its cities from the dominance of the Philistines.
- There was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
Questions:
- What does it mean to say that “Samuel judged Israel” (1 Samuel 7:15-17)
Chapter 8
Key themes:
- Samuel appoints his sons as judges, but they are wicked and do not follow the path of Samuel.
- Because Samuel is now old, and his sons are wicked, the Elders ask for a king to be appointed.
- The Lord commands Samuel to do as the Elders ask, for they “have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.” (1 Samuel 8:7)
- Samuel warns the people giving the “cons” of having a king, an anti-monarchical speech. But the people still wanted a king, so God commands Samuel to appoint a king.
Chapter 9
Key themes:
- Providence leads Saul, son of Kish, from Benjamin, to Samuel, so that Samuel might anoint and appoint Saul as king.
- Repetition of theme of God choosing / having a preference for the little ones (v. 21): Saul comes from Benjamin, and from the “humblest” family of Benjamin
Chapter 10
Key themes:
- Samuel anoints and appoints Saul as King.
- Saul prophesies among the prophets.
- Saul hides before the appointment.
- Samuel tells the people and writes in a book the rights and duties of Kingship.
- v. 6 Prefiguration of Baptism: the Spirit of God comes and makes a new man.
Chapter 11
Key themes:
- Saul unites Israel to defend Jabesh-Gilead from the Ammonites, that wanted to gouge the right eyes of the people to disgrace Israel in return for peace.
Questions: 2. What is the symbolic ritual of gouging the right eyes?
Chapter 12
Key themes:
- Samuel is at the end of his life and asks the people if He is in debt to anybody.
- He recounts the story of Israel’s liberation from Egypt, and the times of Judges, where the people sinned greatly but God rescued them.
- The people sinned when asking for a King, but the Lord will not turn away from them and their king if they follow the Lord.
- The people ask for Samuel to pray for them.
Chapter 13
Key themes:
- Jonathan is Saul’s son.
- Jonathan attacks the Philistines, provoking a response and Israel is outnumbered.
- Samuel asks Saul for 7 days while he reaches the camp to offer the offerings to God before the battle, but he is late, and Saul offers the sacrifices in Samuel’s place.
- This was a grave act of disobedience and usurpation of the priestly authority. Because of this, God has chosen a new man (“after his own heart”) to be king.
Chapter 14
Key themes:
- TODO
Chapter 15
Key themes:
- The Lord commanded Saul to fight and destroy the Amalekites, but Saul and the people don’t utterly destroy the Amalekites. Instead, they save their king and the best spoil.
- Because of this grave act of disobedience, the Lord will choose another king. Samuel communicates this message to Saul.
Chapter 16
Key themes:
- Samuel anoints David, son of Jesse, to be the next king, and the Spirit of God comes upon him. (Looks like Chrismation).
- David is the youngest. His father didn’t believe it could be him.
- The Spirit of God departs from Saul, and an evil spirit comes upon him.
- David starts working for Saul, playing the lyre for him. Whenever the evil spirit was with Saul, David played the lyre, and the spirit departed.
Questions:
- What does it mean to consecrate? (v. 5)
- “evil spirit from God”? (v. 15)
Chapter 17
Key themes:
- The Philistines offer warfare by a single combat, choosing Goliath, a giant and heavily armored man to fight on their side.
- David, the shepherd, decides to fight for the Israelites, because no man offered himself up.
Moral sense:
- God sanctified David through his daily work, preparing him for his big mission through smaller but hard challenges, having to defeat bears and lions to protect the sheeps.
Chapter 18
Key themes:
- David and Jonathan make a covenant.
- David becomes a very successful warrior because the Lord was with him, and becomes highly esteemed among the people.
- Out of jealousy, Saul tries to kill David. First with a spear, but David is able to evade it twice. (But what was David reaction? Did he know that Saul was trying to kill him?)
- Then, he tries to kill by giving one of his daughters as a wife to him, (How? “That she may be a snare to him”) and by sending him to battle with the Philistines, but he won all battles.
- David marries Michal, Saul’s daughter.
Questions:
- Knitting of souls together? (Jonathan and David)
Chapter 19
Key themes:
- Saul tries to kill David. First, Jonathan intercedes for him, then Michal. Finally he escapes and runs to Samuel at Ramah.
- Saul sent messengers to reach Samuel and David, three times, but all of the prophesied. (What does this mean exactly?) and Saul went there himself, and the Spirit of God came upon him and he also prophesied (and got naked).
Chapter 20
Key themes:
- Jonathan and David show a true friendship and love for each other. They plan a scheme to know whether Saul is still trying to kill David, so that David knows if he can stay or if he should run.
Chapter 21
Key themes:
- David goes to Nob, to Ahimelech, the priest. There, he asks for a sword, and the priest gives him the sword of Goliath.
It seems to have a profound significance the taking of Goliath’s sword by David. David is now wearing something of Goliath. 1 Samuel 21:8-9
Chapter 22
Key themes:
- David escapes to a cave in Adullam. When his family heard about this, they and other people followed him, and him became captain (a kind of judge?) over them (400 people).
- He left his family under the king of Moab, while he is going through this hardship.
- Saul kills Ahimelech and his house for helping David, even while he didn’t know what was happening.
Chapter 23
Key themes:
- Saul is not alone, but have men with him. They free Keilah (a city) from the Philistines.
- Saul pursues David.
- The Ziphites denounce that David is among them to Saul.
Chapter 24
Key themes:
- todo
Reference
1 Samuel 16:7b “for the Lord sees not as men sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”