1 & 2 Samuel

The notes at the beginning of Samuel says it is one book that was separated to fit on two scrolls, so I tried to read the entire thing as one. I did it in two sittings, but close together.

Samuel begins with his conception, birth and dedication to the Lord. It ends when David is about to die, so it takes us from Samuel as a priest, the Israelites request for a King, the installation of Saul and subsequent installation of David and the soap opera that surrounded it all. Lots of lessons for me, the first of which was that Samuel had to learn to recognize God's voice. Nice to know it's not just me.

I thought is was funny that in his farewell speech (12:17) Samuel proves to the people that God did not want to give them a King, but did so because they wanted it. Free will. Of course, Saul disobeys, as did most everyone else I've read about so far, and God chooses David. David, respecting the authority, would not kill Saul, God's chosen, but waited for God to remove him. It was several years.

I also found it interesting that at one point Saul needed some guidance so he called on a lady who could talk to the dead and they spoke with Samuel's ghost.

When David became king of Judah and he mourned and sang a song in Saul's memory (1:17-27). Ishbosheth became king of Israel but how much have we heard about him? It only lasted for two years, then David took over.

Lots of stories about wars, killings and deaths. All in all, David does good except for the Bathsheba incident. Even then, good came from it because their son, Solomon, was the next king. I learned that David was painfully loyal to his family and generally obedient to God.

On to Kings.