Concluding Thoughts on First Samuel

The fall of Saul looms so large over the First Book of Samuel that this section of the Bible can seem at first to be purely a tragic tale.  There is the hope of David, true, but most of what we get of David is how horribly he is persecuted by Saul.  The true bright spot in First Samuel must be Samuel himself.  The great prophet dies in 1 Samuel 25, so it can be easy to lose sight of him and get swept up in the drama of Saul and David.  But upon reflecting on the book as a whole, Samuel emerges as the key figure, and the true hope raised by God for His people.  From his miraculous origins early in 1 Samuel to his dealings with Heli to his acquiescence when the people demand a king, Samuel always acted with faith, humility, and righteousness.  The fact that he bridges the divide between the eras of judges and kings makes him a supremely significant figure, right up there with Moses and Joshua.  Samuel is a transitional prophet.  He is chosen and raised up by God to deliver the Israelites from the bondage of the Philistines and sin, much like other judges who came before him, e.g. Samson.  But then, in an unprecedented moment, he is directed divinely to switch course.  His anointing of Saul and instituting a new kingship in the Holy Land is a moment full of ambivalence for the reader, since we know God doesn't desire such a course for His people, yet He permits it, and it seems wants everyone to make the best of it.  Samuel humbly obeys God knowing he is setting off a precarious chain of events.  He tries his best to keep Saul on the path of righteousness, but that becomes a more difficult task as the book goes on.  Samuel's final act is to anoint David, but Samuel dies before David can become the fully realized king he is meant to be.  God's prophets (and later His saints) are always placed in their time and place to steer events a certain way, to provide light and hope especially during confusing times.  The time covered in 1 Samuel was a rocky and tumultuous time, and the good prophet Samuel provided much needed stability and comfort to keep God's ship afloat.  But now that Samuel is gone and the Second Book of Samuel begins, who will be that divinely placed sign of hope?  Will it be King David himself?  Another prophet?  Saul is gone as well, but that doesn't mean evil has gone with him.  Someone the likes of Samuel will be needed; and is still needed now.

1 Samuel 31 - The Death of Saul

The First Book of Samuel concludes with the ignominious death of King Saul.  I started this book a little over a year ago.  I knew very little about Saul prior to reading this book of the Bible and so it was a fruitful journey to see and learn from Saul's rise and fall.  The structure of the First Book of Samuel is one of divergent story lines -- Saul on the one hand and David on the other.  (Clearly the Second Book of Samuel will be devoted to David's continued ascent.)  In so many ways, Saul turned away from the Lord.  And that is his tragedy.  He was given so much, chosen divinely to be Israel's first king, but he stumbled when met with challenges, specifically challenges to his inflated pride.  Saul is in many ways an archetype of the proud king whose pride ends up being the death of him.  The fact that he dies by suicide only confirms this defect in him.  Saul couldn't bear to be humiliated, whether by the boy David or by the Philistines that were about to capture him.  But a little humiliation could have been his salvation, if he would have welcomed it.  This is a short write-up since Chapter 31 is pretty brief and straightforward.  But I'm looking forward to moving on to a new book and diving deeper into David's kingship and seeing what kind of archetype he establishes.  After all, King David was the model that medieval kings looked to.  David's kingdom is also seen as the ideal Jewish kingdom on earth, one that Jews anticipate coming again in some form or another.  The Saul experiment ended badly, but now it's time to see how David can salvage the wreckage.