1 Samuel is Awesome | Episode 19

On the podcast, we talked about how all of the book of 1 Samuel is AWESOME.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

She is barren, and we've heard that that's a little that's a little biblical buzzword. Um, when the biblical writers make a female the subject of their storyline, and she's barren. That's a you know, pay attention, alarm bells ought to be going up. Welcome back to the Year Through the Bible podcast. My name is Rodney Adams. I'm the executive director at Asbury Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I'm with I'm Andrew Forrest, I'm the senior pastor here. All right. As in the title of this podcast, we are reading through the entire Bible this year as a church. We are currently in the book of First Samuel. Um, we've we've made it through the chaos of judges, thanks be to God. And we are now uh into the book of First Samuel, which hopefully will be a little bit more palatable for just your normal Bible reader. Um, there's a lot less. Um, there's not no violence and no crazy stuff, but there's definitely less than what we experienced in Judges.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Yeah, there's violence, but it's more of the kind that makes sense, yeah, as in bad guys and good guys fighting each other.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Yeah. So um just to be very uh kind of specific up front, we're gonna try to talk about what is going on in 1 Samuel kind of up to when Saul enters the scene. Chapter 7, yeah. We'll we'll kind of keep it pre-Saul. It's kind of a literary unit there. So you preached on this. Um, I've been doing a little bit of reading on this, so there's kind of a lot to say, but just I'm just curious, what are your high-level thoughts? What do you think is interesting? Um, what sticks out to you, especially given that we've been reading this can continuously from Genesis all the way up until this point. So, where are we now?

SPEAKER_01 1:43

I I I really like the character of Samuel. He has some problems as he ages and his problems in his family, which we'll get to. But I love Samuel. I think he's a great guy, and I love I love the description of him. He's one of the very few biblical characters we learn about as a child. And we actually have a lot on him as a child. Very that's unusual. Like there's things that happen. I like that. I really, I just really like Samuel. I think he's just it's just a sweet stuff. And I love chapters one and two with his mother, Hannah. That story is great. So I I really enjoyed that. And the overall Samuels are just so exciting. There's so much stuff happening and constant narrative, yeah, which is good too.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

So you preached on really Hannah was the subject of one of your sermons here recently. Yeah. And I've said this maybe even on this podcast before, but I've told everybody who will listen that's in my friend group, which is very small. Um, I love Hannah. I think she's just fantastic. And there's so there's actually a lot of biblical depth that you can uncover the more you pay attention to Hannah, right? So like just very high level, as you've mentioned in other other formats. This is a woman who isn't the wife of a man, but not the only wife of a man. Yeah. Um she is barren, and we've heard that that's a little that's a little biblical buzzword. Um, when the biblical writers make a female the subject of their storyline and she's barren, that's a you know, pay attention, alarm bells ought to be going off. She's barren. This is why she's barren and stays faithful to Yahweh. Like she's in and they make a big deal out about her her um commitment to Yahweh. And then of course she goes on and says, if you give me a son and her prayers, like I will um dedicate that boy back to you, Lord, which is just absolutely astounding. And I just wanted to point out um before we kind of keep going in Samuel, the reason, one of the reasons why this is such a big deal, you pointed this out in your sermon, is that the people of Israel have kind of forgotten who they are. Like we've made it through, they made it into the promised land, they didn't wipe out all the Canaanites, they started met their spiritual practices started to get enmeshed with the Canaanite spiritual practices, and now we have this, we have this melding of um sacrifice and worship to Yahweh, but also to this Canaanite god, Baal, or Baal, as we sometimes say, who is a fertility god. So just think about this for a second. Here is a woman in a society that where women rely on the protection of the patriarchs and then also the protection of the sons later down the line. She kind of has not necessarily neither, but she definitely doesn't have any sons. And the patriarch has to spread around his protection. He has a he has other sons, he has other stuff going on. And in a society like this, dare I say, a barren woman is is a liability.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Well, think about her. When if she lives long past him, say she lives to be 70 or 80. Well, are the are the children of Penina, her rival, gonna take care of her, take her into their house?

SPEAKER_00 5:14

They're certainly not being formed to do that because apparently giving her a hard time. Her enemy, yeah. Yeah. So I just love I there are so many like cultural tidal waves working against her faithfulness to Yahweh, yet she does not give herself over to the all, this fertility god. Um, but she stays faithful to Yahweh, and I I just I think there is just so much um in there. This this struck me two nights ago as I was thinking about this. You know, we pointed out in Genesis that going all the way back to the beginning, the the mandate God gives to humanity, to Adam and Eve, is a fertility mandate to be fruitful and multiply. And then when they mess up in the garden, the curse that is handed down is a fertility curse. Um He will her her pain in childbearing will be multiplied. He he'll have a hard time raising, you know, um stuff from the ground. So God has said, like, because you've done this, like fertility in all of its forms is now going to be um very, very difficult. So you now you play all that out all the way to through Judges and 1 Samuel. Um fertility, the fertility God of the Canaanites is the one that they've kind of been giving themselves over with. They're they're rather than deal with the curse that God gave them, they're now giving themselves over to a God that can essentially solve their problem where they think Yahweh may or may not be able to. It's just an interesting way that to connect to what we've read in the beginning of the book. Yeah. Fertility is an issue.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

It makes sense that you would it makes sense that you would question God's faithfulness. Makes sense. He's not doing good things for me, so I'm gonna try it over here.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Because they they live in a world in which there are rival gods all over the place. They just accept that. That's weird for us to think, but that's how they think. And so, yeah, she's awesome. She's totally positive the whole way. All right, so who's positive in the Bible all the way through? Uh Deborah is positive. I think I'd argue Joshua is positive. He has that one moment when maybe he gets his hand slapped by the angel, the commander of the army of the Lord, but it's not bad. Joshua, Hannah, uh Josiah, the the great king at the end, it's pretty positive.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Um I guess it depends on yeah, what you mean by positive. They don't have an obvious like major flaw or some type of almost all the other guys do. It's pretty cool. Yeah. What is um does Elijah have a fatal flaw?

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Well, he he yeah. He does unfortunately near the end of his life, he just loses heart with God and he's just so overwhelmed. Yeah, that's right. It's just but now on the other hand, he's also taken up into heaven on a chariots of fire.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

So I'm really Elijah's awesome too. I'm really looking forward to the Elijah part later, um, because it's Baal that he goes up to bat against, and and ultimately God through Elijah kind of breaks Baal down and breaks down all the stuff. So right now we're seeing kind of the beginnings of of the covenant people of God giving themselves over to Baal, and later we'll see kind of maybe not the full culmination, but definitely a major event and breaking this down. Well, and and the when the kingdom split, some of the kings go way after it.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Yeah. So it's a beautiful story where Hannah is given a child and she gives the child back to the Lord. And then in chapter two, and this is the kind of thing that we skip over when we read the Bible. It looks like poetry in most Bibles. It's because it is, it's so it's set apart, so the the margins aren't justified, the lines are broken off. And she sings a song, and the song is not really about having a baby. The song that she mentions it one time in chapter in verse 5, chapter 2. The barren woman has born seven, uh, but she who has many children is forlorn. Even right there, you get a clue. The song is about reversal, it's about upending things, how God's way is upending the ways of the world. We put the Apostle Paul would say later that the uh the the God is choosing the weak things of the world to shame the strong, the foolish to shame the wise. And that's her her prayer is she she recognizes in the gift of the child the Lord's uh work. And then she looked, you know, uh look at this. Uh verse three talk no more so very proudly. Let no arrogance come from your mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. God sees what you're saying, people. The bows of the mighty are broken, and the feeble bind on strength. So it cut it's reversal, reversal, reversal, reversal. So anybody who knows much about Christmas or Luke's gospel, we got to turn there. It's so obviously that Mary's magnificat from the Latin phrase is based on it in uh 1 Samuel 2. Let's turn there.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Interesting. Uh I didn't until this time around, and I've read through the entire Bible. You and I have read through the entire Bible a couple of times, and I just had forgotten about Hannah's prayer. Yeah, it's beautiful, beautiful. And in fact, you can, when you read it, if it were transplanted into the book of Psalms, it would fit. Like it reads like a psalm. It does because it is like a psalm. It is. But like it, it I just it was very striking to me.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

So look at this is Luke chapter one, verse uh starts with end of 46. This is where it gets, this it's called the magnificat from the Latin word about my soul magnifies the Lord. Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, now generations will call me blessed, for he who is mighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him. He's shown strength with his arm. 51. He scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He's brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty, etc., etc. That's her prayer. Now go back to 1 Samuel 2. Look at this. Verse 6. Um, verse 5. Those who are full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who are hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren woman has now seven children, but she who has many is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down to Shaol, the place of the dead, and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich, he brings low and he exalts. He raises the poor up from the dust, etc., etc. So it's a victory psalm, basically, about God's uh topsy-turvy thing. And then you get the you get you totally get the language of Jesus. Remember in Luke's gospel, Jesus says, Blessed are the hungry, but woe to the full. Blessed are the poor. Same thing.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

So it's this great victory song that it's. It's pretty amazing. I mean, for one, it's amazing that this was written down at all. Like she's a prominent part of furthering God's narrative. Yeah. And somebody had to remember this and write it down and consider it important enough to preserve. And then a thousand years later, this other woman, Mary, knows it. Yeah. Right? I mean, just how like I'm trying to think of something in my house that that is valuable to me, what it would take for it to exist a thousand more years. Yeah. Just think about that. Right. Like, so and influence how you think. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And and actually, someone in a thousand years would would hold it as valuable as I hold it. This thing that I'm trying to preserve. So this is just a it's an absolute miracle.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

It is a miracle. And if you mentioned the Psalms, Psalm 113. It's a very short little psalm. It's very much this. So praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Psalm 113, uh, verse 7. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash sheep to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord. So the the theme is just all over the Bible. And Hannah has this gorgeous song, which is, and even better, she is faithful for what she said she was going to do. The problem is, look at this, verse 12, chapter 2. Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. And then make it very clear, they did not know the Lord. So what they're about to do is they are so the the the opposite form of this are people who fooled around with the occult, but don't really believe in the occult. You know, like fooling around with a Ouija board or or saying they're gonna worship Satan. You know, a lot I can did you have any kids in your high school that were like kind of proto-goth kids? Anyone like like like a like a kid who wore dark clothes? Goth wasn't a thing when I was in high school, it didn't exist, but I feel like we had a couple like stoner types or like death metal types or yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

So I went to a really small high school in West Texas, and so there was like one guy.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Yeah, right. And he was totally different from one of the other kids. Yeah. Well, you could see a kid like that is like 20. Okay, he's old. Okay, yeah, okay. Okay. He's he's squeezing four years into seven. So that type of kid, like he like wants to be a rebel. He's trying to find his place, right? So he's like, I actually I don't go to church, particularly in West Texas. I don't go to church. I I actually worship Satan or whatever. You he's not actually really meaning it, yeah, but you fool around with this stuff and it draws you in, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:43

So there's something and and and potentially opens a door. Yeah. Right? Yes, like 100%.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Yeah, it's totally crazy. Well, it's like the opposite version of this that the Eli's guys, they're fooling around with the stuff of the Lord, but they don't know the Lord. It's almost like they don't believe in him. So therefore they can do whatever they want. So they're they're abusing their position, they're taking more food than should be theirs. Uh, and then they they later on they fool around with the ladies who are working there.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Uh you know what's interesting about this stuff is these the biblical writers don't they don't package this for you. Right. Now, maybe someone who was reading this 2,500 years ago would have picked up on it very quickly, but um it's so obvious to me that so judges shows you what happens when you don't know the Lord. But what we're seeing in in 1 Samuel, especially with Eli, so like Eli doesn't really know either. He's a priest, yeah. And it seems like the Lord works through him when he kind of has a little turnaround while he's uh observing Hannah pray. Yeah. But he didn't even recognize what Hannah was doing. He thought she was drunk, like like the priests of the people have kind of forgotten like what right worship even looks like. And his sons don't know the Lord, so he's obviously not running his household very well. I mean, he's a priest to the Lord, and they don't even know the Lord. And then later we'll see that he dies a fat old man, which for those of you who didn't catch it, um look at verse I guess it starts in verse 13, right here on chapter two. The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant would come while the meat was boiling with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. And all that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Um so it kind of goes on, but basically, the Levites or the priest, they don't have anything. Right. They don't get an inheritance, they don't get really an allotment. What they have comes from the people, right? Well, this priest dying a fat old man and his sons not knowing the Lord tells you about how he has spent his life. He has basically gotten fat off of the faithfulness of the people, off of the collection plate, so to speak. And his sons don't even know the Lord. So he's been ex and he doesn't recognize Hannah's prayer as even being a prayer. You can see this is the state of the priesthood in Israel.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Yeah, and the the sad part about Eli in some ways is almost worse than the sons, because Eli does know better. The sons don't know anything. But look at this. This is verse 22, chapter 2. Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing that all that his sons were doing to all Israel, how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And he said to them, Why do you do this? I hear this. Don't do this. This is bad. Verse 25 If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him. But if someone sins against the Lord, who will intercede for them? So Eli at least knows don't do this. And later on, we can jump there. When the ark is stolen or taken by the Philistines, uh Okay, look at this. This is chapter 4, verse 12. We're jumping ahead in the story, we'll come back, but look at this. Chapter 4, verse 12. I think this is an amazing detail. A man from Benjamin ran from the battle line. This is when the ark has been captured, and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. And when he arrived, verse 13, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. That to me implies Eli knew it was a bad idea to send the ark into battle. So he kind of knows, but not enough to do anything about it.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Well, how many of us kind of know we know the right thing to do? But you don't do it. But what we know and how we live are just two different things, and there's there's consequences to that. And I'm not trying to um place myself above Eli or anything. I'm just pointing out what the what the biblical writers are kind of telling us.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

So in chapter three is one of the most beautiful stories in the scripture of the call of Samuel, where Samuel hears the voice. And this is another place. Eli with Samuel was actually pretty good, I think. He's a good mentor in a way. He's training him up well. Eli tells him, obviously, this is the Lord. And what look what he tells him to say when he when he Eli says, Um, verse eight, chapter three. The Lord called Samuel the third time in the night. He arose, went to Eli, said, Here I am, you called me. Eli said, Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, Go lie down, and if he calls you, say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. So he gives him good advice. So this happens. What the Lord tells Samuel is that it's going to go badly for Eli. And Samuel was afraid to tell this the his mentor, but he does, and it's not good. So then in chapter four, they think that the ark is like a talisman that controls you. They think it it m it's it's your good luck charms. They go into battle with the Philistines and they think, let's bring the ark with us. There's some magic to it. Let me just run it out there and knocks him dead. It doesn't work, and the ark is captured by the Philippines, the Philistines, which is probably aside from the exile, this is the worst thing that's ever happened to God's people. The ark of God is captured by their enemies.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Well, and this is lower than that. And they're they're again, they have forgotten so much about themselves. They have forgotten so much about worship, about God. They've they've they've conflated Yahweh with the with Baal and all these different things that they don't even know, they don't even know what to do with God, and now they're trying to like almost like co-opt God for their purposes. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

We were talking about this offline, but this is this this basically is the Nazi plan. Okay, aside from them in the wilderness, uh maybe somebody will correct me. Is there another time where they try to use the ark to fight for them? I don't think so. The ark is important to them, but do they actually like run it out in front of them? I don't think so. So in Raiders of the Lost Ark, with this made-up idea that the Nazis are trying to find the lost ark, that's their idea here. So they're trying to co-opt the power of God.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Yeah, there's some theological problems with that, but it's the same thing here. Okay, so the Philistines, they get it, they win. The guy comes, tells Eli he dies in this violent way. Verse 15, chapter 4. Eli was 98, and his eyes were set, he couldn't see. And the man said, Eli, I ran away from the battle. He said, How did it go, my son? He said, Israel fled, and there's been a defeat, and your sons were killed, and the ark of God has been captured. And look at Eli cares about the Ark more than his sons, as he probably should. As soon as he mentioned the Ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken, and he died, for the man was old and heavy. That's it. Whoa. Uh terrible. Philistines have the ark, but it's kind of a comical passage. It doesn't work for them. They bring their the ark into their home of their god Dagon. Dagon is the father of Baal and their pantheon, and the the Look at this. I love this. This is awesome. Verse four. Verse three. With the ark in their Dagon's house, when the people got up, Dagon had fallen face downward. They put Dagon back up. The next day, verse four, Dagon fallen face downward, and his head and his hands were cut off from his little statue. And so that's the point is God's power is affecting the Philistines badly. And the Philistines eventually put the ark on a cart and kicked the and goaded the oxen and let it go.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Yeah, we don't want any of this. We don't want this. We don't want this.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Yeah. It's pretty cool. And then the ark shows up in this one guy's house, and that guy takes it into his house, and stuff goes well for him, and he treats it well. They they appropriately have reverence for it. And then chapter seven, which is the end of this literary unit, uh, Samuel says, chapter seven, verse three. If you're returning to the Lord, go ahead and put away the foreign gods and the asteroid. Asterot are these poles, these fertility poles. You I don't know what they mean, but you put poles up around. They mean fertility. Something. Yeah. It's uh she is the consort of Baal, uh, like the female queen thing, and there's a pole to her. And this comes up over and over again, by the way, the rest of the Bible, these poles. It's like we'll see it all through the kings. And they don't lose they don't. Even after Elijah? Yeah. Uh well, Elijah's in the north, also, he's not in Judah.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

And so, yeah, you do. Yeah, they keep putting them up. Anyway, so don't do it. Serve the Lord. So guess what? Verse 4. They actually did it for a while. Pretty good. And then Samuel says, let's get everybody together. And then what do they say? This is chapter 7, verse 6. We sinned. Yeah, you did. And Samuel judged the people. And now the Philistines want to fight him, but they can't do it. For the Lord, this is verse 10, the Lord thundered with a mighty sound and threw them into confusion. So now, so it's good. And Samuel makes an Ebenezer, verse 12, which is this basically memorial rock. I mean stone of help. And everything is good. And the Lord, this is verse 13, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the day of Samuel. So far, so good. And this is cool. Verse 15, look at this. So Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went on a circuit. So he's in Bethel, Gilgal, Mitzbah, and he judged Israel in all those places. And then he returned to Ramah which is his house. So he goes around, he helps them out, and everything's great. But chapter 8, the very beginning, we can close on this point. Samuel became old and he made his sons judges. Now it never says this, but if you go back and read in the book of Judges, who is the one who appoints the judge? The Lord. The Lord. So I Samuel, he kind of makes the next thing happen. And you can see the people's um unease. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

First, go ahead. Okay. We just read judges, but I've already forgotten. Did anybody else's sons become judges after that? Well, Gideon goes, I'm not gonna be your king, right?

SPEAKER_01 25:09

And then Gideon's illegitimate son, Abimelech, tries to do it. But he doesn't really claim to be king, but he more tries to be like a judge.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

So this is kind kind of unique. Yeah, I think so. Because Moses appoints Joshua, it doesn't it doesn't it hasn't passed to a son yet. No, no, no, nope. Well, kind of not since Genesis, but that's a different deal.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Right, like definitely not with the judges. Yeah. His chapter eight, verse two. The first, the eldest boy's name was Joel, and the second one was named as Abijah. Yet, verse three. His sons didn't walk in his ways. They turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice. So they're jud they're on the take. They're judging Israel. So you can understand the people's anxiety about it. I don't want these guys. These are guys, these are bad guys to rule over us. At least Samson, for all his faults, has at least has strong strength in battle. We don't know about these guys. So the people show up and they say very delicately, verse 5, You are old and your sons don't walk in your ways. So give us a king. And the thing to please displease Samuel. Samuel praised the Lord. The Lord said, Obey the voice of the people. They've not rejected you, they've rejected me. And they're not listening. Warn them about it, but you're going to give them a king. We can we can go ahead and stop there in this episode.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

But in a way, Samuel's fatherly failures cause some of these problems, I guess. Yeah. He doesn't really, I mean Yeah. It doesn't really end well for him, at least when it comes to his sort of ruling or his judgeship or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Yeah, he he doesn't seem to have a whole lot of personal problems in his own personal actions. But the problems are with his family and his failure to do things. Well, okay, he appointed his sons. That seems to me that's kind of a problem.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Whoa. Shouldn't have done that. Who don't who don't walk in his ways? Yeah.

unknown 27:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

So, like, what is he doing? What did he think? What what what was he thinking?

SPEAKER_01 27:14

And I think Samuel loves the Lord. There's no reason to think he doesn't. So I'm not trying to read into it, but is he displeased that they want a king because they're rejecting the Lord? Yes. And is it also because they didn't reject, they rejected his plan and his voice are being kicked out, maybe? And the fact that it was Eli's downfall. It's like Samuel, how hard is it? Even Eli wasn't making his Eli wasn't a judge, he's just a priest. So what are we doing, Samuel? Yeah. It's kind of a shame. Yeah. It's really interesting in the Bible how many men go south in their old age.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

A lot of times. And seeing the whole seeing thing comes up with Eli. He's his eyes are dim or set so he couldn't see. Like there's a there's a that thing playing out again, which we talked about on a few other episodes. Um you kind of you kind of like Eli though. I I like him. I mean, you know, when Samuel hears from the Lord, Eli is like, hey, whatever the Lord says, I'm ready. Right. Let it be so.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

He says, I can tell you don't want to tell me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

It's almost like institutionally there is a failure of nerve with Eli, but personally, he's a good, he's a good priest or a good guy or whatever. He there are times where he can see things for what they are. Um, but but as a leader or as an institutional priest, he's he's not really good. Yeah. There's a lot of problems with fathers and sons in the Bible.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

A lot. David, this is David's huge fall, a failure and causes his fall. So then we'll stop there, but this is now Saul becomes Saul becomes the first king. Samuel sets him up, and Saul is a disappointment ultimately, which is sad.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Yeah, pay attention in the coming weeks or days to um pay attention to Saul's character and his sort of character positives and his character flaws, and and particularly pay attention to, I'm just giving you a little bit of a heavy-handed hint. Pay attention to why they think Saul would make a good, like a good king. Right. And that I'm just gonna leave it at that, and then we can cover that in a in the next you know couple of weeks. It does actually matter when the people decide, hey, this is gonna be our guy. Like, why do they think that? And then you'll start to see some things about this character.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

And then how the Lord has different ideas about people. Totally. Yeah. First Samuel and the second Samuel are just they're it's a work of art. They're incredible to read. Yeah, they're fun to read, they're easy to read. They're easy to read. It's a shame that we're moving so quickly. We're gonna this is the way the whole Bible has been, though. We keep we move through this stuff so quickly. We're like, we got to come back. So fortunately, there's always another Sunday until Jesus returns. So maybe next year we'll do a long series on the Samuel.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

Yeah, that'd be fun. Oh, it'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Yeah. Really take our time through this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 29:59

It'd be awesome. There's a lot, there's a lot here, and there's a lot you could say about um the reason why I want to say more about 1 Samuel now is because we just read through the Torah and Joshua and Judges, and there's so much there that, you know, um in Leviticus and Numbers, the Lord sort of gives, the Lord gives the law to the people, and then the generation that the Lord gives the law to starts to kind of die off. And in Deuteronomy, Moses is telling all of them, he's telling the new generation, he's reminding them what the Lord sort of told them, but you can see how they've forgotten. It's it has it has become increasingly watered down over the years, and now, and of course, judges is the result of that. But um, these are people that are now gonna have to relearn who they are. It's um, and the priests are not helping.

SPEAKER_01 30:49

No, no. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely positive periods, but do they ever really learn who they are? I don't know. Yeah, there's definitely positive periods, like with Samuel right here, where Samuel says, cut it out, and they cut it out for a while.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

But here's what's interesting to me, last point I'll make, and we gotta we gotta wrap it up. But they have all this. I know. They forgot who they were, but they but they wrote it all down. So they actually have it. That's the that's the interesting part is when in history was all this written and who wrote it and who saw things for what they are, because broadly the people forgot who they were and who God is, and they got all messed up.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

So well, and they have the Ark of the Covenant. So, Dad, what's that? Oh, that's the thing that was in the desert that we built when they brought us out. Like it's not that hard, but they'd they forget. But they forgot. Yeah, yeah. Uh well, maybe we all be more like Hannah. She's positive. I'd love to be more like you. Yeah, she's awesome. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

All right. Well, that's it for today. This has been the Year Through the Bible Podcast. Um, I'm Rodney Adams. I'm Andrew. Um go online to year through the Bible.com and you can send us your questions. You can make comments. There's resources for you to kind of get you through this thing, and and uh we'll see you next time.