1 Samuel: Desultory Notes & Musings

Samuel and Saul

I Samuel: notes and musings, notably, in connection with the covenant of grace and the Davidic institution.

Author. The author is not identified. The name Samuel is invoked because of his connection and mediation of the royal monarchy in Israel, specifically, Israel’s first two kings, Saul and David. Samuel is an old man in 8.1 and has died by 25.1. In fact, he probably died before many of the narrated events in 1 Samuel occurred. 1 Chon. 29.29 attaches Samuel’s name with successors, Nathan and Gad, and written portions may have come from Samuel’s speeches and work with students in the college of prophets.

Date and occasion. Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings narrate events contemporaneous to the writer.

In the latter half of the 11th century B.C., ancient Near East nations were involved in their own internal matters; in this context, Israel’s monarchy emerges. Israel had been a loosely confederated band of tribes; Mr. (Rev. Dr. Prof.) John Bright frequently uses the term amphichtyonic league. A royal monarchy was a new stage in Israel’s national, religious and covenantal life. Kingship had been known to Israelites before Saul (Jg. 3.12; 4.2; 8.5). Why had they resisted kingship for so long? Judges 8.23 expresses the sentiment of resistance: “ But Gideon told them, `I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The LORD will rule over you.’” A fundamental tenet of Israel’s theology was Jehovah’s Kingship (8.7; 12.12; Num. 23.21; Ps. 5.2; Mal. 1.14). Yet, the Kingship idea predated Israel’s monarchy (Gen. 49.10; Num. 24.7, 17-19; cf. Gen. 17.6, 16; 35.11). Moses anticipated it also (Dt. 17.14-20). As an aside, Moses decreed that Israel’s future kings were to be men of the “book,” reading from it all the days of their lives (a standing order for all leaders, really, to "be men of the book"). The Davidic Sonship and Kingship is essential to NT doctrine, worship, hymns and prayers. (We are reminded of Mr. Hengstenberg's injunction, to wit, "If you want to be a NT theologian, you must be an OT theologian.) The advent of the royal monarchy is a big deal in OT history.

By the opening of 1 Samuel, the day of the kingship had arrived.

The reigns of David and Saul are worked by backdating from Kings (more on that later). There is a broad consensus that David consolidated his rule over Judah and Israel by 1000 BC; or, over Judah by 1010 B.C. and Israel by 1003 B.C. David’s life: 1040—970 B.C. Samuel may have been born about 1100 B.C.

Some characteristics and themes.

• Historical emergence of the Israelite monarchy under Saul and David

• Kingship mediated through a Prophet

• Kingship itself is a Prophetic moment

• Saul’s rise and fall in this innovative period for Israel

• At bar: how does Kingship work in the covenantal arrangement between God and His people? Also, what is the relationship of the Davidic kingship and covenant with the gracious covenant with Adam, Abraham and Moses (said to include the Sinaitic covenant)?

• Hannah’s prayer: wonderful themes of God’s sovereignty, holiness, reversal of reverses, deliverance and futility of reliance on human strength. We’ve long pondered this wonderful piece. Did she write it? Did she have an amanuensis? How did Samuel get this piece? Or, the author of 1 Samuel?

• The Ark narrative (4.1—7.1). This may have addressed Israel’s tendency to view the Ark as a talisman, the perennial temptation to control God (e.g. gimmicks, amulets, and more). But, the Ark makes a tour de force exhibit in a devastating tour through the pagan cities of Philistia. The pagans are all too happy to be done with the Ark.

• Saul the disappointment. Initially, he was impressive; initially, Samuel said Saul would rule Israel in the name of the LORD (9.26—10.1). He led a victory over the Ammonites. But, he failed: (1) to wait for Saul and proceeded to offer an unauthorized sacrifice on his own (13.8-14) and (2) failed to totally annihilate the Amalekites. Rather, again, on his own, he spared the Amalekite king and took animals. Samuel killed the Amalekite king. The kingdom would be transferred to another King (15.28; 28.17).

• The fall of Saul was co-incident with the rise of David. David had his own vices and wickednesses, but God mercifully established the Davidic covenant with him (2 Sam. 7). Jealousy and fear gripped Saul because David was a “taller blade of grass,” the usual signs of a leader with an inferiority complex (e.g. REC’s Laud Leo doffing "Doctored and Reformed Professors" in his weakness, fear and jealousy). Saul falls in a disastrous battle with the pagan Philistines at Gilboa.