Week 60: 1&2 Samuel Part 2
July 25, 2011
(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)
Content
1. Samuel – last judge
(I) HANNAH – ANXIOUS WIFE
The book begins with the story of Samuel’s mother, Hannah. Her husband, Elkanah, has two wives and Hannah, who is childless, has to bear the taunts of the other wife, Peninnah, who does have children. Years pass and Hannah’s grief at her childlessness deepens. She visits the temple at Shiloh (where Israel kept the ark of the covenant) and prays that if God will at last grant her a son she will dedicate him to God’s service. Eli the priest notices that she is muttering aloud and suspects that she is drunk. Hannah explains that she is deeply troubled and Eli sends her away with God’s blessing. Later Hannah conceives and gives birth to a son, whom she names Samuel.
In gratitude she fulfils her vow to the Lord and presents Samuel to Eli to serve at the temple. Hannah prays again, reflecting her confidence and joy in God. This prayer is clearly recalled by Mary 1,000 years later, when the angel tells her she is to give birth to Jesus. Her joy and praise in what is now called ‘The Magnificat’ contains echoes of Hannah’s.
(II) ELI – AILING PRIEST
Samuel ministers under the priest, Eli. One night he hears a voice and runs to Eli, assuming that he is calling him, but Eli says he is not. This happens three times before the priest realizes that it is God who wants to speak to Samuel. It is a significant moment, since the prophetic revelation, both verbal and visual, was rare in those days.
Thus Samuel, aged 12, is given the responsibility of telling Eli that God will act in judgement upon his family because his two boys are misbehaving badly and Eli has been turning a blind eye. The sons have been abusing their positions of responsibility, eating consecrated meat and sleeping with some of the women who bring offerings. From then on, God says, no one in Eli’s line will see old age.
This encounter was the start of Samuel’s prophetic ministry, and it was not the last time that the word he gave would be hard to receive.
(III) ISRAEL – ARROGANT ARMY
The next story concerns Israel’s defeat at the hands of the Philistines, the warring nation living on the west coast. The Israelites assume that they lost the battle because they left the ark of the covenant in the temple. Next time, therefore, they take it with them into battle, but are again heavily defeated, with 30,000 foot soldiers killed, including Eli’s sons (thus fulfilling the prophecy concerning their early deaths). The ark is captured by the Philistines and taken to the temple of Dagon, the Philistines’ god.
On hearing this news, Eli – an old, frail man by this time – falls backwards off his chair and breaks his neck. The ark, however, spells trouble for the Philistines. God sends terrible illnesses upon them and they finally send it back to the Israelites on a cart pulled by two cows. The Philistines follow the cart to see where it goes, and they see it heading uphill in the direction of Jerusalem.
Samuel gathers the Israelites at Mizpah and tells them that the previous defeats have nothing to do with the ark and everything to do with the pagan gods they are worshipping. Israel burns the idols, and this time is victorious in the fight against the Philistines. This demonstrates a principle described in Judges: whenever the Israelites disobey God an enemy comes to defeat them, but whenever they repent and put things right they defeat their enemies.
Samuel’s fame grows from this time onwards, and his work as a judge and a prophet becomes greatly valued.
(IV) SAUL – ANOINTED KING
The last public thing that Samuel does as a prophet is to anoint Saul as king. The people ask Samuel whether they can have a king like the nations around them. They know that God is their king, but they want a king who is visible. At first Samuel is offended by their request, until God reminds him that he has no right to take offence, for it is God they have rejected.
God tells Samuel that if the nation has a king, they need to be prepared for the consequences. A king will want a palace and an army, so taxation and conscription will swiftly follow the coronation. In spite of these warnings, the Israelites still insist they want a king and they choose Saul, a man who is taller and more handsome than anybody else.
(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)
Week 59: 1&2 Samuel Part 1
July 18, 2011
(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)
Introduction
The books which make up 1 and 2 Samuel in the English Bible are just one book in the Jewish Scriptures, and are included as part of the ‘former prophets’ section. Samuel covers 150 years of history, told from a prophetic point of view to record how God sees things and what he regards as important. The book is named after the prophet who dominates the story, and who probably wrote most of it. It covers great changes in Israel’s history and the emergence of the great King David, whose fame is remembered to this day.
Context
Abraham, the father of the Jews, lived around 2000 BC; King David came to the throne around 1000 BC. God’s promise to Abraham that he would have descendants and a land is therefore 1,000 years old when we reach the book of Samuel and the arrival of David. According to the Old Testament time chart given earlier in the Overview section (page 11), the book of Samuel records a third change in the pattern of leadership during the history of the people of Israel.
- From 2000 to 1500 BC Israel was led by patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph (though they were not a nation at this point).
- From 1500 to 1000 BC they were led by prophets: Moses through to Samuel.
- From 1000 to 500 BC they were led by princes (or kings): Saul through to Zedekiah.
- In the 500 years leading up to the time of Christ they were led by priests: Joshua through to Annas and Caiaphas.
The dates are approximate, but this gives a helpful summary. Samuel describes the change from prophets to princes (or kings), the 150 years of the upward rise to the empire of David.
It is a highly significant period of Israel’s history. The Jews speak of David’s reign as the golden era of peace and prosperity when they conquered most of the land God had promised them. Even now, Jews long for a renewal of the days when a king reigned over a united and victorious nation. But it was not all good news, and we see in Samuel the beginning of a decline which continues through 1 and 2 Kings until Israel loses everything they gained in the previous 1,000 years.
Before examining how we should interpret them, we will look at the detail of the main stories in the books of Samuel, beginning with an overview of the content and structure.
Structure
1. Samuel – last judge
(i) Hannah – anxious wife
(ii) Eli – ailing priest
(iii) Israel – arrogant army
(iv) Saul – anointed king
2. Saul – first king
(i) Jonathan – adventurous son
(ii) Samuel – angry prophet
(iii) David – apparent rival
IN
(a) Simple shepherd
(b) Skilled musician
(c) Superb warrior
OUT
(a) Suspected courtier
(b) Stalked outlaw
(c) Soldiering exile
(iv) Philistines – aggressive foe
3. David – best king
(i) Triumphant ascent
UP
(a) Single tribe
(b) Settled nation
(c) Sizeable empire
(ii) Tragic descent
DOWN
(a) Disgraced man
(b) Disintegrated family
(c) Discontented people
4. Epilogue
In this structural chart, the lives of Samuel and Saul are each described in terms of their relationship with three individuals and one people group: Samuel with Hannah, Eli, Saul and Israel; Saul with Jonathan, Samuel, David and the Philistines.
David’s life can be summarized very simply in four directional words, as the chart shows: in, out, up, down. The ‘in’ and ‘out’ refer to his changing favor with King Saul, the ‘up’ refers to his move towards the pinnacle of his power as king, and ‘down’ refers to his journey into the depths of despair.
(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)
Week 58: Judges and Ruth Part 7
July 11, 2011
(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)
Who wrote Judges and Ruth?
It is time now to examine why Judges and Ruth belong together, and also to answer the question: Who wrote them and why?
The end of a book of the Bible often reveals its purpose. The phrase, ‘There was no king in Israel in those days’ means that the book of Judges, and therefore Ruth as well, was written after they were led by a king. It is also obvious from the end of Ruth that David was not the king at the time of writing, for we read, ‘Jesse was the father of David,’ not ‘Jesse was the father of David the King.’
These two facts strongly suggest that the book was written when there was a king, but before David’s time. The only period when this was the case was when Saul was king, since David was king directly after Saul. So the book was written when Saul, the first king of Israel, was on the throne, the people’s choice. He was chosen for his height and his physical appearance – not for his character or ability.
If we know when the book was written, we can also ask who wrote it. The speeches of the prophet Samuel in the first book of Samuel have been found to be identical in language to the book of Judges and Ruth. And it was his style to teach from the history of his people. It is most likely, therefore, that Samuel wrote Judges and Ruth as one book, when Saul was king.
More of the purpose for writing can be discerned when we ask which tribe King Saul came from. The answer is Benjamin. The whole message of the two books is that Benjamin is bad stock, in contrast to Judah and those in Bethlehem. In other words, the two-volume work was written to prepare the people to switch from Saul to David. Samuel had secretly anointed David but needed to prepare the people to accept him as king rather than their own choice of Saul.
He asks his readers to compare the degraded men of Benjamin with the delightful people in Bethlehem. At the very end Samuel mentions that Jesse was the father of David, knowing that he was God’s appointed king and was going to change the whole situation.
This theory is backed up by a detail included in the first chapter of Judges. When the tribe of Judah entered the Promised Land the city of Jerusalem was assigned to the tribe of Benjamin. But the early part of Judges tells us that the city was in the hands of the Jebusites ‘to this day’, implying that Benjamin never conquered it. One of David’s first acts as king, recorded in 1 Samuel, was to capture the city. This provides further clarification for the date of the book and confirms the likelihood that its purpose was to encourage people to be pro- David. The position of Ruth alongside Judges brings two cities into view: Bethlehem, the ‘house of bread’, David’s home town, and Jerusalem, occupied by the Jebusites but soon to become the nation’s capital.
How can we use Judges and Ruth today?
In the New Testament the apostle Paul tells Timothy that all Scripture is God-breathed and able to make us ‘wise for salvation’. Jesus says that the Scriptures bear witness to him, so we must ask how a Christian should read Judges and Ruth.
Judges
Individual Christians can learn a great deal from the characters in the book of Judges. We can learn from the mistakes the judges made as well as from their correct choices. Each story has value to any believer. But we do not look to the judges to provide role models. Indeed, the New Testament discourages such a course. In Hebrews 12 we are told that those who have gone before, described in chapter 11 and including some of these judges, are watching to see how we run the race, looking to our only true model in Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, whose work of deliverance stands for all time.
The Church needs to study Judges because it could fall into the same spiral of anarchy today, doing what it feels is right in its own eyes. It could fall into error by looking for a visible ‘monarchy’, a human being whose viewpoint or leadership is valued more than that of Christ. Rule by democracy, oligarchy or autocracy depends on human leaders, but the Bible teaches that we should be led by a theocracy. Our leader is both human and divine; he was on earth and is now in heaven.
We must also remember that God is the same in character today as he was at the time of the events described in Judges and Ruth. He loves his people, and shows this by disciplining those who wander from his path. At the same time he works out his plans for our good. We need not be part of a cycle of despair. We can know real direction and follow God’s purposes.
Ruth
Ruth was one of the earliest Gentiles to embrace the God of Israel. She is a picture of all believers who are in the royal line, brothers of Jesus through faith in him.
The book reminds us of Jesus, for if the Church is like Ruth, Boaz is like Christ – the kinsman redeemer. The Church has been brought into the line of the Old Testament people of God. We are the bride and he is the bridegroom. Ruth is not an isolated Old Testament book, but covers a theme which runs throughout the Bible. The whole Bible is a romance, finishing with the wedding supper of the Lamb in the book of Revelation. The Ruth–Boaz romance is a perfect picture of Christ and his Gentile bride.
(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)
Week 57: Judges and Ruth Part 6
July 4, 2011
(from Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson)
Ruth
The book of Ruth was written at the same time as Judges but there could hardly be a greater contrast between the two.
- Judges includes the stories of many people, Ruth just a few.
- Judges is relatively large, while Ruth is one of the smallest Old Testament books.
- Judges covers the whole of Israel, Ruth just one small town.
- Judges spans 200 years, Ruth just one generation.
Ruth reads like a Thomas Hardy novel, with the sort of romance which would not be out of place in a magazine story. It is a breath of fresh air after Judges. In Judges we have mass killing, rape, a prostitute cut up into pieces, civil war, evil priests. It is just two miles from the Benjaminites’ territory to Judah where Ruth is located, but it is a totally different atmosphere.
Ruth is only four chapters long. The first two chapters are about two inseparable women, and the second two chapters are about two influential men. These four people form the main characters in the drama.
- Mother-in-law’s loss
- Daughter-in-law’s loyalty
- Redeemer kinsman’s love
- Royal king’s line
1. Mother-in-law’s loss
The story begins with a famine in Israel, which caused two men to leave for Moab. We can guess that the famine was a punishment from God, for this was a common sign of God’s displeasure, and it provides a contrast with the location of the main drama – Bethlehem means ‘house of bread’ in Hebrew.
If the family had learned the lessons from Israel’s history, they would have known that searching for food outside Israel always led to problems, as the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob testify, but there is no record that they prayed to God for food. So Naomi and her husband travelled east across the hills on the far side of the Dead Sea to Moab. As time passed each of their two sons married a Moabite woman. Things went from bad to worse. Naomi’s husband died and the two sons died also. The three widows were left alone. In those days a widow’s future was bleak. The whole drama started from the men’s refusal to rely on God. They sought a human solution to their situation instead of asking God what was happening and what they should do.
God would have told them that the famine was part of his punishment, and if only they would turn back to him they would have enough food again. But they did not even wait to ask him, let alone listen for an answer.
As a result of this crisis Naomi became bitter. Her name actually means ‘pleasure’, but when she returned to Israel she was unrecognizable to her old relatives and asked to be called ‘Mara’, meaning ‘bitter’, instead. She encouraged her two daughters-in-law to stay in Moab, knowing that returning to Judah would mean little prospect of remarrying. The men in Judah were not likely to marry outside their clan.
Orpah agreed and went back to Moab and is never heard of again. On the basis of her choice she had no more place in God’s purpose. Ruth, however, went with Naomi and her name has gone down in history as an ancestor of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The story carries the reminder that much can hang on just one decision. It is the choices we take that make up our character, and Ruth made the right choice at the right time.
At last we see someone whose actions break out of the endless cycle. Ruth became part of God’s line instead. Her name is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew, despite the fact that she was both a Gentile and a woman.
2. Daughter-in-law’s loyalty
Ruth was a beautiful character, both inside and out. She was full of humility and yet she had the sort of boldness that men find attractive. She was loyal, with a serving spirit, but she was not passive or an underdog by any means.
She not only chose to stay with Naomi, but chose Naomi’s people and Naomi’s God. God was evidently real to her, even though she had seen him punishing his people. On four occasions she said ‘I will’ to Naomi. In being so loyal to Naomi she demonstrated her love for her. ‘Loyalty’ and ‘love’ are almost the same word in Hebrew. Love that is not loyal is not true love. Likewise, God’s covenant love for his people means that he sticks with them through thick and thin.
Furthermore, we read that Ruth found ‘favor’ in the eyes of the Lord. In Hebrew, ‘favor’ is the same word as ‘favorite’ – she became one of God’s favorites. It is clear from the story that Ruth became the talk of the town in Bethlehem, for the Lord did not stop showing his kindness to Ruth.
3. Redeemer kinsman’s love
The second half of the book includes two influential men, Boaz and the man who would become king.
Boaz was a man of great standing and great generosity. It was common for the poor to be allowed to collect any grain remaining in the field after harvest, but Boaz instructed his workers to make sure that Ruth especially received a large provision.
There are two other customs in the book of Ruth which we must appreciate in order to understand the unfolding drama. The first is the Levirate marriage. In the year of Jubilee, every 50 years, all the property was returned to the original family that owned it in the previous Jubilee year. It was imperative, therefore, that there was a male family representative to claim the property after 50 years. The Levirate law stated that if a woman’s husband died before she had a son to pass on her inheritance, her husband’s brother had to marry her and give her a son, thus keeping the property in the family. Ruth, of course, had been married to someone who was entitled to property, but now she had no husband or son, so a relative was under the obligation to marry her to keep her husband’s name and line going and re-inherit the property when it became available in Jubilee year.
The second law to understand was a social custom. A girl could not propose marriage to a man in those days, but she was free to indicate that she would like to be married to someone and could do that in a number of ways. One was to warm the man’s feet! So when Ruth lay at Boaz’s feet and covered them with her cloak she was indicating that she would not mind being married to him. These two customs explain how Boaz married Ruth.
When Ruth lay at Boaz’s feet, it was a clear sign that she was interested. He was flattered that she had chosen him, as he was neither the oldest nor the youngest kinsman she could have chosen. However, his older brother was the one who should fulfil the legal duty, so he had to give him first option! His older brother gave his consent in the customary way, taking off his sandal and giving it to Boaz – the equivalent of shaking hands on a deal. Ruth and Boaz were free to marry.
4. Royal king’s line
It is a beautiful story – a lovely rural romance. But we must ask what God was doing behind all this, for it is unlikely that the story would be included in Scripture merely as a light interlude. It becomes clear that God was preparing a royal line for a king of Israel. Ruth’s right choice in joining with Naomi and returning to be part of her people was part of God’s right choice, for he had chosen her to be part of the royal line.
Indeed, although God is not directly identified as being involved in the drama, he is frequently mentioned in the book, as the characters ask him to bless others. Naomi asked the Lord to bless Ruth for being with her. The harvesters asked God to bless Boaz and he returned the blessing to them. Boaz asked the Lord to bless Ruth for choosing him. When they spoke of God they used God’s name, YAHWEH, a name which functions like ‘always’ in English – God is ‘always’ my provider, ‘always’ at my side, ‘always’ my healer.
It is interesting to note that Boaz was a direct descendent of Judah, one of the 12 sons of Jacob. He was also a descendant of Tamar, who had offspring after she was raped, which shows that God can use the most unlikely situations as part of his plan. Jacob gave a prophecy to Judah on his deathbed: ‘The scepter will not depart from Judah nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until he comes to whom it belongs.’ This was several centuries before they thought of having a king, and yet Jacob promised Judah that a royal line would come from his house.
We learn too that Boaz’s grandmother was not a Jew. Rahab the prostitute was the first Gentile in the land of Canaan to embrace the God of Israel. So we have a mixed family tree: Tamar was raped, Rahab was a Gentile and a prostitute, Ruth was a Moabite. And yet these are all ancestors of our Lord Jesus Christ.
