I Samuel closes

Well.  I hadn’t been aware that David was so worried about Saul’s efforts to kill him that he twice found refuge with Achish, a Philistine king of Gath.  He fought with his army, but escaped before he was forced to fight against Israel.

The book of I Samuel ends with the deaths of Jonathan and Saul. What a tumultuous lead up to David’s kingship!  Surely all the killing will come to an end.  I look forward to learning just what David did as the anointed king.  

Joyce Voysey

Abigail to the rescue

Chapter 22 tells us that "every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him [David] about four hundred men." 

Ah, the importance of spiritual leadership. David's talents are burnished, while Saul's are unfortunately spoiled through jealousy and resentment. Don't we look for qualities like honesty, trustworthiness, reliability, and the ability to serve the greater good to guide us and lead us? And don't pride, prejudice, complaint, criticism, cynicism and imagining the worst in others simply drag us down? Saul was so concerned about himself and his position that he seems not to have noticed David's faithfulness - so beautifully described by Ahimelech in chapter 22 verse 14.
And isn't it edifying to learn that David continually and trustingly turned to God for direction? We too may feel besieged by a "Saul" problem and we too can turn trustingly to God for guidance and protection.

Not that David's path was without temptation. Samuel has passed on when we meet Abigail, that angel of wisdom, discretion, courage and timeliness who saved David from making a very bad mistake. Her quiet "the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God" has surely endeared her to readers down the ages. See I Samuel chapter 25 verse 29.

Julie Swannell

 

Saul, David, and Jonathan

There are lots of chapters about Saul’s hatred of David and Jonathan’s championship of him. Jonathan didn’t seem to be at all concerned that he may miss out on being king. This seems to have been one of Saul’s concerns. I Sam. 20:31: “For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom.”

Chapter 21 gives us a story of David’s men being given hallowed bread by Ahimelech the priest. This is the “shewbread” which Jesus talks about in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It was a precedent for him and the disciples plucking of the corn on the Sabbath.

Joyce Voysey

 

Victory over the Philistines

I went on a search of I Samuel chapters 17 and 18, looking for prayers. David’s prayers seem to have been simple trust that God would be with him every step of the way. He had had experiences which affirmed that – the lion and the bear for instance, which he had dealt with. He was sure he could handle the Philistine. And he did. I always query the statement, “…there was no sword in the hand of David.” This after he slew the giant. (“Slew” is an interesting word, in this case it is the past participle of “slay”, which means “to kill violently.”)

So David has already slain the Philistine, but he proceeded to cut off his head!  There must be some symbolism here.  Was he chopping off the head of the Philistine army, and rendering it powerless? He was brought before Saul in Jerusalem with the head of the Philistine in his hand.

From this time Saul seeks to kill David. David and Saul’s son Jonathan become dear friends, and his daughter Michal loved him. They became his allies against Saul.

Joyce Voysey

Leadership qualities needed

I Samuel Chapter 15.  Poor old Saul, he just couldn’t get it right. He did seem to try to be in contact with God, but he didn’t get the whole picture. It reminds me of a favourite thought of mine. When God gives us ideas, there are two parts to the process – first we hear the idea for some action which we recognise as coming from God; then we listen carefully for directions from God as to how we should carry out that action. Too often we fail to wait on God for the second part of the plan. We rush off with only human reasoning and actions to carry out the plan.  I liken it to Gen. 1:26, 27, 28 where God says, “Let us make man in our image.” Aha! an idea. Now the doing of it: “And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” with more detail to come, before that magnificent statement “And God saw every thing that he had made; and, behold, it was very good.”

As we were reading the Lesson in church on Sunday, I got a little gleam of inspiration (maybe) about Saul’s failure, even though he tried to obey with burnt offerings and such. The Christ (yes, even in Saul’s day) demanded much more than burnt offerings and animal sacrifices.

I went on a hunt for Agar, king of the Amalekites who are central figures in Saul’s endeavours in this chapter. He doesn’t even get a mention in the Bible Dictionary. It merely says that Agar is the same as Hagar, and the only Hagar is the mother of Ishmael. The Amalakites were reduced to “a horde of banditti” by Saul. Their destruction was completed by David, the next king.

 

Chapter 16.  We know it so well. Or do I? Samuel tried so hard to help Saul be a good king. I am reminded of how hard Mary Baker Eddy worked to keep her adopted son, Foster-Eddy, on the right spiritual track. (Perhaps Robert Peel’s Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority is a good place to find this history. The index is very full – under “Eddy, Ebenezer J. Foster (Bennie)”

But, now Samuel is told by God that it is a hopeless case and he must look up Jesse’s family for the next king he is to anoint. Samuel is fearful of Saul’s reaction. The story is very well known - how Samuel inspected all of Jesse’s 8 sons before choosing David and anointing him.

It is interesting the way God chose to get David into Saul’s presence – through his musicianship!  And the effect of his music on Saul’s disturbed mind.  Gently!  Gently!

Joyce Voysey

 

Spiritual leadership - tuning in to God

I love the rough and tumble of I Samuel. It reminds me that when we pray, things move.
The thing is that God is communicating to us all the time but are we paying attention? Prayer isn't us giving God information but rather God (divine Mind) fathering and mothering us, guiding us, rescuing us, relieving us, perking us up, lifting us onward, enlightening us.

I love that we have a woman at the beginning of this book. Dear Hannah. I had an aunty Hannah to whom I once gave a subscription to The Christian Science Monitor because she seemed to me to be such a "with it", gracious lady who was interested in what was going on in the world. Well, the Hannah in this book was one of the wives of Elkanah, the one without children. Oh how our heart yearns for her in her childlessness. But she did not give up hope and in her yearning entered the sanctuary of earnest longing. This beautiful communion must have been when she really tuned in to what God was telling her and involved self-sacrifice and sacred vows: "I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head." Eugene Petersen in The Message has: "I'll give him completely, unreservedly to you. I'll set him apart for a life of holy discipline" (I Sam 1: 10, 11). We might hear echoes of Ecclesiastes 5:4 "When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it."

After the birth of baby Samuel, we witness a different kind of prayer, a prayer of joy and exaltation, of gratitude and praise. See I Sam 2: 1, 2.

Everyone loves the prayer of the young Samuel. God's voice was so clear to him! Does the childlike thought tune in so easily because it is free of the sense of responsibility that often burdens the adult? Samuel's "Here am I" reminds me of Isaiah 6:8, which many will recognize as the theme for the beautiful and tender song: "Here I am Lord" which we had as our church solo last week sung by Daniel O'Donnell. (You might be able to find in on YouTube, even though it's a fairly old recording.) Isaiah says: "I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? then said I, Here am I; send me." What a powerful prayer!

Don't you love chapter 3 verse 19 "And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground." This young man was ready to show spiritual leadership. For a contemporary example of spiritual leadership, you may like to read the account of Janet Horton, a Christian Science Chaplain, and her involvement in a military exercise which took place in Germany during the Spring of 2000. See pp. 273-279 of the fascinating and inspiring book Christian Science Military Ministry 1917-2004 by Kim M. Schuette. Horton headed up a group of 60-65 chaplains from many religious backgrounds. The chaplains were "invited to make a commitment to pray every day specifically for the safety of soldiers." Horton told them that they could really believe that they could get through the military exercise - called "Warfighter" - without one soldier being harmed. Horton chose the theme "Coming to a Position of Attention Spiritually" and the results were wonderful.

Julie Swannell

 

 

  

Jonathan prays

I Samuel, Chapter 14.  Phew!  What a long chapter, and somewhat rambling, I reckon.  We are formally introduced to Jonathan, Saul’s son. He had been mentioned in passing in previous chapters and seems a more likely candidate for kingship than his father! 

He and his armour bearer got their thought right before undertaking a raid on the Philistines – “it may be that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by a few.” I love it! They accomplished their mission and had already slain about twenty men before Saul woke up that something was afoot. Saul made an attempt to call on God – with the ark of God, but the case seemed to be urgent so he told the priest to “Withdraw thine hand.” The battle was joined and Israel was saved that day. 

I am somewhat confused about why Saul demanded that no man should eat. Anyway, Jonathan didn’t hear the edict and ate some honey which gave him energy and brightness. Saul eventually discovered this “sin” and Jonathan would have died at his father’s order, but the people rescued him. They said, “he hath wrought with God this day.” (More than his father had done!)

Saul’s children are named here – including Michal, who we will hear more of later, I know.

Saul’s life was one of war against the Philistines – he recruited all the strong and valiant men to his army.

Things not going well? Time to pray.

With regard to General Patton and the prayer for good weather, there is a fine article by Channing Walker On the Ethics of Prayer in the 31^st January, 2000 Christian Science Sentinel.  It specifically mentions the prayer.

Oh dear!  I have lost all that I wrote this morning.

More fighting in Chapter 13.  Philistines:  30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, people as the sand on the sea shore! One gets the idea that there may have been some exaggeration. There were refugees in those days too – some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.

Saul got himself into a pickle when Samuel didn’t come when things were not going well for their side – he offered a burnt offering, a “no-no” it seems.  Samuel prophesied that there was to be a better man appointed to the kingship.  He probably had a character of the calibre of David in thought. 

Powerful Prayer - Samuel and General Patton!

Oh!  I have been forgetting our task of examining the prayers of protagonists.  In I Samuel, Chapter 11, we find Saul beginning to behave like a king – he found a way to subdue the Ammonites. The record of his reaction to the Spirit of God which came upon him is interesting – his anger was kindled greatly. Scientifically, we would say we might be angry with the error, not with the people. Is this where the powers that be these days go wrong? Us included? Anyway, the people were satisfied that he was a likely king.

“The people”, “the people”…so prominent in the Bible.

Chapter 12 finds Samuel trying to bring out some gratitude in the people’s idea of God’s working in their behalf, through him, through Moses, through Jacob. Even when the people forgot the Lord, he rescued them through Jerubbaal, Bedan, Jephthah, and Samuel. He tells them they must be obedient; then the king-thing might work.

Oh Ho! Samuel asked God to send thunder and rain. And he did. This is so interesting! This morning in a JSH search (http://jsh.christianscience.com/), I found that General Patton once called for a chaplain to pray for fine weather….

From The Blaze http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/pattons-prayer-for-fair-weather-and-the-turn-of-world-war-ii/

 

In early December 1944, Gen. George Patton’s Third Army was poised for the breakthrough across the Rhine River, a formidable natural obstacle to the invasion of Germany by the western allies. The date for the attack was set for Dec. 19 but foul weather threatened to postpone the attack.

 

At 11 a.m. on the morning of Dec. 8, Patton phoned the Head Chaplain of the Third Army, James H. O’Neill, a Catholic priest.

“This is General Patton; do you have a good prayer for weather? We must do something about those rains if we are to win the war.”

The taciturn O’Neill told Patton that he would research the topic and report back to him within an hour. After hanging up the receiver, O’Neill looked out at the immoderate rains, which had plagued the Third Army’s operations for the past three months. As he searched through his prayer books, he could find no formal prayers pertaining to weather so he composed an original prayer, which he typed on a note card:

Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations.

O’Neill threw on his trench coat and crossed the quadrangle of the old French military barracks then serving as the Third Army’s headquarters and reported to Patton’s office. Patton read the prayer, returned it to O’Neill and directed him to “have 250,000 copies printed and see to it that every man in the Third Army gets one.” (http://www.generalpatton.com/prayer/index.html)

The prayer was answered and General Patton awarded Chaplain O’Neill with the Bronze Star Medal. Here is Chaplain O’Neill’s stirring version of the story - http://www.pattonhq.com/prayer.html.

Samuel didn’t give up on the people. He knew that that would be sin. “I will teach you the good and the right way” (I Sam 12:23). But they had to serve the Lord with all their hearts and be grateful for the great things He has done for them.

Final warning however in the last verse: “But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.”

Joyce Voysey

Who is the ruler here?

I Samuel - Chapters 8, 9, 10

 The elders of Israel decided that because Samuel’s sons (who he had made judges) were corrupt, they should have a king like other nations. I wonder if there was some other alternative? The arrangement of having judges was seen as government directly by God. (But surely this line of control was proved to be ineffective with the experience of Eli and his sons - history seems to have been repeated.)

Samuel appealed to God: is this the right way to go? God points out that the people were rejecting him (God), not Samuel. Samuel is told to do as they bid. However Samuel went on to explain to the people just what a straightened existence they will have under a king.

Which brings me to the question: What is the difference between a judge and a king? I guess the answer lies to an extent in the long list of negatives Samuel tells the people will be their lot under a king. It seems the people thought a king would fight their battles for them.

Well, Samuel’s (or rather God’s) choice of king was Saul. At this stage Saul sounds like a likely chap – modest. Samuel predicted that Saul would be turned into another man. This came to pass “…when he turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart” (10:9). And he prophesied among the prophets, much to the amazement of the other prophets.

Chapter 10 ends with input from the children of Belial. Error is already having an influence: “How shall this man save us?” They despised him and sent him no presents.

 

Joyce Voysey

Samuel's faithful work

I am going to have to keep at this book of Samuel because I started a bit late.  Here is the latest.

My goodness! The to-do in Chapter 6 about sending the ark back! The priests and diviners said that they must send a “trespass offering” with it. Five golden emerods and five golden mice (they had been overrun by mice as well hemorrhoids) were to be the offering in the hope of placating the God of Israel.

A digression. In reading the first few verses of Luke’s Chapter 8, I noted that women were healed by Jesus, but we do not hear of any of the apostles being healed. At least, I cannot think of any. Any comments?

The chapter goes into fine detail about how they go about returning the ark. Phew!

Now Chapter 7 takes up the ark back in the hands of the children of Israel. It seems that we leave it with the men of Kirjath-jearim for 20 years.

And Samuel gets on with his job of sorting out the children of Israel. It seems they were into strange gods. He told them that if they served the Lord only, he would deliver them from the Philistines. They put away the gods Baalim and Astaroth and served the Lord only. But perhaps that was a token adherence, for they still feared the Philistines, asking Samuel to pray for them. Burnt offerings were the go, so Samuel did his thing with them. The Philistines were subdued, and Samuel was established as a judge. He "judged Israel all the days of his life.”

 

Joyce Voysey

Ark of the Covenant in enemy hands

Samuel doesn’t get a mention in chapter 4.  It is all about the ark of the covenant and the slaughter of Israelites by the Philistines – “30,000 footmen”! That seems to be an extraordinary number. Eli’s sons die, as does Eli when he hears that the ark of the covenant has gone into enemy hands.

The Philistines knew the Jewish history (I Samuel 4:8); they thought that the ark would be like a lucky talisman for them, as it had brought triumph to the Children of Israel -

Wikipedia states: Thereafter the gold-plated acacia chest was carried by the Levites some 2,000 cubits in advance of the people when on the march or before the Israelite army, the host of fighting men.^[8] When the Ark was borne by Levites into the bed of the Jordan River, the waters parted as God had parted the waters of the Red Sea, opening a pathway for the entire host to pass through (Josh. 3:15–16; 4:7–18). The walls of the city of Jericho were shaken to the ground with no more than a shout from the army after the Ark of the Covenant was paraded round them for seven days by Levites accompanied by seven priests sounding seven trumpets of rams' horns (Josh. 6:4–20). When carried, the Ark was always hidden under a large veil made of skins and blue cloth, always carefully concealed, even from the eyes of the priests and the Levites who carried it. 

The ark of the covenant is an interesting study. Originally built to hold the tablets of the Ten Commandments, it was 2½ cubits long by 1½ broad and deep, covered inside and out with gold on the shittim (acacia) wood. A valuable item in material terms!

Chapter 5 tells us of the fun and games the ark brought to the Philistines. When it was placed beside their god Dagon (represented with the face and hands of a man, the tail of a fish), Dagon fell on his face to the earth overnight, supposedly in homage – twice. With one thing and another (the Philistines were smitten with "emerods"*) the Philistines decided that the ark was bad medicine for them.

As Chapter 6 tells us, the Philistines had had enough after seven months. They sent it back! A good joke, I reckon.

 

Joyce Voysey

 

*Ed: The Living Bible translates this as "a plague of boils"; the Message has "tumors". The New Living Testament suggests "swelling" or "hemorrhoids."

A prayer of exultation and complete healing for Hannah and Elkanah

The first 10 verses of Chapter 2 have been classified as “The Song of Hannah.” Dummelow’s Commentary on the Bible points out that the Virgin Mary’s "song" is closely modeled on it (Luke 1:46-55). Dummelow points out that the poem is more likely to have been composed by some public person than by Hannah herself.

A prayer of exultation!

Hello!  In verse 12 we find that the sons of Eli the priest, to whom Hannah entrusted Samuel, were classified as “sons of Belial”, the explanation in this case being that they “knew not the Lord.” What a burden for a priest!

Surely Hannah and Elkanah’s original prayer must have expected a complete healing of barrenness, for they went on to have a further three sons and two daughters – blessed by Eli the priest.

Eli’s sons Hophni and Phinehas have a very bad press in this chapter.

Chapter 3 brings us the familiar story of Samuel’s calling by God. My marginal note points out that by verse 10 the voice of the Lord became a vision: “And the Lord came and stood, and called…”

Samuel is told the bad news about Eli and the iniquity of his house which could not be purged with sacrifice. Although he is reluctant, he tells Eli what the Lord has said about the fate of his family. His reply is that of a holy man: “It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good.”

Joyce Voysey

Family prayers and correct identification

I Samuel i:1 The first word that caught my attention was “Belial.”* Reference told me that it meant “worthless.” But it has come to be used as a name for Satan, as in II Cor. 6:15 – “And what concord hath Christ with Belial?” This is a phrase quoted twice in Science and Health (S&H), pages 216:26 and 539:26.  So now, I must look them up. The inference is that Christ and Belial are absolute opposites which can never exist together any more than can light and darkness.

The other S&H reference is on page 171, line 23 - “No more sympathy exists between the flesh and Spirit than between Belial and Christ.”

(Then I re-read Julie’s proposition to, in reading of this book, note prayers undertaken by individuals whose stories are recorded. I note here that according to Jewish tradition the book was written, at least in part, by Samuel.)

Hannah was so sad at not having conceived a child. No doubt she had appealed to the Lord on many occasions, but this time she added a vow that if she were to be given a man child he would be given to the Lord all the days of his life. Did that make the difference?

Hannah knew her worth – she was no “daughter of Belial.” Is there an inference here that she knew she was a child of God, perhaps classified as “a daughter of Christ”?

Anyway, she got it right. She was given a son, Samuel. She weaned him at the regular age for the time, of 2-3 years.

I have a margin note in my old Bible that Elkanah had his hand in the prayers. Note the “they” in verse 19. 

Joyce Voysey

*16Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial:

Looking for I Samuel prayers

In our thirty-one chapter book this month, I Samuel, let’s look for all the prayers, all the times our Bible friends here turn to God, divine Mind, to seek comfort and to find answers. Where do their prayers begin? Where does it take them?   

Julie