Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 25-27.

When I read the account of Nabal and Abigail I am always struck that it tells us a lot about how property was controlled in that ancient time.  Let’s look at the account.  Apparently, David and his men had guarded Nabal’s men as they herded his sheep, then when sheepshearing time came, David sent some men to request that Nabal give them supplies in payment for their protection against bandits.  Reading between the lines, it even looks as if there had been an implied agreement between David and Nabal.  Nabal’s response seems to be Nabal telling David, “What are you going to do about me violating our contract?  Are you going to appeal to the king?”  Then something interesting happens.  Nabal’s servants, recognizing that David had the means to enforce his contract without appealing to King Saul, went to Abigail, Nabal’s wife.  She immediately ordered the servants to gather supplies and take them to David.  The servants to whom Abigail gave these instructions would have known what Nabal had said, so they knew that she was doing this without her husband’s permission, or approval.  Later, after Nabal’s death, David asked Abigail to marry him, and she did so.  There is a bit of implication that David acquired Nabal’s wealth by marrying Abigail, or, perhaps I should say that he acquired Abigail’s wealth.  So, in reading this we learn a bit about how contracts worked.  We also learn that, although it was a male dominated society where a man controlled his wife’s economic assets, the wife still played a major role in managing those assets.  I wrote that by marrying Abigail, David gained control of Nabal’s wealth, but it occurs to me that perhaps David married Abigail because she showed wisdom in managing Nabal’s wealth, by gathering supplies for David and his men, rather than because he gained wealth by marrying her.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 21-24.

Today’s passage contrasts King Saul with David in several ways.  We also see how much David had progressed as a warrior since the day he defeated Goliath.  When David defeated Goliath, he rejected the weapons and armor which King Saul offered him as being more hindrance than benefit because they were too heavy.  Here, when he is fleeing Saul’s court, he takes the sword which Goliath had worn as better than no sword.  The fact that David could wield Goliath’s sword at this point indicates that he had grown in strength and skill.  We should seek to similarly grow in the strength and skill needed to carry out the tasks to which God calls us.  So, one of the contrasts between King Saul and David comes when Saul discovered where David had gone, and that he had gathered a force of men around him.  King Saul accuses everyone around him of conspiring against him.  Further, when he discovered that the priest, Ahimelek, had provided aid to David when David first fled from him, he had Ahimelek, and all of his family, killed.  It is worth noting that Ahimelek had no way to know that David was no longer in Saul’s favor.  On the other hand, when David realized that the people of Keilah would turn him over to King Saul, after he had protected them from Philistine raiders, he left.  Further, when King Saul relieved himself, without a guard, in a cave which David was hiding in, David chose not to kill Saul.  We should seek to emulate David, not Saul.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 18-20.

One of the things which always strikes me is that David turned down the opportunity to marry King Saul’s eldest daughter, but later married another of Saul’s daughters, Michal.  The passage never really tells us why, but it gives us a few hints.  First, it seems to me that David had no ambitions, other than serving the Lord (and perhaps, fighting against those who were the enemies of the Lord’s people).  Second, I think he knew that Michal was in love with him and desired to marry him, while her older sister, Merab, would only have married him because her father told her to do so.  I suspect that David returned Michal’s love (this is supported by the fact that one of his demands to make peace with Abner after King Saul’s death was her being returned to him).  All of this to say, that David did not seek the kingship of Israel.  It came to him due to the hand of God.  David did what he could to serve God in the situations he found himself in, and God raised him to be king.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 16-17.

I have long perceived there to be conflict between the account of David beginning to play the lyre for King Saul and the account of David facing down Goliath.  In the former we are told that Saul made David one of his armor bearers and asked Jesse to remain in his service, while the latter has David take supplies from his father to his eldest three brothers, who were with King Saul’s army.  However, that latter account tells us that David went back and forth from Saul to tending his father’s sheep.  Before today, it never occurred to me that that referred to the service mentioned in the former account.  As for the ending of the account of David and Goliath where King Saul and Abner do not know who David’s father was, that actually makes sense.  There is no reason that the commander of Saul’s army would know who King Saul’s lyre player was, and it is not surprising that Saul did not make the connection between David, the lyre player, and David, the giant killer.

Having written the above, I want to take a look at David as a budding leader as revealed here.  Every time I read this, I see a different way to interpret David’s actions here.  Today as I read David’s reaction to hearing Goliath I read it as him trying to encourage someone, anyone, from King Saul’s army to take on Goliath.  David’s reaction to Goliath was, “Who is this guy to defy the armies of the living God?”  As an aside, I want to note the distinction David makes here between the God of Israel and the idols worshiped by other nations: God is alive, the idols which others worship are not actually real beings.  But back to what David did when he heard Goliath.  He attempted to encourage one of King Saul’s warriors to step forward and take on Goliath.  When Saul heard what David was doing and summoned David, David responded by saying that if no one else would take on Goliath, he would gladly do it.  When Saul told David that he could not do it because he was barely more than a boy, while Goliath was an experienced warrior, David had an answer.  David replied (paraphrasing here), “I have taken on lions and bears to protect my father’s sheep, why would I be afraid to take on someone who is defying God and threatening His people?”  David did not take on Goliath for glory.  He took on Goliath in defense of God’s people.  He had faith that he could defeat Goliath because Goliath was defying God.  Further, when he entered into battle with Goliath, he gave credit to God for his victory before battle was entered.  David faced down the giant because the giant was defying and threatening God’s people.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 14-15.

In today’s passage, King Saul repeatedly showed poor judgement.   When Jonathan precipitated the battle against the Philistines, King Saul declared a curse against anyone in his army who ate anything before evening, causing his men to be at less than optimal because of lack of food.  Saul did this after interrupting the priest who was about to seek the Lord’s guidance on what Saul should do in response to the turmoil among the Philistines.  In addition, when the battle was over and they could eat, they were so hungry that they did not follow God’s instructions for butchering meat(which had health implications).  Further, rather than acknowledge that his order that no one eat was a mistake, Saul was prepared to kill Jonathan.  And would have done so if his men had not threatened rebellion to protect Jonathan.  Later, after being instructed by Samuel to attack and completely destroy the Amalekites and their livestock, King Saul allowed his men to keep the best of the livestock and did not kill their king.  Saul’s excuse for offering the sacrifice was that the men were scattering and he needed to seek the Lord’s favor before the Philistines attacked.  His excuse for not slaughtering the best of the Amalekite livestock was that the soldiers were bringing them for sacrifice at Gilgal.  Saul claimed that he had only allowed the latter because he was afraid of the men.  So King Saul repeatedly exhibited poor judgement.  In his condemnation of King Saul after the battle against the Amalekites, Samuel told us the source of King Saul’s poor judgement.  King Saul trusted his own judgement over God’s direction.  The curse against anyone who ate before the end of the day made King Saul look more committed to victory, but it weakened his army.  The decision to  save some of the animals from the Amalekites in order to sacrifice them, made King Saul more popular with his men (the sacrifice would have been a great feast), at the cost of encouraging people to obey him as he obeyed God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 11-13.

The first thing I thought about when reading today’s passage is that King Saul’s home town was Gibeah, where the Levite’s concubine was raped to death at the end of the Book of Judges.  So, the men of Gibeah precipitated the civil war which almost led to the tribe of Benjamin being wiped out, but they also provided Israel with its first king.  I thought about writing a bit about the events which appear to have led up to the Israelites seeking a king, but as I thought about it  I decided to go in another direction.  Following on what I wrote yesterday about a society which follows God does not need a government I thought I would write about what Samuel said in his farewell address.  In listening to Samuel make his farewell speech after anointing Saul king over Israel, the Israelites realized their mistake in requesting a king, in requesting a government.  Samuel consoled them that God would not forget, nor forsake, His people.  Samuel assured them that if they feared the Lord and served Him faithfully, the government He had established at their request would serve them well.  So, while those who serve the Lord do not need a government to guide them to do what is good and right, if they dedicate themselves to serving the Lord with their whole hearts the government the Lord has established will serve their needs.  But, if they turn away from the Lord, then they and their government will suffer.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 8-10.

I’ve thought this for awhile, but never wrote about it in my blog because I try to avoid politics, but today I finally saw how it fits with what I believe about how God wishes us to live our lives.  Israel from the time of Joshua until King Saul was a libertarian nation.  It had laws, but no government.  When the people asked Samuel to give them a king, God told him that it was not Samuel they were rejecting, but God.  The people were not satisfied with God as their king.  Rather than obey God, they chose to forsake God and seek fulfillment through things other than obeying His commands.  If they had worshiped God and served Him with their whole hearts, they would not have needed a government, the laws which He gave them would have sufficed.  The writer of the Book of Judges felt that the lack of government which existed during the period of the judges was a bad thing, while the writer of the Book of Samuel saw that kingship, particularly Saul’s, had its own problems.  The message of the beginning of today’s passage is that a society composed entirely of those who truly worship and obey God does not need a government.  In 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 Paul speaks to this same idea.  Those who are part of the people of God should not seek judgement between themselves from those outside of God’s people.  Instead, when they have a disagreement with another believer, they should mutually seek a believer to judge between them on who is right and who is wrong.  They should not seek someone with the power to coerce either party to agree, they should agree because they would rather be cheated than risk doing contrary to God’s will.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 4-7.

The battle at the beginning of today’s passage and the battle at the end of this passage stand in contrast to each other.  In between are some other great lessons for us to learn, but I am going to look at just that contrast today.  In both battles the Israelites recognized that they needed God’s aid in order to be victorious.  In the first battle they tried bringing God to themselves in order to gain His aid.  They thought that by bringing the symbols of God to the battle God would fight for them, but that is not how God works.  Wearing a cross, going to church services, etc., these things will not make God deal with our issues.  In the second battle, the Israelites turned to God and away from their idols.  They committed themselves to God only and put away from themselves all that took away their attention from serving Him.  Only then did God fight for them.  We cannot force God to come to our aid by following the correct rituals.  God will only come to our aid when our hearts fully want to serve Him.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 1-3.

The first thing which struck me about this passage is that if Hannah had not been bullied, Samuel would not have arisen.  Twice at the beginning of today’s passage it tells us that Hannah’s rival provoked her because Hannah was unable to bear a child.  I am not advocating for bullying, rather I am advocating for learning how to respond to bullies from Hannah.  Instead of attempting to get revenge, Hannah cried out to the Lord.  And while Hannah did ask God to “fix” the problem which her bully used against her, more importantly, Hannah committed herself to use what she was asking God to give her to serve God.  Hannah asked God to give her a son and promised that if God gave her a son she would give that son into service to God.  Hannah did not just promise this, she followed up on it.  In response to being bullied, Hannah reached out to God and acted to serve Him.  This contrasts with the stories we hear today of people who respond to being bullied by striking out against their bullies and against society which they thought enabled their bullies.  Hannah could have struck out a Peninnah, and we would have likely said she was justified.  She could have struck out at the society around her, which said that a woman who did not have children was worthless, and thus provided enablement to Peninnah in her bullying.  Hannah chose neither of these behaviors.  Instead, she chose to serve God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.