1 Samuel

First Samuel marks one of the great turning points in Israel's history. It covers the transition from the era of the judges to the monarchy, and is a book of transitions, of endings and beginnings, of the relentless question that runs through it: what does it mean to lead God's people God's way?

The book opens with Hannah, a barren woman whose desperate prayer is answered in the birth of Samuel. She gives him back to God and Samuel becomes the last and greatest of the judges: a prophet, priest and leader who holds Israel together through a critical season. But the people want a king like the nations around them and God, grieved but not surprised, gives them what they ask for.

Saul is anointed first, tall, impressive and full of apparent promise. But his disobedience reveals that he lacks the heart God requires. The kingdom is taken from him and given to a shepherd boy from Bethlehem: David, a man after God's own heart. The contrast between Saul and David, outward appearance against inward character and self-will against trust in God, is the theological spine of the book.

First and Second Samuel were originally one book in the Hebrew Bible, divided for practical reasons in early Greek translations. The books bear Samuel's name but he could not have written all of them, since he dies in 1 Samuel 25. Jewish tradition holds that Samuel wrote what he could, and that Nathan and Gad completed the account (see 1 Chronicles 29:29).

The events of 1 Samuel span roughly a century, from the birth of Samuel around 1105 BC to the death of Saul around 1010 BC. The book was likely compiled and edited in its final form during or shortly after the reign of Solomon.

First Samuel is saturated with anticipations of Christ, most powerfully through the figure of David.

Hannah's prayer at the opening of the book (1 Samuel 2:1–10) is one of the most remarkable prophetic songs in the Old Testament. It speaks of God raising the poor from the dust, giving strength to His king and exalting His anointed. Mary's Magnificat in Luke 1 consciously echoes Hannah's prayer; the same God who answered Hannah is at work again in a greater way through the birth of Jesus.

David himself is the great type of Christ in the Old Testament. He is the unlikely one chosen by God when the world would have chosen his older, more impressive brothers. He is anointed with the Spirit of God. He defeats Goliath, the enemy who defied God's people and whom no one else would face, through faith rather than conventional military strength. He is unjustly pursued by the very king he serves faithfully. He gathers around him a band of desperate and broken men who become mighty warriors in his service.

The anointing of David in 1 Samuel 16, the Spirit of the Lord rushing upon him from that day forward, anticipates the anointing of Jesus at His baptism. Both are anointed with the Spirit; both are hidden and tested before their public ministry; both are misunderstood and opposed before they are vindicated.

"Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7) is as much a statement about how God chooses His Son, the one who is right in heart and not merely impressive in appearance, as it is about David.

"Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." — 1 Samuel 16:7

"The Lord does not save by sword or by spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and He will give you into our hand." — 1 Samuel 17:47

"But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over His people." — 1 Samuel 13:14

True leadership requires a heart submitted to God. Outward impressiveness, strength or capability are not enough on their own.

First Samuel relentlessly exposes the danger of choosing leaders by human criteria. Saul looks like a king. David looks like a boy. God sees differently. The book calls Israel — and every reader — to trust God's estimation over human assessment, and to value the inward heart over the outward appearance.

First Samuel speaks directly to anyone who feels overlooked, underestimated or passed over in favour of someone more apparently qualified. David was not in the room when Samuel came to Jesse's house. He was out in the field, doing the unglamorous work of keeping sheep. God had not forgotten him. God rarely calls the impressive; He calls the faithful and then impresses through them.

The contrast between Saul and David is also a serious warning. Saul's failure was not a sudden dramatic fall; it was a series of small compromises, moments when he chose to do almost what God said rather than exactly what God said. Partial obedience is disobedience dressed in respectability. First Samuel is an extended case study in how that ends.

David's courage before Goliath (1 Samuel 17) is more than an inspiring story. It is a model of faith that reasons from God's faithfulness in the past to confidence in the present. "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." The giants we face today are met with the same logic: the God who has been faithful will be faithful.