1 Samuel 1:1-2:21, John 5:1-23, Psalms 105:37-45, Proverbs 14:28-29
Today is the 7th day of May, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you as we continue the journey that we are on, the voyage that sails us through the entire Bible in a year. Today is…well…I mean it’s a special day because we’re moving into a new book in the Old Testament, this is the book of first Samuel, but we’re also kind of migrating into a new era in the story of the ancient Hebrew people found in the Old Testament. So, basically, we’ve…we’ve worked from Moses, right? And then he handed the reins to Joshua, who led the people into the Promised Land and settled the Promised Land. And then when his life was finished, we entered the time of the Judges, which last…which lasted for centuries. And we saw that was a difficult time, a lot of back-and-forth with the people around them, a lot of back-and-forth in their understanding and relationship with God. And then we concluded the book of Judges and moved into the book of Ruth, which is a beautiful story. We just finished it yesterday. So, it’s a beautiful story, but it takes place during the time of the Judges. Now we’re moving into first Samuel.
Introduction to the book of first Samuel:
And Samuel, as it turns out, is the final judge of Israel before the time of the Kings, the monarchy. The people demand a king and its Samuel who will bring Israel its first king. So, as we kinda move into first Samuel we’re gonna first learn about Samuel, like his story. We’re gonna kinda get his story even before he’s born. And then, like I said, we’ll follow his life all the way…all the way through his death and, ironically, even after his death briefly. Samuel will introduce Kings into…into the story of Israel. The first king’s name will be Saul and then later, before we’re done with Samuel, we’ll meet a man named David. Of course, we’ve heard about David…well…we’ve been hearing about David in the Bible tin he Psalms and stuff. But David, kinda entered the scene yesterday in Ruth as we learned of the ancestry. Now, as far scholarship for the books of Samuel…well…I mean more than the book of Samuel…scholars generally…like no biblical scholars agree on everything ever…like this is the way of things, but generally it’s believed that the material that’s in the book of books of Samuel were probably the writings of three different prophets – Samuel, Nathan, and God. And originally there wasn’t a first and second Samuel. They were separate texts. Actually, there wasn’t even just a book of Samuel that included those two texts. It was all grouped together as the books of the Kings or the books of the kingdoms. So, basically when the Old Testament was translated out of Hebrew and into Greek it was called the Septuagint, and this one kind of massive corpus of the kingdoms was…was divided into four different texts known as the books of the kingdoms. And then later, when…when the Old Testament was translated from Greek into Latin, which was called the Vulgate they became the books of the Kings. And the irony is that…like right now in the Scriptures as we know them, we have first and second Samuel and then first and second Kings. At this time when we’re talking about it was first, second, third, and fourth Kings. So, that can get confusing, but this is how we kind of arrive at the books of the Bible that we have today. So, what is now known as first and second Samuel, the books that we’re about to read, at one time those were actually first and second Kings and…and first and second Kings as we know it now was known as third and fourth Kings. We have the books as we understand them now due to the publication of the King James Bible in 1611, which is not that long ago when we’re talking about ancient history. So, that’s how we got first and second Samuel. Samuel, as a person, we’ll…we’ll see as…as we move into this new territory, was very influential and very respected for very good reasons and…and he was the final judge of Israel, but he was also a prophet of God and that was a huge difference because he was a prophet of God, a judge of Israel, and a priest of the Lord. So, during the time of Samuel everybody’s doing what was right in their own eyes, but Samuel kind of steps into this as a prophet and people that historically understood God using prophets to speak and lead them, for example Moses. So, the people believed that Samuel was…was speaking directly for God and was something that they understood. That’s how they had been led out of Egypt. And, so, we’ll watch how this all plays out as we begin. First Samuel chapter 1 verse 1 through 2 verse 21 today.
Prayer:
Father, we take a proverb heart – “people with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness.” And Lord the last thing we want to be right now is foolish. And yet we confess on our own we are very foolish people and we show that foolishness a lot. We just try to mask it a lot, try to hide it a lot. And yet what You’re showing us in the Proverbs is that we could stop using all of that energy and actually apply that energy to gaining understanding and control over ourselves, understanding fully that this will never happen in our own strength. We will have to surrender to Your authority in our lives. And, so, we do that. And even as we move into the book of first Samuel, we will begin to see the contrasts of this very proverb played out in vivid color before us in the stories ahead. And, so, come Holy Spirit, give us an understanding heart. Give us the wherewithal to take a deep breath and control ourselves before we react to anything, especially in anger and hot temperedness. Come help us Father. We don’t want to be foolish. We want to be wise when looking for wisdom. We’re looking for eyes to see and we can’t do that without You. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit and we open ourselves up to You fully. Come into all of this we have prayed. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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