What is the book of 1 Samuel all about? 

“The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people…” (1 Samuel 13:14)

1 Samuel is all about the search for good leaders. The book of Judges ends with the ominous phrase, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” (Judges 21:25). In other words, the big problem was a leadership vacuum – more to the point, an absence of godly leadership. The book of 1 Samuel shows the beginnings of a solution, but it’s a bumpy ride…
The first thing to note as we dig into Old Testament history is that it is his-story – that is, this is history from God’s perspective, told by Spirit-inspired and authoritative chroniclers. This is why in the Hebrew Old Testament these books fall under the category of “Former Prophets”. If prophecy isn’t just foretelling but forthtelling (i.e. proclaiming God’s message) then history told from God’s perspective does exactly that. And this means, wonderfully, that there is plenty for us to learn even 3000 years later.



What do we need to know to read 1 Samuel?

The book of 1 Samuel is all about the search for a leader who will lead God’s people to obey and honour Him. It’s the story of three of Israel’s leaders: Samuel, Saul and David.
 

Samuel

Samuel is the first leader on the scene. Although there are two books that bear his name, he actually dies before the end of the first book (1 Samuel 25:1). He is introduced as the last of the Judges, and the leader of a transition. God’s plan is to bring His people together under a king – a king who would foreshadow The King, the perfect Messiah, Jesus. Through Samuel God brings something vital back to His people: His Word. We read in 1 Samuel 3:1 that, “In those days the word of the LORD was rare…” People had lost touch with their God because they had lost touch with His Word.
God brings Samuel into leadership as the first stage in a regeneration plan for His people who had gone off the rails in the time of the Judges. But his main job would be to appoint Israel’s first king – and set a precedent of prophets holding the king to account.
 

Saul

Saul enters the story in chapter 9, just after the people had demanded that Samuel appoint a king over them. This background is important to note: in chapter 8 the people demand a king not because they see this as a good leadership structure in order for God’s will to be done, but because they want to “…be like all the other nations,” (1 Samuel 8:20, also v5). Although it was always God’s plan to establish a kingly line in Israel, He sees this for precisely what it is: a rejection of His kingship. So God instructs Samuel to give the people what they want, but with a heavy warning that it won’t be as rosy as they expect (see 1 Samuel 8:6-18). Saul will be an OK king, perhaps even a good king for a while – but not a great king; not a king who will unflinchingly lead people into the flourishing that only comes from living God’s way.
Saul’s kingship begins well, with him showing bravery and good leadership in protecting his people. But the wheels quickly fall off as Saul makes a series of poor judgement calls that show the weakness of his trust in God. Ultimately he falls deep into the idolatry of self-glorification, setting up a monument in his honour (see 1 Samuel 15:10-35). God grieved over Saul’s failure, and He instructed Samuel to find a replacement for Saul. As one commentator has written, the story of Saul in 1 Samuel 9-31 is “the only undisputed and fully elaborated literary tragedy in the Bible.”
 

David

David creeps into the narrative in chapter 16, as Samuel is sent to Bethlehem to find God’s chosen king. (As The Jesus Storybook Bible notes, this sending of Samuel drips with New Testament echoes of the journey made by the shepherds in Luke 2, going to find the newborn Messiah Jesus.) He is the polar opposite of Saul: anonymous, disregarded and physically unimpressive. But, as God says to Samuel, “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7). Although David shows himself later on to be just as prone to sin and wickedness as everyone else, nevertheless he never turns away from his trust in God. And this is the kind of leader that God’s people need: someone who will consistently lead by example in following God as the true King. As will become yet clearer in 2 Samuel, David stands as the “prototype” of the Messiah (God’s chosen and anointed King), a foreshadowing of King Jesus. He, of course, is truly the kind of leader we need! But, just as Jesus had to endure time in the wilderness and much painful persecution and betrayal on the way to being enthroned, so David follows a shockingly similar path. In fact the whole second half of 1 Samuel (from chapter 18 onwards) tells the story of Saul’s paranoia and intense jealousy that spills over into violent persecution of David, hunting him through the wilderness with an intense desire to kill him. Yet in all of this David remains faithful to God, committing his life to God’s care and even refusing to take revenge by harming Saul when he has the chance (see chapters 24 and 26).
 

What do we do with these stories?

The difficulty with “hero” narratives in the Bible is that they aren’t as simple as Aesop’s Fables, even if we’d like them to be. It’s not simply a case of, “Be less like Saul; be more like Samuel and David.” There are moral lessons to learn from each of them, but there is much more besides. In particular we see…
…what God’s people need from their leaders – and what God’s people need from their ultimate Leader. We see in the book of 1 Samuel why God’s people need Jesus not just as Saviour but as King.
…what God is doing to solve the problem. With Samuel we see God bringing His Word to bear on His people. With Saul we see what happens when that Word is ignored. And with David we’re left with a little seed of hope that perhaps there could be a bright future for “God’s people in God’s place under His rule…” All of this sets up the story for the rest of the Bible, and the rest of history – because we need the same thing: God’s Word, and God’s King. Even better, we find in the New Testament that Jesus fulfils both of those needs!