God picks three longshot characters to star in the stories of 1 Samuel.
Those three men—Samuel, Saul, and David—are longshots in the sense that if God ever bets on a horserace, he’ll pick the one with the worst odds. It seems God likes to win big. And he likes to make a splash that people will notice. These stories are action dramas about the morphing of Israel’s 12 tribes into one united nation under God.
Samuel
It all begins with Samuel as a longshot baby born to an infertile woman. Once he’s able to eat solid food, his mother gives him back to God. She takes him to the worship center, where he’s raised by Eli, a priest who did a bad job raising his own two sons. They grew up to become corrupt priests. But somehow, Samuel grew into a wonderful priest and prophet.
Saul
Israel’s first king, Saul, was a shy donkey herder until Samuel anointed him king—a job Saul didn’t want. When Samuel called in Israel’s tribal leaders and announced Saul as king, Saul wasn’t there. He was hiding among the baggage of the travelers. It seems a fair guess he was hanging with the donkeys who had hauled the baggage. King Saul made two huge mistakes. He disobeyed God’s strict orders. And he got insanely jealous of David’s popularity. He seemed to devote more time to hunting David than to preparing for the threat of Philistines living next door, along the coastland. David never showed any desire to kill Saul. Philistines killed him and three of his sons.
David
The Goliath Killer was the last son of nine—the runt of a shepherd’s family at a time when shepherds had only one way to go on the social ladder. Up. When the famous prophet and priest Samuel came to meet the family so he could anoint a future king, David’s dad called in all his sons but David. The youngest stayed with the livestock until Samuel insisted on meeting him, too.
By the last chapter in the book, Samuel and Saul are dead. So, David is no longer a refugee on the run from the king. He’s an experienced raider of non-Israelite towns. And he shares the livestock he takes with his friends and the leaders of his own tribe of Judah. That sets him up for the story that continues in 2 Samuel, when those friends will crown him king of Judah. Other tribes will follow later, to make him king of all Israel.
One book split in two
First and Second Samuel were written as one book. But it was too long to fit on a single scroll. So, when Jewish scholars translated it into the international language of the day, Greek, in the decades before Jesus was born, they split it into two books. They did the same with the books of Kings and Chronicles.
Writer
The writer is anonymous.
Timeline
Stories of 1 Samuel span about a century, from Samuel’s birth in roughly 1100 BC until King Saul’s death in a battle with the Philistines in about 1000 BC.
Big events
- Infertile Hannah prays to get pregnant.
- Hannah gives birth to Samuel.
- Samuel says Eli’s priesthood ends here.
- Philistines defeat Israel, Eli and sons die.
- Samuel anoints Saul as first king of Israel.
- Saul disobeys God and God withdraws his Spirit from the king.
- Shepherd boy David kills Philistine champion, Goliath.
- Saul gets jealous of David and tries to kill him.
- David becomes a fugitive who attracts hundreds of followers.
- Saul dies in a battle he loses to Philistines.
Perhaps the most famous scene of this century was the mortal combat between the Philistine’s best warrior, Goliath, and the only Israelite brave enough to fight him, David, a red-cheeked shepherd boy with a slingshot.
Location
Most stories take place in what is now Israel and the Palestinian Territories of Gaza and the West Bank.
Some Israelites—ancient ancestors of today’s Jewish people—lived on land they owned east of the Jordan River. That’s now in parts of the countries of Jordan and Syria.
Purpose
First Samuel shows what happens when the people insist on their way over God’s way. Israelites lost their shirts and nearly lost their country.
Early in the story, Israel essentially fires God as king. They want a king with skin, like other nations. Enter the donkey herder, Saul, who seems to be a terrible shot with a spear. He misses his son once and David twice (18:10-11; 19:10; 20:33). He and three of his sons die in a war he loses to the Philistines. Many Israelites abandon their homes and towns as they run for their lives. Philistines move in (1 Samuel 31:7).
Israel starts out as a nation, in chapter one, but ends in chapter 31 as fragmented tribes at risk of being driven out or assimilated into Philistine culture.
