Looking for Samuel

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!


159) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 21

David goes to Ahimelech, the priest who is afraid because David is alone. David explains Saul gave him a mission but nobody must know. Then David asks the priest for bread or whatever he has. There is only holy bread and they can have it if David’s men didn’t go with women. David answers it is the case. Then David also asks for a sword and the priest gives him Goliath’s sword. And david goes to king Achish of Gath and acts as if he is insane.


- God keeps teaching David as he keeps fleeing from Saul to survive!


- Adversity is the best teacher!


- Because you have no choice but to fight for survival!


- Then you get stronger or you die!


- The law of nature!


- When you don’t fight for survival, you don’t get stronger!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!


160) Looking for Samuel


- In fact, we are not told a lot about Samuel!


- We know about his youth!


- We know God was always with him!


- We know he was a faithful servant of God!


- We know he was jealous for God against the Israelites!


- We know he was busy working for God!


- And it is a protection!


- We know Samuel’s sons didn’t choose the same way!


- They were corrupted!


- We know the Israelites asked for a human king because of Samuel’s two sons’ corruption!


- Life is not always easy even for a faithful servant of God!


- But at least he knows the way if he found the right one, he doesn’t have to look for it! (Paul was lucky to be put into the right track, he didn’t know he was wrong but his heart was sincere)


- Of course, in God’s world, it will be possible to work with him to make things completely different!


- Something we can’t even imagine till we are there and till we work for it!


- But there will be nothing better than working for God in his world!

 

[JLG]

https://ilearnaboutthebible.blogspot.com/


161) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 22

All those who are in trouble join David about 400 men. Saul is told about Ahimelech giving food and Goliath’s sword to David. As a consequence he sends for Ahimelech and all the priests of his father’s house. And Saul tells his servants to kill God’s priests but they refuse. So Saul asks one of his men, an Edomite to kill them and he kills 85 priests and women and infants and animals. One son of Ahimelech escapes and goes to David.


- Saul has lost his mind!


- He kills 85 God’s priests and their wives and infants!


- He thinks he can oppose God without paying the consequences!


- He will die for that, he and all his sons!


- And the Israelites will keep doing the same paying a high price!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!


162) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 23

God tells David to strike the philistines and help Keilah. And he kills many and rescues the inhabitants of Keilah. Saul goes to besiege David in Keilah. David leaves Keilah because God tells him that the leaders of Keilah will surrender him to Saul. Then David stays in the wilderness. Then Saul goes to the wilderness in search of David. Saul’s men are close to David and his men. But a messenger tells Saul to leave and look for the philistines who have made a raid on the land.


- Saul keeps looking for David to kill him!


- But God protects David and helps him to survive!


- God blesses David in everything he does!


- David carefully listens to God to know what he must do!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!


163) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 24

Once again Saul looks for David in the wilderness with 3,000 men. There is a cave and Saul relieves himself whereas David and his men are inside the cave. David doesn’t kill Saul but cuts off the edge of Saul’s sleeveless coat. And David prevents his men to kill Saul. Then David calls out after Saul and tells him he could have killed him but he didn’t do it. Then Saul tells David that he knows he will become king of Israel so he asks David to swear that he won’t annihilate his descendants and Saul goes home.


- Once again God protects David!


- And Saul goes away!


- But he will try again to kill David!


- It is something stronger than him!


- Even if he knows it is against God’s will!


- But he has the power!


- Thus he only understands power and violence!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!

164) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 25

Samuel dies and all Israel mourns him. David sends some of his men to Nabal, a rich man and asks him for food because his men protected his men and animals. But Nabal doesn’t care so David wants to kill him. So Nabal’s wife Abigail sends food to David and goes behind her servants. She asks David to forgive her husband and accept her gifts. Thus David listens to her. Later God kills Nabal and David takes her as his wife. And David marries other women.


- Abigail is a good and intelligent woman!

- David listens to her and doesn’t kill her husband!


- Later when God kills Nabal, David marries Abigail because he knows she is a good and intelligent woman!


- In fact, he takes care of her!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!


165) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 26


- Once again Saul is told where David hides!


- So Saul goes with 3,000 men to look for David!


- At night, David comes to Saul’s camp with some men and they take Saul’s spear and water jug!


- then David tells Saul what has just happened and that he could have killed him!


- So each one goes his own way!


- There again we see the big difference between David before and after he becomes king of Israel!


- Before, he followed God straight away!




- After, he goes in the wrong direction!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!

166) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 27


- David decides to leave the land of Israel and looks for protection among the philistines!

- And Saul stops searching for him!


- At this time, David has only two wives, Jezreel and Abigail!


- He stays with the Philistines foe a year and four months!


-And David would fight the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites!


- He would kill men and women and keeps the animals and clothing!


- Thus they couldn’t speak to the Philistines!


- So Achish the Philistine king thinks David will always be his servant!


- Thus David shows himself cunning!


- Well, he has no other way to escape Saul even if God is with him!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!

167) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 28


- The Philistines are going to fight against Israel!


- Achish wants David to be his bodyguard!


- Samuel has died!


- Saul has removed the spirit mediums and the fortune-tellers from Israel!


- When he sees the Philistines, Saul is afraid!


- And God never answers him!


- So he asks his servants to look for a spirit medium!


- So they tell him about a woman!


- Saul disguises himself and goes to see her at night with two of his men!


- But she tells him that she can’t do it as it is forbidden!


- But Saul tells her she won’t have any problems!


- He tells her to call Samuel’s spirit!


- Of course, it can’t be Samuel’s spirit!


- Because Samuel wouldn’t get into contact with Saul when he was alive!


- And God wouldn’t answer Saul either!


- The woman understands that king Saul is in front of her!

- But Saul tells her not to be afraid!


- The spirit asks him why he inquires about him since God has departed from him and has become his adversary!


- The spirit then tells him that he will lose the battle!


- And Saul and his sons will die!


- And David will become king over Israel!


- According to man’s standards, God may take time to realize his decisions!


- But when the time has come, it happens!


- Thus time has come to put an end to Saul’s reign!


- Let’s David’s reign begin!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!


168) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 29-30


- Because of the other Philistine Lords, Achish tells David to go back to his city and not to fight!


- When David goes back to Ziklag, the Amalekites have made a raid against the city and have burnt it and taken captive the women and all the inhabitants in it!


- And David’s men want to stone him because of their sons and daughters!


- Then David asks God if he must chase after the Amalekites!


- And God tells him to go after them!


- David fights against the Amalekites and recovers everything!


- And God keeps blessing David who walks in God’s path!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!


169) Looking for Samuel


1 Samuel 31- 2 Samuel 1


Israel loses and the philistines kill many Israelites. Saul dies and his three sons too. An Amalekite who was fighting with Saul tells David about Saul's death and his three sons’ death.


- End of Saul’s story, first human king over Israel!


- A bad one as Saul opposes God and was rejected by him!


- Next comes David, the new king who follows God but power will corrupt him!


- And he will be punished by God!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!

170) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 2


David asks God if he must go up into one of the cities of Judah and God tells him to go to Hebron. There he is anointed as king over the house of Judah. Abner, the chief of Saul’s army makes Saul’s son Ishbosheth king over Israel. He is 40 when he becomes king of Israel and he reigns for two years. And David is king in hebron over Judah for seven years and six months. Then a fight occurs between 12 men of Benjamin and Saul’s son Ishbosheth and 12 from the servants of David. And David’s men win.


- David was anointed king by Samuel according to God’s will!


- He becomes king over Judah!


- But Abner, the chief of Saul’s army, makes Saul’s son king over Israel!


- He does so probably to stay chief of the army!


- He doesn’t care about God’s will!


- But it won’t be a good choice because he will die!


- It is always dangerous to oppose God!


- But it is a tradition in Israel!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!

171) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 3


The houses of Saul and of David keep fighting with David’s house becoming stronger and stronger. Then David gets six sons, each one from one of his six wives. Abner becomes stronger in the house of Saul. Abner makes an agreement with David so he can become king over Israel. And Joab decides to kill Abner because he killed his brother. David doesn’t know it. And David organizes Abner’s funeral.


- The story of Israel is complicated from the beginning!


- There always have been problems among Israel!


- And it will be so all the time!


- They will keep going that way!


- They will never listen to God!


- They will go into exile!


- They will be slaves!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!


172) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 4


Jonathan has a son, Mephibosheth who is crippled. Ishbosheth is killed. And David kills the men who have just killed Ishbosheth.


- Things are not going better!


- On the contrary, we are told about murders!


- And it will be so during all the history of the kings of Israel and Judah!


- It happened as God told them!


- Bad actions lead to bad actions!


- It is a magnet attracted by the negative pole!


- We also understand why David couldn’t build God’s temple!


- He spent his life fighting and killing people!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!


173) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 5


- David is anointed king over Israel in Hebron by all the elders of Israel. He is 30 and he reigns for 40 years!


- He reigns for 7 years and 6 months in Hebron over Judah!


- He reigns for 33 years in Jerusalem over all Israel and Judah!


- He takes Jerusalem from the Jebusites!


- David takes more concubines and wives in Jerusalem after he comes from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to David!


- Then the Philistines come against him!


- God tells him to go against them!


- And he beat them!


- Later they come again!


- And God tells him to go around behind them!


- And he beat them again!


- Every time David follows God’s instructions to beat the philistines!


- And he beat them!


- But maybe you have seen a problem starting at his coming to Jerusalem!


- He gets many concubines and wives!


- And later he will get into trouble because of that among his own family!


- And not only that but Solomon will perpetuate the tradition to a far greater extent!


- As a result he will get away from God because of all his foreign wives worshiping other gods!


- And the price will be excessively high!


- But Samuel had warned Israel!


- How true he was!


- When we think about today’s human kings elected or not, that’ s the same never-ending story!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!

174) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 6


David gathers 30,000 men to bring the Ark of the true God. It is placed on a wagon. Then it nearly falls so Uzzah grabs hold of it. Because Uzzah touches the Ark, God gets angry so he kills Uzzah. And David becomes angry and fearful at the same time. So David decides not to bring the Ark to Jerusalem. It stays in the house of Obedom the Gittite and God blesses him and all his house. So finally David decides to bring the Ark to Jerusalem. Michal Saul's daughter and David ‘s wife have an argument with David because he has celebrated the coming of the Ark to Jerusalem. And he did it by dancing in front of everybody and Michal told him it was not correct for a king. And she kept barren all her life !


- There is often a great difference between God’s will and man’s will!


- And there are always consequences, often bad ones but men still don’t understand!


- Apparently that’s the same chorus centuries after centuries!


- And men still don’t understand!


- And they are surprised but if they knew just a bit more the Bible they shouldn’t be surprised!


- Unfortunately, the next surprise will be destructive!


- But a human being is supposed to evolve to become an adult!


- Apparently, it’s rarely the case because he keeps behaving like a baby who never understands!


- Sooner or later we must become adults and if we refuse we must assume the consequences!


- That’s life, nothing to be sad or happy about!


- We may decide to take the train or not!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!


175) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 7


- When David is settled in his own house and God has given peace to him, he says to Nathan the prophet that it is not proper for God not to have a temple. But God tells him that his son will build God’s temple. God blesses David and he will do the same with his son forever!


- But there are limits to God’s patience and David will go too far and his son Solomon will do worse by worshiping other gods because of his numerous wives and concubines.


- Warnings everywhere but men are deaf and superficial!


- And the Israelites lost their privileges!


- In fact, they never took advantage of them!


- Because they didn’t care about God!


- And men keep following the same path!


- Good luck!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!

176) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 8


David defeats the Philistines, the Moabites, King Hadadezer of Zobah and the Syrians and the Edomites. And David administers justice and righteousness for all his people.


- David keeps looking for God and he is blessed for that!


- He is successful against all his enemies!


- He becomes powerful!


- No nation can contest his power!


- Anybody would be happy!


- But when a man is too successful, he starts to think he can do whatever he wants!


- And then the problems start!


- Every man will always find his master, sooner or later and death can happen at any time!


- Can we say that PRIDE is man’s worst enemy?

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!

177) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 9-10

David takes care of Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son and he gives him everything that belongs to Saul and he eats at David's table. Then he beats the Syrians and the Ammonites. Then the Syrians regroup and are defeated another time and they make peace with israel.


- Everywhere in 2 Samuel we hear about wars!


- How Samuel was right!


- Israel asked for a human king and they had to fight wars all the time!


- What a heavy price!


- How many people had to die!


- How is it possible to be so stupid!


- Human beings are supposed to have brains!


- But they are not able to use them for man’s benefits!

 

[JLG]

There are two parts in the Bible: if you miss one, you can forget the rest!

178) Looking for Samuel


2 Samuel 11

Israel fights the Ammonites another time. One night he sees Bathsheba bathing and she is very beautiful. He knows she is married but he sends messengers to bring her and he has sex with her. She becomes pregnant. As her husband is one of his soldiers, he asks him to come back from war and stay at his home with his wife but he doesn’t want to because Israel is at war. Thus David organizes his murder on the battlefield. After the mourning period, Bathsheba becomes David’s wife.


- Before he was king, David used to follow God straight away!


- When he became king he took the woman of another man and murdered her husband!

- It is difficult to call such a man a man of God!


- Or is that when you get power it corrupts the mind!


- Thus Power is stronger than man!


- It happened with all kings in the Bible!


- A good lesson to remember!


- It is easy to turn one’s back!


- Humility vs pride!


- Goodness vs evil!