1 Samuel 31

Greetings!
Why did Saul commit suicide?  He might have recalled what happened to Samson when the Philistines captured him (torture and humiliation). 
Saul had everything most people would want: An imposing physical presence, strength, power and wealth.  But he was miserable without God, just like Solomon was a few decades later when he abandoned God for a [...]

1 Samuel 29-30

Greetings!
1 Samuel 29-30 (NIV)
Achish Sends David Back to Ziklag
29     The Philistines gathered all their forces at Aphek, and Israel camped by the spring in Jezreel. 2 As the Philistine rulers marched with their units of hundreds and thousands, David and his men were marching at the rear with Achish. 3 The commanders of the Philistines [...]

1 Samuel 27-28

Greetings,
Chapter 27 is an interesting transition period for David.  Even though he killed Goliath of Gath many years earlier, he now goes to live in Gath after making a deal with King Achish.  By then Achish must have known that David was Saul’s mortal enemy, so he didn’t fear David.

David Among the Philistines
27     But David [...]

1 Samuel 25-26

Greetings!
For more on how David felt about these events, see Psalm 54.
David, Nabal and Abigail

25     Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah.
Then David moved down into the Desert of Maon. 2 A certain man in Maon, who had property there at [...]

1 Samuel 23-24

Greetings!
For more on how David felt about these events, see Psalm 57 or Psalm 142.
1 Samuel 23-24 (NIV)
David Saves Keilah
23     When David was told, “Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are looting the threshing floors,” 2 he inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?”
The Lord answered him, “Go, [...]

1 Samuel 21-22

Greetings! 
For more on how David felt about these events, see Psalm 34 and Psalm 52.
David fled Saul’s attempts at murder and appears to have been on the run roughly from the time he was 20 until he was 30.   It is hard to imagine being a fugitive for that long.  Remember, we know how the story [...]

1 Samuel 19-20

Greetings!
For more on how David felt about these events, see Psalm 59.
1 Samuel 19-20 (NIV)
Saul Tries to Kill David
19     Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan was very fond of David 2 and warned him, “My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on [...]

1 Samuel 17-18

Greetings,
This is the classic story of David and Goliath.  As with many familiar stories, it is useful to read it slowly and carefully to see if what you think it says is what it really says, and to see if you have been missing anything.
These stories are often told to kids, but that doesn’t mean [...]

1 Samuel 15-16

1 Samuel 15-16 (NIV)
The Lord Rejects Saul as King
15     Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. 2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to [...]

1 Samuel 13-14

Greetings!
1 Samuel 13-14 (NIV)
Samuel Rebukes Saul
13     Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel forty- two years.
2 Saulchose three thousand men from Israel; two thousand were with him at Micmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah in Benjamin. The [...]

1 Samuel 11-12

Greetings!
1 Samuel 11-12 (NIV)
Saul Rescues the City of Jabesh
11     Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh Gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said to him, “Make a treaty with us, and we will be subject to you.”
2 But Nahash the Ammonite replied, “I will make a treaty with you only on the [...]

1 Samuel 9-10

Greetings!
Saul becomes king even though he had no such expectations.  As we will see later, Saul had some serious character flaws.  He would do good for a time, then would get proud and paranoid. 
Though the donkeys were lost - a serious problem given their value - God used that to bring about something good.  As believers we can always [...]

1 Samuel 7-8

Greetings! 
A consistent theme of the Bible is that God does not permit his followers to worship other gods.  Despite what many in the world believe, there aren’t “many paths to God.”  There is one way: Through Jesus. 

1 So the men of Kiriath Jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord. They took it [...]

1 Samuel 5-6

Greetings!

The Ark in Ashdod and Ekron

The Philistines were about to find out who the real God was.  They thought the ark they captured from the Israelites (containing the Ten Commandments) was a god that their god had defeated.  But the real God’s omnipotence (having all power) was about to be displayed.

5     After the Philistines had [...]

1 Samuel 3-4

Greetings!  Parents can relate to being woken up by kids in the middle of the night, but this is no ordinary occurrence.  God spoke audibly to some people in the Bible. 
Some people claim that God “speaks” to them, though we need to be careful with that.  I like to say that if you want to [...]

1 Samuel 1-2

Greetings!

1 Samuel 1
The Birth of Samuel
1     There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphitefrom the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah [...]

1 & 2 Samuel introduction

Greetings! We’ll begin 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel today, covering two chapters every other day.  They were originally one larger book, so it seemed logical to do one after the other.  These books cover a lot of interesting history and examples for us to live by, and most importantly they tell us many things about God. 
Who wrote this?  Technically [...]