“Can You Study the Bible Out of Order?” – A synopsis of 1 & 2 Samuel
I’m sure you may have noticed that we took a bit of a hiatus for the past year. All is fine. Life just sometimes ramps up no matter how hard we try to keep the calm. We have missed our time with God’s word as well as the commemoratory with faith-filled friends like you! To say we are thrilled to announce that we are back is an understatement.
So... cue the confetti! 🎉
Set an alarm! ⏰
We will begin our NEW Study of the Second Book of Samuel on Monday, April 2nd! We keep it simple with a routine of studying just One Chapter a Day! (Monday - Friday).
New study members are always welcome! 👠So feel free to share us with your friends!
Reading the Bible in its entirety is no small feat. We’ve been reading and studying since 2016 and we’re still not done! It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Or at least we think so, so we pick and choose books to study based on several factors. The first being inspiration, if one of us finds a verse or two from a certain book that means something to us, we delve into it. We also tend to look at the length of a Book and determine how much time it will take as well as how much time we have to dedicate to it. Then there’s always divine inspiration or suggestion from others to consider as well.
Which leads me to the point of this post.
“Can you study the Bible out of order?” a fellow study group member recently asked in response to our upcoming study in the Book of 2 Samuel (which begins Monday, April 2) when she hasn’t yet read 1 Samuel.
The answer is YES!
However, with that said it is worthwhile to investigate the preceding Book(s) before delving into a study that is happening out of sequential order. Of course, we are here to help!!
The Books of 1 & 2 Samuel were originally merged as one book. Greek translators divided them into two separate books in the Old Testament translations. Samuel was God’s instrument for choosing a king of Israel. He was a priest, part prophet, and judge himself. These books tell the story of Israel’s monarchy and begin with the miraculous birth of Samuel then follow the reign of David and conclude with the transfer of power to David’s son, Solomon.
Here’s a bit more from an expert we found too!
“Samuel’s birth is one of several miraculous birth stories in the Bible and is very similar to the story of Isaac’s birth to Abraham and Sarah. In the New Testament, the author of the Gospel of Luke incorporates portions of Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 2 into both the songs of Mary and Zechariah, who, like Hannah, also rejoiced over the miraculous birth of their respective sons.
The book of 1 Samuel begins with a lengthy account of Samuel’s birth, calling, and life in war-torn Israel. When Samuel grows old, he appoints his sons as judges, but the people begin to clamor for a king. Samuel warns them that having a king has a down side: taxes, military conscription, and other things. The people want a king anyway, just like the other nations, and God reveals to Samuel that Saul from the tribe of Benjamin is his choice. The fact that Saul winds up being a horrible king suggests that God chose him to teach Israel a lesson about having a king “like the other nations” (1 Samuel 8:19-20).
Eventually, Saul is rejected as king and Samuel anoints David. He is from peasant stock, the youngest of his brothers, and an utterly unlikely candidate for kingship. Despite this, he is God’s choice, for “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man, looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). The contrast between David the runt and the tall and handsome Saul is self-evident to any reader. After series of events where there were considerable tensions between Saul and David—Saul even tried to kill David but the kills himself at the end of 1 Samuel. 2 Samuel picks up with David anointed as king, who is then forced to quell the strife between his followers and those of Saul. Such political intrigue will follow David throughout his reign.
Under David, the territory reaches its most peaceful state, having defeated the Philistines, the Ammonites, and a number of other enemies. The high quickly turns to a low, however, when David sees Bathsheba bathing on a roof and commits adultery with her. To cover up his sin, David sends her husband Uriah to the front lines in the hope that he will be killed. David’s initial plan succeeds when Uriah dies in battle, and David takes Bathsheba for his wife. Even after God’s prophet uncovers David’s actions and David is restored before God, this murderous and adulterous act colors the rest of David’s reign. For example, after the rape of his daughter Tamar by her half-brother Amnon, Tamar’s full brother Absalom takes vengeance and kills Amnon. This results in Absalom fleeing and organizing a conspiracy against David, which is eventually defeated, but David’s reign is nonetheless continually marked by strife. This drama culminates in David’s sin of taking a census of his fighting men, which was apparently an act of self-reliant arrogance (even though God was the one who incited David to do it; see 2 Samuel 24:1). 2 Samuel ends with David building an altar “on the threshing floor of Araunah,” which would later become the site of the temple built by Solomon.
Once we come to the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, we are moving closer to what we today refer to as “history.” There is no question that the stories here are embellished for the purpose of driving home religious and political lessons. But, with the rise of a monarchy, we have arrived at an established nation with administrators and others who would record events for posterity.
So, it is here, with the onset of the monarchy in the early first millennium BC that we see the Israelites beginning to be self-conscious of reflecting in writing on their own heritage. It was during this time that the writings that eventually became the Bible were first recorded. Israel’s early writing efforts were transmitted and transformed over the centuries that followed. This continued even until after Israel’s return from Babylonian exile in 539 BC, at which time the Bible as we know it began to take shape.
The books of 1-2 Samuel portray David as Israel’s ideal king, although far from flawless. He represented for later Israelites the “good old days” when the land was most at peace, Israel was united as one nation, and God’s blessings were most palpable. Israel would later look forward to a king—a messiah (which means anointed one)—who would lead Israel back to days of former glory. The Gospels present Jesus as that anointed son of David, who will lead a new Israel, made up of both Jews and Gentiles into a lasting kingdom of peace,” according to Peter Enns from The Center for Biblical Studies.
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