Category: 1 Samuel

The emphasis on David’s weakness, and the lack of emphasis on the actual battle, shows the emphasis should go on God, not David. Not us. God gave the victory, the battle belonged to him. Israel could not save themselves. Israel needed a saviour to fight on their behalf, and defeat God’s foe. That saviour, for…

There is a clear contrast here between the secular, worldly way of Saul, and the way of David. Saul sought to mould David into a champion after his ideals, David rested in God’s moulding of him in the fields looking after his sheep.

The David and Goliath story is not about us defeating our enemies. It is about God defeating his enemies, looking forward to Jesus defeating sin at the Cross. In the first section of this story, we are introduced to David and Goliath, to the weakness of a king who seeks to act in his own…

Sometimes it is hard to see in the moment why certain events happen in life. Certain doors open, others seemingly slam shut in our face unexpectedly. While we usually throw the phrase “everything happens for a reason” around, or perhaps acknowledge God’s mysterious and sovereign hand, it is often not until later on that we…

David’s anointing shows that the leadership qualities we look to when choosing leaders, whether in politics or business, or even sometimes the Church, are not the qualities God looks for. Everyone’s ideas, even Samuel’s, were wrong.  What set David apart was what was in his heart. Our text does not say here, but it was…

This passage shows us that true repentance for sin is not based on words or formulae, but sorrow and a move of the heart. It does not excuse itself by blaming others, and the focus is on the offence caused to God, not the harm that the judgement will have on us.

There seems a popular idea today, if people acknowledge God’s existence, that God will weigh our good and bad deeds on a scale and let us in the pearly gates if the good outweighs the bad. Perhaps from vague memories of studying Ancient Egypt in Social Studies. Unfortunately for this popular idea, it is wrong.…

1 Samuel 14 ends with an interesting verdict on Saul’s reign. Despite Saul’s blatant folly and his lack of faithfulness to God and God’s commands, the text issues a positive verdict from history. Yet there is only one verdict which truly matters; God’s. This passage reminds us not to be too focused on the present…

In the previous verses we saw how God saved Israel through the faith of Saul’s son, Jonathan, who trusted God to use him if God wished. While verse 23 ended on a high note, verse 24 begins with a low note – God’s people were hard pressed. In a pseudo-religious attempt to improve things, Saul…

Jonathan’s example demonstrates to us that we do not need to have all the answers before we step out in faith. Perhaps like me you like to plan and prepare, and that is good sometimes, but not when it paralyses and brings inaction. Jonathan recognised that God could save by many or by few, because…