1 SAMUEL

For my 15 minutes a day commitment to our Book of Faith daily Bible reading, I have gone back to the book of 1st Samuel, which takes us from the time of the judges, to Israel's first king, Saul, then introduces us to David.

Some observations: In the OT one lives on forever through one's children who carry on the family name. There is no eternal life in the Christian sense. So to this ancient people, lots of children was a sign of blessing and not bearing children meant that God "closed up your womb" as is stated in 1 Samuel 1:5. I suppose that they had no other explanation for a lack of the ability to bear children. Today we know better with our understanding on how fertility and preganancy work. Thank goodness we know this so that those who have trouble getting pregnant aren't left to wonder why God is punishing them - because God is not to blame, nor does God go around "closing up wombs" as a sign to get our attention about something or punish us. Where is God for those struggling to get pregnant? Walking with us in and through christ Jesus in our struggles, in our doubts and our fears.

In 1 Samuel 5 we have a sort of funny story of what happens after the Philistines capture the ark of the Lord in battle and place it in a temple where there is a statue of their god, Dagon. The statue keeps falling over! I guess it wasn't funny to them especially when people started getting sick with tumors and there was a plague of rats. They return the ark as soon as possible with an offering of forgiveness [a guilt offering] back to Israel.

1 Samuel 8 has the people of Israel asking for a king, so that their people can be like everyone else, with a human ruler over them. This happens right after the Lord has won for them a great victory, though time seems to have passed. Samuel is not happy and talks to God who tells Samuel to tell the people what this will mean for them, what a king will take from them. They don't care. So the Lord has Samuel anoint Saul, king.And the Lord is with him (at least for a while, until it all goes to his head, but more on that later).