Just when life seems to be settling down, another conflict begins, another foe rears his head. For some time, David had been consolidating his grip on the kingdom. From his introduction to the nation as their champion in his battle against Goliath, to his military interventions at places like Keilah, he had shown his prowess […]
A new king for Israel, a man after God’s heart. And a new capital, too, the city of fellowship. Over the ruins of Ziklag and the collapse of Saul’s house, a brighter day dawns. There will be some skirmishes in an attempt by Saul’s remaining family to maintain the kingship, but there are no serious […]
How rare it is to find a warrior with a poet’s heart: resolute in battle and chivalrous afterward. David’s lament over Saul and Jonathan (2 Sam 1:19-27) is a masterpiece of loyalty and love. Yet it has, as its beginning, climax, and ending, these doleful words: “How the mighty have fallen!” (vv 19, 25, 27), […]
David, the veteran of many pitched battles, seeks first to prepare his people for wars to come. The two chief weapons of the Israelite soldier were the sword and the battle bow. One was for hand-to-hand combat and the other for fighting at a distance. In the recent battle in the Jezreel Valley, the Philistine […]
David was far from the battle when he got the news, but his heart wasn’t far from Jonathan. Obviously, 1 and 2 Samuel were originally one volume. The narrative flows seamlessly from the one to the other. The last chapter of 1 Samuel recounts the tragic deaths of Saul and his sons, unknown to David, […]
Read More… from December 1, 2023 — Grim News From The Battlefield
My father used to say, “Failure doesn’t have to be final.” It certainly wasn’t for Jabesh Gilead. “Saul, his three sons, his armorbearer, and all his men died together that same day” (1 Sam 31:6). This caused such panic that local Israelites abandoned their towns “and the Philistines came and dwelt in them” (v 7). […]
Ever heard the phrase, “He’s caput”? Caput is Latin for “head” and refers to capital beheading. Losing one’s head is a rather startling motif in the book of 1 Samuel. Without going into much detail for discretion’s sake, beheading was a common form of execution in ancient cultures, a stark way of proclaiming total victory. […]
Jezreel means “God sows.” But man also sows, and here he finds that whatever he sows he reaps. Israel’s first attempt at kingship had been a debacle. Although the Lord had anticipated Israel becoming a monarchy (Deut 17:14-20), leading to its climax in the eternal reign of the King of kings (Gen 49:10; 2 Sam […]
Read More… from November 28, 2023 — Saul & Sons: A Tragic End