Samuel, David and King Saul

n Lesson One, David recalled the manystories his father taught him about God,

the Creation, the Flood, Nimrod and thetower of Babel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

All of this played an important role inthe birth of what would later become thenation of Israel.

Moses

The children of Jacob (later named Israel)moved to Egypt. Jacob’s descendants grewto become a large nation. Pharaoh, the rulerof Egypt, was intimidated by these Israelitesand enslaved them.

For 150 years, the Israelites wereenslaved by the Egyptians. Yet the Israeliteswere God’s chosen people, and He had aplan for them.

God worked with a man named Mosesand his brother Aaron. Moses and Aaronwent to Pharaoh, demanding that God’speople be freed. But Pharaoh would not lis-ten.

After ten mighty plagues from God,Pharaoh finally let the Israelites go.

God was going to bring His people to thePromised Land, where they would becomea great nation. Moses led the Israelitesthrough the wilderness for 40 years.

Moses himself was not allowed to enterthe Promised Land. Joshua, the new leaderof Israel, would take them over the JordanRiver and into the Promised Land.

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Samuel, David andKing Saul

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ABOUT OUR COVER:

The prophet Samuel anointed Saul as Israel’s first king.

Illustrations by Paula Rondeau

Turn to Deuteronomy 8:3-9 to see whyIsrael journeyed in the wilderness for 40years: “So He _________________________________________, and fed you with__________ which you did not know nor didyour fathers know, that He might make youknow that _______________________________________; but man lives by____________ that proceeds from the mouthof the LORD. Your __________ did not wearout on you, nor did your ____________ theseforty years. You should know in your heartthat as ________________________, so theLORD your __________________.‘Therefore you shall keep the________________ of the LORD your God,to __________________and to fear Him. Forthe LORD your God is bringing you into agood land, a land of brooks of water, of foun-tains and springs, that flow out of valleys andhills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines andfig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oiland honey; a land in which you will eat breadwithout scarcity, in which you will lack noth-ing; a land whose stones are iron and out ofwhose hills you can dig copper.’”

Israel entered into the Promised Landand, during the period of the judges, theyfell into a pattern. Israel forgot the greatpower that God had shown them, and theydisobeyed His commands because theyallowed their carnal nature to get the bestof them. When this happened, Godremoved their material blessings, and thepeople complained to their leader. Thingseventually got so bad that the Israelitescried out to God for help. God helped themand then, for a time, they obeyed God.However, they eventually fell back into

disobedience, and the pattern continued.The same thing happened when they werewandering in the desert before entering thePromised Land.

Samuel

As mentioned in the Lesson One, Samuelwas a servant and prophet of God. He wasthe last judge before the nation of Israelrejected God, and decided they wanted aking instead.

Before Samuel was born, his mother,Hannah, was unable to have children. Shepromised God that if He would bless herwith a child, she would dedicate the child toGod’s service.

God gave Hannah a child, and she calledhim Samuel, saying, “Because I have askedhim of the Eternal.” In Hebrew, the nameSamuel means “heard of God.”

Hannah brought baby Samuel to Eli thehigh priest. Hannah said to him, “My lord, Iam the woman that stood by you here, pray-ing to the Eternal. I asked God to bless me togive birth to a baby boy.” Pointing toSamuel, she said, “This is the child I prayedfor. In return, I have lent my only son to theEternal; as long as Samuel lives, he shallserve God and do His work at the holy tab-ernacle.”

Under Eli’s fatherly direction, youngSamuel spent his childhood learning how tocarefully serve God. As Samuel grew toadulthood, God was with him, speaking tohim often.

Eventually, all of Israel came to recog-nize that God had made Samuel His prophet.Every time Samuel said something would

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happen, it came true. And he continued toreveal God’s will to all Israel.

The Philistines and the Ark

Because Israel had long ago failed to get ridof Canaan’s inhabitants, God allowed themto be vexed by their enemies. This is whyIsrael suffered from constant oppression bythe Philistines.

Finally, Israel had had enough. Theydecided to meet their longtime enemy inbattle.

When the two forces advanced onto thebattlefield, the Philistines defeated theIsraelites, killing about 4,000 soldiers.Clearly, God was not with Israel, else Hewould have given them the victory.

Seeing the bloodied survivors return tocamp, the elders of Israel said among them-selves, “Why has the Eternal struck usdown before these Philistines? What havewe done to deserve this?”

One leader came up with a plan: “Whatif we go to Shiloh and bring back the Ark ofthe Covenant? With it by our side, we’reguaranteed to be victorious over ourenemy!”

Israel was copying the surroundingpagan nations, who always brought theirfalse gods and good luck charms into battlewith them. Instead of sincerely seekingGod’s will, the Israelites decided to takematters into their own hands.

When the Ark of the Covenant reachedthe camp, the whole army of Israel shoutedfor joy—so much that the earth rang!However, Israel should have humbledthemselves and sought God’s guidance,

instead of allowing themselves to be full ofpride. Though they knew that the Ark sym-bolized God’s power and presence, theyfoolishly confused the Ark with God’s actu-al presence. In bringing the Ark into battle,Israel was trying to force God to do theirbidding. But God is not a magical “genie”who does whatever people demand of Him.

When the battle came, the Philistinesfought as though they had nothing to lose.And, despite having the Ark of theCovenant beside them, Israel was defeated!

God allowed His Ark to be captured toteach Israel that they could not force theirwill on Him.

When Eli heard of Israel’s defeat, he fellbackward off his seat, and broke his neck.He lived to be 98 years old, and had been ajudge over Israel, as well as a priest, for 40years.

Like the Israelites, the Philistinesbelieved that possessing the Ark meant thatthey could control God. The Philistinesbrought the Ark to the pagan temple ofDagon, the chief of their false gods, and setit before the idol, which was the image of ahalf man-half fish.

Early the next morning, the people weresurprised to discover that Dagon’s idol hadfallen upon its face, bowing on the groundbefore the Ark of God! The Eternal showedthat He was superior to the Philistines’ falsegod.

Shocked and embarrassed, the peoplerushed to set Dagon’s idol back in its place.

The next morning, the same thing hap-pened again: The idol of Dagon had fallenupon its face before God’s Ark. This time,the idol’s head and palms were cut off; the

only thing left was the idol’sstump! God wanted thePhilistines to realize that theirfalse god was powerless beforeHis might.

Next, God struck the people ofAshdod with a horrible, painfulsickness—tumors. Carried by dis-eased rats, God’s plague quicklyspread throughout the city, andeven to many other Philistinetowns and villages.

When the Philistines ofAshdod saw these things, theysaid, “The Ark of the God ofIsrael shall not stay with us, forHis hand is sore upon us, andupon Dagon our god.”

The lords decided to move theArk to the city of Gath. Godstruck down every man in Gath,both small and great, with thesame horrible, painful plague of tumorsthat had spread throughout Ashdod.

The people of Gath sent the Ark to thecity of Ekron. But when the ones livingthere saw that the Ark of the Covenant wasbeing transferred to their city, they wereupset. Finally, the Philistines gatheredtogether and sent the Ark back to Israel.The Israelites celebrated as they offeredburnt offerings and sacrifices to God.

In all, the Ark of the Covenant had beenin the hands of the Philistines for onlyseven months—but to the Israelites, itseemed like years.

One day, inspired by God, Samueladdressed the people of Israel. Notice whathe said in I Samuel 7:3: “Then Samuel

spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, ‘If______ _________________ with all yourhearts, then _________________ the_______________ and the Ashtoreths fromamong you, and prepare your hearts for theLORD, and ___________ _________; andHe will deliver you from the hand of thePhilistines.’”

Israel did as Samuel said. They putaway the idols of Baalim and theAshtoreths, the chief false gods of theCanaanites, and set their lives in order.Everyone began to serve God with all theirheart.

Samuel judged the Israelites, givingthem God’s judgments and instructions,and listening to their grievances and cries

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The Ark returns home after seven months in the hands of thePhilistines.

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for justice. He devoted himself to teachingIsrael how to get back to truly serving God.

Test Your Memory:

1) How long was Israel in the wilderness?__________________________________2) What was the cycle the Israelites fell intoduring the time of the judges?___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3) Why did Israel bring the Ark to battle?________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Israel Demands a King

David remembered the day when Samuelcame to his father’s house to anoint the nextking of Israel. He was even more shocked tohear that none of his older brothers wasGod’s choice. In fact, David was anointedas the next king of Israel. From that day for-ward, his life would change, as he preparedfor the special office of king over the nationof Israel.

But David knew that Israel did notalways have a king…

Samuel judged Israel all the days of hislife. He was the leader chosen by God. Joeland Abiah, Samuel’s sons, did not walk intheir father’s ways. Instead, they pursuedmoney and took bribes.

The elders of Israel gathered at Ramah,and confronted Samuel. They said to him,“Samuel, you are old now, and your sonshave refused to follow your righteous and

just example. Since we cannot get justice,make for us a king—one who will judge uslike all the other nations around us!”

Israel wanted to be like everyone else.They did not want to stand out and be dif-ferent from the rest of the world, those whoreject God and His righteous ways. Israelwas more concerned about followingworldly people than in following God, theirDeliverer and Protector.

Samuel was displeased by theirdemands, so he did what all servants of Goddo—he prayed. He wanted to know God’swill in this matter.

The Eternal said to him in I Samuel 8:7-9, “Heed the voice of the people in all thatthey say to you; for they have _________________, but they have ________________,that ______________________________.According to all the works which they havedone since the day that I brought them upout of Egypt, even to this day—with whichthey have forsaken Me and served othergods—so they are doing to you also. Nowtherefore, heed their voice. However, youshall solemnly _________________, andshow them the behavior of the king whowill reign over them.”

So Samuel spoke before Israel and gavethe people the Eternal’s message. He said,“Since you want a human king reigningover your lives like all the other nations,then here is what you can expect: Your kingwill take your sons and appoint some for hischariots, and some to be his horsemen; andothers shall run before his chariots. Yourking will appoint for himself captains overthousands and over fifties, and will set themto plant his fields, and to reap his harvest,

and to make his instruments of war andchariots. Your king will take your daughtersto be his personal cooks and bakers. And hewill take your fields, your vineyards, andyour crops of olive trees—even the best ofthem—and give them to his servants. Andyour king will take one tenth of your cropsand vineyards, and give them to his officersand servants. He will take your servants,both men and women, and your healthiest,strongest young men, and your donkeys,and put them to do his work. He will takeone tenth of your sheep, and you shall be hisservants.

“And in that day when you cry out toGod because of the burdens and demands ofyour king—whom you have chosen—theEternal will not hear you.”

This should have sobered the Israelites.But, despite Samuel’s strong warning, thepeople refused to listen.

Blinded by their desire to be just like allthe other nations, Israel wanted to rely on ahuman king to protect and lead them. Theyno longer wanted God as their divine King.How foolish!

When Samuel told God what the peoplehad said, the Eternal replied, “Listen to theirvoice, Samuel, and make a king for them.”

Samuel obeyed God’s command. Hewent back to the Israelites and said, “Youwanted a king—and so you shall have whatyou desire!”

Saul

There once was a man of wealth and influ-ence named Kish, who was from the tribe ofBenjamin. Kish had a young son named

Saul, who was more handsome than anyother man in Israel. Also, this young manwas so tall that he seemed to tower overeveryone in the land.

God had told Samuel, “Tomorrow aboutthis time, I will send you a man from thetribe of Benjamin. You shall anoint—setapart—this man to be commander and rulerover My people Israel. I will use him to saveMy people from the hand of the Philistines,for I have looked upon My people, and haveheard their cry for help.”

When Samuel saw Saul, the Eternal saidto him, “This is the man of whom I spoke!He is the one who shall reign over My peo-ple.”

Samuel understood why God would dothis: Saul had the right attitude—humble,teachable. He did not think that he was moreimportant than others.

Samuel took a vial of olive oil, poured itupon Saul’s head, and kissed the young manon the cheek. The prophet said, “The EternalGod has anointed you to be the commanderover His inheritance, Israel.”

(The Hebrew root word for Saul means“asked of God.” From his physical appear-

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ance, Saul was the kind of king Israel hadasked for—tall, handsome and impressive.But more importantly, Saul was the kind ofman God was looking for to be king—hum-ble and not self-important.)

The people of Israel, represented by theirtribal elders and clan leaders, obeyedSamuel’s instruction to assemble before Godat Mizpeh. When everyone had arrived,Samuel addressed the assembly, deliveringthe words of the Eternal God of Israel:

“Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Ibrought up Israel out of Egypt, and deliv-ered you from the hand of the Egyptiansand from the hand of all kingdoms andfrom those who oppressed you.’ But youhave today rejected your God, who Himselfsaved you from all your adversities andyour tribulations; and you have said toHim, ‘No, set a king over us!’ Now there-fore, present yourselves before the LORD byyour tribes and by your clans” (1 Samuel10:18-19).

Samuel had all the tribes of Israel cometo the altar, one after the other. From amongthem, God chose the tribe of Benjamin.Next, all the clans of Benjamin came to thealtar. From out of these, God chose the clanof Matri. From this clan, God chose the fam-ily of Kish. And from Kish’s family, theEternal chose Saul.

When God’s choice was finally known,the people immediately looked for their newking—but Saul could not be found!Overwhelmed by the weight of instant fame,Saul hid himself. He did not like being thecenter of attention.

So the Israelites prayerfully turned toGod to find out where Saul was.

God answered, “Your new king is hidingbehind the military supplies.”

The people rushed over to the stockpileof military supplies and pulled him out ofhis hiding place. The moment he stood up,the people were in awe: Saul was a headtaller than everyone else in the crowd!

Then Samuel said to all the people, “Doyou see the man whom the Eternal has cho-sen—that there is no one like him among allIsrael?”

Saul wanted so desperately to hide, foreveryone’s eyes were upon him, impressedby his towering height and good looks.

Suddenly, everyone cheered, “Long livethe king!”

During the first two years of KingSaul’s reign over Israel, there was peace.Sadly, however, something tragic hap-pened to Saul: The humility he had beenknown for became replaced by pride andself-importance. King Saul was headeddown a dangerous—and ultimately dead-ly—path.

When tested, Saul gave way to impa-tience and human reasoning. In one event,Saul took upon himself the sacred duties ofa priest, which God did not give him theauthority to do. Saul had forgotten that thekings of Israel were not to set themselvesabove God’s Law. But, with his mind full offear, vanity and self-importance, Sauldeceived himself into believing that hecould break God’s commands and somehowmake everything turn out for the best.

“That was foolish, Saul!” Samuel said.“You did not obey the Eternal your God.”God expects His leaders to fear and obeyHim, even in the smallest matters. If they

do, God then knows that He can trust themwith larger responsibilities.

The prophet said, “If you had kept God’scommandment, your dynasty would havebeen established. Someone from your fami-ly line would always have been king ofIsrael. But no, you chose to disobey.Therefore, the Eternal will not choose any-one from your family or descendants to beking. Instead, God has sought for Himself aman after His own heart. This man will bethe next leader of His people.”

Saul’s sin of disobedience affected himand his descendants. This account is anexample of how one man’s sin affects notjust the sinner, but also the lives of futuregenerations.

Test Your Memory:

1) Why did Israel want a king? _______________________________________________________________________________2) Why was Saul picked as king? _____________________________________________________________________________3) What dangerous attitudes developed inSaul? ________________________________________________________________

David and Goliath

As David walked to where the army of Israelwas encamped, including three of his broth-ers, all of these stories were in his mind.

His job was to bring supplies from hisfather Jesse. But the word was out about aPhilistine man named Goliath. Towering atmore than nine feet tall, Goliath wore a

bronze helmet, and bronze armor—plates ofbrass overlapping like scales on a fish—toprotect his chest and legs. The chest armoralone weighed about 125 pounds! He carrieda bronze sword strapped on his back. Healso had a spear so big that the iron spear-head alone weighed more than fifteenpounds. Whenever he went out to do battle,Goliath always had a soldier walk beforehim to carry his shield. To all who saw him,this Philistine giant seemed invincible—andhe was Israel’s worst nightmare.

David had heard that Goliath marched outonto the battlefield and shouted to the armyof Israel: “Why are you lining up for battle?I’m the best soldier in my army, and all ofyou are in Saul’s army. Choose your best sol-dier, and let him come out to fight me! If hecan slay me, our people will be your slaves.But if I slay him, your people will be ourslaves. I challenge the whole army of Israel!Choose someone to fight me!”

For 40 days, Goliath came out everymorning and every evening, challenging theIsraelites to send out a champion.

David reached Israel’s camp just as thesoldiers were taking their places and shout-ing the battle cry. The armies of Israel andthe Philistines lined up on opposite sides ofthe valley, facing each other. Leaving histhings with the man in charge of supplies,David ran up to the battle line to ask hisbrothers if they were well.

While David was talking with them,Goliath marched out onto the battlefield andstarted boasting as usual. David could hard-ly believe what he was hearing.

David asked some soldiers standing near-by, “What will a man get for killing this

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Philistine and stopping him from insultingour people? Who does that worthlessPhilistine think he is? He’s defying the armyof the living God!”

The soldiers told him, “King Saul isoffering a big reward to the man who killsGoliath. That man will even get to marrythe king’s daughter, and no one in his fam-ily will ever have to pay taxes again.”

Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard himtalking with the soldiers—and he wasangry with him. He said, “What are youdoing here? Who’s taking care of our littleflock of sheep out in the wilderness?You’re nothing but a spoiled brat! Youcame here just to watch the fighting, didn’tyou?”

“What have I done?” David said. “Can’tI even ask a question?”

Some soldiers overheard David talking,so they told Saul, who sent for the lad.

“My lord,” David said to him, “thisPhilistine shouldn’t be allowed to turn usinto cowards. I will go out and fight himmyself!”

“You don’t have a prayer against him,son,” Saul replied. “You’re just a lad, whileGoliath has been a professional soldier allhis life.”

But David said, “My lord, I am a shep-herd of my father’s sheep. When one ofthem is dragged off by a lion or a bear, I goafter it and beat the wild animal until it letsthe sheep go. If the wild animal turns andattacks me, I grab it by the neck and kill it.Sir, I have killed lions and bears that way,and I can certainly kill this worthlessPhilistine, too. Besides, he should not havedefied the army of the living God!”

Like Jonathan (I Samuel 41:6), Davidhad the kind of faith to take on the impos-sible. “The Eternal has rescued me from theclaws of lions and bears, and He will keepme safe from the hands of this Philistine.”

“All right then,” Saul said, “go aheadand fight him. And may the Eternal be withyou!”

Saul put his own military garments andarmor on David, and gave him a bronzehelmet to wear. David was unable to movein the armor.

So David took off Saul’s armor andpicked up his shepherd’s rod, a 30-inchlong wooden rod with a knob at one end.He then went to a stream and picked up fiveround smooth rocks, a little larger thanbaseballs. In the hands of an expert, theserocks can be hurled at close to 100 milesper hour! David put them in his leather bag,then, with his sling in his hand, he wentstraight toward Goliath.

Because he had been faithfully obeyingGod, David knew that the Eternal wouldnot abandon him.

David rushestoward Goliath.

Goliath was surprised to see a championfrom Israel coming out to fight. But whenthe nine-foot-tall giant saw that David wasonly a boy, he insulted him.

“What do you think I am—a dog?”Goliath asked. “Is that why you’ve comeafter me with a stick? Come on, then, boy!When I’m finished with you, I’ll feedwhat’s left of your body to the birds andwild animals!”

Boldly, David answered, “You come tome with a ______, with a ______, and witha _______. But I come to you in the________ ____________________,the God of the armies of Israel,whom you have defied. This daythe LORD will ________ youinto___________, and I willstrike you and take your

head from you. And this day I will give thecarcasses of the camp of the Philistines tothe birds of the air and the wild beasts of theearth, that ________________ may knowthat there is a _______________. Then allthis assembly shall know that the LORD doesnot save with sword and spear; for the bat-tle is the LORD’s, and He will give you intoour hands”(1 Samuel 17:45-47).

David saw the “big picture”: ThePhilistines were not fighting just againstIsrael. They were actually fighting againstthe Supreme God of the universe—a fight

they could never win! David’sconfidence was in the Eternal—not in his own human abilities.

Goliath started forward, andDavid ran toward him, put a rockin his sling and swung the slingaround by its straps. As he let goof one strap, the rock flew out andsmashed Goliath on the forehead,cracking his skull. The Philistinegiant fell facedown on the earth—Goliath was dead!

David rushed over, pulled outGoliath’s sword, and used it to cutoff the giant’s head.

In the next Lesson, we willlearn more about David and howhe became king of Israel.

Test Your Memory:

1) How tall was Goliath? _________________________________2) David confronted Goliath withwhose power? _________________________________________

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Goliath standsdefiant.

BIBLE MEMORY: Deuteronomy 8:21 Samuel 8:6-71 Samuel 16:7

Published by The Restored Church of God.Printed in the USA; All Rights ReservedCopyright © 2004

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ACROSS1. The mother of Samuel.3. God brought the Israelites to the____________ ______.5. The priest who taught Samuel.7. The tribe of Saul.9. What David used to kill Goliath.10. The father of Saul.11. The man who led the nation ofIsrael out of Egypt.12. Goliath carried a ______ swordstrapped on his back.14. The type of leader the Israeliteswanted.15. The humility of Saul was replacedwith _______.16. In Hebrew, the name Samuelmeans _______ ___ _____.

DOWN1. In the wilderness, God __________Israel.2. Samuel commanded Israel to putaway their _____ ____.3. Longtime enemies of the Israelites.4. Goliath was ________ the army ofthe living God!6. The Hebrew meaning of Saul’sname.8. The _____ was stolen from Israel.13. What Samuel used to anoint Saul.

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