Evangel
High School Class

Series: Biblical Lives to Live By
Genesis-II Samuel

  • Noah
  • Abraham & Sarah
  • Rebekah
  • Jacob
  • Joseph
  • Moses
  • Joshua
  • Deborah & Jael
  • Gideon
  • Samson
  • Hannah
  • Samuel
  • Naomi & Ruth
  • David
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    Series written and published to the Web by Dale Sullivan
    Samuel
    This lesson is based on the following passages: (If you are online, you can look them up at Bible Gateway.)
    • I Samuel 3
    • I Samuel 8:1-9; 19-22
    • I Samuel 9:17-10:1
    • I Samuel 10:17-27
    • I Samuel 11:12-15
    • I Samuel 12:1-5
    • I Samuel 13:7b-14
    • I Samuel 15:10-29
    • I Samuel 16:1-13
    Discuss the following questions:
    1. What are some of the ways God communicated with Samuel in these passages?
    2. Who are some of the people God asked Samuel to give messages to?
    3. Why might some of the messages God gave Samuel have been ones that he would rather not have delivered?
    4. Why did Israel want a king?
    5. Why was Samuel reluctant to give them one?
    6. How did Samuel establish the kingdom for Saul?
    7. Why did God reject Saul as King?
    8. How do you think Samuel felt about Saul at different stages of Saul's reign?
    9. How did Samuel make way for the fall of Saul's kingdom?
    10. Why would it have been hard to be in Samuel's shoes?
    11. What situation in your life today does the story of Samuel speak to? What does this story suggest you ought to do about that situation?



    Life Summary of Samuel: Prophet and King Maker
    Samuel was the last of the Judges to rule Israel. He was also the first prophet in the line of prophets who stood outside the role of leader to serve as a conscience for the King. Therefore, Samuel was an important transitional character in the history of Israel.

    We have studied the lives of several judges who served as prophets and military and political leaders in Israel--Deborah, Gideon, Samson. There were many others in that role as well. Samuel's career starts out that way. As a prophet, he seemed to have a special connection with God--he heard the voice of God in ways that most of the people couldn't, and he was given messages to pass on to individuals (like Eli and, later, Saul) and to groups (like the nation of Israel). In chapter seven of I Samuel, which we didn't read, Samuel also played the role of the leader who delivers Israel from their oppressors, the Philistines, much as Deborah, Gideon, and Samson had done before him.

    However, Samuel's career took a turn that none of the others' took. It was during his ministry to Israel that God gave into the wishes of the people and granted them a king. Samuel was the major instrument used by God to shift Israel's form of government. Before Samuel, Israel was a loose federation of tribes held together by a common ancestry and ruled sporadically by judges who rose to power among them. During Samuel's life, God shifted Israel's political system to that of a monarchy, in which a King and his descendants ruled over the whole nation, drew support from all the tribes, and had the power to raise an army from all the tribes.

    For Samuel's own life, these changes must have been difficult. He had no pattern from Israel's earlier history to follow. And although neighboring countries had kings, Samuel didn't want to imitate pagan forms of government. Another personal difficulty was that Samuel was passing off his own power to someone else. His own sons were not men after God's heart as Samuel had been, and so he was unwilling to pass the power off to them. Instead, he had to wait on God to show him who to select as king. Things didn't get much easier once Saul became king. It turned out that power went to Saul's head, and he began to act like he could do whatever he wanted. Imagine how hard it must have been for Samuel to go to the person he had thought would be the beginning of a long line of kings and to tell him--and all Israel--that God was rejecting him and choosing someone else. It must have felt a little bit like Samuel himself had failed, and he must have been a little afraid of Saul's power as king.

    Nevertheless, Samuel followed God through these uncharted waters and eventually named David, a man after God's own heart, to be king in Israel. We know that this is the eternal line of kingship in Israel because Jesus came from David's line, and Jesus is the eternal king of Israel.

    Making big changes is never easy. Bringing bad news to people is never easy. Turning your power over to someone else is never easy. Admitting that things did not turn out as expected is never easy. Samuel experienced all of these. He must have had many sleepless nights, many days of confusion and uneasiness, but when it was all done, he and all Israel came through the transition well.

    Is there something that looms in front of you that you would rather avoid? Perhaps there is someone you need to talk to, perhaps to apologize to, perhaps to explain that she or he has hurt you in some way. Perhaps you're on the threshold of a big change in your life and the way ahead isn't clear to you. Perhaps you are beginning to realize that something you have worked very hard to accomplish is not going to work out. What does our study of Samuel say to you about that thing that looms in front of you?

    In Hebrews 12, we are told that we should fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Why? Because if we look too hard at the present circumstances or at the unknowns of the future, we may loose hope. But if we keep our eyes on Jesus, He will guide us safely through the paths that lie before us.