A Study of I Samuel

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I Samuel 26

By: Jim Crews

 

I Samuel 26: 1 - 5

The Ziphite told Saul where David was hiding. Saul took 3000 men to go and find David. Saul camped by the road but David remained in the wilderness. David sent spies into Saul’s camp. David went to the camp and found them asleep. 

 

I Samuel 26: 6 - 12

David, Ahimelech, and Abishai snuck into Saul’s camp. Abishai wanted them to kill Saul, but David would not. David told them that God would take care of it. They took Saul’s spear and left. 

 

I Samuel 26: 13 - 16

David called out to Abner and Saul’s men and was ridiculing their attempt at protecting Saul. He told them they should be killed for dereliction of duty. He then asked them where Saul’s spear was? 

 

I Samuel 26: 17 - 20

Saul recognized David’s voice. David asked why he was being pursued. He said if God had sent Saul then David would gladly turn himself in, but if it were men who drove Saul, David would not. 

 

I Samuel 26: 21 - 25

Saul confessed his sin. David returned his spear. They went their separate ways after Saul blessed David. 

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I Samuel 27

By: Jim Crews

 

I Samuel 27: 1 - 4

David decided to escape Saul by going to the Philistines. He took 600 men and went to Gath. When Saul heard that David was in Gath, he stopped hunting for him. 

 

I Samuel 27: 5 - 7

David asked Achish, king of Gath, for a city. Achish gave David Ziklag. David lived there for a year and 4 months. 

 

I Samuel 27: 8 - 12

David raided the people who had lived in Canaan before Israel came. These were the people Israel had been told to destroy but did not. David would leave no one alive, while taking their livestock and other possessions. He would lie to Achish when asked, and he killed everyone so there would be no witnesses to his lie. Achish trusted David though, thinking David was raiding Israelite settlements instead of the Amalekites and others. We see that David was far from a perfect man. 

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I Samuel 28

By: Jim Crews

 

I Samuel 28: 1 - 2

The Philistines had gathered their forces to go to war with Israel. Achish made David his bodyguard. 

 

I Samuel 28: 3 - 7

Samuel had died and was buried in Ramah. Saul had thrown all the mediums, necromancers, and occultists out of Israel. When Saul saw the Philistines he was afraid. God would not speak with him, so he sought out a medium. They found a woman in Endor who claimed such powers. 

 

I Samuel 28: 8 - 14

Saul went to her in disguise, since he had kicked all the occultists out of Israel. He wanted her to bring up the spirit of Samuel. She was scared. Looks like if she truly had powers of this nature, she would have known that it was Saul speaking to her, but she did not. When the spirit of Samuel actually DID appear, she was frightened. 

 

I Samuel 28: 15 - 19

Samuel asked Saul why he had disturbed him. God was the one who allowed this to take place, because we are taught in Luke about the great gulf that exists between the two parts of the afterlife and between coming back. 

Saul told Samuel that God wasn’t speaking to him and he needed to inquire about the coming war with the Philistines. Samuel told Saul now was the time for the fulfillment of the prophecy about the kingdom being taken from him and given to David. He told Saul that on the next day, Saul and his sons would join him in the afterlife, and the army of Israel would be defeated. 

 

I Samuel 28: 20 - 25

Saul fell from weakness and from hearing this news. The woman offered him something to eat but he refused. Saul and his servants eventually ate and went away.  

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I Samuel 29

By Jim Crews

 

I Samuel 29: 1 - 5

The Philistines had gathered their forces and so had Israel. They were getting ready to fight, when David arrived with his men. The Philistines did not want Hebrews on their side. They didn’t trust David or his men to fight with them. They were angry that David and his men had even been allowed in the camp. They sent David and his men to go back to their homes, because they didn’t believe that they would fight with them. 

 

I Samuel 29: 6 - 11

Achish sent David and his men back to their homes. He apologized to David for this. David returned home while the Philistines faced off with Israel at Jezreel. 

 

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I Samuel 30

By: Jim Crews

 

I Samuel 30: 1 - 6

When David and his men got to Ziklag, the Amalekites had taken over. David’s two wives had been taken captive. The people were very distressed. David was too, because there was talk about stoning him. However, David turned to God for his strength. 

 

I Samuel 30: 7 - 10

David asked God what he should do. God told David to pursue the Amalekites because he would defeat them. David started out with 600 men, but 200 were too exhausted to continue, so he ended up with only 400. 

 

I Samuel 30: 11 - 15

They found an Egyptian in the open country who was famished. They gave him food and water and he recovered. They asked him where he came from, and he told them he came from the Amalekites. In exchange for his life, the Egyptian agreed to lead David and his men to the Amalekite camp. 

 

I Samuel 30: 16 - 20

David and his men caught the Amalekites unprepared. He wiped out the entire group, except for 400 who fled the scene on camels. 

They recovered everything that the Amalekites had taken from them. They also kept all of the Amalekites livestock for plunder. 

 

I Samuel 30: 21 - 25

They met back up with the 200. Some of the malcontents in David’s crew were not wanting to share the plunder with the 200 because they had not gone with the rest. David did not allow this to happen. 

 

I Samuel 30: 26 - 31

When David arrived back in Ziklag, he had some of the spoils sent to his allies in Judah. 

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I Samuel 31

By: Jim Crews

 

I Samuel 31: 1 - 7

The Philistines were defeating Saul’s army. Saul had been badly wounded by arrows. He told his armor bearer to kill him so that the Philistines couldn’t take him prisoner. The armor bearer would not, so Saul fell on his own sword. The armor bearer did the same. Saul, his 3 sons, and his armor bearer died. When the army saw this, they ran away. 

 

I Samuel 31: 8 - 13

The Philistines found Saul’s body and cut off the head. They took his armor and his head and sent it all to their idols. They hung his body on the wall of one of their cities. Some brave Israelites took the bodies of Saul and his sons and buried them.