Key word: Kingdom
Originally the books of 1 & 2 Samuel were one book and were eventually broken into two books because it was difficult to fit all the material on one scroll due to the large amount of material. The Samuels trace the history of Israel from the latter day of the Judges through the early life of David. First Samuel starts with the birth of Samuel, the last of the Judges, and the first of the great prophets, and concludes with the death of Saul, Israel’s first king. Thus the book shows the origin of the Kingdom, or monarchy of Israel, which is established around 1050 BC.
As Samuel grows up and leads Israel, he guides them in a return to following the Lord (7:3-4). But sadly his sons did not walk in the ways of the Lord (8:5) and people cry for a king so they could be like the other nations. But in doing so they rejected the Lordship of God (8:7). Nevertheless, the Lord has Samuel appoint Saul as their first king. Saul starts well but proves to be a grave disappointment. The Lord has Samuel anoint David as the next king which sets up massive conflict with Saul who did not want to lose his power. The rest of the book chronicles that conflict. What poor Saul did not get, but David did, is found in our key verse. Saul thought all was well if he followed religious ritual (at least to a degree), but David was a man who followed the Lord with his heart (13:14).
Key verse: 1 Samuel 15:22b – “To obey is better than sacrifice.”
