The Book of 1 Samuel
The book of 1 Samuel, a part of the Old Testament, sparks the dawn of the United Kingdom of Israel by telling of its first king, Saul. Samuel is one of the first talked about pre-literary prophets in the bible perhaps because he anointed the first king of the United Kingdom. He is a prophet by definition because he possessed the ability to converse with the almighty Yahweh. Samuel and Saul are key players to the rise of the kingdom but Saul runs into trouble and disobeys God, which leads him to his own inevitable demise.
In 1 Samuel 28: 1-25 Yahweh guides Saul to his death because he has outright deceived and disobeyed God. This passage sets an example to obey Yahweh; otherwise he will inflict punishment upon the disobedient. It portrays that Yahweh's love, power, and covenant should never be taken for granted. Saul is, in essence, a pawn in an overall lesson and story by God. It is quite possible that the disobedience of God and punishment inflicted upon him was his very fate that only God could control.
A brief overview: During the time of 1 Samuel 28, there is a major conflict between the Philistines and the Israelites. The two respective armies meet up for confrontation near Jerzeel between Shunem (Philistine encampment) and Gilboa (Israelite encampment) (this is anomalous because in 1 Samuel 29:1 it says that they are still at Apheq and reach Jerzeel later on stated in verse 29:11). When Saul observed the Philistine army he became tremendously afraid, assumingly because of their size and superiority in weaponry (Mc Carter comments on the passage that the Philistines possessed such warring implements as bronze and iron, which were advanced metals of that time.) So, he tried to co...
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...hard to understand fully because of its comprehensive metaphoric language and the difference in culture from present day. It is also sometimes hard for us to understand God's actions because we think of him simply loving and caring rather than ruthless and violent. We need to understand that the creation of mankind is taking place in the recordings of these scriptures and so things may not be as customary as we would like to think. I believe that God has a plan for everyone. And, in the case of Saul, he had a plan to take away his kingdom in order to pass it on to David so the formation of history could continue. I also think this passage, like many other passages from the Bible, has a message linked to it, a lesson to the story if you will. The lesson is to prove that God's unlimited power must never be taken for granted or there surely will be hell to pay.
In retrospect, his 'rebellious' actions and persistent attitude could have been very harmful and he possibly could have got in a lot of trouble. He was given the duty of shoveling the snow on the hockey rink, and he decided to 'practice' playing the game; despite him not being allowed to, he says “I began to stash a hockey stick in the snow beside the boards. Once I'd made sure no one was around, I'd dig it out and run to the barn for a handful of frozen horse turds I'd bury beside the door […] Canada do.” (Wagamese, 61). Once Saul was introduced to this game he was so driven to play for himself; realistically any reaction could have came from him doing this, he could have been beaten and yelled at. Unfortunately his persistence attitude could be bad for him and his safety in many
Both Saul Indian Horse and Winston Smith use writing as a means of survival from repression. In Indian Horse, Saul uses writing as a means of seeing what made him turn away from the pain of his rape and cease repressing its happening; for him survive and live on with his life. Saul writes memoirs to find the hidden answers of why he turned to violence and alcoholism and using them to break free of the cycle. From pages two to three Saul says “They say I can’t understand where I’m going if I don’t understand where I’ve been. The answers are within me, according to them. By telling our stories, hardcore drunks like me can set ourselves free from the bottle and the life that took us there …. So Moses gave me permission to write things down. So
Background: The history of Saul is thought to have ended at the battle at Mount Gilboa, but summarized as follows: after falling in battle the evil spirit that God set upon him became his Beast, in horror and shame he pulled himself from the wall Beth-shan and fled into the night. History would have you believe that his body had been burned. Convinced that he had fully fallen out out of God’s grace, he turned to prayer and a path of redemption. He had hoped that meditation, prayer along with other abnegation techniques could quell the Beast, however nothing could for long.
From about page 100, Kate starts to learns why her grandpa killed her time traveling grandma in the past. In the middle of the book it says ”Saul is a devout believer only in himself, and he was convinced that the religious faith of others, if manipulated skillfully, was an excellent path to the power he sought. He was studying religions of the world in order to pick up tips on how to build his own. ‘How do you ‘build’ a religion?’ I asked. ‘Many others have done it with less, ‘Katherine said with a wry smile. ‘Saul had an excellent tool at his disposal. I think his plan was to personally go back to various places and times in history and lay a trail of appearances, miracles, and prophecy--blending a variety of religions. Just as Christianity pulled in elements of pagan religions in order to attract followers, he would incorporate elements of Christianity, Islam, and other religions, laying the path for the reign of the prophet Cyrus...who would , of course, be Saul” (Walker 115). After Kate’s grandma told her this, she realized that her suspicion where true, and her grandpa has gone crazy and mad trying to get power to literally become a god, and will kill and destroy anyone or thing that get in his way of making his
Guitar, meanwhile, has grown increasingly edgy and increasingly obsessed with the idea of Milkman's pampered position within the local black hierarchy; at last he divulges to Milkman that he is in a group called the Seven Days, which kills a white person for every black person murdered by a white. Each person has a different day; Guitar's day is Sunday; whenever a black person is murdered on a Sunday, Guitar murders a white person in the same fashion.
...ice his revulsion and gruesome plan of action to King Ahab. When King Ahab heard Elijah he began humbling himself and repenting by fasting and weeping (1 Kings 21: 27). Because of King Ahab’s drastic change, God showed mercy on him and delayed the repercussions of his reign for another generation (1 Kings 21:28-29). This passage also reveals the extreme jealousy and unreasonableness of God. He considered King Ahab to be one of the most evil rulers of Israel because he and his wife worshipped the gods that she had known all of her life. The descriptions of how the Lord would do abolish them (1 Kings 21:19-16), illustrate a god that should be feared. While God shows mercy on King Ahab because he repents, YHWH’s strong desire for justice is also withheld in this passage as the execution of His judgement was not eliminated but rather suspended for a generation to come.
The Book of Daniel is the only full-blown apocalyptic book in the Protestant recognized version of the Canon. A literary device divides the book into two halves. Chapters 1-6 are a collection of stories that introduces the reader to Daniel and three other Israelites as unwilling guests of the Babylonia Empire ruled by Nebuchadnezzar. The second half, Chapters 7-12 consists of apocalyptic imagery of deformed beasts and the heavenly court. The focus of this paper will be on chapter 7, which serves as a bridge of the two halves. Chapter 7 is the earliest of the visions as it identifies with the genre of 8-12 while through language and content it reverts to Daniel chapter 2. The linguistic break down is not as neat as the literary divide in that Dan. 2:4b-7:28 was written in Aramaic while other portions of the book is written in Hebrew.
This is a paper over King James I of England that I wrote for my honors english class. I received an A on the the assignment. King James I On June 19, 1566 in Theobalds, Hertfordshire, England, Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to her only child, a boy whom she named James. James' father was Henry Stewart, also known as Lord Darnley.
Some prophets targeted Jewish monarchs as an idolatrous distraction which prevented the people from properly hearing the Word of God. Other prophets still maintained that Jews should continue to believe that God would not abandon his chosen people. Regardless of the specific message, it was clear that the overall prophetic approach to God’s covenant with the Jewish people was changing.
This phrase is later repeated three more times, in Judges 18:1, 19:1, and 21:25. Since the phrase is repeated several times, it emphasizes the need for a king to govern the people and lead them in better ways. The Davidic covenant also exemplifies this positive view, since God showed favor on David and his descendants. God said that King David’s descendants are God’s sons, and that the LORD will establish a “royal throne forever”, as in a line of kings until the end of time (2 Sam. 7:13). God also promises to give David “rest from all your enemies” (2 Sam. 7:11) and a place for his people to live (2 Sam. 7:10). Just like Abraham, King David is promised descendants, blessings, and land. Hezekiah, another good king of Judah, was also viewed favorably. In the LORD’s sight, Hezekiah did what was right, just like David (2 Kgs 18:3). 2 Kings 18: 5 also states that “and neither before nor after [Hezekiah] was there anyone like him among all the kings of Judah.” Unlike Solomon, Hezekiah observed the commandments and thus, “the LORD was with him, and he succeeded in all he set out to do” (2 Kgs 18:7). Therefore, the Deuteronomistic History looks favorably upon kings, since the need for a king is stated multiple times in Judges, and kings like David and Hezekiah are looked upon with favor by God and the people
But from my perspective, Although Saul is angry them, he still want to cherish this chance to play hockey. If he really fight back with them, the whites will possibly drive his right to play Hockey. If that really happens, Saul will lose everything. Saul already lost every member of the family, plus he lost his tradition and his identity. In response to Rape, abuse, fighting in his Indian residential school. Saul found the only hope in hockey. After he played Hockey, He found some kind of belief and meaning of his tough life.
The Bible takes a unique turn in the book of 1 Samuel, Israel requests the appointment of an earthly king. The prophet Samuel warned them against trading their Divine King for an earthy one. In Matthew 7:13 Jesus told us, “..For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction..,” cautioning believers not to long to be like everyone else.
First, Jeremiah’s word of choice when describing his prosecutors and God is similar yet the image of each is different. Though Jeremiah blame God for the cause of his suffering saying, “you deceived me, LORD, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed” (Jeremiah 20:7). The image of God revealed a holy warrior when “he rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked” (Jeremiah 20:13); for example when God rescues Israel from Egypt. When he was recused from the Israelites who were about to denounce him and praises to God, “the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail” (Jeremiah 20:11). The people of Israel, Jeremiah’s prosecutors, the ones that were actually causing the suffering of Jeremiah by mocking him. However, they were described in similar terms alike God: “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him” (Jeremiah 20:10). In this context, his prosecutors were hoping for the faith of Jeremiah toward God to fall and so that they can succeed over him. Jeremiah, however, does not realize how similar he and his prosecutors were.
1 Samuel is presented in the form of a narrative account of the life and contributions of Samuel. Like most of the bible, scholars have tried to determine the author, date of writing, purpose of the text and the historical and chronological order of events. The author is unknown. Some scholars believe Zabud, son of the prophet Nathan, a priest and the “personal adviser'; to King Solomon, wrote the text shortly after Solomon’s death. Others believe Samuel himself wrote the text, while some scholars believe the priest, Ahimaaz, was the author. Most do agree that the composition and editing took place in several stages over a considerable period of time.
The prophet Nehemiah is known too much such an interesting character within the Bible; the meaning of Nehemiah is “The Lord comforts.” Not many people today know who Nehemiah is in the Bible. However for those who do know, they would say that Nehemiah was probably one of the most influential characters in the Bible. Many do not commonly know Nehemiah because he is not commonly mentioned throughout the Bible. In fact, he is only mentioned in the Old Testament and in the only book that bears his name ; with the exception of Ezra 2:2.