Having whizzed through the epoch of the Judges we’re back into slower history again with the accounts of 1 and 2 Samuel. This week we’re looking at 1 Samuel 1–15 which is the story of the prophet Samuel, the Ark of the Covenant, and the rise and fall of King Saul.

Samuel is important in Israel’s history as the last of the Judges. As a powerful prophet his reputation as a leader was clearly strong, but his sons – like many a Judge’s son before him – let him down. To add insult to injury (and somewhat ironically) Samuel himself, in his childhood brought a damning message to Eli the Priest on account of his wayward sons (Chapter 3). With this all clear from the first few chapters of 1 Samuel it is understandable that Israel, without lasting quality in Priest or Prophet would look for a King.

It is easy to miss the significance of this demand on the culture of Israel. For the hundreds of years since the invasion of the Promised Land, and indeed since the Exodus and before, Israel had lived without a king. Though all the surrounding nations had kings, there was clearly something about Israel and her constitutional devotion to Yahweh that enabled her to function through the leadership of a prophetic figure (in other words, a human spokesperson for the true King, the Suzerain: Yahweh). Though the period of the judges was clearly somewhat farcical, for Israel to appoint a king would have been as unexpected and represent an ideological u-turn of the scale of modern-day die-hard republics like France or the USA suddenly proclaiming themselves fully-fledged monarchies!

It is thus a testament to the exasperation Israel felt with her leadership that, as a community, she overwhelmingly rejected the advice of the prophet Samuel and opted for a more stable set-up.

The Ark of the Covenant is a very strange, but powerful character in this part of the story of Israel. Inside the Ark (according to Exodus 40:20) was the Testimony of Moses, which is presumably the Law (including all the cultic regulations) as given to him at Sinai. As a literary juxtaposition, the power of the Ark to bring calamity on both Philistine and Israelite (see Chapters 4-6) contrasted against the weakness of the current prophetic and priestly line reinforces the Glory of the Lord against the pathetic infirmity of Israel; the Law and Cultus exposing Israel’s rebellious shame.

This failure then, on Israel’s part, to keep the Law and maintain integrity in her Public Offices is the backcloth for the creation of the Monarchy. And her first chapter is a sorry one.

Saul is a relative nobody when he is chosen by Samuel to lead the nation. He has a couple of successes – rescuing Jabesh (Chapter 11) and routing the Amalekites (Chapter 15) – and is then rejected by Yahweh with no glory or history to his name. Though Saul remains in our story for the rest of 1 Samuel, he is merely a setting for the new bright star: David.

The desperate hopelessness of Israel’s predicament is overwhelming through these first fifteen chapters of 1 Samuel. Like Samuel’s mother, Hannah, Israel is barren, devoid of new life or future; depressed and downtrodden: desperate. Yet as Yahweh heard Hannah’s prayer and answered, so he would hear Israel’s (see Samuel’s speech in chapter 12). As Hannah gave up her son to Yahweh, however, so Israel must give herself up to her Suzerain in renewed loyalty.

It’s a common life experience that sometimes – in the immortal words of Yazz – ‘the only way is up!’ For Israel, this important juncture in her history represents such a moment. But, like many moments before, so much will depend on the faith and fidelity of the people.

After so many weeks of reading trial after tribulation after lament after failure, the Old Testament is starting to get a bit disappointing. Even the glory moments are bathed in controversy from our post-Jesus perspective. One thing we can all – Jew and Gentile – agree on, however: without God this story truly has no hope.

And so we wait, and patiently read on. What will happen to the community set apart to serve Yahweh and him alone? What will become of the kings? Now they have the land they wanted, where is this all going?

There are every so often times in life where the going just seems too tough and we’ve sadly lost our way. Hope can seem all but gone and the path to the future looks too faint. Where is God then and what do we do to find him?

Reflection:

God of the broken and the weak;
of the despondent and the frail;
of the weary and the wrong;
of the frustrated and the tense;
Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.

God of the wayward and the fake;
of the brash and of the ill;
of the crass and the keen;
of the great and of the fallen;
Speak hope, Lord, I’m listening.