November 2008

A word
on the Word

Journey through the Bible, book by book — this month by the Rev. Cn. George Luck, assisting priest, St. Matthew’s, Dallas

First Samuel

t seemed like a good idea at the time! The 12 tribes of Israel had settled into a sometimes peaceful — sometimes not — land promised by God through Moses. Many pagan city-states also occupied the same general territory. And now a brand-new threat had appeared. A technologically superior people, called Philistines, had settled five great cities (one of them being Gaza), and they were in the process of dominating all the land of Canaan, including the Israelites.

The 12 tribes had no overall political or military authority. They had no army or proper weapons. They were a farmer-militia, responding only after being attacked and armed mostly with farm implements.

It seemed clear that if they had a king with an army, they might have a small chance of defending themselves against the Philistines. The alternative seemed annihilation. Representatives of the tribes went to speak to Samuel about what Yahweh-God thought about this. Samuel’s immediate response was strongly negative. “Isn’t Yahweh your king? Have you lost faith that he can defend you?”

Who is Samuel that his word is so important?

The Bible gives us very few birth narratives. When we find one, we know that the child to be born will have a very special place of leadership among God’s people. We have such narratives for Moses, Samuel, and Jesus. The stories emphasize that the child is a special gift from God — i.e., if God does not intervene, the child will not be conceived or survive.

You probably know that Hannah had not been able to bear a child. She prayed and vowed that, if God would give her a son, she would dedicate him to God’s service after she weaned him. After she gave birth to Samuel, Hannah sang a song of praise to God about his grace in lifting up the lowly and bringing down the powerful:

“My heart exults in the Lord, in the Lord I now hold my head high …
Strong men stand in mute dismay, but those who followed put on new strength.
Those who had plenty sell themselves for a crust, and the barren woman bears
seven children …
He lifts the weak out of the dust and raises the poor from the refuse heap to give them a
place among the great, to assign them seats of honor …” (1 Sam. 2:1-10).

At a later time in history — after she knew that Jesus had been conceived in her body — a young virgin named Mary would sing a song modeled after Hannah’s song.

Samuel grew up to be the high priest of Israel as well as its final judge and a definitive prophet. He was the great leader to whom the people brought their request for a king. When Samuel brought their dismal request to God, he got this response:

“… They have not rejected you; it is I whom they rejected, I whom they will not have to be their king. … Hear what they have to say now, but give them a solemn warning and tell them what sort of king will rule them” (1 Sam. 8:7-9).

The people rejected Samuel’s warnings. All they could envision was a strong king with an army to protect them. God acquiesced to their request and told Samuel to choose a king.

In time, Samuel came to Saul, a powerfully built man, and called him out to be prince (for Samuel could not bring himself to use the word “king”). Samuel poured a flask of olive oil over Saul’s head and said, “The Lord anoints you prince over his people Israel …” (1 Sam. 10:1).

Our transliterated form of the Hebrew for “the anointed one” is “messiah,” or in Greek, “Christ.”

Saul turned out to be a good warrior, but his trust in God and obedience were flawed. After the capture of a pagan city-state, Saul and his men led off a large herd of cows and sheep. Unlike our wars today, which are fought for noble ideals such as “democracy” or “freedom” or for protection of “spheres of influence,” the ancient biblical people fought wars for loot. They killed people to gain livestock or for ethnic pride or for vengeance. God had told Saul that he was giving them only the land. They were to take no loot. Well, who should be observing this scene but Samuel? Saul came to Samuel and said, “Look at all these animals I have brought to sacrifice to Yahweh.”

We don’t know how long it took Saul to come up with this excuse for his disobedience. Samuel’s response is one of the great lines of the Bible, “Yahweh says I desire obedience more than sacrifice; the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (1 Sam. 15:22-23). Several centuries later, the prophet Hosea used this quote, changing “obedience” to “mercy” or “compassion” (Hosea 6:6). Jesus quoted Hosea’s form in the
Gospel of Matthew (9:13).

The upshot of Saul’s behavior was that God “repented of having made Saul king” (1 Sam. 15:11). It was up to Samuel to tell Saul that God had rejected him as king. Saul went from fear to a deep melancholia, paranoia, and violent behavior.

Beginning at chapter 17, the first book of Samuel tells several stories, which are not necessarily in chronological order, about David’s rise to power as the next king.
Saul remained king although Yahweh and Samuel had rejected him. So, God directed Samuel to go to
Bethlehem and secretly anoint David. This was an act of treason (ch. 16).
As an armor bearer, David fought and killed the Philistine giant, Goliath (ch. 17).
Saul took David into his court where he became a close friend of Saul’s son, Jonathan (ch. 17).
David became a famous warrior, and the women sang, “Saul has struck down thousands, but David, tens of thousands” (ch. 18).
David sang songs on the harp to soothe Saul (ch. 18).

From this point, Saul saw David as a rival and tried to kill him; Jonathan helped protect David; and David formed an outlaw band and tried to stay out of Saul’s way.

The Spirit of the Lord left Saul and an evil spirit tormented him because he would not hear (obey) God and Samuel (1 Sam. 16:14). David made an alliance with the Philistines that he would join them in their struggle against Saul. In reality, David was raiding other pagan people and giving the Philistines part of the loot as if it had been stolen from Saul. Most of David’s loot was distributed among the southern tribes of Israel. He became a kind of Robin Hood to them. After Samuel’s death, Saul and Jonathan died in a battle with the Philistines, leaving David the most powerful leader in Israel.

It is clear that the God of the Bible loves his world, operates within human history, and is involved in our political and economic systems. It is also clear that our relationships with this God are incompatible with a viewpoint that encourages us to turn our back on this world in favor of a “purely spiritual” religion.