We have much to praise the Lord for, and his covenants that he gives to us is certainly one of the things to praise him for. I'm just going to read a few verses from 2 Samuel 7 in your bulletin on page 22, or 2 Samuel 7, 12 through 14a. When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you who will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he shall be my son. Father, we thank you that you humble yourself in giving a covenant with Adam and Eve and with Noah and Abraham and with Moses and you gave a covenant with David and the new covenant that you established with us. It is an amazing thing that you would take sinners to yourself, rebels, who were once your enemies and yet now you have redeemed and adopted into your family. And we're so grateful, Father, for all that you have done for us. I pray as I give an exposition, a high-level exposition of 1 and 2 Samuel, that this would be an exposition that would be meaningful to your people, draw their hearts out in love and adoration to you, and that we would be strengthened and sanctified as a result. Bless this the time as we continue to worship in Jesus' name, amen. Well, several years ago, I preached through every verse that was related to the life of David. It looks like Rodney's going to be preaching through some of the passages that I have not touched on, especially the Song of Hannah, which is an incredibly important introduction to the theology of 1 and 2 Samuel. What I'm going to do today is I'm going to give a kind of a bird's eye view of the book as a whole, which, by the way, I call it a book because in the Hebrew, 1 and 2 Samuel was one book. And you really cannot interpret one book without the other or you're going to have an imbalance. Now, whereas Kings and Chronicles each had a single author, Samuel was written by at least three different prophets, three different writers. And even though the book takes its name from the first author, Samuel, he dies in first Samuel 25. So obviously he couldn't write the next 31 chapters that come after his death. Right. Jewish tradition holds that Samuel wrote 1 Samuel 1-24 with the remainder of the narrative being written by Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer, and certainly the scripture seems to support that tradition. 2 Chronicles 29 verse 29 indicates that those three prophets did indeed write the entire history of David. Now I'm not gonna get into the arguments back and forth on some of that, but I definitely agree with those who say that the Bible itself declares infallibly that the book of Samuel was authored by a minimum of three early prophetic authors. Now, once you understand that fact, you begin to appreciate the supernatural qualities of Samuel, because on many levels, it sure does not seem like this was written by three authors. Samuel, all of its chapters are seamlessly working together as if they were written by one author. In fact, the structure of these books is so intricately woven together, it is astonishing, absolutely astonishing to me, that there were three authors who wrote it. Even though there are internal hints of multiple authorship that you cannot deny, Those authors wove the book together so beautifully with detailed parallelisms and chiasms and inclusios and other structural designs that the book is clearly one work. Themes that were anticipated by the prophet Samuel at the beginning of 1 Samuel are perfectly matched by Nathan and Gad as if they had conspired together. Let's write this book and here's the things we're gonna put into it. The chiastic structure that is begun by Samuel is finished after Samuel died, but it's finished in a way that perfectly mirrors Samuel's writing, and you'll see that in a little bit. Now, if I was teaching a seminary-level course at seminary, I would take probably at least two hours going through 42 detailed charts that I have on Samuel that show an unbelievably intricate structuring of this book from beginning to end. Now, the three summaries I put into yours, those are high level. They do not do justice to the incredible structuring of this book that when you dig into the details of it, you begin to see. Take a quick glance, though, at the chart that has two triangles on it. It's on the back of your outline right here. I took this chart from Yaltuda Rade in the Linguistica Biblica, and I think it accurately shows the movement in the book. Now, other commentators have, through their own studies, come to a similar conclusion. But each of those triangles represents a perfectly symmetrical overview of success and failure. That's not the only themes, but success and failure. There are actually chiasms within an overall chiasm that you see to the left of that chart. that's kind of sideways there. That's the large chiasm of the book and there are actually much more detailed layers of chiasms within that overall one that again when you study this just makes it an exquisitely structured book. The more detailed structures that I've not included Each of the elbows outlines some of the key themes of this book, and especially God resisting the proud and exalting the humble. That's a theme that keeps coming through. But His sovereignty and the fact that all of these things are portraying the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ are so strongly brought forward. Now, one little curiosity you might have noticed is that the last little bit of the second large triangle contains oddly, the first two chapters of 1 Kings, just like the last little bit of the overall chiasm does as well. Now, when I was in seminary back in 1981, there were scholars who pointed out that the last part of the chiasm in 1 and 2 Samuel is missing. It's a defective book. There's a problem there. It's beautiful, but it stops. It stops short, almost as if the author stopped writing. And yet, when you go into 1 Kings 1 through 2, that chiasm is perfectly matched. And when I first pointed that out to my professor, Old Testament professor at seminary, he said, wow, yeah, it does seem to perfectly line up into the second chapter, but that has to be just coincidence because that was written much, much later than 1 and 2 Samuel was written. But in the 36 years since seminary, the chiastic structure has been studied and studied, restudied, and it's been shown to have been very deliberately crafted all the way into First Kings one through two. It is not an accident of history. And actually, when you study all of the structures of the historical books, you will see that they are interlocked with each other by divine inspiration and linked together in a watertight way by that structure. It's one of the proofs that I use of the canonicity of each of those books. You cannot reject any one of those books without of necessity rejecting the other books. They are all directly tied with each other. So what happens is a subsequent prophet, by inspiration, writes his material right into the canon. He connects it to the previous books that were before. And there is this building that happens from one book to another as if it was written with one mind. Now, that should not be a surprise for a Christian, should it? Because if you believe that the Bibles were inspired by God, written by prophets, there was one mind behind these books. It was the divine mind of God. 2 Peter 1 20-21 says, knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private exposition, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Now we've talked in the past about inspiration being sort of like God using various instruments, those are the prophets. So even though God used various musical instruments, so to speak, Every note of the divine symphony, the score of that symphony that those prophets played, came from the divine mind of God. Now, it may be no surprise to you that studying the structure of the historical books sends shivers of delight down my spine because I just see God's hand, his supernatural hand, crafting it over the centuries. It is beautiful. It is actually miraculous. I don't know how any modern author could write genuine sequential history and manage to do it within the confines of the interlocking structures of the book. To me, it shows God's hand. Deuteronomy is tightly connected structurally with Joshua. In fact, Joshua says he wrote it right into the book of the law of God, which is the Pentateuch, right? So he writes the last part of Deuteronomy. Judges is tightly connected structurally to Joshua, Samuel is tightly connected to Judges, and 1 Kings is tightly connected to Samuel. You cannot break those links without rejecting the divine authorship of one of the other books. And so this is so clearly written that even liberals have said, Well the only way we can explain this is that Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings were all written by the same author. That is a ridiculous conclusion that they have come to but if you don't believe in the divine inspiration of the Scripture I don't know what other conclusion you could reach than that, wow this must have been written way, way late even though there is all kinds of evidence against that. But there is more to this that shows the supernatural hand of God in the development of these books. Not only did God have to divinely control every detail of the writing of 1 and 2 Samuel, he had to control the inspiration of the subjects that this book is writing about, like Hannah's song that Rodney's going to be going through. What do I mean by that? Well, in 1 Samuel 2, she uses, by divine inspiration, she uses the expressions, my horn, my rock, grave, death, thunder from heaven, exaltation, being armed with strength, darkness, feet, anointed one. He gives the king." By the way, she said that before there was any king. What in the world would possess her to talk about a king? Okay, the king, he gives the king humble, proud, and expressions of God's uniqueness, 14 different expressions, and exactly the same expressions which form the themes of this whole book are used by David in the last two Psalms in the book, his hymns, exactly those phrases are used without either one having known that both of these songs are going to be incorporated into a book to form a perfect chiasm. The chiasm could not have worked as perfectly as it does if God had not already inspired those two people long before the book was inspired. To me, this is just a marvelous, incredible work of divine divine providence. So I get very, very excited about the structure of books. I hope you get a little bit of appreciation from it today. Now theological liberals who refuse to acknowledge the divine authorship of any books of the Bible, they've got a hard time explaining both the structural unity of the book and the clear evidence that it was written by multiple authors, multiple writers. They go to one extreme or the other. They cannot account for both. Liberals are still fighting with each other to this day, and I love to see them fighting with each other, but they're still fighting to this day. It's one author. No, it's multiple authors, back and forth. Some liberals, like Martin Noth, will say that only one author wrote it, but he cannot adequately explain how it is obvious that the author was a first-hand witness of events that spanned more than one lifetime. Various books have proven that the author has first-hand evidence that he's writing about. Even some liberals admit that. So how can one author be a first-hand witness to events that cover 135 years? It doesn't make sense. So other liberals say, well, that's impossible. That could not have been the case. So they think that a later editor has pulled together first-hand accounts, and he's put it together into one massive structure. But then the first group of liberals say, well, that's ridiculous. And they completely soundly trash that by showing that the very things that show unity were not written by the editor, were written by what these guys say are the original historians. And so it goes, the argument back and forth between those liberals. Right now, the dominant liberal view is that it's a unity written much later. But the Orthodox Christian has no problem with the internal evidence. We believe that the book of Samuel was written by three prophets, at least three, and these three prophets reflected God's mind in providentially weaving together an intricately developed, inspired history that also shows the covenantal outworking of Deuteronomy, a unified theology of God, and a unified prophetic perspective. What do I mean by a prophetic perspective? Well, these are the former prophets, they're listed amongst the former prophets, and these former prophets were anticipating that none of the kings of Israel, David included, or even Hezekiah, if you go off into 1 Kings, 1 Kings and 2 Kings is structured in a way that shows that Hezekiah was like a second David, Not even Hezekiah was the Messiah that was prophesied to come. They're looking forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ off into the future. So I don't usually get into the complicated structures of the book. I just do that from my own comfort level so I understand where the book is going. But this is so remarkable, I thought I had to share it with you guys. Now, as I mentioned, the book covers 135 years of history. There are three main characters being described. There's Samuel, there's David, there's Saul before David. Samuel becomes an illustration of how even the ideal judge, he was the last of the judges was not the Messiah promised in Numbers 24, 17, nor was Saul, who was the political king after the people's own heart, nor was David, who was the political king after God's own heart. They were still looking forward to Jesus. The key chapter of the book is 2 Samuel 7, which speaks of God's covenant made with David and with David's seed, Jesus. Jesus is the answer to all of the failures in this book. The key verse, actually I didn't have one verse, it's the key paragraph, is 2 Samuel 7, 12 through 14 that we read earlier. When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seat after you who will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, he shall be my son. Now in some ways that was fulfilled by Solomon But commentators point out, when taken in the context of the chapter as a whole, that is looking forward to a future descendant of Jesus who would not only be the son of David, but who would be the unique son of God. And so as God's son, he will not have any of the problems of the previous kings or the kings who would come after David. Whereas David was a type of Christ, Christ was declared to be the final David. In fact, later prophets over and over called Jesus David. That's explicit. Everybody agrees with that. And so I'll skip ahead in your outline and say that the key word in this book is David. Over and over again in this book, David prophetically foreshadows the final David. Whereas David's throne was only a type or a symbol, it is called the throne of Yehovah. When Solomon, who's also a type of Christ, sits on the throne, well, 1 Chronicles 29, 23 says, then Solomon sat on the throne of Yehovah as king instead of David his father. So there's really rich symbolism that is going on here, and 2 Samuel chapter seven is an incredibly important chapter that lays out the Davidic covenant. That's the last covenant before the coming of Christ and the new covenant. A covenant that includes even the political realm under the feet of King Jesus. So you can see I've already covered some of the Christ of Samuel. David, obviously, is the central one. But if you look at your outlines, you'll see I have Samuel as a type of Christ. All of the judges foreshadowed Jesus. He was the last of the judges. He was unique, though, in the fact that He kept in one person prophet, priest, and king, and in many other ways beautifully foreshadows the work of Jesus. We won't have time to get into that. And yes, there are sacrifices in this book that point to Jesus. There is a tabernacle that also symbolizes the work of Jesus in this book. When I speak of book, I'm speaking of the Hebrew book, right? First and Second Samuel is one book. There are priests, all of those are part of the Christ of Samuel, but most scholars say that the primary picture of Jesus was David. He is presented as the ideal king. Not perfect by any means, we know that clearly, but still when he's compared to all of the other kings all the way through, first and second kings, he's the ideal that is pointed back to. Like Jesus, he was born in Bethlehem. Like Jesus he is called a shepherd. As a shepherd he rules over Israel. He is the king who is said to be after the king's own heart, 2 Samuel 13 verse 14. And there are many other ways in which David was a type or a picture or a symbol of Jesus. Now before I give a quick overview of the book let me note the seven most important themes that are dealt with in Samuel. First a note of failure runs all through Samuel. In the first three chapters we see the failures of Eli and his sons. In chapters 4-7 we see the failures of Israel as a whole. chapter 8 we see the failure of Samuel to discipline his sons. By the way this is a common theme through Eli, Samuel picks it up, well he grew up in Eli's home didn't he? So Eli, Samuel and David all three of them failed to discipline their children and their children did not imitate their good characteristics. It's a very sad aspect of their kingship. Same chapter, chapter 8 shows moral failure again on the part of Israel. The rest of 1 Samuel shows the moral failures of Saul. After a meteoric rise into power on the part of Saul to be king, he is from chapter 15 and on shown to have moral failure after moral failure until his destruction in the end of 1 Samuel. From God's perspective, all the way back in chapter eight, he says that Saul's gonna be a failure. You're asking for a king like the nations? Okay, I'll give you a king. Right off the bat, he's gonna be a failure for you. So from God's perspective, that was designed to be a failure. Although David rises to power with integrity and as the ideal king he also shows failures. Now here's the point, all of those cumulative failures that you see in 1 and 2 Samuel are designed to impress upon the reader that they are still looking forward to the promised long expected Messiah who would be the perfect prophet, priest, and king without any failure. And when we get to Chronicles we're going to see that this is one of the differences between 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings which covers the same territory as 1 and 2 Chronicles. Chronicles does not focus on the failures of Israel. There are some failures that are mentioned But it is designed to be an encouragement of the post-exilic community, whereas Samuel and Kings was designed to warn before the exile, to warn people, this is what's going to happen to you if you are in breaking covenant with Almighty God. So most of Samuel and Kings is negative, most of Chronicles is positive. Second major theme is that this book calls for all kings to be covenantal and not to be like the kings of the nations who acted independently of God's law. And even liberals, believe it or not, believe that all of Samuel is clearly designed to tell people kings must rule in light of the laws and the commandments of the book of Deuteronomy. They call it a Deuteronomistic history, right? Instead, what happens? In 1 Samuel 8, verse 5, they want a king like the nations had. They're kind of tired of the insecurity that small government provides. Even though it gives maximum liberty, they're tired of it, and God says, okay, if you want a king just like the other nations have, I'll give you one. Saul's his name, he's going to be a king just like the other nations. It is very deliberate on God's part. God is giving to them a covenant-breaking king, because that's what they asked for. And then David is going to represent a covenant-keeping ruler. Saul is contrasted with Eli, Samuel, and David, all of whom ruled in terms of covenant. Those three represented God's delegated authority, which covenantally only had enumerated, specified, and very limited powers. Saul broke those very, very quickly. He developed a hugely centralized whereas David returned civil government back to the decentralized and limited powers of a theocracy, which is not a bad word by the way. Theocracy means God's rule. Why in the world would people say, oh we wouldn't want God to rule? That's what they're saying when they say we don't want a theocracy. Anyway, it was covenantal kingship and our series on the life of David went through all of the practical ramifications of that concept. Now I'm going to skip over all my material that deals with whether the Davidic Covenant is based on the Mosaic Covenant or whether it's based on the Abrahamic Covenant. I think it's an utterly worthless, ridiculous debate that people are having. They spend entire books, no this is entirely Abrahamic or this is entirely Mosaic. Every covenant that God made builds upon and includes all the previous covenants and the same was true here. So I've got charts and charts that show the Abrahamic features in the Davidic covenant, as well as the Mosaic features. They're both involved. Third major theme is God's divine sovereignty. You can see God's sovereignty not just in the narrative sections of this book, but also in the poetic sections. You have missed a central lesson of Samuel if you have not come to the conclusion that God is sovereign and man is not. Now it may sometimes seem, especially to the people who are living under those kings, might seem as if the king is totally sovereign, and yet God shows through the history that king is not sovereign at all. It's only God who is sovereign, and His sovereignty is both an encouragement to the remnant as well as a warning to kings. It's a warning. Any rulers who defy His law will be broken. God is sovereign. The fourth major theme that is found throughout Samuel is the sufficiency of God and the sufficiency of Scripture for all rule. The phrases, the Word of the Lord, the Lord said, and various calls to obey God's Word are strewn throughout the book as the only road to success. I'll just give you one example. In chapter 12, Samuel tells Israel, only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider what great things he has done for you. But if you do wickedly, if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king. Rulers were constantly tempted to go beyond the scripture's limits, but doing so always brought disaster without exception. Now another term for this sufficiency of God and sufficiency of the scripture is what I like to call the regulative principle of government. It was the Puritans who kind of came up with that idea. But what the regulative principle of government means is that civic rulers must be 100% regulated by the scripture. They may not go one iota beyond what God's word has regulated, in other words given to them, and that the scriptures are sufficient for everything that the government is allowed to do. And you can see that principle presupposed throughout 1 and 2 Samuel. As we saw in our Life of David series, this book is a rebuke to modern nation states, national armies, Welfare states, universal suffrage, many other outrageous and anti-scriptural practices. All civics must be regulated by the word of God. That's the message of Samuel. Fifth major theme is the jurisdictional balance between governments and within governments. We call this interposition. And you see that all through here as well. Now Samuel mentions three governments, well four if you talk about self-government. But there's family, church, and civics. And as my sermons on the life of David showed, God has authorized one government to interpose itself, in order to protect citizens, to interpose itself against the tyranny of a tyrant. So, when Jonathan and Ahimaaz acted as spies against Absalom on behalf of David, and they risked their lives doing so, here's family governments interposing themselves against the civil government. And so was the lady who hid them, by the way. When Ahimelech gave Goliath's sword to David in 1 Samuel 21, it was an example of church government interposing against civil government. So was Abiathar's joining of David's ranks. When Jonathan stuck up for David when his father was trying to murder David, it's an example of interposition within governments, right? And many examples could be shown that when you're looking at obedience or submission to governments, it's always a limited submission. It's submission in the Lord. In other words, those governments only have the authority to command what God has authorized them to command. It's limited by God's word. And my sermon series showed the biblical checks and balances to keep us from trouble. Now, the sixth major theme of Samuel is the role of the ark of the covenant as God's throne within Israel. Very important theme. It's a throne that cannot be manipulated. It's called the Ark of the Lord of Hosts. He is the one who calls the shots. And so when Eli's sons think, oh great, let's carry this ark into battle. And if we have this with us, nobody can beat us. They're treating it like a lucky rabbit's foot. God says, no, you cannot manipulate me. And you try to do that, and it's going to be a disaster for you. So when Zadok and Abiathar at the end of 2 Samuel do exactly the same thing when David is fleeing from Jerusalem, they say, oh, let's bring the ark with us. This will help us in the battle. David says, no way. That's going back to the temple. He realizes the ark is over me. I am not over the ark. I cannot manipulate it. And God's ark in this book forms a symbol of the throne of God which stands over every aspect, every authority, every part of life. Even families are blessed by it. So Obed-Edom, when he's got that ark within his home, his home is incredibly blessed. So there's many symbols with regard to the ark. It's a major theme. The seventh major theme is the prophecy of the Messiah as the Son of David, and at the same time being the Son of God. So those are the major themes woven into this book, and they help us to see the big picture. And I want to now give you a very, very quick overview of 1 and 2 Samuel, just to show you the hints of how these are woven through the book. I can only give you kind of a high-level picture of it. I can't give you all of the details, but I think I'll give you enough so that you can appreciate it. Now, before we start on that, why don't you turn to the front side of your outlines. I've given you a chart here that looks like this. Main body of Samuel, well, it's divided up into six sections, you can see there. And the main body of Samuel has four sections in the middle, but those four sections are bookended by a theological introduction in 1 Samuel 1 through 7. and a theological conclusion in 2 Samuel 21 through 24. Now because the conclusion is driving home some theological points, the stories are not going to be chronological. In fact, David's already dead, but it's going backward and it's picking some other stories from David's life to illustrate some of the main themes that we have just gone through. Very selective, and so what's going on is the introduction and the conclusion in many ways parallel each other and they help us to interpret the book. You can see the major scenes most clearly in the introduction as well as in the conclusion, but once you see them there and you see what the author is doing, oh, you see it all through the book. Okay, so that gives you kind of a map for the book. Now let's start at the first chapter. The story begins with a Levite by the name of Altena traveling with his family to Shiloh, which is where the tabernacle was located then. As a Levite, he was one of the pastors that God had put into synagogues throughout the land of Israel. They were scattered everywhere. They didn't have their own tribal land. They were supposed to be the pastors. And as a Levite, we can see he was already horribly compromised. in the fact that he was a polygamist. A polygamist is a person who's married to more than one wife. And the horrible problems of polygamy that are described in this story I think fit right into the period of the judges when people were not thinking biblically. Not even the pastors were thinking biblically. Another sin of this pastor was that Alcina was playing favorites with his wives. which led the less loved wife, Penina, to envy the loved one, Hannah, and to persecute her. So verse six says, and her rival also provoked her severely to make her miserable. Now you don't have to read very far in the Bible to discover that God's intention was never for polygamy. It wasn't a crime, but it was clearly a sin. God's intention, right from Genesis chapter one, according to Jesus, was that there be one man, one woman who are united for all of their lifetime in marriage in any other union than Biblical marriage leads to misery. But Hannah was not just miserable over her relationship with the other wife, she was miserable because God had not given her a son as Rodney mentioned earlier. Verse 6 says, the Lord had closed her womb. God is the Lord of even fertility. In Samuel He is the Lord of absolutely every area. of our lives, and so Hannah goes to the Lord in the temple and prays her heart out. She vows her son to the Lord, as we saw earlier today, and God blesses her with a son. By the way, the high priest that was, that was kind of an odd situation as well. The high priest, Eli, who interacts with her, misjudges her, he was the last of the judges before Samuel arose. And if you look at the backside, this top chart up here, I've given you kind of a roadmap as you're going through all of 1 and 2 Samuel. It gives you Floyd Nolan Jones. It's just a snapshot of his timeline so you can see where you're at in this 135-year history. Story of Hannah, a very fun story. We're not gonna get into it, but God grants Hannah her heart's desires. Her son is Samuel and God's Holy Spirit enables her to pray the remarkable Song of Praise in chapter 2. And believe it or not this song introduces virtually every theological and thematic topic that will be dealt with in the rest of the book. As I mentioned earlier the very phraseology the Spirit gives to her God gives to David. David expands on it, but he gives it to David in the Psalms of praise toward the end of 2 Samuel. Now, her speech has all of the major seven themes that we looked at, but there's especially three that I want to emphasize. God's opposition to the proud and exaltation of the humble. So he casts down the proud, he raises up the humble. She says that despite the presence of human evil, God is still at work in accomplishing his purposes. It takes faith to be able to see that, to be able to say that, that God is sovereign even in an evil world. He is sovereign over everything. And then third, she says that God will raise up a messianic king in the future, or as she words it, Yehovah will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. there hadn't been any kings when Hannah said this. Not a single king in Israel but the Holy Spirit put those words into her mouth. In chapter 3 we find that Samuel is made a prophet by God. In chapters 4-7 we have the story about the Ark of the Covenant being captured by the Philistines. Now what had happened is the Philistines attacked Israel. Israel lost big time. So then they go back to battle and they think, we need a lucky rabbit's foot with us, we're gonna take this ark, take it into battle, and God is going to have to fight for us. They said, let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us, it may save us from the hands of the enemy, 1 Samuel 4, 3. So it's really a superstitious belief. In, Second Samuel, David rejects a similar idea of bringing the Ark into battle. But anyway, God does not take kindly to being manipulated and used by Israel so He allows the Philistines to defeat Israel and steal the Ark. This is God's doing. He is still sovereign. When the High Priest Eli hears that the Ark has been captured, that his morally corrupt sons have been killed, he keels over and he dies. something God had prophesied would happen. Why did God prophesy it would happen? Because He cast down the proud. He exalts the humble. In the meantime, God shows the Philistines they have no power over Him whatsoever. Just because God left Israel and He symbolized that by letting the Philistines take the ark does not mean that the Philistines have conquered Him in any way. No, they were pawns in God's hand to teach God's theological truths. Anyway, when the Philistines put the ark into the temple of their God, Dagon, and they put it there to symbolize the fact that, hey, our God is more powerful than Yehoah. Our God conquered Yehoah. What does God do? He makes sure that Dagon falls over, his head breaks off, his hands break off, and he lies prostrate before the throne of God. I mean, it's just beautiful symbolism there. And in case they didn't get that hint, God inflicts everybody in that region with horrible tumors. They get the point. They get rid of the ark to another part of Philistia and they all get tumors and they say, we don't want this. Nobody's willing to take this ark. So they send it back to Israel, but they send it in a way that shows God's hand. They hitch some cows that have just gotten calves. So there are milking cows to this cart. And they leave and they tie up the calves who are bawling for their mother's milk. And it's going to take a miracle for these cows to not want to turn around to their baby calves. But they go straight like an arrow to Israel and Israel gets its ark back. Now already this story is illustrating some of the themes of Hannah's song. God's opposition to pride, wherever it may be, the importance of obedience to God, that God cannot be manipulated or controlled. Instead, He is sovereign. And I won't say more about the judgments that came upon Israel itself when the ark came in their midst. Some of the same lessons that are being taught. In chapters 8 through 10, the people reject Samuel's sons as judges because they were corrupt. Okay, it's good that they recognize these are corrupt sons I don't blame them at all for wanting to reject them. They just didn't do it right. Apparently Samuel, as good as he was as a leader of Israel, was a lousy parent. He imitates Eli in his parenting. And the failure of both parents sets up a whole series of thematic failures and successes in this book. And I think the modern church absolutely must learn from the failures of Eli, Samuel, and David if we are to avoid covenant succession being broken up. So Samuel's sons are corrupt judges, but rather than impeaching the bad judges and replacing them with godly judges, which would have been the biblical way to do things, The people decide, you know, let's look to the pagans for their ideas. They seem to have stable governments that last forever and ever. Let's have a king like the pagans around us have. In chapter eight, God makes it clear their desire for a king like the nations around them was a direct rejection of God and his laws. This has always been the temptation of governments. And Samuel predicts exactly what kind of a king that this will be what kinds of things he will do. He will become more and more tyrannical. And indeed, Saul becomes a tyrannical king, just like Samuel described. When I previously preached on 1 Samuel 8, I showed how every characteristic of a worldly, non-theocratic king looked like the modern, highly centralized nation-state. So God arranges for a candidate that will be just like the kings of the world. He will outwardly be appealing. He'll have a strong, dynamic personality, but he will also systematically erode the liberties that the Israelites had long enjoyed under the judges. In chapters 9 through 14, it shows the success-failure cycle of the king. who was crafted not after God's own heart, but he's crafted after the people's own heart. Samuel, in some senses, is saying, hey, the king and the people deserve each other. It's pretty obvious. They deserve each other. They do not deserve better. But initially, the people don't get it. They're thrilled with Saul's successes. They don't see the problem. They think we've made a great decision. So they give more and more and more power to Saul. He's a great king, but they're failing to notice the deep character flaws in Saul. His insecurity will be contrasted thematically in these chapters with David's faith. His pride and arrogance will be contrasted thematically with David's humility. His inability to admit to wrong will be contrasted thematically with David's instant repentance when he does something wrong. Saul's dependence on power will be contrasted thematically with David's dependence on God. In other words, Samuel's teaching us that character qualities are a non-negotiable when you are selecting rulers. It doesn't matter how good that candidate might be in his political connections, in his power, his administrative abilities, his warrior abilities. It doesn't matter because his bad character will bring ruin. So this is just illustrating a couple of the major themes of the book that were introduced in the introduction. Saul's character flaws are exposed in chapter 15 in a battle against the Philistines. And it's clear from this story that Saul is going to operate in terms of the wisdom of the world, not in terms of the wisdom of Scripture. God says, I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. You know what? When Americans read that verse and that story, they think that God is being a little bit overly harsh here. I mean, what is the big deal? And even the Israelites didn't get it. What was the big deal with what Saul did? Okay, we'll do it differently if you don't like that. No, that's not the issue God is saying. He's seeing a heart problem with these people. Most of the Israelites didn't catch the difference between a king being conservative, which Saul was in some senses, and a king being covenantal, okay? Saul was not acting like a covenantal king and God rejects him as being a candidate because he represents everything that the Messiah will not be. As Hannah words it, God exalts the humble and puts down the proud. Samuel's speech in verses 22 through 23, I think gets to the heart of the problem. He says this, chapter 15, verses 22 through 23. Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he also has rejected you from being king." Wow. That's a pretty straightforward black and white application of the principles of this book. The proud Saul will start his downfall in chapter 15, and the humble, unknown David will start his rise to power in the very next chapter, chapter 16. And of course, The fear and the trembling of the people when Samuel comes into the town in chapter 16 already hints these guys are scared to death. He's coming here and he's not in good favor with Saul. Are you coming in peace? They're really nervous about Saul. They know that their strong man could make it tough for them and is willing to harm anybody who is a threat to his power. And there are other hints of Saul's bad characteristics that begin to come fast and furious in the chapters that follow. And so God in his providence allows two candidates for kingship to develop side by side so that for all time, for all time, Christians can reject candidates like Saul and Christians can adopt candidates like David. And we haven't learned. We have not learned. To this day, Christians support candidates like Saul and won't vote for candidates like David because they don't think David stands a chance. If they're conservative, hey, that's good enough for them. Saul represents a non-covenantal ruler. David represents a covenantal ruler. Now don't get me wrong, no human candidate for office is perfect. David's humility, repentance, faith, loyalty to God's Law and other characteristics established him as the ideal king for all time. All that God asks for current rulers according to Psalm 2 is that they kiss the sun, they vow loyalty to Him and by His grace they seek to live out His covenantal principles in the book of Deuteronomy. That's not much to ask, you are not asking them to be perfect. They are asking these people to be covenantal rulers like David was. Now, as can be seen in the outline that has the blue, that's this one right here, blue arrows, it's kind of like an arched thing goes up and goes down again. The first arrow there shows the rise and then the fall of Saul. He shows success in chapters 8, verse 1 through 15, 10, and then shows failure after failure in chapter 15, verse 10 through to the end of the book where he dies. But chapter 16 starts a similar rise to power by David, and interestingly, you think, oh, that spoils the story. How come David is having a downward spiral as well? Because he ain't Jesus, right? So it shows David going in an upward into power and success, and then a downward fall into disaster for himself and his family following the Bathsheba event. Of course, it shows one big difference. Because of David's humility and repentance, his dynasty will be allowed to continue. So chapter 16 shows the anointing of David, and that story should also instruct us, I think, in our choice of rulers. David would have been the last choice for the world's wisdom just as He was the last choice. They went through all of the other people, surely it's this one, surely it's this one. He's the last choice in that chapter. But God's covenantalism and rulership proves to be the wise choice. These are chapters that I think continue to inform our politics or our civics today. The story of Goliath, yet another marvelous illustration that God humbles the proud and arrogant and exalts the humble who have faith in Him. And it also illustrates some of the other great themes in the Song of Hannah. David is initially exalted by Saul, but when David wins praise for his exploits, Saul becomes jealous. The insecure and prideful Saul slowly descended into madness and he tries to do anything he can to destroy David. David, on the other hand, he had plenty of times when he could have destroyed Saul and gotten himself, from the world's perspective, completely out of trouble, but he refused to do so. He illustrates covenantalism, not revolution. The two are quite different. He trusts God, he waits for God's timing, and he does things God's way even when it would be inconvenient. To me this shows loyalty. It shows the Hebrew word hesed. And some of my favorite Psalms in the Bible come from this period of time when David was fleeing from Saul. In the last chapter of 1 Samuel, Saul and his sons come to a grisly death at the hand of the Philistines. 2 Samuel begins with the aftermath of Saul's death, and then comes the surprise. You'd think David would be rejoicing. Hasn't he been praying imprecatory psalms against Saul? Yeah, but he loved Saul. I think he was hoping that Saul would be converted. So here is this song lamenting the death of Saul and the death of Jonathan, whom he loved even more. So it is kind of a surprising lament. By the way, you'll see in the pattern on here, oh, I didn't put a little triangle, but anyway, it is a poem that theologically balances the poems that are at the beginning and the end of the book. So again, there's neat little structural things that the writer of the book put together here. Now I can't get into all the remarkable thematic parallelisms in this book, but I will briefly mention again the fact that the parallel parts of the story each have an Ark of the Covenant story. So in the first half of the story, God's throne, in other words the Ark of the Covenant, leaves Israel when God abandons Israel. Remember the word Ichabod, the glory of God is departed from Israel? Well, it departs, it's representatively departing by the Ark leaving Israel, right? Now in the second half of the Chiasm David reverses that. David conquers Jerusalem, renames it Zion because it's going to be God's capital, and brings the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem so that Jerusalem will be both the spiritual and the political capital of the nations. So God God returns to bless humility. And earthly Zion is a symbol of the heavenly Zion ruling over the earth. So it's a wonderful image. It's a beautiful reversal. And then in chapter 7, David tells God that he longs to see God dwelling in a permanent and beautiful house. And he means by house, a temple. And God responds, well, David, thanks, but no thanks. But it's not a complete rejection of his idea. He says, you know, David, your son's gonna build the temple. You're a man of war. Symbolically, it needs to be built by a man of peace, and there's a lot of cool things that are involved in that that we'll perhaps look at in Second, First Kings. But he says, you know, rather than you building me a house, I'm gonna build you a house, but this time he means by the house a dynasty. And this dynasty is going to be a blessing. As I have already mentioned, chapter seven is the central chapter of the whole story because it relates to all of the theology involved in the Davidic covenant. This was God's last covenant preparing the way for the new covenant. God promises that one of the descendants will become a universal king over the world, and through that messianic king, God will bring blessing to the entire world. Now, if you take a look at the chart, Um, you'll see that chapter seven, this is the one with the blue arrows. You'll see that chapter seven is the very height of David's exaltation. In other words, it's the very top of the rounded blue arrow and the very next chapter, a miserable fall. This is where David, right at the height of God promising this incredible, awesome Davidic covenant promises, immediately he falls. Why? Because of pride. David's pride sets him up for a fall. He falls into sin of adultery with Bathsheba, gets her pregnant, he tries to cover that up. When he's not successful he murders her husband, he marries her. It is an absolute blot, it's a shameful blot to David's character. Nevertheless, when he's confronted by the prophet Nathan, true to David's character, he repents. And God forgives him. There are some beautiful Psalms that are written concerning God's forgiveness here. But here's one of the points that God does not want us to miss. Just because you're forgiven of sin does not mean that the fruits of sin are all washed away. There are laws of harvest that are going to continue to bring pain into your life. God tells David, hey, the things you have sowed are things your kids are going to continue to do. This ought to make us scared to death about sin, to avoid it like the plague. Why? Because even though we have forgiveness, praise God for forgiveness and restored fellowship, there are still the laws of harvest that are going to be at work. And in the Life of David series, we saw that David had been sowing the seeds of these disasters through polygamy and by failing to discipline his children, failing to disciple them consistently. From here on in it is a downward series of failures in David's life that leads from one disaster to another. David's son Amnon rapes his sister Tamar. Absalom, another brother, kills Amnon in revenge. Absalom has to flee, which pains David greatly, but when he finally comes back, he undermines David's throne, leads to a coup. His best friend abdicates and joins, not abdicates, changes sides and joins Absalom. Later, Adonijah engages in another coup. It is disaster after disaster. David has to hide in the wilderness from his son Absalom, just as he used to hide from Saul. And again, these parallelisms in here, just amazing what the author has done. Absalom is killed, David gets back on his throne, but it isn't the same. He's a broken man in many ways, illustrating the damage sin can do, even to a person who is a man after God's own heart. It's clear from the way that the story is crafted that even David is not the Messiah to come. He is looking for another, even as chapter seven had prophesied. Kings will tell you that Solomon is not the Messiah either. He's only a faint type of Jesus. And then comes the theological conclusion in chapters 21 through 24 that is crafted very artistically as a chiasm as well. Now the very first part of chapter 21 deals with the moral failure of Saul. The very end of the book deals with moral failure of David. The next section in chapter 21 matches the second-to-last section of the book, both of which deal with David's mighty men. By the way, the account of mighty men, if we were writing it, we would just link them all together. But no, he deliberately breaks apart mighty men here, mighty men here, so that there could be a chiasm. What's in the middle of that chiasm? It's David's poems. And these poems, again, highlight, as we mentioned before, all of the major themes, but they point forward to the Lord Jesus Christ as well. So, King Jesus will be the answer to the failures of all of these kings. In conclusion, I'll say that the character studies in Samuel are character studies that all leaders and all followers need to learn from, but they're phrased in such a way we don't look to them, finally. realize ultimately without Jesus Christ we will never see the glorious times of history that the prophets looked forward to when peace and righteousness will fill the earth. Jesus alone will perfectly fulfill the Davidic Covenant and provide a rule of righteousness. So if you now read through 1 and 2 Samuel with these points in mind I think you are going to begin to see all kinds of new things you hadn't noticed before that will come together And hopefully it'll also help you to appreciate even more some of the applications that came in Rodney's talks on the beginning of the book, my own talks through the life of David. Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is a light to our path. We thank you that it is a miracle gift from your hand and we see the supernatural written all over your books of the Bible. We love the Scriptures. We love what you have given to us. Please, Lord, transform us by your word. Make us more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ and less and less like the failures that we see in this book. But, Father, may our own failures not make us give up or be discouraged, but constantly drive us back to the Lord Jesus Christ through whom we can do all things. And so bless this your people, Father, with faith, with hope, with a confidence that if Christ is in us, who could be against us? Father, we pray these things in the strong name of Jesus.