Introduction: The books of 1 and 2 Samuel were originally a single book, but the first Greek translation of the Old Testament, which is called the Septuagint, and was produced around the 2nd century BC, divided it into two books. The Septuagint’s dividing of the book into two books was adopted by later Latin translations that were used in the early Christian church.

The book of 1 Samuel tells about the end of Israel’s judges and the beginning of Israel’s kings.

1 Samuel 2:1 — A saint rejoicing over his or her salvation drowns out any sinner's repugnant slurs.

 

Why should any saint fret over fleeting insults against them, when he or she has a forever inheritance awaiting them?

 

1 Samuel 3:10 — We often ask if God hears us when we pray, but the far more important question is: “Do we hear God when we pray?”

 

The most important part of prayer is not God hearing us, but us hearing God.

 

1 Samuel 3:13 — A father’s failure to discipline his children is not just detrimental to them, but potentially to all of his posterity as well.

 

Poor parenting can be passed down to future generations, along with its perpetual and imperiling consequences on all of our posterity.

 

1 Samuel 3:13 — Those who start winking at sin, especially the sins of their children, will eventually end up spiritually blind. (1 Samuel 4:15)

 

Contemporary Christians have compromised Christianity to capitulate to their children, and by doing so have inexcusably corrupted rather than earnestly contended for the faith once delivered to the saints. (Jude 1:3)

 

“There is a fine line between healthy parental love and child worship. We know the latter has happened when we begin compromising God’s will [and Word] for the sake of our children or their activities…Compromise always points to idolatry. It displeases God. He does not like competitors, especially when they are our children.” (William Farley)

 

1 Samuel 4:1-3 — Without the Ark of God, which represented the presence of God, Israel had no hope of prevailing over the Philistines. 

 

God’s people are easily vanquished by their enemies when they are void of God’s presence.

 

1 Samuel 4:4-10 — The presumptive and pretentious proclamation of God’s presence with us, when God has parted from us, will not prevent our enemies from prevailing over us.

 

No matter how loud we shout that God is on our side, if our sins stand between us and God, nothing stands between us and our being overthrown by our opponents.

 

1 Samuel 4:11-22 — It was tumult not triumphant that came to the people of God when the Ark of God, which represented the glory of God, was taken from them.

 

Many a defeated Christian, as well as many a defeated church, should have “Ichabod” written over them, because the glory of God has long since departed from them.

 

1 Samuel 4:15 — Those who start winking at sin, especially the sins of their children, will eventually end up spiritually blind. (1 Samuel 3:13)

 

Contemporary Christians have compromised Christianity to capitulate to their children, and by doing so have inexcusably corrupted rather than earnestly contended for the faith once delivered to the saints. (Jude 1:3)

 

“There is a fine line between healthy parental love and child worship. We know the latter has happened when we begin compromising God’s will [and Word] for the sake of our children or their activities…Compromise always points to idolatry. It displeases God. He does not like competitors, especially when they are our children.” (William Farley)

 

1 Samuel 7:12 — We should daily raise our "Ebenezer" as a testimony to both our thanksgiving to God for having helped us hitherto and to our trust in God to help us henceforth.

 

“He who hath helped thee hitherto, will help thee all thy journey through.” (C. H. Spurgeon)

 

1 Samuel 8:1-6 — When church leaders are scoundrels, the people seek civic leaders as substitutes. Consequently, Christian charity is replaced by government welfare and the Lordship of Christ with civic leaders who long to lord it over us.

 

There are few things, if any, that have attributed more to the  collapse of our country than the failure of the Christian Church and our government’s usurpation of its role in our society.

 

1 Samuel 8:7-10 — Sometimes divine retribution is best served by the granting of our own request. For instance, who can deny that today's America is being judged by God, just like yesterday's Israel was, through the human leadership we've chosen for ourselves?

 

No greater judgment could fall on America than for God to give us what we ask for in our polling places rather than what we ask for in our prayer closets.

 

1 Samuel 8:11-22 — When the people of God exchange God's rule over them for their government's rule over them, they will inevitably find their possessions confiscated and themselves, as well as their children, subjugated.

 

The more we're under our government's care, the more we're under our government's control.

 

1 Samuel 8:19-20 — When the people of God prefer a human potentate over their divine monarch, in order to mimic worldly monarchies, they've miserably shortchanged themselves.

 

How much have we spiritually shortchanged ourselves by substituting God's rule over us for our government's rule over us, so that we can conform to the world and brag about our country rather than confess Christ and boast in His cross?    

 

1 Samuel 15:1-7 — Amalek, who resisted Israel’s possession of God’s promises in Canaan, represents the flesh, which resists the Christian’s possession of God’s promises in Christ. Therefore, neither can be spared and both must be stamped out. (Galatians 5:24)

 

 

1 Samuel 15:23 — Rebellion is like witchcraft in that it too, in an abject rejection of God’s Word, is an attempt to employ other means apart from divine power to achieve human ends.

 

Whereas witchcraft is a futile attempt to achieve one’s own ends in disobedience to God by harnessing occult powers through incantations, rebellion is a futile attempt to do so in defiance of God by harnessing one’s own power through insurrection.

 

1 Samuel 15:23 — Stubbornness or obstinance is like idolatry in that it substitutes you for God in your life, making yourself into your own idol. 

 

All iniquity is idolatry, since to sin is to usurp God’s place in our lives. Sin is self-deification, pure and simple.

 

1 Samuel 16:1-13 — When Samuel saw a shepherd boy, God saw a king.

 

Men judge us by our appearance, but God judges us by our heart. Whereas men only know what we look like, only God knows what we’re really like. (1 Samuel 16:7)

 

1 Samuel 17:20-37 — Through their fear others saw Goliath as so much bigger than they were, but through his faith David saw Goliath as so much smaller than God was. (1 Samuel 17:20-37)

 

Through their fear others saw Goliath as too big to hit, but through his faith David so Goliath as too big to miss.

 

1 Samuel 17:38-40 — David could not defeat Goliath donned in Saul’s armor and sheathing Saul’s sword. Instead, he needed only a stone, his sling, and an unshakable faith in his unfailing God.

 

Many ministers are defeated in the ministry today because they discard their own God-given sling and don some megachurch pastor‘s armor, in hopes of also standing head and shoulders above their fellow ministers someday as a megachurch pastor themselves. (1 Samuel 10:23)

 

1 Samuel 17:41-54 — Rather than retreating in fear and losing his head at the frightening threats of the giant Goliath, David charged ahead in faith and beheaded his most fearsome foe.

 

The possessing of a prevailing faith in God always puts to flight the enemies of God’s people. However, when God’s people backdown, their enemies will never back off.

 

1 Samuel 17:55-58 — Like David, when called to our King we should also appear before Him with the head of our enemy in hand!

 

Hopefully, you won’t have to stand before God and answer for all the times you lost your head in spiritual warfare, but can stand before God and be awarded for all the heads attributed to you as a spiritual warrior.

 

1 Samuel 18:1-4 — As Jonathan gave his royal robe, relinquishing his throne, to his beloved David, to whom he had pledged his soul in covenant, so should we relinquish the throne of our hearts to our beloved Jesus, to whom we’ve pledged our souls in covenant.

 

We should strip ourselves of all pretenses to sovereignty over our own lives for the sake of our Soulmate, the Savior of our souls, Jesus Christ, to whom we have freely and forever bow in full submission.

 

1 Samuel 22:1-2 — Sometimes God’s man is in a cave rather than a castle or a cathedral, and the leader of renegades rather than loyalists. 

 

God’s anointed are more likely to be revolutionaries than aristocrats and to be found in a humble station rather than in high society.

 

1 Samuel 30:6 — It is in God alone that one finds encouragement in great distress, for no matter how bad the odds are stacked against us, no one nor nothing can whip us if God is with us. 

 

When you are distressed and feel you have nothing left but God, take heart, for God is always more than enough for you. 

 

1 Samuel 30:21-25 — Those faithful, but fainting or sick soldiers of God's army, who have but strength enough to stay by the stuff, should be equally saluted and share equally in the spoil, for the prevailing of the vanguard is made possible by the prayers of the rearguard. 

 

Many a seen victory of God’s heroic army has been won behind the scenes by humble prayer warriors. The army of God is the only army that advances on its knees!. 

 

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