The Theology of Samuel (Sovereign God / Restored People / Chosen King)

Proposition: God sovereignly draws His people back into a right relationship with Himself by choosing and exalting a leader.

I. Introduction

The word “theology” literally means the study of God. What does the book of Samuel, as a whole, teach us about God? The book of Samuel is a historical record of how God providential worked in the lives of His chosen people to remain faithful to earlier covenants and promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These promises are partially fulfilled by the sovereign working of God through His choice of a leader for His people.

A. The Composition

1 and 2 Samuel are actually one book. The singular book of Samuel was divided into two parts because the book could not fit on one scroll. So, it was divided in two.

B. The Authorship

1 Chronicles 29:29 ESV

29 Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the Chronicles of Samuel the seer, and in the Chronicles of Nathan the prophet, and in the Chronicles of Gad the seer,

The Jews originally placed the book of Samuel in the section of the Prophets, because they recognized its prophetic authorship. I Chronicles 29:29 gives us the possible authors of the book—Samuel, Nathan, and Gad.

C. Date & Recipients

1 Samuel 27:6 ESV

6 So that day Achish gave him Ziklag. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.

I Samuel 27:6 makes reference to Ziklag belonging to the kings of Juda, thus dating the book to the late 10th century BC. The reference to “kings of Judah to this day” (I Sam. 27:6) could suggest a final completion of the book sometime during the sixth century B.C. Thus, the message of the book of Samuel would have been for an exilic Israelite community.

D. Theme & Message

The theme of the book of Samuel focuses on the Lord’s provision of leadership for Israel.

Samuel Vocabulary Chart

The analysis of the vocabulary in Samuel reveals the primary message and characters of the historical account. At first glance it would appear that David is the main character of the narrative, but if one adds in the other references to the Lord (אֱלֹהִים, Elohim; over 150 times) then clearly the account shines most brightly on God Himself. Samuel, Saul, and David also feature prominently with the primary focus on King David. The occurrence of these individuals’ names also adds clear support to the structure of the book. For instance, Samuel is never mentioned after 2 Samuel 8. Also, the suggestion that leadership is a major theme in Samuel is supported by “king” being used 370 x’s. The role of leadership is also concerned with the offices of priest and prophet, but these pale in comparison to the office of king. One of the major theological teachings of Samuel clearly comes through as one follows and observers how God chooses, exalts, or humbles the major leaders of Israel throughout the narrative.

While the message of the book is that God providentially draws His people back into a right relationship with Himself by choosing and exalting a leader.

1 Samuel 2:9–10 ESV

9 “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail. 10 The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

One commentator captures the message of the book well from these verses, “Hannah’s song also depicts God as uncompromisingly sovereign, bringing down the mighty and exalting the humble (2:1–10). These verses are programmatic for all of Samuel” (Satterthwaite, 179).

Yes, God humbles the mighty and exalts the humble, but He is uncompromisingly sovereign in all that He chooses to do.

As we overview the message of this book we need to ask the question, “what does the theology of the book of Samuel teach us about God?”

Or we could ask, “how does the book of Samuel develop the message of the book that God providentially draws His people back into a right relationship with Himself by choosing and exalting a leader?”

II. God sovereignly works through seemingly insignificant details to accomplish His will

A. No king, therefore no obedience (Judges 19:1; 21:25)

The book of Samuel opens telling a story on a very small scale. It is the story of one barren woman in the nation, but God was sovereignly working to bring low the sinful leadership of Eli and his sons, and to exalt the leader of His choice, Samuel. The story of Samuel must be understood with the knowledge of where the people of Israel left of in the book of Judges. There are several ideas that connect the end of Judges to the story of Samuel. First, is the location of Shiloh where major sin occurred in Judges, and it is the sight of Elkanah going up to worship (I Sam. 1:3). Second, the words “no king in Israel” are stated two times at the end of Judges (Judges 19:1, 21:25).

Judges 19:1 ESV

1 In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite was sojourning in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, who took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

Judges 21:25 ESV

25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

The “no king in Israel” statement explains why “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” was taking place in Israel. God’s plan for the nation, for establishing his kingdom of rest and righteousness, required a king. This is the point that is taken up in the book of Samuel.

B. The Lord closed her womb (I Samuel 1)

In I Samuel 1 Hannah cried out in her affliction and God exalted her and eventually Samuel. But God was the one who instigated the entire process in the hearts of people to cause their humiliation (I Sam. 1:5b “though the Lord had closed her womb”).

1 Samuel 1:5 ESV

5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb.

And out of the humiliation of one small Israelite woman God exalted Samuel to become the leader of the nation. Why? Because at the end of Judges we are told that everyone did that which was right in their own eyes. Yet, Israel is God’s chosen people, and He wisely and providentially is leading them back into a right relationship with Himself. In Samuel we discover that key to the plan of Almighty God, for His people to be drawn back to walk in His ways, is through the leadership of a prophet/priest and then a king. The idea of kingly leadership is a major theme in the book, from the very beginning of Hannah’s prayer (I Sam. 2:10 “he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed”),

1 Samuel 2:10 ESV

10 The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

To the unconditional covenant made with King David (2 Samuel 7:13ff “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever”),

2 Samuel 7:13 ESV

13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

To the last words of David at the end of the book of Samuel (2 Sam. 22:51 “Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever”).

2 Samuel 22:51 ESV

51 Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.”

Application:

God is still working to bring His people into a right relationship with Himself through the exaltation of His chosen King- Jesus Christ. God is still working even in the seemingly insignificant events of every day life to accomplish his purpose. We need to understand the big picture of what God is doing in the world, and how we play a part in it. We need to realize that God is uncompromisingly sovereign in all he does and we can trust him even in the hard parts of our life.

1 Samuel 2:6–7 ESV

6 The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. 7 The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts.

Yet, in every circumstance of life that God is sovereignly working what is his ultimate purpose?

1 Samuel 2:10 (ESV)

10 The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

III. God is uncompromisingly sovereign and will not be manipulated

A. God will not be used by His people (I Samuel 4:3)

God’s sovereignty is displayed in the capturing and returning of the Ark of the Covenant. First, the elders of Israel thought they could manipulate God to do their bidding. They also thought wrongly about the ark believing it was itself able to save them. It was for them like a pagan idol, and its very presence would assure victory (I Sam. 4:3).

1 Samuel 4:3 ESV

3 And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.”

Yet God would not be manipulated nor used.

As William S. Plummer so aptly states,

“God’s providence is powerful . . . It is so powerful that it even brings good out of evil; making bad men and fallen angels to serve God’s designs, while they intend no such thing: giving the greatest efficiency to causes apparently the most contemptible; and infallibly securing the very best ends . . . All conspiracies and combinations against providence are vain . . . He who rejects the mystery of providence must ever be in perplexity.”

B. God does not need man’s help to get glory for Himself (I Samuel 5:1-6)

God allowed Israel to be defeated and His ark to be captured by the Philistines.

1 Samuel 5:1–2 ESV

1 When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon.

Yet, God uses even the evil acts of men to accomplish His purposes and establish his glory.

1 Samuel 5:3–4 ESV

3 And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.

C. God never compromises His standard of holiness (I Samuel 6:20)

God, who is fully capable to bring to pass His will, ultimately brings judgement on the Philistines for their evil acts.

1 Samuel 5:6 ESV

6 The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory.

Even the return of the ark to Israel did not bring with it God’s blessing. God turns the rejoicing of the men from Beth Shemesh into mourning for looking into the ark (6:19-20).

1 Samuel 6:19–20 ESV

19 And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow. 20 Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?”

Then the ark remains at Kiriath Jearim (7:1), until much later on during David’s rule. No attempt is made for its recovery. Satterthwaite states it well, “It is as though the Israelites feel themselves estranged from God.” God eventually and providentially leads His people back into right worship including the ark, and He chooses to do so with His anointed king.

Application: How do we attempt to manipulate and use God? Perhaps the area of prayer is the area we struggle with this the most. We treat God like a genie’s lamp. We attempt to make bargains with God (God if you will do this for me, then I will never drink coffee again for the rest of my life.) Or we think, “If I am good enough (pray, go to church, read my bible, witness), then God will have to bless me!” Do we want a right relationship with a holy God? Or do we just want something we can manipulate to get what we want?

IV. God sovereignly accomplishes His will despite of our poor choices

A. Israel rejects God’s leadership (I Samuel 8:7)

In I Samuel 8 the people reject Samuel and his sons from the position of leadership. God reveals that Israel has actually rejected not Samuel, but God “from being king over them.”

1 Samuel 8:7 ESV

7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

The people demand that God give them a king so they could be like the other nations. So, God exalted Saul to the position of king because of the people’s choice. This is key to later understanding why God rejects Saul from the kingly lineage.

Ultimately, God exalted Saul to kingship and he did so in a very peculiar way. God caused a herd of donkeys to get lost to collide the path of Saul with that of Samuel. These donkeys did not simply get lost by means of chance. In I Samuel 9:16, God tells Samuel, “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin.”

B. God is merciful to His people (I Samuel 10:1)

By means of God’s mercy, God does use Saul (the result of the sinful choice of the people) to do many good things for the nation.

1 Samuel 10:1 ESV

1 Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, “Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies. And this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage.

Even though Israel rejected God from being their king and wanted to be like the other nations, God still is faithful to His promises and is merciful to use Saul to accomplish good for the nation.

1 Samuel 12:22 ESV

22 For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.

Application: Sometimes we wonder if we have messed up our lives so badly that God can no longer use us for His glory. We think we are inadequate to share the gospel with our friends, or do the work of ministry in our church. God can uses even the imperfect choices of His people to accomplish His will. Israel made a sinful choice and God still mercifully accomplished good. If we come to God in humble obedience, even if our obedience is imperfect, God can still use us to accomplish His will.

V. God sovereignly does all that He chooses

A. Saul disobeyed and was rejected (I Samuel 13:13)

In I Samuel 13 Saul rebels against the commandments of Samuel and allows sin to enter his life and effect his leadership over the people.

1 Samuel 13:13 ESV

13 And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

Commenting on this story arc House states, “He [Saul] has disobeyed Yahweh, or rather Yahweh’s prophet. Thus he has violated the terms of his appointment as king. Kingship requires obedience.”[1] This statement is true and also ties back to the covenantal promises that obedience results in blessing and rebellion results in judgement.

And yet …

B. David disobeyed and God showed him mercy (I Samuel 13:14)

Why does God reject Saul for his sin, but does not reject David for his sin? Certainly David faced God’s judgment for his sin and suffered consequences for his sin, but He is not removed from the kingly line like Saul. Answering this question reveals some key theological truth about God taught in the book of Samuel.

First, God sovereignly chose David, a man after his own heart, to become the king that Israel needed to restore right fellowship and worship in the land. As was already suggested, Saul’s kingship was the result of Israel’s sinful choice not the sovereign choice of God. Hosea 13:11 is a key text as well,

Hosea 13:11 ESV

11 I gave you a king in my anger, and I took him away in my wrath.

God gave Israel Saul in his anger (because of the rebellion of the people), and he took away their king in wrath.

Second, an important note to balance the theological teaching of God rejecting Saul and choosing David is that while God’s sovereignty is displayed through His choice of king, also the mystery of providence is seen because it was Saul’s sinful choices that caused his downfall.

1 Samuel 13:14 ESV

14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

House makes this clear, “What matters most is that God seeks another king (13:14) and that Saul’s decision, not dark fate, brings God to this conclusion.”

God sovereignly chose David to be the rightful king of Israel from whose line would come the Messiah. He chose to reject Saul and establish David, and yet God rejected Saul because of Saul’s own sinful disobedience. Finally, key to the establishment of the throne of David over that of Saul is the genuine repentance shown by David over his sin, in comparison to no true repentance displayed by Saul (we will develop this in detail later on in the series).

Application: The idea that God is sovereign and is free to do all that He chooses is sometimes a hard pill for us to swallow. Do we trust God enough to humble ourselves and submit to His authority?

VI. God sovereignly restores His people by means of His chosen King

A. God exalted David beyond comprehension ( 2 Samuel 5-7)

The sovereign hand of God is visible throughout the early life of King David. From hiding and protecting David from Saul, to using the questionable choices of David when he mingled with the Philistines, God providentially exalted David to the throne. The problem that was implied in the beginning of the narrative (there was no king thus everyone did that which was right in their own eyes), the problem that was highlighted by the ark narrative (that Israel was estranged from God), God now finally brings to an end by means of the leadership of His chosen king.

2 Samuel is all about the importance of king David. All of 2 Samuel is devoted to describing his period as king. 2 Samuel 5-7 are key to this idea. Beginning in 2 Samuel 5:12 where this important statement is made,

2 Samuel 5:12 ESV

12 And David knew that the Lord had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.

The idea that God was exalting his chosen king and that God was going to use David for the sake of bringing Israel back into a right relationship with Himself are evident here.

Then in chapter 6 David finally brings the ark back into the worship life of the nation. “Most importantly, God’s presence is restored to the Israelites: the bringing up of the ark to Zion formally restores a relationship between God and the people that has been marred since the time of Eli.” So the text states in

2 Samuel 6:12 “David went and brought up the ark of God …to the city of David with rejoicing.”

God’s king is finally in place, proper worship and covenant obligations have been restored, and so has God’s blessing on the nation. This then is followed by the Davidic Covenant in chapter 7. God’s plan for his people is to have a king in the line of David ruling forever. The throne of David and the eventual One who will sit on that throne is God’s chosen plan to bring His people back into a right relationship with Himself and fulfill the covenantal promises.

This is the message meant for the exilic readers of Samuel, “God’s promise of an everlasting throne offers hope that Israel may have a great future that will prove them sound stewards of God’s creation, a true means of Abraham’s blessing other nations and an international testimony as a holy nation of their holy God. What remains to be seen is whether this promise will be realized or whether a new generation will sink to Judges-like depths.”

B. A greater David is needed!

Much more could be said on the rest of the narrative of King David. The sovereign hand of God is seen throughout David’s life, both granting victory and glory through David’s obedience and shame and judgment through David’s sin. Even though David was a man after God’s own heart, his constant failures and their consequences on the people point to the need for a greater David to come. At the height of David’s reign, the joy and closeness of God’s people to the blessings of God were unparalleled. This ought to cause a longing for one like David, only greater than David, to come to lead God’s people to enjoy the fullest of God’s blessings.

Application: Over and over again in Samuel the deficiencies of the kings led to hardship and heartache for the people. The king of Israel is compared to a shepherd. He is to serve the needs of the flock. Jesus is good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. He is the coming exalted king who will rule and reign forever in perfection and will bring nothing but unimaginable joy to his people. The book of Samuel ultimately points us forward, for one yet to come. This one is Jesus. It is through Jesus that a right relationship with God can be restored. Do you know Jesus?

Conclusion: What does the theology of the book of Samuel teach us about God?

God sovereignly works through seemingly insignificant details to accomplish His will.

God is uncompromisingly sovereign and will not be manipulated.

God sovereignly accomplishes His will despite of our poor choices. God sovereignly does all that He chooses.

God sovereignly restores His people by means of His chosen King.

In the coming weeks we are going to trace the message of the book through each of the major sections of Samuel.

Sections of Samuel

1. I Sam. 1-7, Judgeships of Eli and Samuel

2. I Sam. 8-14, Rise of King Saul

3. I Sam. 15 – 2 Sam. 8, Fall of Saul and Rise of King David

4. 2 Sam. 9-20, Glory and Shame of King David

5. 2 Sam. 21-24, Six Appendices

We will see God sovereignly working to bring his people back into a right relationship with Himself by choosing and exalting a leader. We will see the truths about God fleshed out in the different narratives of Samuel and we will humble seek to put into practice all that we learn about God!