1-2 Samuel Book 1 Intro

This study guide can be used for individual Bible study, small group curriculum, or family studies.

Small Group Leaders Note:
The purpose of this study guide is to draw you and your group into conversation about God’s Word and its application to our lives. The questions are posed in an intentional order and each of the questions has a specific purpose. As you are familiar with the purpose of each question, this will help guide the flow of the discussion.

A high-level view of the five basic questions and their functions:

1. Introduction (lean in). The goal of this first question is to get everyone in the group to “lean in” and get involved. It is normally easy to answer, fun, and creates a sense of energy—so much so that you’ll sometimes see group members physically lean in as they engage with the discussion.
2. Observation (look down). This is an observation question. It is designed to help group members “look down” at the text of scripture and see the relevant details and facts in the Bible passage being studied. This question establishes a solid foundation for the rest of the study. Regardless of how much time someone has spent studying God’s Word in their life, everyone in the group can get involved simply by taking an observant look at what the passage says.
3. Evaluation (look up). What do we learn about God from this passage? This is the ultimate goal of every Bible study—to get a clearer picture of the God we worship so that we can serve and love Him better.
4. Understanding (look out). This question helps group members “look out” and see the principles of the Bible passage through the lens of the world today. It builds a bridge between the facts of the passage and our understanding of the passage, and how it relates to our lives and culture.
5. Application (look in). Here is where group members begin to “look in” and see what God might be nudging them to change in their lives. During this part of the study, group members move from simply “knowing” God’s Word, to actually “doing” what God’s Word says. It’s the final step of all study of the Bible: life change—transformation into the likeness of Christ.
   (Adapted from the Liquid Curriculum series.)

Five Transformational Activities

An important part of discipleship is putting into practice what God reveals to you through your study. In our study guides, we are highlighting five transformational activities that can deepen and enrich your time with God—in whatever Bible study setting you find yourself. These activities serve as opportunities for you to take additional steps in growing deeper in your faith and drawing closer to your Creator. They are also great practices that we are asking each of our small groups to incorporate into the life of their groups.

At the end of each week, we are recommending one of these activities for you to integrate into your study and devotional time—be it with your family, small group, or any other place you might engage with these study guides. Here is a list of these transformational activities, as well as a brief description of each. We pray that these activities may deepen and enrich your time with God and help draw you closer to the God you love.

1. Bible Study — We seek to learn more about the triune God with the goal of knowing Him better and applying His will to our lives.
2. Prayer — We seek to learn how to have a deeper and richer prayer life that is consistent and meaningful. We will practice this both individually and corporately.
3. Community — We grow more when we are together than when we are in isolation. We want to have a place to love and support each other and encourage one another in the faith. “From Jesus, the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Eph 4:16).
4. Worship — We always seek to incorporate an element of worship into our study of God. Knowing about God is different than knowing and worshipping God. This worship may or may not include music. Worship is a response to all that God is with all that we are. All of life is worship.
5. Outreach — We seek to be healthy in our spiritual growth by avoiding insulation and isolation—which comes from a loss of vision and passion for reaching out and ministering to those around us.

    

Introduction

Whenever we begin a new book, whether that be a novel, a book about history, economics, or any other topic—and especially when reading a book of the Bible—it is most helpful to begin with an overview of the topic. To properly understand what we are reading we always need to answer a few questions: To whom was it written? What is the setting in which it occurred? What is the purpose of the writing? What are the main points the author is trying to get across? The answers to these background and big-picture kinds of questions provide a framework, a superstructure, upon which we can hang all the bits and pieces of information we encounter along the way. Having a grasp of the big picture helps the little details throughout our journey make more sense.

But there are other background kinds of questions that must be explored as well. The more we read our Bibles, the more we recognize that there are themes, concepts, ideas, and motifs that God meticulously weaves through the story He is unveiling—themes that He has incorporated into scripture in order to draw our attention to very specific and very important truths. Perhaps none of these themes is more prominent than the truth that God has chosen to call out a very special people for a very special purpose. In fact, the entire Old Testament focuses our eyes on what God is doing in and through one peculiar nation of people.

We see time and time again in scripture that God always uses mediators to be the conduits of His blessing. He chooses to use individuals—and in this case, a nation—to accomplish His purposes and mediate His blessing to the world. In the books of 1st & 2nd Samuel, we witness the transformation of sometimes loosely affiliated tribes into an actual nation. Here we see Israel being born, and this theme of God having a chosen people comes into focus. Yet, even more important than merely noting the historical significance that this change represents, in exploring these books, our task is to seek out and perceive what God is doing behind the scenes. Laying a firm foundation in the historical and theological context of 1st & 2nd Samuel will help make our exploration of these amazing books so much richer and more meaningful.

As we ground our footing in the background of the important and powerful books of 1st and 2nd Samuel, we will spend a great deal of time examining this important theme—the story of the nation of Israel. Questions that help lay a foundation for us, and that will help us in our journey, include: Where did Israel come from? Why did God create this unique and special people? And what is their role in salvation history? In the upcoming introductions to each week’s notes, we will be answering these questions and setting these books in the greater historical and theological context of God’s grand redemptive narrative by highlighting how each of the stories and episodes that are included in 1st & 2nd Samuel are tied to, and further, the overarching meta-narrative of God bringing His salvation to the world.

Why is this important? Why is it necessary to take that step back and look at the bigger picture? Because it is very easy to get lost in the details of these fascinating stories and not really grasp what God is doing behind the scenes. The story of David and Goliath is exciting! The episode of David and Bathsheba is unforgettable! The fact that Israel lost the Ark of the Covenant to the Philistines is absolutely mind-boggling! But there’s more going on than meets the eye. The stories in scripture captivate us for good reason—but we must not stop there. We must dig deeper to notice and track the hand of God in, and through, these stories.

It’s easy to forget that the historical books of the Bible are not just histories—they are theological histories. They are histories told with a purpose and agenda. The specific stories we find in scripture are intentionally included to make specific points and further a specific agenda. That is how scripture works. The Bible is so much more than a collection of really cool stories. It is a collection of really cool stories that communicate a unified, overarching message from God. But when we allow ourselves to remain focused solely on that lowest level of narrative, we miss out on the whole picture.

We see proof that the Bible is communicating “history with a purpose” when we look at the life of Jesus. Not everything Jesus did when He was on earth was included in the gospels. In fact, the book of John concludes by making this very point: “There are many more things that Jesus did. If all of them were written down, I suppose that not even the world itself would have space for the books that would be written” (John 20:31). John only included certain events in the life of Jesus to serve his (John’s) agenda of not only retelling the story of Jesus’ time here on earth, but also highlighting the fact that Jesus was indeed God in human flesh. We see that purpose and agenda unveiled in the previous chapter when John said that Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of the disciples that he did not include in this book. He then says, “But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). John outright tells us that he has an agenda.

We can sometimes forget that the same principle applies to the Old Testament historical books as well. These, too, are histories with an agenda. Many of the same stories are found repeated in the books of 1st & 2nd Kings, 1st & 2nd Chronicles, and 1st & 2nd Samuel. We need to see, though, that each of these books has its own purpose, and the stories that are included—and sometimes repeated throughout these other historical books—are there for very specific reasons. Over the next few weeks, we will be highlighting those specific and different purposes. As we go through 1st & 2nd Samuel, we will see how understanding their purpose helps each individual story we encounter make so much more sense. Let’s take a look at one way this shows up in scripture.

I mentioned the term “meta-narrative” earlier. Many of us may not have come across this idea before. It is the understanding that within one piece of writing, more than one truth, or level of truth, is being communicated. Now, we have to be careful when discussing this idea, because it can be easily misunderstood and misapplied. But, the basic idea of meta-narrative is that there are different levels of understanding, or perhaps different layers or lenses through which you can read scripture. What do I mean by layers? I mean that, whenever we are reading a story, we experience it in more than one way. First, is the story that is being told on the surface. That layer is what is clear and apparent. Yet that individual, literal, historical story also plays into a bigger narrative the author is developing behind the scenes. We sometimes call that a “meta-narrative.”

An example might be: if I asked you what the book of Acts is about, you might say it’s a collection of stories about Peter and Paul and the adventures of the early church. And that would be right. That’s the clear, primary, surface reading. But on a slightly deeper level, as you zoom back a bit, you might say it’s also the story of how the church was born, how it began to spread, and how it transformed a local event (the death and resurrection of Christ) into an international movement (Christianity). And that’s true as well. But then, zooming back even further, on an even deeper level, you could say that the book of Acts is the beginning of a new phase in God’s plan to provide salvation to the world. This new phase is called the “New Covenant”. This new phase involves God taking the next step in revealing the big picture of His plan to save and redeem the world. And that perspective is also absolutely true.

So, we are viewing the same set of stories from a much bigger, much deeper perspective. That is what is meant by a “meta-narrative.” It involves taking a step back and looking at the story—behind the story—behind the story. This upper layer is the story of how God has been working all throughout history—through the books, characters, and events we read about in scripture—in order to accomplish His purposes. Through the approach of systematic theology—of identifying these themes, concepts, and motifs—these several layers of story and storytelling come into focus.

So, what is God doing behind the scenes in 1st & 2nd Samuel? What is the purpose for these books being included in scripture? What exactly is Israel and how does that chosen nation fit within the overarching plan of God? Why should we, in the 21st-century church, care about something that happened thousands of miles away some 3,500 years ago? Answering these kinds of questions in this study guide will help us more fully understand the message God has for us. The big-picture issue we are exploring in 1st & 2nd Samuel revolves around what God is up to in creating this people Israel. Yes, we understand that He did, but many people misunderstand why. As we explore the beginning of Israel becoming a nation and witness its transformation into a kingdom, answering these questions will be our task. We will be asking the “why” question that lies behind the “what” of all the stories we are reading. So, buckle up! We have an exciting journey ahead.