Bible Study with Dr. Thomas Constable

Fleeing with nothing, David goes to the priest Ahimelech at Nob. He deceives the priest, claiming to be on a secret royal mission, and obtains the consecrated showbread and Goliath's sword. Unknown to David, Doeg the Edomite — Saul's chief herdsman — is watching everything. David then flees to Gath, Goliath's own hometown. The servants recognize him and report it to Achish the king. In danger, Dav...

David and Jonathan meet secretly and devise a plan: Jonathan will explain David's absence from Saul's New Moon feast and read the king's reaction. If Saul flares in anger, David must flee permanently. They seal a long-range covenant: Jonathan will warn David via a coded arrow signal; David will show loyal kindness to Jonathan's family when he becomes king. At the feast Saul explodes when Jonathan...

Saul openly orders Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. Jonathan intercedes brilliantly, reminding Saul how David has served him, and wins a temporary reprieve — Saul swears David will not be put to death. But after David defeats the Philistines again, the evil spirit returns and Saul tries to pin David to the wall with his spear. David flees. Michal helps David escape through a window at...

Jonathan and David form a covenant of friendship: Jonathan gives David his robe, armor, sword, and bow — symbolically transferring the crown prince's rights. Women throughout Israel celebrate David's victories with the song: 'Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands.' Saul is furious; jealousy grips him; an evil spirit torments him; he hurls his spear at David twice while Dav...

Goliath of Gath — nearly ten feet tall, armored in bronze — defies Israel's armies for 40 days. Saul and his men are paralyzed with fear. David arrives at the battlefield with food for his brothers and hears the taunt. He is indignant: 'Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?' His brother Eliab is contemptuous; Saul is doubtful. David argues his case...

God sends Samuel to Bethlehem to anoint one of Jesse's sons. When Samuel sees Eliab's impressive stature, he assumes he is the one — God corrects him: 'Do not look at his appearance or the height of his stature. The LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.' Seven sons pass before Samuel; none is chosen. David, the youngest — outside te...

Samuel elaborates on the verdict: rebellion is as the sin of divination; stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Saul finally confesses — but immediately asks Samuel to honor him before the elders. Samuel refuses to return with him and turns to go. Saul grabs his robe and it tears. Samuel uses the moment: 'The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to a neighbor of y...

God commands Saul through Samuel to completely destroy the Amalekites — every person and animal — as delayed punishment for what they did to Israel in the wilderness. Saul defeats them decisively but spares King Agag and keeps the best livestock, claiming it was for sacrifice to God. Yahweh tells Samuel: 'I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned from me and has not carried out my ins...

Saul rashly binds his army with an oath: no one may eat food until evening or they die. The men grow faint from exhaustion and hunger during pursuit of the Philistines. Jonathan, who never heard the oath, dips his staff in a honeycomb and is immediately revived; he criticizes the foolish command. That night the famished soldiers slaughter animals and eat meat with blood still in it — violating Mos...

With a force of 600 against a Philistine army with 30,000 chariots, and with Israel so disarmed that only Saul and Jonathan have swords, the situation looks hopeless. Then Jonathan and his armor-bearer secretly climb to the Philistine garrison at Michmash, declaring: 'Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.' They kill 20 men; God sends a great earthquake and panic; the...

Two years into his reign Saul waits at Gilgal for Samuel to come and offer sacrifices before battle with the Philistines — exactly as Samuel had instructed. But the Philistines mobilize an enormous force; Saul's men scatter in fear and hide in caves and thickets. When Samuel doesn't arrive on the exact day, Saul orders and offers the burnt offering himself. Samuel arrives immediately after and con...

Nahash the Ammonite besieges Jabesh-gilead and threatens to gouge out the right eye of every inhabitant as a disgrace to all Israel. When the news reaches Saul, the Spirit of God rushes on him in power; he musters a massive force and crushes the Ammonites before morning, delivering the city. Saul refuses to execute men who earlier despised him: 'No one shall be put to death today, for today the LO...

Samuel convenes all Israel at Mizpah for a public appointment of their king. He first reproves them for rejecting Yahweh as their king. Then the sacred lot narrows — tribe by tribe, clan by clan, man by man — until it falls on Saul son of Kish of Benjamin. But Saul cannot be found. The LORD reveals he is hiding among the baggage. He is brought out and the people see he stands head and shoulders ab...

Samuel anoints Saul privately with oil, kisses him, and declares: 'Has not the LORD anointed you ruler over his inheritance?' He gives three sequential signs to confirm the call: messengers at Rachel's tomb with news the donkeys are found; three men at the oak of Tabor who will offer Saul two loaves; and finally a band of prophets near Gibeah — the Spirit of the LORD will rush on Saul and he will...

Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin, is the most impressive young man in Israel — head and shoulders taller than everyone else. He goes looking for his father's lost donkeys and, following his servant's suggestion, comes to the city where Samuel the man of God lives. Yahweh has already told Samuel: 'Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from Benjamin — anoint him prince over my people Israel...

Samuel grows old and his corrupt sons judge poorly. The elders of Israel demand: 'Give us a king to judge us like all the nations.' Samuel is grieved, but God clarifies: 'They have not rejected you — they have rejected Me from being king over them.' God instructs Samuel to warn them of what a king will cost: conscripted sons for chariots and farms; daughters taken for perfumers and cooks; the best...

Twenty years after the ark's return, Samuel calls all Israel to genuine repentance: put away the Baals and Ashtaroth and return to the LORD with all your heart. The people respond — fasting, confession, and the pouring out of water before the LORD. The Philistines hear of the assembly at Mizpah and advance to attack. Samuel offers a burnt offering and cries out to God on Israel's behalf. Yahweh th...

After seven months the Philistines desperately consult their priests about how to send the ark back. The prescription: a guilt offering of five golden tumors and five golden rats, placed on a new cart pulled by two nursing cows that have never been yoked. If the cows go to Beth-shemesh without human guidance, it confirms Yahweh's hand — not random chance — was behind all the plagues. The cows go s...

The Philistines bring the captured ark into the temple of their chief god Dagon in Ashdod, placing it beside the idol as a trophy of war. The next morning Dagon has fallen facedown before the ark. They prop it up; the following morning it has fallen again — this time with its head and both hands broken off on the threshold. Then Yahweh's hand falls heavy on Ashdod with deadly tumors. Desperate, th...

Israel suffers two crushing defeats at the hands of the Philistines at Aphek. After losing 4,000 men in the first battle, the elders decide to bring the ark of the covenant to the front lines as a divine talisman. Eli's sons accompany it. Israel is shattered — 30,000 killed, the ark captured, and both Hophni and Phinehas dead in one day, fulfilling God's oracle exactly. When the news reaches Shilo...

In a time when 'the word of the LORD was rare and visions were not widespread,' God calls to Samuel three times during the night. Each time Samuel runs to Eli, thinking the priest called him. Finally Eli recognizes what is happening and instructs Samuel: 'Go, lie down; and if He calls you, you shall say, Speak, LORD, for your servant hears.' On the fourth call, God stands near Samuel and delivers...

Two households are placed in sharp contrast. Eli's sons Hophni and Phinehas are scoundrels who steal sacrificial portions and sleep with women serving at the tabernacle — 'They did not know the LORD.' Eli hears of it and rebukes them weakly, but cannot bring himself to remove them. God sends a prophet to announce judgment on Eli's house: both sons will die on the same day, and the priestly line wi...

God remembers Hannah and she conceives Samuel. After nursing him, she fulfills her vow — bringing the boy to Shiloh and presenting him to Eli: 'For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition. Therefore I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he lives he is lent to the LORD.' She then sings a magnificent hymn of praise that provides the theological key to all of 1-2 Samuel: Yahweh...

Hannah is barren — a source of deep social shame and relentless provocation from Peninnah, her husband Elkanah's other wife. Year after year Hannah weeps and cannot eat at the family's annual pilgrimage to Shiloh. In desperate anguish she goes to the tabernacle and prays silently, vowing to give her son back to the LORD if He opens her womb. Eli the high priest initially mistakes her moving lips f...

First Samuel records Israel's pivotal transition from a theocracy led by judges to a monarchy led by kings. Originally one book with 2 Samuel, it follows three central figures — Samuel the prophet-judge, Saul the rejected king, and David the man after God's own heart — to illustrate one governing principle: those who trust and obey Yahweh are blessed; those who rebel against Him are removed. The b...