The books 1 and 2 Samuel were originally written as one book. When we read 1 Samuel we see the first part of the history of the kings of the Israelites. Samuel was a prophet. That means that God spoke to Samuel and he shared God’s word with the people - he was almost like a middle-man. This means that Samuel’s role is similar to how God spoke through Moses and then Joshua.

For a broader view of this book of the Bible, we encourage you to watch this video:

HINT: Try to draw a picture of a character that you read about in the Bible. Sometimes descriptions are given of people but when we just read the text, we never see them as persons. Were they male or female, young or old, friendly or angry, rich or poor, what was their occupation?

LOOK UP:
(information)  -  encounter God through the Scripture 

Author:

It is disputed who helped Samuel with composing this book. Most scholars agree that he had help from the prophets Gad and Nathan.

Audience:

This account of how the Israelites changed the leadership style of their nation, from Judges to Kings, had to be written down because it is a crucial part of the big story that we have been following since Genesis. Mark the places where you can see how this links into the previous parts of the story. 

History:

This book is named after a prophet, Samuel, who spoke to the Israelites in a time when they required good leadership. They saw that all the other nations had a king, but they had their twelve tribes and it was not really going so well for them - (Remember what we journaled about in Judges?). Samuel checks with God and then tries to find a king for the Israelites. In 1 Samuel we read about the first king, Saul. We also meet David, who will be the next king, and we see his season of preparation and waiting.  

Genre:

The genre of this book is a historical narrative like much of the books we have journaled about so far. A secondary goal of this book is that it provides us with character studies: We can learn a lot through this account of Saul and David. It is written with the intent to cause us to examine our own hearts.  

LOOK IN:
(revelation)  -  contemplate / reflect on our own lives

Key verse:

1 Samuel 23:14

David stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hills of the Desert of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God did not give David into his hands.

Inspiration:

While David was in the wilderness, he wrote many songs, making up a big part of the book of Psalms. See Psalm 18, 52, 53, 57. Have you thought about what God develops in us when things are difficult? Perhaps the wilderness could be a place of seeing God face-to-face because there are fewer distractions there.

LOOK OUT:
(transformation)  -  respond with creative worship action  

Drawing prompt:

Fold a page in two. On the one side, write David. On the other, Goliath. 
We will start with the Goliath side: Write down, draw, and visualize all the things that feel like impossible giants in your life right now. Try to show their massive importance by writing in BIG letters. On the other side of the page, write down some characteristics of God that we read about in this book of the Bible. Pray and ask God to help you to trust him in these impossible circumstances. 

Bible Journey with JournalOwl:

Here are some questions / prompts provided by the JournalOwl community. 

• As Hannah prayed for a son she was in bitterness of soul. What else did she do? (I Samuel 1:10-11)
• What reason does Hannah give for naming her son Samuel? (I Samuel 1:20)

Follow this link to dive into this book with an online Bible Study group.

Writing prompt:

Read the poem of Hannah, Samuel’s mother, in Chapter 2. 
Write your own poem to God, but use some themes that we find in the book of 1 Samuel. Some examples are: covenant, leadership, God’s sovereignty. Can you find any additional themes in the text? 

Prayer:

God, I want to thank you for this first part of the book of Samuel. Help me to become aware of my own character flaws as I read about how these people lived. Teach me how to be transformed more into your image, Jesus. Let my response to this text be worship unto you!