The Book of 1 Samuel
The book of 1 Samuel, a part of the Old Testament, sparks the dawn of the United Kingdom of Israel by telling of its first king, Saul. Samuel is one of the first talked about pre-literary prophets in the bible perhaps because he anointed the first king of the United Kingdom. He is a prophet by definition because he possessed the ability to converse with the almighty Yahweh. Samuel and Saul are key players to the rise of the kingdom but Saul runs into trouble and disobeys God, which leads him to his own inevitable demise.
In 1 Samuel 28: 1-25 Yahweh guides Saul to his death because he has outright deceived and disobeyed God. This passage sets an example to obey Yahweh; otherwise he will inflict punishment upon the disobedient. It portrays that Yahweh's love, power, and covenant should never be taken for granted. Saul is, in essence, a pawn in an overall lesson and story by God. It is quite possible that the disobedience of God and punishment inflicted upon him was his very fate that only God could control.
A brief overview: During the time of 1 Samuel 28, there is a major conflict between the Philistines and the Israelites. The two respective armies meet up for confrontation near Jerzeel between Shunem (Philistine encampment) and Gilboa (Israelite encampment) (this is anomalous because in 1 Samuel 29:1 it says that they are still at Apheq and reach Jerzeel later on stated in verse 29:11). When Saul observed the Philistine army he became tremendously afraid, assumingly because of their size and superiority in weaponry (Mc Carter comments on the passage that the Philistines possessed such warring implements as bronze and iron, which were advanced metals of that time.) So, he tried to co...
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...hard to understand fully because of its comprehensive metaphoric language and the difference in culture from present day. It is also sometimes hard for us to understand God's actions because we think of him simply loving and caring rather than ruthless and violent. We need to understand that the creation of mankind is taking place in the recordings of these scriptures and so things may not be as customary as we would like to think. I believe that God has a plan for everyone. And, in the case of Saul, he had a plan to take away his kingdom in order to pass it on to David so the formation of history could continue. I also think this passage, like many other passages from the Bible, has a message linked to it, a lesson to the story if you will. The lesson is to prove that God's unlimited power must never be taken for granted or there surely will be hell to pay.
In retrospect, his 'rebellious' actions and persistent attitude could have been very harmful and he possibly could have got in a lot of trouble. He was given the duty of shoveling the snow on the hockey rink, and he decided to 'practice' playing the game; despite him not being allowed to, he says “I began to stash a hockey stick in the snow beside the boards. Once I'd made sure no one was around, I'd dig it out and run to the barn for a handful of frozen horse turds I'd bury beside the door […] Canada do.” (Wagamese, 61). Once Saul was introduced to this game he was so driven to play for himself; realistically any reaction could have came from him doing this, he could have been beaten and yelled at. Unfortunately his persistence attitude could be bad for him and his safety in many
Saul Indian Horse was removed from his family environment and taken to a Residential School where anything relating to his culture was forbidden. Saul had no family, and no belongings from his home. The toll that this experience has on a child is very harsh, and is difficult to recover from. “In what seened like an instant, the world I had known was replaced with an ominous black cloud”(Wagamese 47). This quotation shows how quickly the environment he was put in became unwelcoming. Indian Horse went from a welcoming and loving family environment to one where he was not allowed to be himself and was forced to comply with the rules the church has set. The sense of family is explored at the residential school because the children there did not have any. There were siblings that may have gone together but when the Nuns shaved their heads and removed their cultural clothing everyone became unrecognizable. There was a sense of understanding that all the children had though, each one of the kids
The book of 2 Samuel tells the story of King David and his rise to power, as well as reign- the good and the bad. The focus here will be on 2 Samuel, chapters eleven through thirteen, which depict some of the darker times in David’s rule.
Both Saul Indian Horse and Winston Smith use writing as a means of survival from repression. In Indian Horse, Saul uses writing as a means of seeing what made him turn away from the pain of his rape and cease repressing its happening; for him survive and live on with his life. Saul writes memoirs to find the hidden answers of why he turned to violence and alcoholism and using them to break free of the cycle. From pages two to three Saul says “They say I can’t understand where I’m going if I don’t understand where I’ve been. The answers are within me, according to them. By telling our stories, hardcore drunks like me can set ourselves free from the bottle and the life that took us there …. So Moses gave me permission to write things down. So
Guitar, meanwhile, has grown increasingly edgy and increasingly obsessed with the idea of Milkman's pampered position within the local black hierarchy; at last he divulges to Milkman that he is in a group called the Seven Days, which kills a white person for every black person murdered by a white. Each person has a different day; Guitar's day is Sunday; whenever a black person is murdered on a Sunday, Guitar murders a white person in the same fashion.
I enjoyed reading the book of Daniel very much. I can only begin to report how much reading this book has taught me about faith, sacrifice, humility, trust, control, and obedience. The book of Daniel has made a huge impact on me and inspired me to put my full trust in the Lord.
After the Lord tells Samuel how Saul has disobeyed his commands, the 1 Samuel 15:11 says, “Samuel was angry; and he cried out to the Lord all night.” Samuel’s anger serves as proof that he is a man who truly does seek to do God’s will and disapproves of those who fail to do so. This is also a confirmation of what Samuel suspects might happen if a king is appointed over Israel; he knows that a human king will fail, whereas God will never fail. It is Samuel who goes to meet Saul and delivers God’s message of what the consequences are for disobeying him. The author achieves a positive portrayal of Samuel in this side-by-side comparison. Samuel’s goodness and wisdom is favorable compared to Saul, who did not do what the Lord asked him to do even though he has high status of a king. Samuel is also depicted as more hands-on when compared to Eli. Eli does not appear to do much of anything when he is mentioned in 1 Samuel, whereas Samuel travels all over, even to where Saul is, in order to deliver the word of God. This may also back up the author in believing that Samuel is an overall better judge than
The Book of Daniel is the only full-blown apocalyptic book in the Protestant recognized version of the Canon. A literary device divides the book into two halves. Chapters 1-6 are a collection of stories that introduces the reader to Daniel and three other Israelites as unwilling guests of the Babylonia Empire ruled by Nebuchadnezzar. The second half, Chapters 7-12 consists of apocalyptic imagery of deformed beasts and the heavenly court. The focus of this paper will be on chapter 7, which serves as a bridge of the two halves. Chapter 7 is the earliest of the visions as it identifies with the genre of 8-12 while through language and content it reverts to Daniel chapter 2. The linguistic break down is not as neat as the literary divide in that Dan. 2:4b-7:28 was written in Aramaic while other portions of the book is written in Hebrew.
The passage I selected, 1 Samuel 1:28, tells the story of the birth of Samuel and begins with a story about Samuel’s mother, Hannah, who prays for a child during the family’s annual pilgrimage to worship at Shiloh. Eli, the priest at Shiloh, hears her prayer and tells Hannah that her prayer will be answered. Hannah promises the Lord that if she is granted a child, she will return him to the Lord and his life will be dedicated to the Lord’s work. The birth of Samuel was the first step in Gods plan to give Israel deliverance from their Philistine enemies. Samuel evolves as an important figure in telling the story of the Israelites’ move from the judges’ leadership to the establishment of a kingship.
But from my perspective, Although Saul is angry them, he still want to cherish this chance to play hockey. If he really fight back with them, the whites will possibly drive his right to play Hockey. If that really happens, Saul will lose everything. Saul already lost every member of the family, plus he lost his tradition and his identity. In response to Rape, abuse, fighting in his Indian residential school. Saul found the only hope in hockey. After he played Hockey, He found some kind of belief and meaning of his tough life.
From about page 100, Kate starts to learns why her grandpa killed her time traveling grandma in the past. In the middle of the book it says ”Saul is a devout believer only in himself, and he was convinced that the religious faith of others, if manipulated skillfully, was an excellent path to the power he sought. He was studying religions of the world in order to pick up tips on how to build his own. ‘How do you ‘build’ a religion?’ I asked. ‘Many others have done it with less, ‘Katherine said with a wry smile. ‘Saul had an excellent tool at his disposal. I think his plan was to personally go back to various places and times in history and lay a trail of appearances, miracles, and prophecy--blending a variety of religions. Just as Christianity pulled in elements of pagan religions in order to attract followers, he would incorporate elements of Christianity, Islam, and other religions, laying the path for the reign of the prophet Cyrus...who would , of course, be Saul” (Walker 115). After Kate’s grandma told her this, she realized that her suspicion where true, and her grandpa has gone crazy and mad trying to get power to literally become a god, and will kill and destroy anyone or thing that get in his way of making his
In the Story, we see the stage for battle is set. The Army of the Philistines has already taken ground from the
This is a paper over King James I of England that I wrote for my honors english class. I received an A on the the assignment. King James I On June 19, 1566 in Theobalds, Hertfordshire, England, Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to her only child, a boy whom she named James. James' father was Henry Stewart, also known as Lord Darnley.
First off, Saul’s strengths before his change include being self-sufficient and having a strong grip on Israel. Saul is a character that seems to fend for himself in risky situations, such as when Saul was in a war with the Philistines, he waited for Samuel but when Samuel was delayed in his coming to Gilgal, Saul took matters into his own hands to please the Israelites, who were restless (1 Samuel 13:8-9). In addition, Saul is in command as king and holds true to his role, as he responds to the needs of Israelites yet he holds power to have the people obey his words...
Jeremiah may be one of the most intriguing and revealing of the Old Testament prophets. With his continual return to god and the constant struggle between his heart and the voice of god. This elevates him as a human being and not just as an instrument of god (Paterson 144). He is one of the most human of prophets mentioned in the Old Testament and at the same time most Christ like in aspects of his sermons and works. His story has intrigued many for it is of human weakness and strength (Paterson 139). Let us now take a look at his life and at his works.