As Saul acts presumptuously and foolishly, his son Jonathan leads the nation to victory. These chapters summarize the events that lead to the downfall and rejection of Saul as King.

The LORD’s choice of Saul as the first King of Israel is confirmed with signs given through Samuel. Yet, Saul is reluctant to take on his responsibility. Nevertheless, in his first major test as King, the LORD grants Saul victory over the Ammonites. Finally, Samuel encourages the people to remain faithful to the LORD so…

Samuel leads the people in a time of turning back to the LORD and the LORD delivers Israel from the Philistines. But in time, Israel demands a King so that they can be “like the other nations.” Even after a stern warning from Samuel, the people will not relent and continue to demand a King.…

Samuel is called by the LORD and given the message of the downfall of Eli’s house. Then Israel is defeated by the Philistines and the Ark of the Covenant is captured. After bringing a plague on the cities of the Philistines, the Ark is returned to Israel. In what seems like a catastrophic failure, the…

We work out way through the big ideas of chapters 1-2 and the birth of Samuel. Samuel is a transitional figure – he is the last of the Judges and the first of the “classical prophets.” We also hear about the downfall of the priestly line of Eli. Samuel will anoint the first king of…

We situate the books of Samuel in the larger context of the Former Prophets and the Hebrew Scriptures. We also talk about how the books of Samuel have come to us in their present form.

We conclude our study by looking at Paul’s final instructions. He urges Euodia and Syntyche to “agree in the Lord.” He then gives some final instructions about thinking on all “good things.” Finally, he thanks the church for their financial gifts while also telling them, “I am doing fine; you have done more than enough!”

Paul discusses “attaining to the resurrection” by any means necessary. We have not been made perfect/complete, yet. So Paul strives forward, running as hard as he can to “win the prize.” We are being saved In Christ. But that does not mean that we just sit around and do nothing. Part of “working our salvation…

We dig deeper into Paul’s warning about the “Judaizers.” This leads to an important discussion about one of the “Faith of Christ” passages in this paragraph. Our righteousness comes THROUGH Christ’s faith/faithfulness and our trust in Him.

Paul discusses his plans to send Epaphroditus back to the Philippians and eventually Timothy and himself. He then moves on to talk about the negative examples – the dogs, evil workers, mutilators – who could potentially lead the church astray.