1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone Book

Maps viii

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

1 Samuel 1:1-8: How Not to Display Accurate Empathy I 5

1 Samuel 1:9-11: Sour Hour of Prayer 8

1 Samuel 1:12-19a: How Not to Display Accurate Empathy II 12

1 Samuel 1:19b-24: It Takes a Miracle 16

1 Samuel 1:25-2:10: On Giving Up Your Son 20

1 Samuel 2:11-36: When Ministers Indulge Themselves 25

1 Samuel 3:1-4:1a: A Summons, Not a Call 29

1 Samuel 4:1b-22: The Splendor is Gone 33

1 Samuel 5:1-7:1: You Can't Mess with the Covenant Chest 37

1 Samuel 7:2-14: As Far as This Yahweh has Helped Us 40

1 Samuel 7:15-8:20: Appoint Us a King 44

1 Samuel 8:21-9:27: How Saul Lost Some Donkeys and Found More than He Bargained For 48

1 Samuel 10:1-16: Is Saul among the Prophets, Too? 53

1 Samuel 10:17-11:13: How Not to Evade the Draft 56

1 Samuel 11:14-12:25: Far Be It from Me to Sin by Not Praying for You 61

1 Samuel 13:1-22: When the King Has to Take Decisive Action 65

1 Samuel 13:23-14:52: The Fog of War 69

1 Samuel 15:1-33: When the King isn't Tough Enough 73

1 Samuel 15:34-16:23: Yahweh's Good Spirit and Yahweh's Bad Spirit 77

1 Samuel 17:1-54: How to Recycle Your Killer Instinct 81

1 Samuel 17:55-18:16: How to Be a Dysfunctional Royal Family 85

1 Samuel 18:17-19:24: Everyone is against Me 89

1 Samuel 20:1-21:16: Friendship 93

1 Samuel 22:1-23:24: David on the Run 97

1 Samuel 24:1-25:44: Fool by Name and Fool by Nature 101

1 Samuel 26:1-28:2: Who Can Lay Hands on Yahweh's Anointed and Get Away with It? 104

1 Samuel 28:3-29:11: What Do You Do When You're Desperate? 108

1 Samuel 30:1-31:13: A Last Act of Loyalty to Saul 112

2 Samuel 1:1-2:31: How are the Mighty Fallen 116

2 Samuel 3:1-4:12: The Struggle for Power 120

2 Samuel 5:1-25: On Following Up Your Good Ideas but Not Taking Yourself Too Seriously 124

2 Samuel 6:1-23: Little Things Can Have Terrible Consequences and Foreshadow Tragedy 128

2 Samuel 7:1-29: A House and a Household 132

2 Samuel 8:1-10:19: The Peak of David's Achievement 136

2 Samuel 11:1-27: But the Thing David Had Done was Displeasing in Yahweh's Eyes 139

2 Samuel 12:1-15a: The Man Who Has Learned How to Be a Prophet 143

2 Samuel 12:15b-13:14: The Price the Family Begins to Pay 147

2 Samuel 13:15-14:24: The Grief of a Sister and the Strife between Brothers 151

2 Samuel 14:25-16:23: Absalom's Coup 155

2 Samuel 17:1-19:40: Wise Advice Treated as Folly 158

2 Samuel 19:41-21:22: Leaderly Calculation and Mother Love 162

2 Samuel 22:1-20: The God of the Storm 166

2 Samuel 22:21-51: I Have Kept Yahweh's Ways? 169

2 Samuel 23:1-38: The Last Words of David 173

2 Samuel 24:1-16a: I Would Rather Fall into God's Hands Than into Human Hands 178

2 Samuel 24:16b-25: I Will Not Offer Worship That Costs Me Nothing 182

Glossary 187