Samuel’s speech to Saul in 1 Samuel 15:28-29 contains an important theological message for both Saul and the reader. It’s meaning, however, has been concealed within rather strange cultural practices regarding hems and herem slaughter, which have often been overshadowed themselves by other statements that seem more powerful—”To...
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In our last few posts on 1 Samuel 15:27-31, we attempted to unpack the text in context in order to draw out of it, the narrator’s intended theological message… i.e. the reason he included the story in the larger Samuel narrative. Individual stories function in larger biblical narrations...
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So far, we have considered 1 Samuel 15 from a different angles. We have discovered how serious Saul’s sin is. A sin akin to defiling the Ark of the Covenant and stealing the golden lampstand for good measure. We have examined the meaning of Saul’s grasp of Samuel’s...
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We are looking at the divine condemnation of Saul’s dynasty in 1 Samuel 15, having already considered the seriousness of the sin which lead directly to it. In the midst of the exchange between discredited king and holy prophet, 1 Samuel 15:27-31, a strange social ballet of sorts...
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Okay, Saul goofed. He failed to perfectly enacts a rather brutal command to exterminate another people group. It’s hard to get our modern hearts around this too much. We aren’t so keen on genocide these days, and we have more than a little resentment for the kind of...
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