Sunday Sermonette: Let ' s do the Time Warp again

You may recall a few chapters back that Samuel gave his farewell address. Then he didn ' t go anywhere. He ' s still here and in fact he will continue to stick around for many years to come. In this chapter, he tells Saul that God regrets making Saul king, that he is no longer king, and God will give his kingdom to someone else. Then Saul goes on to continue being king for many years to come. He fights and wins several battles and engages in much further ado, until he finally loses a battle and dies -- as king. The chapter also concludes saying that Samuel will never see Saul again for the rest of his days. Spoiler alert: Samuel sees Saul just three chapters later. Obviously, at least two and probably three versions of the story have been muddled together, and passages are inserted in the wrong places to achieve any narrative coherence. I won ' t harp onwhy God supposedly turns against Saul (even though he doesn ' t.) It ' s the same depravity that pervades the Deuteronomic history. God commands Saul to murder all of the Amalekites - men, women, babies -- and all of their animals, because of something Amalek did hundreds of years ago. Saul spares their king and a few animals, which is unforgivable disobedience. Family values, folks, that ' s what you ' ll find in the Bible!15 Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one theLord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from theLord.2 This is what theLord Almighty says: ‘I will ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs