The books of Ezra and Nehemiah originally were combined. Each book contains material found in the other book. Ezra taught the Word and Nehemiah built the walls around Jerusalem. They tell the story of exiles returning to Jerusalem. The people came in 3 waves and that took about 100 years to be accomplished.

It is time to visit more of the happenings of the Southern kingdom. After the death of Josiah altars to idols and false worship was again resumed. 

Difficult study sheet to create, because the news for God’s people is not the kind of news that we want to hear. However, I know we need to learn from those uncomfortable times. So here goes!!

I have to admit, because I have studied this section of scripture, I feel a reluctance to go there again. I would rather stay focused on David’s kingdom, before his children rebelled. My mind says that wouldn’t be fair, but my heart still does not want to see what happens next. Let’s go there together. God has a message.

The second half of I Samuel focuses on Saul’s demise as king and his relentless pursuit of David. David, even when he has the power and the opportunity to take Saul’s life and the throne, does not fall into that trap. The Philistines struck down Jonathan, and wounded Saul so that Saul fell on his sword and died.

The rest of the story. We know from last week Saul’s days are numbered. The people had rejected God as their king and now God has rejected Saul as the people’s king. The last question last week showed us that God was looking for someone after His own heart to be king. 

Israel had gone from the very heights of victory and success as they came to the land God had promised to Abraham. As we saw last week time passed and the land was in chaos. This is no surprise to God.

This story takes place in the time of the judges before a king was in place to rule over the nation. The Talmud speculates that Samuel wrote the book, but there is no author named so we can say that for certain.

The name of the book comes from the 12 leaders whose leadership was from the time of Joshua to Samuel. We will look at the book as a series of snapshots taken over a period of 200-300 years. None of the judges ruled over the entire nation, but each of the 12 judges ruled over a geographic area for a period of time.

The next series of books we will be digging in are the historical books. We don’t know who wrote the book of Joshua, but it was someone who knew his exploits before and mentions the memorials after his death. The book of Joshua provides the means by which God fulfilled His part of the covenant.