Welcome to the first week in our Study of the Kings in the Old Testament. To do so, we will need to begin in a book that was written approximately 1,100 years before Christ. 1 Samuel begins with the calling and ministry of the last of the judges, Samuel. But he is unlike any other judge of Israel, in that, he would deliver God’s people spiritually, not physically. He didn’t lead armies because he was a spiritual deliverer. He was a man that God raised up in a period of time when the word of the Lord was rare. Samuel was a godly man who ministered to the people in the difficult days of transition between the time of the judges and the rule of kings.⁠

The purpose of Matthew’s Gospel is to present Jesus as King. In chapter 11, however, we saw the beginning of a rebellion against His authority as Israel failed to respond to His work among them. It is a rebellion that will lead to rejection and ultimately to Calvary.⁠⁠In chapter 12 we find Jesus coming under attack of the Pharisees for not keeping their Sabbath laws. Was Jesus breaking the Sabbath? And what about today? Are we supposed to keep the Sabbath day as prescribed in the Old Testament? This has become a topic of great discussion and, in some cases, a heated argument about whether we are breaking the Ten Commandments. ⁠