God has delivered Israel from Goliath and the Philistines by the hand of David—but it begins to dawn on Saul what that may mean. As all Israel and his own household fall in love with his new general, Saul fights against the Lord’s favor with secret plots. What will become of this jealous leader? How does God protect his people in the face of those who view gifted colleagues as a threat? Lord deliver us from this body of death!

What do sea monsters have to do with facing our giants, and what does a little brother have to do with either?

A king with a tormenting spirit, a court scrambling for an answer, a warrior who happens to be a smash lyre player….

Tonight our focus shifts momentarily from the rejected king to the selection of his replacement.

Tonight we follow Saul on mission to execute God’s judgment. Confronted w/ sin, will he repent? Who will deliver us from this body of death?

We continue to consider Saul as Isreal’s first king and the dynasty that could have been continued in his son, Jonathan.

Saul is the king we asked for, and this is the fight we were told to watch for—but something is terribly wrong!

Is Saul finally the king the people desire? Or the king they deserve? He’s certainly, as Samuel reminds them, the one they asked for!

Continuing our study in 1 Samuel, we reviewed chapters 8 and 9 before pausing to consider the pressing issue of textual variants. Sometimes our Bible translations don’t phrase things the same way. How do we approach these differences? After the lengthy explanation offered here, the bottom line is that scripture is reliable and to be trusted. Instead of discouraging us, differences should prompt us all the more to approach scripture with deep and genuine study.