This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to the beginning of a new study in Drive Time Devotions.
We are beginning a look at 1st and 2nd Samuel today. You might be very well
aware of the fact that these books, 1st Samuel and 2nd Samuel are books that are
about the history of Israel.

But you will see as we walk through this study the next 12 or so weeks that the
focus of these books is not on history but on the heart. It's on your heart.
It's on what kind of heart you have before God.

Now to get a sense of where these books are going, which is what we're going to
do today, I just want you to imagine that I'm holding an item in each hand.
These items represent the ministry of Samuel for whom these books were named. In
one hand I have a scroll and in the other hand I have a wooden staff.

I have the scroll of a teacher, the word in one hand, and I have the staff of a
prophet, the word of authority in the other hand. And really that's what's
behind these books. And as we walk into the background of these books we're
going to take a look at both, the teacher side and the prophet side.

The teacher side is what's the background of the book? Why are they given to us?
When were they given to us?

The staff side, the prophet side is how does God's Word speak to us? How does
God's Word bring its blessings into our lives? So first the scroll of a teacher.

What do these books talk about? These books, 1 and 2 Samuel, cover about 100
years of Israel's history. And they are important years because they're
transition years.

These books lie between the books of judges and kings and that's extremely
significant because they tell the transition from the time of judges, judges
were like local leaders throughout Israel, to the time of kings. A king was a
national leader who ruled all of Israel. So that's the way you think of it.

It's the transition. 1 and 2 Samuel is the transition in history between judges
and between kings. Now you might think because of that that these books would
have a lot to say about political decision making and legal constitutions and
government organizations, far from it.

These are books, 1 and 2 Samuel, that center upon people. You might call them a
matter of the heart. For all that they have to say about grand themes of war and
power, the center of these books is on your heart, my heart.

When Samuel was anointing David as king in 1 Samuel 16, 7, the Lord told him,
"Don't look on an outward appearance. The Lord looks at the heart. " The Lord
looks at the heart.

If you miss that truth, you miss all that God has to say in these books. In
fact, 1 and 2 Samuel basically looks at the heart of four men and helps us to
understand how to live with a heart for God. 1 Samuel, and I'd call him the man
with an open heart.

As you look at the study of Samuel, the story of Samuel, you see his blessed
mother and parents. You see a boyhood serving a priest in a place of unholiness
many times. You see the opportunity that he had to anoint kings.

First Saul who saddened him and then David who brought him joy. That's the story
of Samuel. Then there's the story of Saul.

Saul is the man with a troubled heart. Samuel anointed him as king with a lot of
fear and he saw all those fears lived out. Saul lied to Samuel.

He chased David in jealousy. He lived in madness, part of his kingdom. He
refused to serve God, instead served himself out of his fears.

Samuel and Saul and then Jonathan. Not as much on Jonathan in these books, but
Jonathan is the man with a divided heart. Poor Jonathan.

He's this faithful man in a house that's doomed to destruction. He is Saul's
son, but he's also David's best friend. Even in his victories he was humiliated,
you're going to see as we walk through this book.

His closest friend was his father's greatest enemy, so he's a man with a divided
heart. Then there's David. There's so much on David in 1 and 2 Samuel.

He is the man, scripture tells us, after God's own heart. He was a faithful
servant. As he faced a giant, he faithfully served God.

As he faced the jealousy of Saul, he faithfully served God. As he unified the
kingdom, he faithfully served God, and even as he was brought face to face with
the ugliness of his own sin, he chose to continue to faithfully serve God.
That's what's in these books.

Now, who wrote this down? Who wrote these books? Since they bear Samuel's name,
you'd think that he wrote them all, but his death comes before the end of even 1
Samuel, so obviously he didn't write all that's in these books.

If you take a look at 1 Chronicles 29-29, you get an insight. You don't always
get this in the Bible, but in this case, you get an insight into who wrote the
books. Chronicles, by the way, is the second account of these times.

Just like you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the New Testament, you have
1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and then 1 and 2 Chronicles, the second account
in the Old Testament. And in 1 Chronicles 29-29, the Bible says, "All the events
of King David's reign from beginning to end are written in the record of Samuel
the seer, the record of Nathan the prophet, and the record of Gad the seer. " So
there's the three writers, Samuel and Nathan and Gad.

Samuel wrote the events up until his death, Nathan wrote of the events in
David's kingdom, he was a prophet in David's court, and Gad wrote of David
fleeing from Saul and his rise to becoming a king. He was one of those who
accompanied David during those years of exile. They're the writers of this book,
and they wrote down the record of what God was doing in history during this time
so that you and I could see how God wants to work in our hearts.

That's the scroll of the teacher side. That's some of the facts behind this, but
now let's pick up the staff of a prophet. This is the, in King James, the "thus
saith the Lord" moment.

This is what the Lord says. If you miss the "thus saith the Lord" in 1 and 2
Samuel, you miss the message. Unless you hear that declaration for your heart,
you and I, we've allowed these books to be no more than ancient history.

These books are not a review of history or a study of politics or a sketch of
biographies. They are a matter of the heart, and in the end, it's not David's
heart or Saul's heart or even Samuel's heart. They're a matter for your heart.

We're going to see that each of these men that the books center around have
something to teach us about our own life. Samuel, the man with an open heart, he
can teach you and I how to have an open and willing heart. An open heart to the
will of God, an open heart to love others.

Saul, he teaches us how to overcome inner confusion, depression, and doubt, even
as he walks through it and is not able to overcome it. We see how God is working
to overcome it if only he'd listened. Jonathan teaches us how to handle being
caught in the middle, and David, King David, he teaches us so much.

He teaches us how to experience a new vision of faith. He teaches us how to
submit to God's will even when the circumstances seem to point against it. He
teaches us the danger of complacency, the horrible personal destruction that sin
brings into our lives when we get complacent.

When you look at the ministry of Samuel, God used Samuel as one who anointed
others. He would anoint others and when he did this, we'll see as we walk
through the book, he did this to help them to recognize God's call on their
life, on their heart. So I want to begin this study with a sense of anointing.

Let's anoint this study with prayer, recognizing that God wants to do something
in my heart, in your heart, as we walk through this study. He wants us to
understand how he wants to work in our hearts, how he can change and fashion and
mold our hearts like no one else can. Let's pray right now that God would do
that.

God would anoint this study with his calling to our hearts. Would you pray with
me? Lord, we pray together that as we study these books, you would bring a sense
of your anointing, your call in our life, your call that begins in our heart and
speaks through our life out into the world.

Help us to see that whatever the past, you want to anoint us for the future. You
have a plan, a purpose, a calling for us. Help us to see that however we feel
about ourselves, you want to do something wonderful in our hearts so that we can
make a difference in the world for your sake.

That's why you call us Jesus. That's how you love us. In Samuel's world, a few
people are anointed, but now all believers, all followers, we're all anointed.

Anointed by your love, Jesus. So help us to sense that as we walk through this
study, we pray in your name. Amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to see how God prepared Samuel to live a great life of
faith from even before he was born. See you tomorrow.