Beth-shemesh is located on the east end of the Sorek Valley, near to where Samson had lived. Its name means "house of the sun." It had been allotted in the days of Joshua to the priests (Joshua 21:16).

These people working out in their fields look up to see a strange procession. A pair of oxen pulling a cart on which rests the throne of God. And behind them come five kings and all of their retainers. It was as though the Lord were leading all of the enemies of Israel in a triumphant parade.

The people of Beth-shemesh respond in worship, taking apart the cart on which the ark was transported and using both the wood and the oxen as a sacrifice to the Lord.

The Philistines had suffered because of the presence of the ark in their cities, but the Israelites were no less immune to the results of a careless treatment of the ark. It is not as though they were ignorant of the importance of the ark. These were Levites. They would have been familiar with the requirements of the Law. They would have known that, in the days in the Wilderness, only the sons of Aaron had been permitted to handle the ark - that even they did not presume to look within the ark, but reverently covered it with a veil each time they were required to move it (Numbers 4:5-20).

The number translated as 50,070 men reads differently in the Hebrew text (literally, 70 men, 50,000 men).

Aside from the fact that there were not this many men in the town of Beth-shemesh, the construction of the Hebrew suggests that this reading might be the result of a textual error, even though this is not apparent from either the Massoretic text or from the Septuagint.

Demoralized by the death of their men, the people of Beth-shemesh sent the ark 10 miles up the road to the town of Kiriath-jearim (only 8 miles from Jerusalem). It is placed into the keeping of Abinadab and his son Eleazar. The ark will remain there until being brought to Jerusalem in the days of David.

The capture of the ark had been due to the unfaithfulness of Israel. The spiritual leaders of the nation had turned their hearts away from the Lord and He, in turn, had brought judgment upon the nation.

It was not only the priests and spiritual leaders of the nation who had been in sin. The Israelites had begun to engage in idol-worship. Samuel calls for repentance. This repentance is threefold:

What was it that caused the Philistines to attack Israel at this particular time? It was because they heard that the Israelites had gathered at Mizpah. Perhaps they viewed this gathering as a military threat.

Satan always attacks when he sees God's people repenting of their sins. He views this, not as a military threat, but as a spiritual threat.

Samuel also views this as a spiritual battle. And so, he does not prepare the men for battle. He does not beat any plowshares into swords. He does not suggest an armament plan or devise a strategy. Instead, he performs an act of WORSHIP.

The Lord wins the battle. And He does so in a way that is reminiscent of the days of Joshua. You remember the story. Joshua was fighting an alliance of five kings and he called upon the sun and the moon to stand still and they obeyed him. The Lord sent great hailstones against the enemies of Israel when killed more than were killed in the fighting. And the Israelites pursued their enemies down the descent of Beth-horon.

Now it happens again.

If I had been there prior to the battle, I might have been tempted to say, "Hey guys, I know that God used to do this sort of thing, but times have changed. That was a long time ago in another age and God doesn't do that sort of thing anymore." There is a lesson here. It is that we dare not underestimate the power of God.

The word Ebenezer is actually two words in the Hebrew. is the word for "stone." is the verb meaning "to help." It is called this because this was the place where the Lord "helped us".

The Lord issues a warning of what it will mean for the Israelites to have a king to reign over them.

They have come and asked the Lord for a king. Before it is all over, they will come and ask God to take their king back (8:18). There is a lesson here. It is that you be careful what you pray for. You might get it.

The career of Saul is set forth in three acts, each of which consists of several parallel scenes.

Saul comes on the scene, not seeking a kingdom or a throne, but looking for some lost donkeys. As they are about to give up on their quest, Saul's servant suggests that they go and inquire from the local Seer about the missing donkeys.

They discuss this plan. Saul is reluctant because they have no gift to give to the Seer. But the servant has a quarter of a shekel of silver. This was not a coin, for coinage would not be invented until the 7th century B.C. This was a weight.

Meanwhile, the Lord had revealed to Samuel that a man was coming from the tribe of Benjamin who would be anointed as the deliverer of the Israelites. Thus, when Saul arrives at the gate of the city, he is met by Samuel who informs him that the donkeys have been found and then proceeds to invite him as the guest of honor to a special dinner.

Notice the use of the definite article in describing the flask of oil (the Hebrew has the sign of the direct object). This was not merely any old flask. It was THE flask. I think it is possible that this was the flask that contained holy anointing oil of a special recipe which had been used to anoint the tabernacle and the holy things (Exodus 30:22-32).

Mizpah was the place where the Lord had last delivered the Israelites from the attack of the Philistines (1 Samuel 7:5-11). It had since become one of the regular points along Samuel's traveling circuit (1 Samuel 7:16).

There is a touch of irony here. When we first saw Saul, he was being sent to look for missing donkeys. Now it is Saul who is missing and the people go looking for him. They find him hiding by the baggage.

What happened after Saul had been proclaimed the first king of Israel? Did he move into the royal palace? He did not. There was no royal palace into which he could move.

And so, when the celebration was over, there was nothing else for him to do but to return home. When next we see him, he will be at the south end of a northbound team of oxen.

You see, Israel at this time was nothing more than a scattered and disunited collection of tribes. This was not a unified nation. You couldn't even get them to agree on what to eat for lunch. And they also did not agree that Saul should be their new king, no matter what Samuel had told them. But this changed dramatically when Saul led the Israelites to victory in battle.

There was bad blood between the Ammonites and the Israelites. The Ammonites were descendants of Lot through his incestuous relationship with one of his daughters (the name Ammon - - means "my father"). They occupied the territory north of the Arnon River and east of the Dead Sea.

Now they were back. The city which they were now attacking was Jabesh-gilead. By strange coincidence, this is the same city which had been destroyed by the Israelites for not joining in the punitive attack against the tribe of Benjamin following the incident at Gibeah in which a Levite's concubine was raped and then dismembered (Judges 19-21).

The city had since been rebuilt and re-inhabited. It is now being attacked, not by Israel, but by Ammon. And because of her past history, it seems doubtful that anyone will come to her aid. Except for a man from the tribe of Benjamin - Saul's tribe. And specifically, a man of Gibeah - Saul's city.

Gilgal was located on the western bank of the Jordan River. It was here that Joshua and the Israelites first camped after crossing the Jordan River. They had built a monument here of 12 memorial stones. And it was here that the Israelites had renewed the covenant, circumcising all of the men in the camp.

This was a place of...

Gilgal will be the scene both of Saul's coronation, his rebuke and his ultimate rejection as king.

Saul is the story of a great beginning. But the spiritual life is not limited to beginnings. It is not a sprint. It is, instead, a marathon. Saul had made an excellent beginning. This young man who had come on the scene looking for lost donkeys had instead found himself as the redeemer of Israel and her first king. The tragedy of his story is told in chapters 13-15.

The Story of David & Goliath is probably one of the Best known Bible stories, and has been told in Sunday Schools for generations. As such it has perhaps become too familiar, and perhaps as we read it over, we tend to read it through the eyes of a child.

As you leave the coast land area of Palestine along the Mediterranean and move eastward, the first geographical feature you encounter is a range of low foothills known as the Shephelah. Over the years the streams flowing down from these hills have cut deep gorges known as Wadis. The Valley of Elah is one such Wadi.

Located about 15 miles west of Bethlehem, this Wadi served as a pass from east to west (the stream disappears entirely in the dry season leaving a riverbed of small round stones).

The Philistines held the seacoast plains of Canaan. The Israelites held the mountains. The Shephelah was the contested area between.

The name "Goliath" seems to be Indo-European in origin. He is described as having the latest armaments in modern warfare.

This paragraph leaves us with a number of weights and measures.

David's rise to popularity was meteoric in its suddenness. One day he is a simple shepherd and the next he is the hero of Israel who overshadows even the lofty king Saul. It is not long before Saul becomes jealous and David has to flee for his life.

Throughout this period, we continue to see Saul fall short at every turn while David continues to succeed.

c. This was a trick of the woman.

The reason for the varied interpretation is because people do not care for the implications of what happened - that a seance was actually able to bring back Samuel from the dead. However, this need not be considered as normative. Just because Samuel actually appeared to the medium in this instance does not give credibility to all such mediums.

Indeed, if there is a lesson here, it is that God's people ought to trust in the Lord rather than in other types of spiritual phenomenon. We ought not to delve into horoscopes or fortune telling or Ouija boards, for such activity is following in the footsteps of Saul.

Evidently, only the woman saw the form of Samuel, for Saul asked in verse 14, "What is his form?" and did not realize that it was Samuel until she had given a description of the prophet.

While in the past the Lord had delivered Israel FROM the Philistine threat on more than one occasion, now Israel would be delivered by God INTO the hands of the Philistines (verse 19). The words of the prophecy are fulfilled in the battle of the following day.

The archers served as the field artillery of the ancient world. They could be a deadly arm of the military. When Xenophon was going out to fight the Persians, he was told by one of his scouts, "There are so many archers that when they fire their arrows, they blot out the sun." To which he quipped, "Good! We shall be able to fight in the shade."

As volley after volley of Philistine arrows fell upon the hapless Israelite army, Saul was seriously wounded. The nature of the wound would prevent his escape. And the Philistines were closing in.

Saul knew of the reputation of the Philistines. They had captured Samson and had gouged out his eyes and had made a public spectacle of him. Saul fears the worst. He fears that he will be both tortured and humiliated. And so, he takes his own life.

David's kingship is not immediately recognized by all Israel. For the first seven years of his reign, his authority is known only over the tribe of Judah as he uses Hebron as his base of operations. This was the burial place of the patriarchs.

As such, this was the most prestigious city in all of the land of Judah. David had already been anointed by Samuel. Now he is anointed by the men of Judah.

Up to this time, David had been reigning in Hebron. Hebron was centrally located in Judah and would always be associated with that tribe. If the other tribes were to accept the concept of a unified nation, it would be necessary to have a capital city which had no former associations. Jerusalem was such a city.

Jerusalem was a city of the Jebusites. They had been living here city before the days of Abraham. One of their kings had been Melchizedek, a priest of God. But now it was merely a Canaanite city. The Israelites under Joshua had been unable to drive out the Jebusites (Joshua 15:63). And even though the Israelites had captured and burned Jerusalem early in the days of the Judges (Judges 1:8), the Jebusites had returned to rebuild and refortify their city.

The old city of Jerusalem was built upon a high ridge and was surrounded on three sides by steep ravines. The old name for the hill was Ophel - literally, "the hump." An approaching enemy would have to climb to the top of the ridge and then would find himself facing high fortifications with no room to maneuver.

Furthermore, Jerusalem had its own internal water supply. A tunnel had been carved into the mountain leading down to a pool which was in turn fed by a natural spring.

The boast of the city was that, even if these fortification were manned by blind and lame, they would be enough to keep out any enemy.

Located on the east side of the city is the Gihon Spring. It is the city's only local source of fresh water. Unfortunately, the spring is located at the bottom of the ridge upon which the city was built.

The Jebusites resolved this problem by excavating a tunnel through the bedrock which went beneath the city walls and then down a vertical shaft to the spring.

The shaft was discovered by Captain Charles Warren of the British Engineers in 1867. He and his sergeant entered the Gihon Spring, followed the narrow tunnel into the mountainside, and came upon a vertical shaft rising nearly 40 feet straight up. It was possible for the inhabitants of Jerusalem to stand at the top of the shaft and drop a bucket with a line attached and draw up water.

It is thought that this may have been the route used to capture the city of Jerusalem. David's forces could have crept in through this route to come up inside the city gates.

The "Millo" was the original fortification around which the city was built (the word means "to fill"). Its exact location remains uncertain.

The reign of Solomon saw a remarkable period of peace in that portion of the ancient world.

"The River" is used only of large rivers as opposed to the term for smaller streams or wadis. In this case, it refers to the Euphrates.

It was commonplace among ancient empires that when the old king died, the subject nations would withhold tribute and challenge the new king in rebellion. This necessitated repeated punitive expeditions to reinforce the former king's terms and to prove the ability of the new king to enforce his will. Solomon did not have to do this. Instead, God gave to him a peaceful reign.

It was not only Solomon who amassed riches. The people of Israel in his day also enjoyed a great amount of prosperity. The statement that "every man under his vine and his fig tree" became a favorite catch phrase used by the prophets to indicate the ideal conditions prevailing in Messiah's kingdom (Micah 4:4; Zechariah 3:10). The fact that a man could enjoy the fruit of the vine and the fig tree meant that there was a complete absence of warfare and it ensuing economic disruption.

Archaeologists have uncovered some of the fortifications of this period. They included a system of double walls entered by a series of double gates overseen by twin towers. The casements of these gates are inset into the city to allow an invader to be virtually surrounded.

Solomon entered into a number of major construction projects, building up the fortifications in Jerusalem as well as at Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer (1 Kings 9:15).

Construction of the Temple began on the fourth year of Solomon's reign (1 Kings 6:1). The building project took seven years and was climaxed with the dedication of the Temple.

In the same way that the Lord had moved into the Tabernacle in the days of Moses, so now His presence was manifested in the Temple.

The completion of the Temple was to mark a high point in the career of Solomon. The later years of his reign were to see a turning away from the Lord.