Samuel was born to Hannah and Elkanah. He was his mother’s firstborn. It had been very difficult for her to have children and all the while, according to The Bible for Dummies, she had been ridiculed by her “co-wife,” Peninnah, who could have children. One day while Hannah was praying at the Tabernacle she was spotted by the High Priest, Eli. She informed Eli what she was praying about and he told her that God would grant her wish. She was elated with this information and when her son was born she named him Samuel, which means “God hears.” When Samuel was between the ages of three and six she did as she had promised God and handed dedicated him to God, which in her case ended up being that she was to turn him over to Eli. The Bible for Dummies says that Eli’s son were “wicked men” and the King James Version of the Bible speaks of how they “did not know the Lord” and would have sex with the women of Israel and would eat the food that had been prepared to sacrifice to the Lord. Eli was not as wicked as his sons, but he did not chastise them for the bad things they did. One day a man appeared and said that Eli and his children would not live much longer. Not too long after that Samuel was informed that he would be the High Priest over Israel.

Eli grows old and dies and so do his sons. There leaves Samuel to assume his position as the High Priest. Now, it seems that Samuel would have learned to raise his sons better that Eli did his, but obviously not. His sons were just as wicked as Eli’s. Being that as it may the people of Israel did not want his sons to rule over them, they demanded a King. Samuel was distraught over this and was not sure what to do. He took it to the Lord in Prayer. God spoke to him and told him to give the people what they wanted, an elected King. Samuel did not want to be too wicked so he warned the people about Kings and told them that with a King would come the recruiting of their sons into the army, the enslaving of their daughters at the royal palace for women, and then those that were left would be servants for the Kings building.

The first King of Israel was Saul then there was David and then his son Solomon. David was doing fine and sitting pretty as the King of a United Kingdom. He had been making plans and getting materials prepared to build the Temple, which would be God’s “house.” David ends up dying, but his son Solomon did not let him down. Solomon started and completed the building of the Temple and even makes Israel one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations, but we all know from Israel’s track record this couldn’t last long. When Solomon died so did the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom was then the Divided Monarchy. Those two Kingdoms were Israel and Judah. Israel was the northern kingdom and Judah was the southern kingdom.

There are two stories of how Saul became King. One is that Samuel was informed from God that a man would come looking for his donkey and was to then be appointed to the position of King. The other story is that Samuel was to cast lots, throw dice, to determine the will of God and at for that time it was the next King of Israel. The people were happy with Saul, but he looses favor with God by not being patient and by disobeying God. Saul eventually looses his kingship. When Saul began to be disobedient God tells Samuel to look for a new king, and then here comes David. Saul did not like David because David played the harp very well and God cursed Saul so that music would torment him and because David was a young boy and was able to defeat Goliath, a mighty warrior. Saul did not like this so he sent him into exile. During this time Israel was at war with the Philistines. Saul died in war and then David was able to return and take his rightful place as King. While King, God promised David a long dynasty and this in known as the Davidic covenant. David, just as Saul begins to loose favor, but by committing adultery and murder. When David died, Solomon took over and when Solomon died the United Kingdom split into the Divided Monarchy around 922 BCE. Then in 722 BCE Israel, in the north, is destroyed by the Assyrian Empire and exiled. According to Wikipedia the events of 701 BCE were as such: Hezekiah, the King of Judah gained the support of Egypt and wanted to take over Jerusalem. At that time King Sennacherib of Assyria also occupied Israel and King Hezekiah’s attempts to conquer Jerusalem were in vain. Then later on down the line here comes the Babylonians. Not only did they overrun Judah, in the south, and send the Judeans into exile, but they traveled to the north and conquered Jerusalem and destroyed Solomon’s Temple.

In Tammi Schneider’s, “Did Jehu Kill his Family,” there is talk about how Jehu was a son of Omri. The House of Omri was under the House of Ahab, but a different line of it. Well, Jehu wanted to be king of Israel so he ended the Ahab dynasty by killing off all of the Ahab decedents. He killed his family, but more importantly he allowed for his dynasty of the House of Omri to live on and ended the House of Ahab. Some similarities between Jehu and Osama Bin Laden are that they are both selfish and violent. They don’t mind allowing others to suffer so that they can have their way. I am sure Osama killed some his family members who did not want to go along with his ways, but more importantly he has allowed his family members and those close to him to become martyrs for a cause that seems unworthy outside of his circle.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2006 at 11:34 pm and is filed under Week 07: Research Stats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.