bible study for 1 Samuel Chapter 12-20

1. 1 Samuel Chapter 16
• In 1 Samuel Chapter 16, the Lord rejects Saul as the King
of the Israelites, but Samuel grieves anyway. God
reproves Samuel for mourning Saul, but tells him to go to
Bethlehem to a man named Jesse. God has chosen one
of Jesse’s sons to replace Saul. Samuel is afraid to go to
Bethlehem because he is afraid Saul will hear about the
new king and kill Samuel.

2. Samuel Goes to Bethlehem
• God tells Samuel to take a heifer with him for a sacrifice
and to invite Jesse to the sacrifice. Samuel does this.
When he arrives in Bethlehem, the elders of the city are
afraid of him and ask if he comes in peace. Samuel says
he has just come to sacrifice the heifer and they should
consecrate themselves and attend the sacrifice with him.
Samuel then consecrates Jesse as well as his sons and
also invites them to the sacrifice.

3. Choosing the New King
• Samuel then begins to wonder which of Jesse’s sons will
be the new king. God tells him that it is not Eliab, nor
Abinadab, nor Shammah. Indeed, seven of Jesse’s sons
are presented to Samuel, but the Lord rejects all of them.
• Samuel has to ask Jesse if these are the only sons he
has. Jesse says he has one more, the youngest.
However, this boy is watching their sheep. Samuel asks
for the boy to be sent to them.

4. David is Chosen
• The boy is sent for and comes and Samuel sees that he is
handsome. The Lord tells Samuel that this boy is the one.
Samuel then takes the horn full of holy oil that the Lord
told him to take with him and anoints the boy, whose
name is David. Samuel then returns to his home in
Ramah.

5. David Soothes Saul’s Discomfort
• Around that time, the Lord’s spirit left Saul and God
allowed an evil spirit to torment him. Saul’s attendants
then look for someone who can soothe him, and they
settle on Jesse’s son, David, who plays the harp. Saul
comes to like David, and makes him an armor bearer. He
asks Jesse if David can stay in his employ permanently.
So, whenever the evil spirit would trouble Saul, David
would play the harp for him and Saul would find relief.

6. Goliath’s Challenge
• Goliath challenges the Israelites to send a man to fight
him one on one. He says that if the man can kill him, the
Philistines will be the servants of the Israelites. But if
Goliath kills the man, the Israelites will be the servants of
the Philistines. Goliath’s very words terrify the Israelites.
For 40 days, Goliath comes forward and challenges the
Israelites.

7. David Visits the Battlefield
• One day Jesse tells David to take food to the camp for his
brothers and their commander. Jesse also wants David to
come back and tell him how everything is faring at the
camp. David leaves the sheep with a shepherd and goes
to the camp in time to see the soldiers taking up their
positions.

8. David Hears Goliath’s Challenge
• David leaves the food with the quartermaster and goes to
find his brothers. While he is speaking with them, he
hears Goliath’s challenge. Goliath is so intimidating that
the Israelite soldiers run from him. David also hears that
the man who defeats Goliath will be given great riches by
the King, and the King will spare his father’s family from
paying tax and give the man his daughter in marriage.
• David asks to hear this again. This makes his eldest
brother angry. He accuses David of malingering and
coming down only because he wants to see the soldiers
fight.

9. David Asks to Fight Goliath
• Eventually, David goes to Saul and says that he will fight
Goliath. Saul reminds him that he is a only a boy, but
David reminds him that he has killed lions and bears who
tried to make off with his father’s sheep. Saul then gives
David permission to fight Goliath. He has David put on
armor, but David is not comfortable in it and takes it off.

10. David Prepares for Battle
• David then takes up his staff, finds five stones, puts them in his
pouch, and then goes out to face Goliath with his sling. Goliath
takes a look at David and feels nothing but contempt, so he taunts
him. David reminds Goliath that the Lord is on his side.
• Then, David fells Goliath with a single stone to the forehead and
cuts off the giant’s head with his own sword. This causes the
Philistines to flee, only to be pursued by the Israelites. Saul sees
David with Goliath’s head, but he does not recognize him at first.
David has to remind the King that he is the son of Jesse.

11. 1 Samuel Chapter 18
In 1 Samuel Chapter 18, David becomes fast friends
with Saul’s son, Jonathan. Saul keeps David by him
and will not allow him to return to his father, Jesse,
but Jonathan and David have made a covenant.

12. David is Promoted
• Jonathan gives his clothes to David as well as his sword,
belt, and bow. Saul is so impressed with David that he
promotes him to a high rank in his army. This not only
makes the soldiers happy, but makes the civilians happy
as well. Many people came to rejoice after David killed
Goliath the Philistine, but people sang David’s praises so
much that Saul eventually became jealous.

13. Saul is Angry at David
• One day, the evil spirit that torments Saul from time to
time takes hold of him while he is prophesying and David
is playing the harp. Saul is holding a spear and hurls it at
David, but David escapes twice. Besides being jealous of
David, now Saul is afraid of him because he knows that
God is with David, but is no longer with him.

14. David’s Success in Military Campaigns
• Saul puts David in command of a thousand men and so
David is busy for a time leading military campaigns.
These campaigns are always successful because God is
with David. This does nothing to lessen Saul’s fear and
jealousy.
• Still, Saul offers to give his older daughter to David in
marriage if he would continue to lead his soldiers in battle.
Saul decides that one day the Philistines are going to
kill David anyway.

15. David Declines Saul’s Offer
David declines when he is offered the king’s daughter
because he thinks he is unworthy. So Saul’s daughter,
Merab, is given to another man. However, Saul’s other
daughter, Michal, loves David. Saul was happy to hear this.
Still, David demurs.
Saul tells his servants to tell David that the only thing he
wants for Michal’s dowry is the foreskins of 100
Philistines. He is still assuming that David will be killed by
the Philistines one day.

16. Accepting the Challenge
• David is up even to this challenge. He and his soldiers
kill 200 of the Philistines and present their foreskins
to Saul. So David and Michal marry. This still does not
placate the king, even as David wins victory after victory
against the Philistines.

17. 1 Samuel Chapter 19
1 Samuel Chapter 19 is about the time when Saul tried
to kill David. It started with Saul telling his son,
Jonathan, as well as all of his attendants to kill David.
However, Jonathan had grown fond of David, and
instead of plotting with his father, he warned the man
about the plan.

18. Jonathan Changes Saul’s Mind
• Jonathan told David to hide and he spoke well of him to
his father in hopes to change his mind. Saul listened to
his son, and David was not put to death. Jonathan told
David about his conversation with Saul, and things went
back to how they were.

19. David Escapes from Saul
• However, when war broke out, David struck the Philistines
with a great force that they fled from the land. While David
was playing a lyre, an evil spirit of jealousy came before
Saul and he tried to pin him with a spear. David eluded
the attack, and that night he escaped from the camp.

20. Saul Stalks David
• Saul sent his men to the house of David and ordered
them to watch it. He ordered them men to bring David to
him in his bed so that he may kill him. This is because
Michal, David’s wife, told Saul that David was ill.
• Michal deceived Saul and sent him somewhere else and
let David escape. David fled to Samuel who was at
Ramah. There, he told him everything that Saul had done
to him. Soon, the word about David’s whereabouts had
reached Saul and he sent men to travel there in order to
capture him.

21. God’s Spirit Protects David
• However, when Saul’s men approached Samuel, the spirit
of the Lord came over them. They fled Ramah and went
back to Saul. So Saul headed to Ramah himself in order
to capture David and kill him. On his way there, the spirit
of the Lord came over him. That night, he stripped himself
of all his clothes and was said to have prophesied
Samuel’s presence.

22. 1 Samuel Chapter 20
By 1 Samuel Chapter 20, David fears for his life. He
believes that Saul, the King of the Israelites, is going to
murder him. He goes to his best friend, Jonathan, who is
Saul’s son, and asks why.

23. Jonathan and David Talk
• Jonathan claims that Saul has no intention of murdering
David. He believes that Saul tells him everything, and
Jonathan said he has not mentioned anything about killing
David. But David reminds Jonathan that Saul knows of
their friendship and would not tell Jonathan such a thing.
Jonathan then tells David he will do whatever David
wants.

24. David’s Plan
• David tells Jonathan that he is supposed to have dinner
with Saul the next evening for the New Moon festival, but
he plans to hide in the fields until the day after next. David
asks Jonathan to tell Saul, if he asks where David is, that
he had to hurry to Bethlehem for a sacrifice.
• David tells Jonathan if Saul does not mind, then he is
safe. But if Saul becomes angry, David will take that to
mean that he is determined to hurt him. David is
absolutely sure that Saul wants to kill him.

25. David and Jonathan’s Pledge
• David and Jonathan go out into the field and Jonathan
tells David that he will let him know of Saul’s disposition
towards him. They pledge their friendship and Jonathan
tells David to wait by the stone called Ezel the day after
next. He will shoot arrows toward it and send a boy to
retrieve them. If the arrows are on one side, David is
safe. If the arrows are beyond him, David is in danger.

26. The Day of the Festival
• When it was time for the festival, David does not appear.
Saul assumes that he is ritually unclean. David does not
show up the next evening either and Saul asks Jonathan
about the reason. Jonathan then tells his father the story
about the sacrifice in Bethlehem and that he gave David
permission to go.
• Saul becomes enraged and demands that David be
brought back at once to be killed. Shocked, Jonathan
demands to know why, but his father only throws a
spear at him.

27. • The next morning, Jonathan goes out with the boy. He
shoots the arrows beyond the boy, then gives him the
arrows and tells him to go back to town. When the boy
is gone, David reveals himself. The two men weep and
Jonathan sends David away for his own safety.