Week 15 1 Samuel 15-16
The three main players in 1 Samuel are Samuel Saul & David.
Up until chapter 15 Saul doesn’t know David but in chapter 16 Saul slid into a depressive funk (the Lord had sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear). So Saul got some advice: try music-therapy. And since David was a musician David ended up coming to Saul’s court to play his harp on a regular basis.
Anyway in the next chapter (the David-and-Goliath story) David saved the nation by killing the giant. This is where the story gets a bit weird because it says that: as Saul watched David go out to fight Goliath, he asked Abner…”whose son is this?” It makes it seem as though Saul didn’t know who David was.
At first I wondered if the story was a slapdash jumble that needed editing.
Then I wondered if it could be a common biographical style used in the ancient world.
And it was a bit of a stretch but I wondered: were the two stories intentionally put out of chronological order for some reason I couldn’t figure?
But now I think that Saul knew perfectly well who David was. The difference was he’d only known him as a court entertainer. Now he’s seeing David become a public hero. And it’s got Saul asking himself: who-is-this-guy? And along with that a bigger question: is David a potential competitor? And then the biggest: is he a threat?
Note: quotes from 1 Samuel 16:14 17:55 (NLT)