Men's Bible Study

STUDIES IN SAMUEL - preparation for teaching 

Our plan:

•          Aim to read ahead in Samuel, over the summer break. 
•      Check in to the ‘Ink’ blog each week for notes, quotes and responses. Respond in the comments section – put up any questions, links to other passages etc.  [The idea is to start exploring the passages that we will eventually teach from.]
•       February, we will begin to meet fortnightly to do two things:

                                                               i.      Share personal Bible readings, questions and prep we are doing.

                                                             ii.      Discuss the passages in Samuel for teaching to the church.

So how do we go about getting the ‘message’ intended for us in the books of Samuel?

Who are we meant to identify with when we read these Bible histories?

-        Look in the text for people with faith. They won’t be perfect and we will need the Spirit’s help to detect where they go wrong—but to the degree a person is paying attention to God’s word and trusting him or herself to God to do what he says—that is someone to identify with and compare our own lives of faith to.

How should we understand and learn from Israel—and from God’s treatment of those people?

-        Think of Israel as the Church—in the broadest sense, i.e. including those who profess to follow God and associate with the Church—even though there are question marks over whether their faith is genuine. Israel is the Old Testament ‘Church’. Since Jesus came, the Church has been expanded way beyond Israel, to include people from all nations, tribes and languages.

Where do we see Christ in the Old Testament?

-        He is the Lord who is managing Israel’s history and we learn about his character in the way he deals with Israel and the nations.

-          He is at work in people of faith inspiring them to act heroically and faithfully—so we can recognise his character to some degree in the lives of godly people (e.g Samuel).

-          The New Testament guides us as to the extent to which we can map Old Testament revelation onto Christ—so we are not flying blind and using guesswork to recognise Jesus in the Old Testament histories, symbols, events and people.

-    You will see Christ everywhere!

Start reading from 1 Samuel 8--where we learn about the demand by Israel for a 'hero-leadership'to replace the 'Word-focused leadership' Samuel had brought (and which his sons were not able to sustain, because they fell in love with stuff and status).