1 Samuel 25:1--The Death of Samuel

1 Samuel 25:1
English Standard Version

The Death of Samuel
25 Now Samuel died. And all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah.

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Last time we saw that Saul tried to kill David and David made it clear through his actions and his words that he had no intent to kill Saul--that he would leave the life of Saul in the hands of the LORD.  Saul realized his sin in trying to kill David and admitted that David proved that the LORD was right in rejecting Saul as king and establishing David as king.  David made a covenant with Saul that when David became king, he would not destroy everyone from Saul's family (as was typical for regime changes as anyone left from the family of the previous regime might try to claim to be the rightful heir to the throne).  Today's passage comes on the heels of all that and starts off by letting us know that this is the last event that Samuel would have been alive for.  While the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel both bear his name, it is obvious that someone else picked up and finished the work that Samuel had begun.  It is similar to how the book of Deuteronomy is credited completely to Moses though he dies at the end of that book and could not possibly have written the very last portions that spoke of his funeral and the time of mourning for his loss.  Psalms is mostly attributed to David although there are contributions by Asaph, Moses, Solomon and others.  All the words of the Old Testament and the New Testament are the words of the Holy Spirit.

All of Israel gathered together for the funeral of Samuel, much like we would expect to see today for a state funeral for a king or queen or president or prime minister, and the whole nation stopped to mourn for him.  The last time that I remember seeing such a time of mourning by the entire nation was at the end of the book of Deuteronomy when Moses died.  The LORD will continue to spend prophets to His people-specifically to the kings that rule over his people, but also to speak His Word to the nations of Israel and Judah, as well as to the Gentile nations around them.

Saul is going to be distraught by the loss of Samuel, and while Saul and Samuel haven't talked for a long time, Saul will desire to once again hear Samuel's voice to tell him what to do and Saul will seek the services of a medium called the Witch of Endor in chapter 28.  This loss is also going to affect David, but we'll see most of that in 2nd Samuel, so we'll talk about how David loses control of his family and himself as time goes on, but the LORD will be faithful to send other prophets to David (like Nathan the prophet that we'll see in 2nd Samuel).

Chapter 25 will pick up the story of David in the wilderness with his men next time as we recall that at the end of chapter 24, Saul and his men went home (to the palace) and David and his men stayed out in the strongholds and caves of the wilderness.  We'll talk about David and Abigail (and Nabal) next time.