First and Second Samuel trace the lives of three Jewish men in the eleventh century B.C.: Samuel, the last of the judges and the first of the prophets; Saul, the first of the kings, but rejected by God; and David, the beloved shepherd-king. Hannah, whose name means grace, “asked of the Lord” (the meaning of Samuel’s name) and received a male child who selflessly served the Lord’s people his entire life. Saul’s name means “asked for,” but he was not given in grace, but rather in God’s anger to teach His wayward people the ills of trusting a human ruler instead of Himself. Saul was a man after the flesh and His carnal reign caused the Jewish nation to yearn for a man of God to rule over them. The Lord had just such a man in mind, a faithful shepherd boy from Bethlehem. God’s solution for what Israel needed was answered in the beloved, the meaning of David’s name. Likewise, our solution to all life’s difficulties is also found in God’s Beloved born in Bethlehem — the Greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ.
