Fairy Tale Spotlight: Samuel I [Book Review]

"Samuel I" is the ninth book of the "Holy Bible," and it was written by Samuel himself, then followed by Gad and Nathan after he dies. I cannot fully vet these authors, but it was the best research I could get.

Samuel was a prophet of God, starting fairly young and remained a prophet until he died. Here was a very rare moment where a book actually explains how someone actually hears God speak. The first time Samuel hears God, he actually thought it was someone else talking to him. This suggests that he does actually hear a clear voice coming from someone unseen, but as if they were right there. Fascinating!

The book unfortunately goes pretty south (not as in badly written) when the Israelites ask for a king. They do this because they want the prestige that all the heathens have. God intended for Him to be their king, but they want a regular human, and they won't be persuaded any other way.

The first king of Israel is Saul, who was out looking for his donkeys at the time he is found by Samuel and later anointed as king. How do I put this... He's a moron. He is and remains a moron for the entire book of "Samuel I." I'll go so far as to say he was likely mentally deficient as a human being. Something was wrong with him. There was no other person like him up to that point. He was so bad that God actually repents that he ever put him there as king.

God made a mistake? From His perspective He did. That's really none of our business. God can claim He made a mistake, but he can't tell Him that. I have, for a while now, believed that God could make mistakes, but that his mistakes were simply our reality. We have no business accusing him of anything.

David was the next in line, but it was some funny business that happened this time around. Saul actually liked David, but when David actually proves he is a better Philistine-killer than him, he becomes sore jealous to the point that he hunts David down to kill him. But David won't retaliate because Saul is the anointed king of God! Nevertheless, David was also protected by God and went on to be a much better soldier.

Although God did not remove Saul as king, He was pretty much done with him. Saul was allowed to play out his time as King until it all fell apart. It did not seem like God was helping or hindering him aside from plaguing him with the occasional evil spirit. Even so, Saul remained king for a while and ultimately takes his own life to prevent being killed by the enemy. I honestly don't think God even cared that he died. David was his new favorite.

One weird moment that happened towards the end of Saul's life was when he consults a witch to perform a séance to communicate with the ghost of the then departed Samuel. I cannot comprehend how it worked, but somehow Saul was able to communicate with the ghost of Samuel. The connotations of this lead to some very uncomfortable questions that I won't go into here. Just know that this sort of thing shouldn't happen. There's possibly some things about it that I just don't understand.

So there it is! The book was fairly action packed with ups and downs. I'd also like to point out that the Goliath scene was in this one. Must have been pretty damning to Saul when David only kills the giant with a pebble. Oh, and I can confirm that Goliath was a very strongly built 9 foot tall person. He was taken out by a kid that was touched by the hand of God. That's some pretty awesome fairy tale lore. And yes... I do believe that this particular fairy tale is true. The book is highly recommended.

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