If you ever need a summary of 1 Samuel, here ya go! Ezra sums up nicely the juicy bits of Saul’s reign, which is explained in more detail in 1 Samuel. So why do we need to read it here when we already have it somewhere else? You have to remember as we’re reading 1 Chronicles that this is a separate book, written during a different time period than 1 Samuel. Like we talked about yesterday, 1 Chronicles is sort of like a news article or research paper summarizing the books we’ve already read. It’s a fantastic recap of things we are sure to forget as we add more and more things to the data bases in our brains. I remember thinking in 10th-grade geometry, “What more could there possibly be to learn about math???” So teen. Here I am 30+ years later still learning stuff, even math some days!
If you want to go back and skim through 1 Samuel to remind yourself about the parts in between Ezra’s summary of Saul’s rule and death in today’s reading, I would encourage you to do so. Such great stories. I love how Ezra took some editorial liberties to enhance the drama in today’s reading: verse 4 in my chapter reads, “Saul groaned to his armor bearer, ‘Take your sword and kill me before these pagan Philistines come to taunt and torture me.’” Now, something tells me there wasn’t a reporter standing there to capture that direct quote, and his armor bearer certainly didn’t repeat it later on. It sure makes for thrilling reading, though, doesn’t it!
Writing prompt: brief
Write a brief summary about a long event. I know we’ve done this exercise in the past, but I love it so much, and we always can use the practice! In fact, we may be doing more of this while reading Chronicles!
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