I. FIRST AND SECOND SAMUEL
BEING ONE BOOK IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES
In the Hebrew Scriptures 1 and 2 Samuel are one book.
II. THE WRITERS
First Samuel 1 through 24 was written by Samuel. The remainder of 1 Samuel and all of 2 Samuel were written by Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer.
III. THE TIME
The time of the writing of 1 and 2 Samuel was about 1171—1017 B.C.
IV. THE PLACE
The place of writing was Ephraim and Judah.
V. THE CONTENT
The content of 1 and 2 Samuel is the history of Samuel, Saul, and David, which continues the history of the judges and which is a crucial part of the central line of Israel’s history. Samuel was a Levite by birth and a Nazarite by consecration, to be a priest, a prophet, and a judge. He initiated the prophethood to replace the waning priesthood in the speaking for God, terminated the judgeship, and brought in the kingship. Saul was the first king among Israel in the negative sense. David was the king in the positive sense according to the heart of God.
God’s heart is to carry out His economy. His heart is not that we always please Him and make Him happy, nor that we should be good, spiritual, holy, or victorious. He desires neither a good man nor a bad man but a God-man. God created us according to His image and wanted us to take His life, signified by the tree of life. Because we became fallen, God became a man to save us, to redeem us. He died an all-inclusive death for us, and He resurrected to beget us by imparting God’s life and nature into us, making us God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.
We should not regard the Bible as a book that teaches us to be a good man or a spiritual man. The Bible reveals that God wants us to be a "Christ-man." To be a Christian is to be a Christ-man, a man of Christ.
When some hear this, they may argue, pointing out that different portions of the Bible exhort us to be patient, humble, and perfect. There are many such exhortations in the book of Proverbs and in the Epistles of Paul. In understanding these portions we must take the Bible as a whole. The book of Proverbs is a book of wisdom. Wisdom is Christ (1 Cor. 1:30). Christ is our wisdom in our daily living. Furthermore, the Epistles of Paul stress repeatedly that whatever we are and do must be in Christ.
(Life-Study of 1 & 2 Samuel, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
