 Okay, good morning to all of you who are here and we'll get into first Samuel, all right. So last week we did the book of Ruth and on Tuesday I could not take a class but yeah today we will have first Samuel it actually is on you guys can't hear is it online they're saying that they can hear me which I'm very glad about but maybe you could one of you could you know call Milken and maybe he can do come and do something about it so could we have one volunteer to just quickly go up to him and you know in case my voice is not very clear if one person can go and call Milken but online it seems to be all right one two three seems to be all right so online it's perfectly fine so let's just get started you can open your ears wide or you can bring pull up your rod table a little closer okay let's actually begin first Samuel now first Samuel is a narrative history it basically talks about Samuel and Saul and David these are the three main characters who are covered in our first Samuel they say that most probably the first 24 chapters were written by Samuel himself because he was alive during those events but chapter 25 on but chapter 26 onwards those are events which took place after his death so obviously it means that someone else would have recorded those events so they say that most probably it was Nathan or Gad you know the prophets they are probably the ones who most probably recorded the events which took place after Samuel's death if we can have the students actually settle down and stop moving about yeah it's kind of distracting sorry all right so the prophets probably would have recorded the events and then someone later on must have brought all the records together and compiled it into one single writing at a later point of time why do we say that because in first Samuel chapter 27 verse 6 it talks about the kings of Judah so the kings of Judah is a term that would have been used after the Israelite kingdom was split up into two kingdoms the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom of Judah so if this term is now being used over here in first Samuel it means that whoever did the final compilation whoever did the final editing of this particular book would have done it sometime after the death of Solomon because it's only after Solomon's time that the kingdom got split up into two and that is when the term Kings of Judah would have been written at all so that is why we can say that Samuel probably wrote the first 24 books the events which took place after his death probably would have been recorded by Nathan or Gad or any of the other prophets and finally after the time of Solomon someone must have brought all the records together and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit would have edited it and compiled it into this final document which we have with us today all right so coming to the structure of first Samuel the first seven chapters mainly focus on Samuel that is where we get to know about how the Ark of the Covenant was taken away by the Philistines the plagues which come upon the Philistines because they have taken the Ark and how they return it back all of those things are mentioned in the first seven chapters chapters 8 to 15 talk about Saul mainly that is where we get to see Saul and we get to know that Saul was appointed and anointed by God but then he was also rejected by the Lord due to his disobedience those are the main things that we see in this section the third section maybe we could say is 16 to 31 because that is where you have David being mainly focused upon so in this section we see David being chased by Saul he's he's worried about his life and he's trying to escape again and again and he also gets a chance to attack Saul and kill him but he does not do that because he says that Saul has been anointed by God and so if God wishes to God must kill him I do not have the right to kill him so he chooses not to do that and then of course we also see how Saul ends his life he commits suicide so all of these things are recorded in the last section chapter 16 to 31 coming to Samuel just to talk a little bit about him he was considered one of the most popular respected revered you know profits of his time and he functioned in three main capacities he was a judge he actually held court solved you know civil cases and criminal cases he actually served as a judge we see that in first Samuel chapter 7 verses 15 to 17 where it talks about how he would go to 4 different places and hold court over there so that people can bring their cases over there and he would sit as judge over there and solve those cases he would reach a judgment regarding those things so if someone could turn to first Samuel chapter 7 verses 15 to 17 and if you could kindly tell me which are the four places from where he functioned as judge because yeah and the fourth place yes so these are the four places where he would travel to during different parts of the year so one part of the year he would be in one location then he would move to a different location and he was actually serving as a legal judge he was also a priest which meant mainly that he would intercede for the people we see an example of that in first Samuel chapter 7 verses 5 to 8 in first Samuel chapter 7 verses 5 to 8 this is basically after the Ark of God is returned by the Philistines so all the people they admit that they have sinned against God and because of that the glory of God had left them now they are repentant of what they have done they want to come back to the Lord and to come back to the Lord is not an easy thing in the sense God is extremely holy and he cannot put up with sinful behavior he must judge them for what they have done so they turn to Samuel to intercede for them so Samuel intercedes for them and so all the people gather together at mispah where Samuel intercedes on their behalf so that the Lord would be willing to forgive them of all their sinful behavior and he would be willing to take them back so even as they gather over there and Samuel is interceding for them the Philistines get to know that a large number of Israelites have gathered over there and they think that this is an excellent time for them to attack and so at that time the people cry out to Samuel and they say do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us so once again Samuel intercedes for them so that they are not you know killed by the Philistines so Samuel was an intercessor he was their priest we also see that Samuel was a prophet and some people say that he was the first prophet which you know is technically not true because we also had prophets before that we had Moses we had Deborah these were all prophets who were there before Samuel however Samuel is called by scholars as the first prophet maybe because he made it into an official institution up to then prophets were just people whom God chose and then they would just you know do whatever God is asking them to do but now for the first time something officially called the institution of prophecy came into existence because he set up many schools of prophecy many prophetic schools and they are mentioned in a few of the passages in first Samuel where it actually talks about the school of prophets which was established by Samuel and we have two incidents first Samuel chapter 10 verses 9 to 11 talk about the school of prophets and we also have first Samuel chapter 19 verses 19 to 20 which also talks about the school of prophets can someone look at these two passages and tell me what what strikes you what is the what what's the contrast between these two passages the only reason I'm posing all these questions today is because I see a lot of deadness in the class people are like completely tuned out and very sleepy and tired and this is just my attempt to kind of you know get your attention so if you would look at first Samuel chapter 10 verses 9 to 11 and then first Samuel chapter 19 verses 19 to 20 in both of these passages you have the school of prophets being mentioned and there's a contrast between these two passages can anyone just very quickly detect what is the difference between passage one and passage two first Samuel 10 9 to 11 the second one being first Samuel 19 19 to 20 what is one main contrast between these two passages where the school of prophets are mentioned in the first passage this is basically when Saul has not yet become King he's you know searching for his father's animals which have strayed away and he comes to Samuel and that is when Samuel says to him that God is going to appoint you as King God has chosen you so this is just in the early days when when when when when Saul has not even become King as yet and even as you know Samuel finishes talking to Saul and Saul is turning away to go back home the Lord comes upon him in a mighty way and all the prophets are gathered over there it's a school of prophecy that he has come to and even as he's just turning away and leaving from that place the Holy Spirit comes down upon him in a mighty way and he begins to prophesy along with all of them and people are amazed and this is what it says in first Samuel chapter 10 verse 11 where it says when all those who had formerly known him saw him prophesying with the prophets they asked each other what is this that has happened to the son of Kish is Saul also among the prophets so they rather suppress it here is an ordinary man who never had prophesied in his entire life and now he is prophesying and so they say is Saul also among the prophets that is the first incident where we have this mention of the school of prophets yes yeah so ha so in okay for those of you who are online one of the students read out their version and in that version it says has Saul also become a prophet okay so so there was so what is the question is there any question attached yeah but whatever he was doing must have been some kind of prophesying because when we go back to the original Hebrew Bible over there it very much says is he also prophesying in that sense so yes maybe he was dancing maybe he was shouting but he was also prophesying in what style he was doing the prophesying that maybe your version has elaborated upon but one thing is very very clear the man prophesied and people who knew him were shocked because he had never been a prophet in this life but now they saw him prophesying and so here we see something very beautiful happening the Lord is kind of putting his mark of approval on this young man and saying this man I approve of him I have chosen him I have something special planned for his life and so he joins with the school of prophets and he prophesies and then when we move to the second passage which was first Samuel 19 19 to 20 the scenario is very different it's very sad and now at this time by this time Saul is chasing after David he wants to murder him is trying desperately to find him and David is running for his life he's trying to hide here and there and so he desperately comes to this place called now oath where he asks Samuel for protection for help and so David hides in now oath where you are you have another school of prophets established in that place so so David is hiding over there and when Saul gets to know about it he sends his soldiers to capture him and bring him back so that he can be executed and so in that you know if you look at that entire passage the soldiers go there they want to capture him but before they can capture him they all open their mouths and start prophesying they have no control over themselves and so they are under literally under the control of the Holy Spirit and they're unable to do what they came to do and so he sends a second batch of soldiers they to go over there and the Holy Spirit comes upon them and takes control of them and they're unable to do what they are meant to do they just stand over there prophesying so this happens again and again and so finally Saul himself comes over there he thinks there's no point in sending my soldiers so in verses 23 and 24 of first Samuel chapter 19 he comes over there and then you have a description of what God does to him a very scary frightening Bible passage so if we could have someone read out first Samuel chapter 19 verses 23 to 24 so the first time when the people said can Saul also prophesy is he also a prophet it was a very positive thing that they were saying but now now this man is in a fallen state this murder in his heart he has made up his mind that he's going to shed the blood of the person anointed by God himself and God brings judgment upon him so the second time when he's prophesying it's not at all something positive God's judgment is upon him God humiliates him God punishes him God judges him in front of all the people you know so he came over there to to do harm to David but then he is the one who ends up being harmed so a king you know being made to take off his clothes and lie over there in a helpless state what a humiliation and all the kingdom must have heard about it and people would have laughed about it so you know God was very angry with the way Saul was functioning instead of repenting of his attitude he was becoming more and more determined to somehow capture David even though he knew very well that God himself had anointed David and so we have these two incidents which talk about the school of prophets and we have the story of Saul told over here in both these passages and we see such a great contrast so Saul who could have had a very positive future instead ends up coming under the judgment of God where he's literally humiliated in front of his people another thing about the book of 1st Samuel the term Messiah is used for the very first time in 1st Samuel chapter 2 verse 10 so if we could have someone over here read out 1st Samuel chapter 2 verse 10 the word anointed over there that basically is the word Messiah that is being used for the very first time so if you were to look into the Hebrew Bible the word over there would be Messiah so that's the word that word is used for the first time over here where God says that one day a king will come whose horn will be exalted because you know he would be anointed by God himself what exactly is this whole idea about a horn you know being exalted basically the imagery is of a bull you know when a bull gets into a fight with another bull or with whatever other wild animal at the end of the battle once the bull is victorious it raises up its horns in victory so that is basically where the imagery was drawn from so in those days in their culture when they were whenever they would say the horns are being lifted or exalted they basically talking about victory okay so that's basically the imagery the imagery is being drawn from a bull and the way it acts the way it lifts up its horns when it has won the victory so here it is being said that one day when the Messiah is sent his horn will be exalted he will be victorious okay so glad to see my class awake I think I have got their attention now it took the humiliation of Saul to wake them up but I'm so glad it has happened yeah alright now we see something rather strange regarding this whole kingship stuff you know because Samuel is very upset when the people ask for a king and the Lord is very displeased when the people ask for a king but it was God in the beginning who said that they would be having kings and God is even talking about you know a Messiah who will be sent and he will be exalted so God wants to have a king God has prophesied about a king but when the people ask for a king God is unhappy so what is this whole thing I mean how do we understand this entire thing so let's actually look at all the Bible passages related to that we would have to first look at Genesis chapter 17 verse 6 which someone will read out for us from here Genesis 17 6 okay so this is a prophecy that God very plainly clearly gives to Abraham saying you know what your lineage is going to be a great one kings are going to come from among your descendants so God himself is saying that kings will be coming one day from the lineage of Abraham and then let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 17 verses 14 to 15 and if someone could read out that look at the wording that is used over here in verse 14 it says when you have you know taken position of the land and you have settled down in it and at that time when you say let us set a king over us like all the nations around us be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God has chosen okay so over here there is no condemnation at all it doesn't say when you say those words you know let us set a king over us like all the nations bad people you shouldn't be saying that there's no such I know criticism made over there it's just saying when your people make that statement let us set a king over us like all the nations around us be sure to appoint someone that the God that the Lord himself has anointed and appointed so there is no kind of anger or displeasure from the Lord regarding this matter but when we come over here to first Samuel chapter 8 Samuel is displeased the Lord is also very very displeased so what happened what went wrong maybe we would need to read those verses first Samuel chapter 8 verses 5 to 8 if we could have one person lead out yeah please go ahead yes okay if you read these verses we get the clear impression that Samuel is not happy about their request and God is most displeased he says in verse 7 it is not you they have rejected but they have rejected me as their king and in verse 8 he says forsaking me and serving other God so they are doing to you so God is very displeased it's so it is the Lord who first of all said that they would have a king the Lord in fact even prophesied and said that this king would be someone who would be anointed and exalted you know in the future he would be anointed and exalted because he would be the Messiah all of these things the Lord has been saying but finally when the people actually ask for a king God is not happy so we see an explanation for that in first Samuel chapter 8 itself verses 19 to 20 so if you know if you can very someone can read out for us and if the rest of you can really concentrate on what these verses are saying okay so the problem seems to be the motive with which they are asking God does want them to have a king and God wants them to have a king in his timing not in their timing but the attitude with which they are asking is wrong why do they want to be like all the other nations because if they have a king he can lead them into battle and fight their battles for them so the motive here is wrong they are kind of feeling insecure being under the commander you know being under the command of an invisible God whom they cannot see whom they cannot hear if they have a physical king in front of them the king will say okay you bunch go that said and fight you bunch go this said and fight someone who can know whom they can see and hear it would be easy for them you don't need any spiritual maturity to be able to see an actual king and hear his voice on the other hand if the king if God is the commander of the army then you would need a little bit of spiritual maturity because then they would have to turn to the priest the priest will speak to the Lord and the Lord will give directions on what is to be done and they don't want to operate in this way because they are very very fleshly and human in their behavior in their attitudes and they have no desire to grow spiritually so they want to be like all the other nations in the wrong sense they don't want to have to depend on the Lord or grow in him and learn to hear from him they want it easy just like all the other kings just listen to a human king and do whatever the king says they also want to come down to that level and that is why the Lord says they have rejected me as their king I am the one who led them into battles and gave them miraculous victories I did I change the laws of physics you know God parted the sea God created havoc among the enemy where they killed each other these are all things almighty things which their commander did and now they're saying no no we don't want that commander because it takes a little bit of too much commitment we need to stay in line with him we need to be pleasing to him if we you know go go into sin then he will not be there for us so they want to continue living their immoral lifestyle and they want to have a human king so the whole attitude with which they asked for a king was highly wrong and also of course it would have been maybe more polite if they had said Lord in your timing can you give us a king but no they were like give us a king now you want the king now so they were they did not care about God's timing and they also had the very very wrong motive in their hearts about why they wanted a king and that is the reason why God was displeased but originally God did want them to have a king he wanted to give them a king in his timing and he wanted them to have the right hearts when they would ask for a king but that was not the case and so the Lord was displeased with them moving on very quickly to maybe what else we can cover in this book people generally bring up this particular verse first Samuel chapter 16 verse 14 and there's a lot of debate that goes on regarding that so if we could have one person read out first Samuel chapter 16 verse 14 and then we'll see if we can try to understand what is being said okay so in the version which was read out over here it said that the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and a distressing spirit from the Lord came upon him you know so different versions English versions try to use different words I know they say distressing spirit they say harmful spirit they say they try to avoid the term evil spirit because evil spirits clearly sounds demonic so they just try to you know use other terms but then if you go back to the original Hebrew you basically have good and bad good would be tov and bad would be very clearly it says over there that the spirit which came was it was evil okay so there's no avoiding the fact that this was definitely an evil spirit that is being talked about so the question which is raised is how could God send an evil spirit to trouble someone he could have sent a holy angel to trouble him why did we send an evil spirit okay so that is the question which is generally raised yeah yeah so the student over here who's pointing out the fact that when the final you know plague was sent in Egypt and the angel of death was sent that person that is an angel of death a negative force so now I don't know whether over there God released evil spirits to come and do the killing or God used his angels to bring judgment not sure about that so angel of death over there could be someone from the Lord's own army or it might have been you know so I'm not very sure about that but over here very clearly it is an evil spirit from the Lord which is being sent how would we understand something like this we who live in New Testament times have a little more clarity regarding these things because of things events which are mentioned in our New Testament maybe we can learn some lessons from the New Testament and apply them to this particular passage in the Old Testament and of course I'm referring to 1st Corinthians chapter 5 verses 4 to 5 where it talks about a man who was living in immorality openly he was living in immorality and all the people in the church were thinking oh this is an alright thing to do you know so it was a very terrible situation and so over there this is what Paul instructs should be done you know regarding this particular person yeah so if we could actually have someone read out 1st Corinthians chapter 5 verses 4 to 5 okay so over here the instruction that is very clearly given is this man is living in outright sin and is not even feeling guilty about it and the rest of the church members are thinking oh okay this is an alright thing to do and so he needs to be excommunicated he must be removed from the church and not allowed to enter the church anymore and so basically when he's removed from the church what is happening in the supernatural realm is that the protection of God which covers his people is going to be withdrawn from this person so it's not just a social excommunication there's something happening even at the spiritual level at the social level yes the believers are going to excommunicate him but at the spiritual level God is withdrawing his covering from this particular person you know it's not sure that you have ever really consciously thought about it but in your homes you are under the covering of your parents even you are in a church you are under the spiritual covering of the senior pastor and depending on what kind of a person that person is the one who's under who's under whose covering you are it can have a great impact upon your life you know for instance I mean those of us who are from families where the spiritual covering is not there in the sense that your parents have not yet become I know believers who have made a commitment to the Lord that makes it harder for you I mean because you know you are a believer but the evil one can attack to a greater extent simply because the head of the house is not able to provide an adequate covering and there's always greater conflict greater battles that you have to go through it's the same in a church when the senior pastor is not providing the covering that is required it does harm the congregation so over here this is a very serious thing that's happening when this person is removed from the church even the covering and protection of God is going to be removed and he's going to stand completely exposed to the evil one so it's almost literally like handing over the man to Satan it's like almost like you know saying to Satan you know this man is now fully you know vulnerable you can do what you want with him but when God does this his intention is not for evil why is this being done so that that flesh of that man that sinful nature of that man can be destroyed because right now he's thinking oh this is a wonderful way to live the sinful lifestyle is really cool it's really good is what he is thinking but once he gets into the hands of Satan and there's no covering protecting him then he'll know how wonderful Satan is and how wonderful are Satan's ways he will fully experience what it feels like to be under Satan and his flesh would be destroyed he would come to his senses and he would understand how much better to be under the protection of my Lord God and he would come back so with that intention he's turned over to Satan so that he can understand what actually happens when a person is left to Satan and the Lord is no longer covering and protecting them so in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 6 to 10 we see the result of this treatment 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 6 to 10 where it says in verse 7 you know now this man has repented of his sin he has fully experienced Satan he has understood how terrible it is and now it says you know you ought to forgive and comfort him so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow and then in verse 11 it says you know you need to do this because in order that Satan might not outwit us for we are not unaware of his schemes so now that this person has repented Paul instructs and says bring him back into the fold let him come back under the covering of you know the corporate the church so that you know Satan cannot take advantage of him anymore okay so in that sense even here in the Old Testament is my assumption that God allowed an evil spirit to come and torment Saul not because God hated Saul but because God wanted to give him a chance to change now did Saul change that is another question how much time do we have okay we have time so we see that Saul is no longer hearing from God and God is no longer speaking to him because he's not repenting the man is not repenting so the Lord this is not talking to him anymore and so when the Philistines gather a huge army gathers against them Saul is so desperate he goes to the Lord for instructions God keeps silent God doesn't say a word why because this man is only wants to see what he can get out of it he doesn't care about honoring the Lord he doesn't care about God's will he just wants to know can we win this battle or not he so he's not really going over there with the right attitude so God keeps quiet God does not tell him what to do and he's so desperate he thinks fine let me go to a medium of which someone who practices black magic let me go to that person maybe at least they will give me some guidance some help and so he that happens in first Samuel chapter 28 where Saul stoopes to an extent where he goes to someone who is on the devil's side to ask for guidance because the man is now in such a desperate state but then let's not criticize Saul too much because in first Samuel chapter 28 we see David also doing something extremely ungodly and stupid David is getting ready to fight along with the Philistines against the anointed of God okay so it's not exactly David who is shining over here in this chapter both of them are at a really low spiritual level David is at a low spiritual level getting ready to fight against his own people with the Philistines Saul terrified that such a huge army is coming against him doesn't know where to turn goes to a witch for advice so both of them are doing rather bad over here in this particular passage but coming to the end of first Samuel chapter 28 verse 19 where you have you know Samuel coming up out of I don't know not it's not exactly out of the grave but anyway he makes his he makes a physical appearance over there and this is what Samuel says if you could have someone read out first Samuel chapter 28 verse 19 okay so Samuel who is now dead and who has now come in spirit form to talk to Saul this is what he says he says you will lose the battle the Philistines will win but tomorrow you and your sons will be with me nobody would say that Samuel is in hell you would definitely say that Samuel is in heaven so and more of it says your sons will be with me and I don't know much about the sons of Saul because nothing much is given in the Bible but we do know one righteous son Jonathan who was killed in that battle so if Jonathan is going to be in heaven with Samuel and it says over here you and your sons will be with me so I'm assuming at the end of it all probably even Saul made it into heaven so the Lord's purpose was never to destroy Saul but he gave him opportunities to repent he allowed an evil spirit to torment him again and again hoping that it would drive him back into the arms of God but this man I think probably just didn't want to hear God you know maybe he just hardened his heart to an extent where he really didn't want to hear but there must have been some goodness in him that the Lord saw and so he allowed him to come into his presence after his death so we don't really know the details but we see that Saul actually ends his life in a very tragic and terrible manner if anyone has got any vital important doubts we can get into that others maybe we can take a look at Saul's death and how he died will it be questions or will it be the death scene of Saul which one would you prefer shall we just go ahead because you see here you have two accounts of yeah there's a question bubbling go ahead we'll discuss that later because the online students have got nothing to do with it yeah okay this is just about the written assignment for the students over here so you don't need to concern yourselves about that so let's move into you know the two accounts about Samuel's death sorry Saul regarding Saul's death in 1st Samuel chapter 31 verses 1 to 6 it's it we are told that Saul killed himself and then when we come to 2nd Samuel chapter 1 verses 4 to 10 there's an Amulakite who says that he is the one who killed Saul so is the bible contradicting itself you know is there a mistake being made in the bible so we would need to kind of resolve that we need to kind of touch upon that so just to very quickly you know talk about this because we don't have much time left in 1st Samuel chapter 31 verses 1 to 6 it very clearly describes the the various events that you know led to the final suicide the Philistines have won and Saul realizes that next they're going to come and you know take hold of him and he doesn't want to die at the hands of these Philistines you know with whom he had a struggle his entire life and he doesn't want any of them killing him so he feels it's better for him to not die rather than you know die with Saul you know by his own hand rather than have any of those terrible people touch him okay so he's kind of in that kind of mode you know and so he actually commits suicide but over here when we come to 2nd Samuel chapter 1 verses 4 to 10 you have an Amulakite coming and boasting in front of David and saying you know what I am the one who killed him so we would probably have to accept the fact I mean at least this is what sounds correct to me and to many of the scholars they say that most probably in 2nd Samuel chapter 1 the Amulakite was lying because he was trying to gain favor with David and we can actually have some good reasoning you know to support what we are saying because you know if the armor bearer the sauce armor bearer once he sees that his king is dead he's the man who's supposed to protect the king and the king has killed himself just now so he's so horrified and shattered that he could not fulfill his duty that he also kills himself and if the armor bearer had still been alive you think he would have allowed this Amulakite to peacefully come over there and take his crown and take his arm band and walk off no the armor bearer would have killed him so the Amulakite when he came over there he would have seen both of them already lying dead then he takes the crown he takes the arm band and thinks up a scheme if I go and give this to David and say you know I am the one who killed David would be really happy and say oh wow I'm so glad you helped me but you know of course David does not do that another thing a very valid argument which I read somewhere is that would Saul ask an Amulakite of all the people on earth would he ask an Amulakite to kill him because he hates the Amulakites guts you see they are the reason that God finally takes the throne away from him God says to him wipe out the Amulakites and what does this man do he disobeys God very deliberately and because of that his kingdom is snatched away from him I seriously doubt he would ask an Amulakite to kill him he did not want to be he did not want to die at the hands of the Philistines he says rather than allow one of those horrible Philistines to touch me I'd rather kill myself and a man like that you think he would have asked a requested an Amulakite to kindly kill him no way so the Amulakite in chapter second Samuel is most definitely lying and yeah David does not reward him for his lying rather you know he is executed so there are two versions of Saul's death and the first one is correct because over there all the details are given about how exactly it happened on the other hand in second Samuel you just have the words of an Amulakite and he was you know most probably lying because whatever he is saying does not really add up okay so um there are other things to be said because after all first Samuel is a historical book and it's filled with history and lots of events but then we are out of time so we will close and now in the three minutes that we have left any brilliant questions why are you looking to your spokesman if you want to ask the question you ask him why we'll we'll get to at least let's finish with the online students okay so let's close with a word of prayer okay um Lord we just thank you so much for the lessons that we could learn from this book of the Bible we pray oh Lord that as and when required you would bring these things back to our mind so that we will apply them in our own lives in our own situations and honor you oh Lord we pray that we would not allow ourselves to waste the second chances that are given to us the way Saul did he was given many opportunities oh Lord to change his ways but he was foolish and we pray that we would not be foolish in the same manner but that Lord we would have a soft heart like David who was always willing to repent and admit his sinfulness and turn back to you so we pray oh Lord that we would be like David and not like uh Saul regarding our repentance we also pray oh Lord that we would learn from Samuel and his character a man oh Lord who always stayed faithful to you did what was your will uh was such a blessing to his entire nation because he was always your hands and your feet oh Lord whatever you wanted done he did it oh Lord help us to be like that so that we can be a blessing to our own people in our nation oh Lord thank you a lot for today's lesson and we pray that you would be with each student even as they go about the rest of their responsibilities thank you Lord in Jesus name amen thank you so much online students for you know joining us for the class and we'll meet again tomorrow