FATHER’S SONG (7): Before American Idol: Saul (1 Samuel)

One divine melody permeates the grand narrative of redemptive history.  In this series, Jeremy is guiding us through the biblical narrative–from Genesis to Revelation–with “ears to hear” the penetrating God-beat keeping everything in sync.

The Patriarchal and theocratic years of the Old Testament (Genesis-Judges) have provided the first several musical tracks of the Father’s Song. So far we have caught a glimpse of the eternal, harmonious dance of the Trinity before the creation of the world, and witnessed the Father singing the world and humanity into existence. We saw our first human ancestors stray from the Creator’s intended groove, starting their own amateur, out-of-tune band. Cosmic dissonance was the result (Fall). God’s solution was to start over by forming a small band of people beginning with Abraham and his descendants who would live once again in the divine rhythms of the Father’s Song.

Exodus through Judges has been one long, 40-year long, ear-piercing band rehearsal as God’s people struggle to get in sync with each other and God. The book of Judges ends on a rather sour note reminiscent of a band on the verge of break-up. Perhaps, they wonder, if we found the right lead man, we could turn this thing around and make it on the charts! Here’s my paraphrase of Judges 21:25: “In those days Israel’s band had no lead man; all the musicians played their own tune.”

At last, we now enter the era of the kings and the monarchy of Israel in our exploration of The Father’s Song — a sweeter sounding, broad sketch of the Bible.

Long before there was American Idol, there were wandering, religious charismatics with significant tribal influence called “judges”. Gideon, Samson, Deborah, Barak and others came first. Then the prophet-judge Samuel begins the transition from the period of the judges to the monarchy of Israel. Despite having received the written score of the Father’s Song at Sinai, the band of Israel was unable to learn to live and perform the song on their own. They decided, against God’s will, that they need a talented, charming, crowd-swaying lead man to get the band back on track. They cry out their aging “producer” or “agent” Samuel: “Now appoint for us a king to lead us like all the nations” (1 Sam. 8:5-6).