Message To Kings - A Biblical History Of Man

After the defeat of Nahash and the renewal of the kingship, King Saul dismisses his huge army and only keeps a standing force of 3,000 men. With his small army, he turns it west and attacks the Philistines. This violent act stirs up the Philistines and they show up in force with over 300,000 men. Saul and his army flee and hide and many surrender to the Philistines. Saul, in his fear and without waiting completely for Samuel, steps in front of the Levites and conducts a Levitical sacrifice to gain God's approval. As Saul completes the sacrifice, Samuel arrives. Instead of receiving God's favor, Saul, by ignoring God's law and disobeying Samuel, he receives God's judgment.

After the defeat of Nahash the Ammonite, Samuel calls the people to Gilgal. Here Samuel conducts 'his final address' where he steps down from his role as Judge and renews the kingship of Saul. In 'his final address,' he gives the people a history lesson, teaches them his three secrets to his walk with God and convicts the people for their asking for a king and God confirms it wondrously.

A military power parks an army outside of Jabesh Gilead, a large Israelite town east of the Jordan, and their leader's name is Nahash the Ammonite. Nahash threatens to destroy the city, unless they surrender and allow him to gouge out the right eye of every Israelite. Word is sent throughout Israel and when Saul receives word of the threat of Nahash, the spirit of the Lord comes upon him. When the spirit of the Lord comes upon him, Saul tears apart his ox and sends parts of it throughout Israel and threatens the people with their lives if they do not come to the aid of Jabesh Gilead. The response was fantastic: 330,000 Israelite men show up to fight for Saul. What follows is military brilliance on the part of Saul: he splits his army in three and leads them in a daring night attack to rescue Jabesh Gilead.

After Saul was anointed king of Israel in private, Samuel calls the people together publically at Mizpah. Samuel called the people together, tribe by tribe and clan by clan until Saul, the son of Kish was chosen to be their king. Saul could not be found. After Saul was found missing, the question was poised before God, 'has the man come here yet?' and the answer was 'Yes, he has hidden himself among the baggage…' Guest Speaker: Jannel Heaston

After Israel asks for a king, a man of Benjamin loses his donkeys, and ends up before Prophet Samuel. Samuel prepares a meal for this man, whose name is Saul, and anoints him the first official King of Israel. In this episode, we will cover the very detailed ministry of Prophet Samuel.

After the events at Mispah, Samuel goes on to become a most exceptional prophet, priest and Israel's last judge. Samuel grows old and Israel looks for the next judge, but Samuel's sons were corrupt. It was at this moment, that Israel asked for a king and for all of the wrong reasons. God's answer was clear, 'you are rejection my leadership.' Despite this rejection, God would grant them their request - King Saul.Guest Speaker: Jason Ross

After the Ichabod season and the return of the Ark of the Covenant, Samuel calls a prayer meeting. All of Israel goes to Mispah in sack cloth and ashes to repent and seek God, while their overlords, the Philistines, go to Mispah with swords and violence on the mind. The result was not a physical confrontation as much as a spiritual one, as breakthrough occurs when Samuel conducts the first unhindered burnt offering in years and the power of the blood of the lamb is displayed for all...

In fulfillment of prophecy, judgment was coming to Eli and his sons. The Philistines attack Israel and Israel loses four thousand men in the first day of battle. In a last ditch effort to save themselves, the Israelites bring the Ark of the Covenant in battle the second day. Instead of bringing them victory, thirty thousand Israelites die in battle with Hophi and Phineus and on the same day Eli dies and the Ark of the Covenant is captured by the Philistines.The rest of the episode, we cover the captivity of the Ark of the Covenant in Philistia and what happens when we treat God's presence like a good luck charm, we look at God as our prize and we treat God with contempt.

The young boy Samuel grew up in the house of the Lord, all the while, Hophi and Phineus continued to desecrate the sacrifices of Israel. As sin increased and the defilement of the priesthood continued, Samuel grew in the anointing and purposes of God. In this episode, we cover the call of Samuel by God himself.

At the end of the Era of Judges, a woman by the name of Hannah was barren. Her husband married another woman as well named Peninnah, who bore him many children. In her distress, Hannah poured out her soul to the Lord in a dramatic account in Shiloh in front of the high priest Eli. The Lord was so moved by her prayer and dedication of a future son, God answered her prayer and gave her a son, whose name would be Samuel, and her story is memorialized for all time at the beginning of the book 1 Samuel. Guest Speaker: Jannel Heaston

About a month back, the historypodcasters.com website featured this podcast among others in a history collage titled 'Terrible Leaders.' A 9 minute special episode was put together on Israel's worst king, King Manasseh, but it was difficult to narrow the episode to 9 minutes. The original recording was 17 minutes, so we are publishing the unabridged recording for the subscribers of the podcast.

Samson had been completely undefeated in every battle, until he met a prostitute named Delilah. He loved Delilah and Delilah loved money. When the Philistine rulers offered Delilah 5500 shekels of silver for the secret of Samson's great strength, she received the challenge and pulled every trick in her spiritual and physical armory to destroy Samson. In this episode, we cover her four pronged attack on Samson and the end of Samson.

In this account, we take a fictional look at the account of Samson and the Gates of Gaza from Judges 16:1-3. Samson went to Gaza to be with a prostitute, but the Philistines set a trap for him. Cornered at the gate of Gaza, Samson showed supernatural strength when he tore the gate from its hinges and carried it deep into Israel to Hebron.

In this episode, we continue our look at the account of Judge Samson. Here are Samson's first words in the Bible, 'I have seen a woman, now get her for me.' Against the law, Samson desired to marry a Philistine woman in Timnath, but when a riddle goes bad, a simple wedding feast goes from a family conflict to violence in a city to the destruction of a national harvest to a national armed conflict.

In this account, we will cover the heavenly visitation to the wife of a Danite man, named Manoah. In the visitation to the nameless barren wife, God told her she would bear a child and the rule of his life was to be a Nazirite. The lifetime Nazirite vow was the secret to their son's unnatural strength. Nine months later, she gave birth to their son whose name was Samson and his calling was to begin to deliver Israel.

In this episode, we will discuss the last three minor Judges, Ibzan, Elon and Abdon, and the priesthood under the high priest Eli in Shiloh. A look at the minor Judges reveals the destructive trend toward monarchial government, while Eli and the priesthood continues to conduct the sacrifices and priesthood functions.

After the death of Abimelek, two minor Judges, Tola and Jair, lived and judged regions of Israel. After these minor Judges, Jephthah freed Israel from an Ammonite invasion, but in the process Jephthah made a foolish vow and later nearly destroyed the tribe of Ephraim. We conclude this account, not with the character flaws of Jephthah, but with a personal account reflection of Jephthah's calling.

After the death of Gideon, Israel falls away from God again. This time, anarchy reigns, in the form of the selfish and ambitious Abimelek. Abimelek persuades the town of Shechem to support him, over his 70 brothers. The leaders of Shechem give him cursed silver, which he used to hire a mercenary army and he goes and kills his 70 brothers and is crowned king in Shechem, but he only reigns for 3 years when his own people turn on him fulfilling the curse of Jotham. In this episode, we present the opposites: humble christian leadership vs. selfish ambition

After God reduces Gideon's army to 300, Gideon is terrified but God comforts him. He goes down to the Midianite camp, where he hears a dream and interpretation which overwhelms him and causes him to spontaneously worship. Next, the Spirit of the Lord overtakes Gideon and empowers him to surround the Midianite camp in a wild attack with shofars and torches and empty vessels. The remaining account covers this attack and remainder of the pursuit of Midian and the peace of Gideon.

The Midianites and other nations invade Southern Israel and ravage it. After 7 years of oppression, Israel cries out to God. In turn, God calls upon a most unexpected hero and judge - Gideon. In this account, we discuss Gideon's calling and his relationship and testing of God and how Gideon ended up with 300 men.