Anarchy prevailed under the judges. Samuel revived the institution of prophecy in Israel, thus giving guidance in the right way to individual Israelites.

But how could national guidance be provided? When Samuel was old, the people rejected God’s rule for a king “like all the nations.” God warned them through Samuel that the kind of king they desired would be oppressive. However, they stubbornly insisted on such a king. Thus, God through Samuel gave them the kind of king they wanted - Saul, a physically impressive but head-strong ruler.

Samuel anointed Saul as King of Israel at the Lord’s direction. As a young man, Saul was very humble. He began his rule well by delivering the people of Jabesh-gilead from the Ammonites and treating with gracious leniency the Israelites who had opposed his rule.

But then Saul began a series of presumptuous sins caused by pride and stubbornness which led to his fall. First, when he was hard pressed by the Philistines, and Samuel had not arrived at Gilgal to offer sacrifice to God, Saul took it upon himself to do so. Then, he made a foolish command that, had it been carried out, would have caused the death of his brave and righteous son, Jonathan. The last straw came when Samuel directed Saul to destroy the Amalekites, and Saul kept their king, Agag, and the best of their flocks and herds alive, claiming he wanted to sacrifice them to the Lord. When Saul refused to admit his sin, Samuel sternly replied:

Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
He also has rejected you from being king
(1 Samuel 15:22-23).

Samuel mourned for Saul, but the Lord directed Samuel to anoint another king to replace Saul. God selected a young shepherd named David, the youngest of the eight sons of Jesse of the tribe of Judah.

David first served King Saul while quite young by playing soothing music on his harp to the king because the king was troubled by a distressing spirit from the Lord. Saul liked him so much that he made David his armor bearer.

Later, David came from his home in Bethlehem to find Saul and the army of Israel unwilling to fight against the Philistine giant Goliath. David was very courageous because of his deep faith in the Lord. He volunteered to fight Goliath alone, and when the giant cursed him,

Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give you into our hands
(1 Samuel 17:45-47).

Young David killed the heavily armed, giant warrior with a stone from his sling shot and became the hero of Israel.

David became a captain in Saul’s army and behaved very wisely. The Israelite women praised him even above Saul. So Saul became jealous and wary of David and sought to kill him.

Thus David became a fugitive from Saul for years and gathered his own army. This lasted until King Saul and three of his sons, including David’s best friend, Jonathan, were killed by the Philistines in a showdown battle at Mt. Gilboa.

Saul reigned for forty years, including a number of years after David was the rightful king. The Lord allowed Israel to have the kind of king they wanted, and he failed to be what they needed. Now the Lord provided a man after His heart, David.

Judah anointed David as their king in Hebron, but Ishbosheth, son of Saul and the pawn of Saul’s general, Abner, claimed to be king of Israel. Finally, Abner turned against Ishbosheth, and Ishbosheth’s own servants murdered him. David was anointed King of all Israel.

David took Jerusalem from the Jebusites and made it his capital. From there he led his army to victory over the Philistines. He then brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, where he had erected a new tabernacle.

David wanted to build a temple for the Lord, but the Lord, through Nathan the prophet, told him his son would build him a house. He promised David that a descendant of his would reign on the throne of the Lord forever (2 Samuel 7:12-16). God had not forgotten that He had promised Abraham a thousand years earlier that all nations of the earth would be blessed through his seed. Hereafter, we look for the Savior to be descended both from Abraham and David.

David conquered all the foes of Israel on every side. He ruled over all the land God had promised Abraham.

But when David became great, he committed great sins. He committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of his courageous and loyal soldier Uriah and had Uriah killed. When the prophet Nathan charged him with his sins, David repented and asked forgiveness.

God forgave David, but he paid the price for his sins the rest of his life. His baby son born to Bathsheba died. His son Absalom led a rebellion against him and was killed by David’s commander, Joab.

David was guilty of great sins, but he was a great man of faith in God. Under David Israel had what it needed as a nation, the rule of a righteous king. Israel came to the height of its power and glory as a nation.

David was also “the sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Samuel 23:1). Many of the psalms, the poetry of the Hebrews, were written by David. These psalms beautifully express the deepest emotions of the soul, especially praise to God and longing for fellowship with Him. Is any passage more comforting in times of trouble and sorrow than the Shepherd Psalm, Psalm 23, by David, himself a shepherd?

Though David could not build the Temple, the house of God, he drew the plans for its construction and designed the worship connected with it. He also gathered the material for its construction. David also ruled for forty years.

David oversaw the coronation of his son Solomon as king in his stead. Soon after Solomon ascended the throne, God appeared to him in a dream and told him to ask what he desired. Rather than asking for victory, wealth, or fame, Solomon humbly asked for the wisdom to rule God’s people. God was pleased with this request, and promised him wisdom and wealth. Solomon became the wisest and wealthiest man in the world.

Solomon built for the Lord a magnificent Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. After he had built the Temple, he built himself a great palace.

Israel had peace and prosperity throughout the reign of Solomon. People came from many nations to marvel at his wealth and wisdom. The Queen of Sheba came from Southern Arabia and was overwhelmed by his magnificent wealth and wisdom.

But Solomon married many foreign wives as a means of making peace treaties. His queen was the daughter of Pharaoh of Egypt. He gathered a harem of one thousand wives. These pagan wives became the undoing of Solomon and Israel, in that they reintroduced idolatry into Israel and even turned Solomon to idolatry.

Furthermore, to finance his fabulous building projects, Solomon taxed Israel heavily and pressed their young people into his service, just as Samuel had warned. Thus, in Solomon’s old age he sowed the seeds that germinated in the division of the kingdom and the eventual falling away and destruction of Israel. The Lord promise Jeroboam, Solomon’s servant, that he would take ten of the tribes from Solomon’s son and give them to him to rule.

Solomon’s wisdom is expressed in his book Ecclesiastes, in the many wise sayings of Solomon found in the book of Proverbs, and in the poetic Song of Solomon. Solomon, too, reigned forty years.

Israel has now reached its pinnacle of glory, but trouble is clearly on the horizon.