First Samuel, the last Judge
A reflection on I Samuel 8:4-11, 16-20, 11:14-15 The season after Pentecost, which lasts until the season of Advent – or the end of November, offers us expanded sets of readings – every Sunday we will have two options for the Old Testament reading. For the time being we have chosen to follow Track One, which follows an entire book of the OT. Last summer we heard readings from the Book of Genesis and talked about the creation of the people of God through the great stories of our ancient mothers and fathers of faith. Genesis is the first book of the Pentateuch – five books also known as the Torah – the primary readings of the Hebrew people and modern day Jews. The Pentateuch lays out the law of God, how the people are to live according to what God desires. It begins with Abraham and then continues with Moses freeing the people from slavery in Egypt, forty years of wandering in the desert in the book of Exodus, two books of laws known as Numbers and Leviticus, and then in...