Where does God "live" now?

and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the LORD for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments.

~Exodus 35:21

Well, my initial answer is that God lives in heaven.  However, I did a little more thinking than that I remembered that God isn't only just up in heaven, he is all around us, no matter where we are.  That's why when we go through a rough time, he's always there to listen to whatever we need to say, and catch us when we fall

The Woman of Endor

The Philistines assembled and came and set up camp at Shunem, while Saul gathered all Israel and set up camp at Gilboa.  When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart.  He inquired of the LORD, but the LORD did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets.  Saul then said to his attendants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.”

“There is one in Endor,” they said.

  So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. “Consult a spirit for me,” he said, “and bring up for me the one I name.”

  But the woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?”

~I Samuel 28:4-9

The woman of Endor enters this story fearfully.  Why was she afraid?  Why did she think meeting with Saul might bring about her death?

• she may have been afraid that she was going to be captured as a prisoner
• because he didn't care for people of her kind

Saul swore to her by the LORD, “As surely as the LORD lives, you will not be punished for this.”

  Then the woman asked, “Whom shall I bring up for you?”

“Bring up Samuel,” he said.

  When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!”

  The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?”

The woman said, “I see a ghostly figure coming up out of the earth.”

  “What does he look like?” he asked.

“An old man wearing a robe is coming up,” she said.

Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.

~I Samuel 28:10-14

Who do you think appears?  Is it really Samuel, or is it another spirit impersonating Samuel?  What does this tell you about occult practices?

• Samuel definitely appears
• That, if you talk to the right person, they can reveal the truth, possibly

What "spirits" have you consulted in order to know or plan your future, or just for "fun"?  Horoscopes?  Cards?  Fortune-tellers?  Ouija boards?  How do you react when told nothing like this should be done for "fun"?

• It has been a really long time but I've probably looked at horoscopes now and then.
• Even if I were to look into doing it more often, I would never do it just for fun

Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?”

“I am in great distress,” Saul said. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has departed from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do.”

  Samuel said, “Why do you consult me, now that the LORD has departed from you and become your enemy?  The LORD has done what he predicted through me. The LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbors—to David.  Because you did not obey the LORD or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the LORD has done this to you today.  The LORD will deliver both Israel and you into the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The LORD will also give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.”

  Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, filled with fear because of Samuel’s words. His strength was gone, for he had eaten nothing all that day and all that night.

~I Samuel 28:15-20

How did Saul react when he found out he would die the next day?

• with fear

How would you react if you truly knew today was your last day alive?   What would you do?

• I think I would be pretty scared at first, but do anything in my power to accept that fact.  I think on my last day I would spend every last second with my closest loved ones

When the woman came to Saul and saw that he was greatly shaken, she said, “Look, your servant has obeyed you. I took my life in my hands and did what you told me to do.  Now please listen to your servant and let me give you some food so you may eat and have the strength to go on your way.”

  He refused and said, “I will not eat.”

But his men joined the woman in urging him, and he listened to them. He got up from the ground and sat on the couch.

  The woman had a fattened calf at the house, which she butchered at once. She took some flour, kneaded it and baked bread without yeast.  Then she set it before Saul and his men, and they ate. That same night they got up and left.

~I Samuel 28:21-25

What does the woman of Endor's reaction to Saul in these verses tell you about her underlying character?

• that she is a very caring person and doesn't want someone to inflict harm on themselves

When have you shown kindness to someone you knew for sure was in the wrong?  What did you do?

• I believe I have shown kindness to people who have wronged me or others nearly all the time!  If it was a wrong against me, I would simply pray for them to come to a realization that they were wrong and that the would ask me for my forgiveness

abigail

Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David moved down into the Desert of Paran.

  A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel.  His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings—he was a Calebite.

~I Samuel 25:1-3

How does this description of Nabal and Abigail set the stage for what is to come?

• We could possibly see that there may be a few arguments between the main characters mentioned

These verses reveal what a mismatched couple Nabal and Abigail were.  How do women in Abigail's possition cope?

• I suppose that if, either they love their "mismatched" husband, or,. if they feel like there really is no option to escape such a situation, they kind of just go with the flow with what there husbnad says and just bare the burden of troubles

 While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep.  So he sent ten young men and said to them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name.  Say to him: ‘Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!

  “‘Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing.  Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.’”

  When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name. Then they waited.

  Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days.  Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”

  David’s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word.

~I Samuel 25:4-12

Compare the words of David with teh words of Nabal.  What does this tell you about each man?

• David is very friendly and welcoming and Nabal is very suspicious

What do the words of those around you tell you about who they are and what they are like?  What do your words reveal about you?

• I'm not certain if I will answer this question correctly, but, peoples opions could tell us about how that person grew up, whether that means they grew up sheltered or if they grew up in a racist family.  What do you think?

 David’s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word.  David said to his men, “Each of you strap on your sword!” So they did, and David strapped his on as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.

~I Samuel 25:12-13

Why was David's reaction the wrong reaction?

• Because Nabal had not threatened David at all.  He just didn't know who David's men were talking about

What does Luke 6:27-31 have to say about how you should react when you've been wronged?

• here is what Luke 6:27-31 says:
  

   “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,  bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.  Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.  Do to others as you would have them do to you.

  First of all I love this set of verses.  It got me through some tough times a number of years ago.  Basically, no matter how much someone says they dislike or hate us, we need to treat them like we love them, and be kind to them.  In a way, it's kind of like a secondary golden rule

One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them.  Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing.  Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them.  Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”

~I Samuel 25:14-17

What does this passage tell you about Abigail's relationship with the servants in the household?  What did the servants think of their master Nabal?

• The servants can whole-heartedly trust her
• they probably see Nabal as a man that makes terrible decisions and treats everyone slave or not poorly

Are you more like an Abigail or more like a Nabal to those who are in your care?  Your coworkers?  Your children?  Your husband?  Your extended family?

• In all cases, whether they are presently existent in my life or not, or will hopefully be in my future, I am definitely more like Abigail.

Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.  Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

  As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them.  David had just said, “It’s been useless—all my watching over this fellow’s property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good.  May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!”

  When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground.  She fell at his feet and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you; hear what your servant has to say.  Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent.  And now, my lord, as surely as the LORD your God lives and as you live, since the LORD has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal.  And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.

  “Please forgive your servant’s presumption. The LORD your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the LORD’s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live.  Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the LORD your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling.  When the LORD has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel,  my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the LORD your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.”

~I Samuel 25:18-31

How do you react when someone in authority makes a bad choice?  If the choice affects you, what should you do?

• I either react with great suprise or maybe sometimes wtih outrage.
• If the choice affects me, I should pray that God will find another option that will work out to be good for me to handle

Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.”

  When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until daybreak.  Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone.  About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal and he died.

~I Samuel 25:35-38

Compare David and Nabal's actions.  How often do you respond like David?  Like Nabal?

• I think everyone react in both ways that either David or Nabal did.  I know that I try to react more like David than Nabal.

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise be to the LORD, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal’s wrongdoing down on his own head.”

   Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.  His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, “David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife.”

  She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, “I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my lord’s servants.”  Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five female servants, went with David’s messengers and became his wife.

~I Samuel 25:39-42

Why do you think David was so quick to ask Abigail to marry him?  Was he attracted to her?  Did he feel responsible for her?  Did he admire her?

• All these factors are pretty plausable I suppose.  But I suppose how I would say it would be that he believed that she needed a good man in her life and he felt like he could fill those shoes

What Davids do you have in your life?  What Nabals?  What can you learn from Abigail about living and working with each of these men?

• I'm not sure that I have either type of person in my life, at least not anymore if I did.  I guess what I can learn from her is taht I should embrace and trust the David-type of man, and be leary of those who are like Nabal

Michal

 Now Saul’s daughter Michal was in love with David, and when they told Saul about it, he was pleased.

Saul sent men to David’s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, “If you don’t run for your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed.”  So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped.  Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats’ hair at the head.

  When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said, “He is ill.”

  Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, “Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him.”  But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats’ hair.

  Saul said to Michal, “Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?”

   Michal told him, “He said to me, ‘Let me get away. Why should I kill you?’”

~I Samuel 18:20; 19:11-17

What do you think attracted Michal to David so that she fell in love with him?  How far was she willing to go to protect him?

• possibly his looks
• She was probably willing to go pretty far to protect him if she loved him so much

David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives.  But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

Then David sent messengers to Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, demanding, “Give me my wife Michal, whom I betrothed to myself for the price of a hundred Philistine foreskins.”

~I Samuel 25:43-44; II Samuel 3:14

How do the events in the intervening years affect Michal and her feelings for David?

• I thinkshe was feeling sad that the love of her life has not returned yet so she would miss him very much

Now King David was told, “The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing.  When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.  Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the LORD with all his might,  while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

~II Samuel 6:12-15

Describe in your own words what you think this scene of worship looked like.

• I imagine there was a big procession amongst a large crowd of people

As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.

~II Samuel 6:16

Why do you think Michal reacted as she did?  Why do you suppose she was in her room watching the scene from the window instead of in the crowd participating?

• Because she was not happy that David chose to marry another woman so she didn't want to have anything to do with him in the celebration

How often do you merely watch worship rather than participate in it?  What needs to happen in order for you to become a participant instead of a spectator?

• Actually, I do participate in worship a whole lot.  I believe I have been doing so for all of my life.

 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”

~II Samuel 6:20

How often are you more concerned with appearances than you should be?  Why?  What can you do to chnage?

• I usually find myself more concerned with appearance when it comes to looking professional for work or when it comes to a first date.  I do know that when it comes to a first date, that I just just be myself when it comes to appearance.

David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD.  I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

  And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.

~II Samuel 6:21-23

What is David trying to tell Michal here?  Do you think Michal had any idea of the depth of love David had for God?  Why or why not?

• I think he was telling her "Hey relax!  My dance was not to show my love towards any woman, let alone any slavegirl!  My dance was for the love of the Lord."
• I don't think Michal realized David's love for God at all

How hard would it be for you to claim verse 22, as David does here?  Do you think God wants this kind of Submissiveness from everyone?  Why or why not?

• I don't think it would be too hard.  I think that it would be great, but also, very ideal, if we all would submit to God like David did.  We are all imperfect.  If we are all to submit to God at some point in our lives, it will happen in His time.

Do you ever have doubts about God's existence? What would it take to completely convince you?

To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 

~Exodus 24:17

I don't think I have ever had doubts about God's existence.  I have grown up and lived in a Christian family where my dad's occupation is a pastor of a church.  I think because of that I have always believed myself to be a Christian all my life.  I believe that it wasn't until I had reached college when I had realized how important my faith was to me.  So after that point, I had persued into praying more and following and reading His Word more whenever I get the chance.

Hannah

There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.  He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.

  Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the LORD.  Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.  But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the LORD had closed her womb.  Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her.  This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.  Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”

~I Samuel 1:1-8

What sort of response does Hannah's childlessness cause in each of the people involved in Hannah herself?  In Peninnah?  In Elkanah?

• For Hannah, it was despair
• For Peninnah, it was greed
• For Elkanah, it was concern

How have you reacted to disappointments or failures in your life?

• Either with concern or dispair

What impact did the reactions of those around you have on you?

• I would say a good impact because most people have been concerned for my feelings, so it shows me that a lot of people around me care for me.

 Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the LORD’s house.  In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the LORD, weeping bitterly.  And she made a vow, saying, “LORD Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”

  As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth.  Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk  and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”

~I Samuel 1:9-14

Hannah stood in this very public place and poured out her pain to the Lord.  Notice Eli's reaction.  Do you think she was unaware of the reaction others might have, or do you think she just didn't care?

• It may not have mattered to her as to what other people thought about what she was doing because she was only lifting up her own concerns to God

“Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD.  Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”

  Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”

  She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.

~I Samuel 1:15-18

What caused the change in Hannah recorded in verse 18?  Is there anything here that would make her sure she would now bear a son?  If not, why then was she comforted?

• the fact that she was comforted by Eli's words
• her strong faith in the Lord and that Eli wished taht God would grant her what she wanted

When has God answered your prayers after a time of disappointment or difficulty?  When have your prayers gone unanswered?  How did God provide in those troublesome times?

• He answers our prayers when we are willing to give up our troubles to Him and are ready to be patient for what we hope for most in our life.   I don't believe that God leaves any prayers unanswered.

Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her.  So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the LORD for him.”

~I Samuel 1:19-20

How did God answer Hannah's prayer?  What is the significance of the name Samuel?

• by opening her womb and giving her a son to bear
• Hannah had asked God to give her a son

When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vow,  Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the LORD, and he will live there always.”

  “Do what seems best to you,” her husband Elkanah told her. “Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the LORD make good his word.” So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

  After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh.  When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli,  and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD.  I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.  So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.” And he worshiped the LORD there.

~I Samuel 1:21-28

These verses recored Hannah's fullfillment to her vow, recorded in verse 11.  What would have made Hannah's vow difficult?  What would have made it necessary?

• the difficulty would be that she would be separated from her son for a long time
• the necesity of the vow would be that Hannah would be sure to have brought up a religious man in her family

 But Samuel was ministering before the LORD—a boy wearing a linen ephod.  Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.  Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the LORD give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the LORD.” Then they would go home.  And the LORD was gracious to Hannah; she gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the LORD.

~I Samuel 2:18-21

Describe Hannah's actions during the years when Samuel was going up to the temple.  What do you think those years were like for her?

• I think Hannah was elated to have such a good son that cared so much about the Lord

How did God reward Hannah for her faithfulness?

• By giving her the chance to bear three more sons and two more daughters.

Hannah dedicated her son Samuel to the Lord by giving him up to the Lord and to the work in the temple.  Are your children dedicated to the Lord?  If so, what are you doing to help them grow up in him?

• This question doesn't exactly apply to me right now, however, if I did have kids, I do hope that they wouild be dedicated to do the Lord's work.