A Son to Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel

by Peter Leithart

Publisher:

Canon Press

, 2003

Overview

Samuel. Saul. David. Goliath. Jonathan. When we think of 1 & 2 Samuel, these names and the stories that make them memorable generally come to mind. But these narratives are more than mere history.

Peter Leithart offers here a typological reading of 1 & 2 Samuel as a unified book. By giving careful attention to the book's literary structures and its patterns of types and antitypes, Leithart unveils the symbolic world of Samuel's cumulative and cohesive story. His reading enhances our understanding of New Testament Christology while at the same time giving us a framework for applying the Old Testament to our own lives.

Contents

Top Highlights

“There are three permanent Nazirites in the Bible: Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist, and each of them was born to a barren woman. Samuel typifies the ministry of John: As Samuel prepared the people for the reign of David, so John turned the hearts of the fathers to the children and prepared a people for the coming of the Davidic King.” (Page 40)

“With respect to the current book, I am operating on the belief that to read Scripture typologically is to accept that the Bible’s interpretation of events provides a true and the most essential interpretation of the events it records.” (Page 12)

“David did not fight because his honor had been violated, but to vindicate the honor of the Lord.” (Page 97)

“Within these larger transitions, the main story has to do with the ‘crossing fates’ of Saul and David.⁵ Saul’s rise and fall is like an expanded retelling of the story of Adam, and if Saul was like the first Adam, David was a type of the Last Adam, called to replace the fallen king as the head of God’s people, persecuted without cause by his rival, waiting patiently until the Lord gave him the kingdom. This is not to say that David is perfect by any means, but David is a man after the Lord’s own heart, and foreshadows the work of his greater Son, Jesus.” (Page 27)

“Though Eli did not abuse the priestly office in the way that his sons did, he sinned by enjoying the fruit of his sons’ corruptions. He had become ‘very heavy’ from feasting on sacrificial food. ‘Heavy,’ interestingly, is from the same Hebrew word as ‘glory’ or ‘honor’ (‘heavy’ is kebed, and ‘glory’ is kabod). Eli is glorifying himself by fattening himself with the Lord’s food, instead of glorifying God by offering food to Him.” (Page 48)

Product Details

• Title: A Son to Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
• Author: Peter Leithart
• Publisher: Canon Press
• Print Publication Date: 2003
• Logos Release Date: 2011
• Pages: 320
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Typology (Theology); Bible. O.T. 1 Samuel › Commentaries; Bible. O.T. 2 Samuel › Commentaries
• ISBNs: 9781885767998, 1885767994
• Resource ID: LLS:ASONTOME
• Resource Type: Bible Commentary
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-04-22T19:17:52Z

About Peter Leithart

Peter Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute and serves as Teacher at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Birmingham. He is the author of many books, including a two-volume commentary on Revelation (T&T Clark, 2018), God of Hope (Athanasius, 2022), On Earth As In Heaven (Lexham, 2022), and a forthcoming book on God the Creator (IVP). He writes a fortnightly column at FirstThings.com, and has published articles in many periodicals, both popular and academic.

Leithart has served in two pastorates: He was pastor of Reformed Heritage Presbyterian Church (now Trinity Presbyterian Church), Birmingham, Alabama from 1989 to 1995, and was pastor of Trinity Reformed Church, Moscow, Idaho, from 2003-2013. From 1998 and 2013 he taught theology and literature fulltime at New St. Andrews College, Moscow, Idaho. He received an A.B. in English and History from Hillsdale College in 1981, and a Master of Arts in Religion and a Master of Theology from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 1986 and 1987. In 1998 he received his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in England.

He and his wife, Noel, have ten children and fifteen grandchildren.