Text: 1 Samuel 18 - 21

Supplemental Text: The Fourth Thousand Years chapter 2

BYU Lecture 26: David exercises his faith in God and confronts Goliath, killing him with a rock and sling. David suddenly becomes a military hero to the people of Israel. He meets and befriends the crown prince of Israel, Jonathan – son of King Saul. With all the praise for David from the people of Israel, Saul becomes jealous and feels his power threatened, especially since the prophet Samuel informed Saul that God is planning to replace him with another man, a king worthy of God.

King Saul becomes psychotic and makes five failed attempts to kill David.

As tension rises, David slips through the land of Israel – seeking refuge in priestly tents, feigning madness in enemy courts, and secretly settles within his own homeland, the land of Judah. David begins to gather followers and allies. As counseled by the prophet Gad, David stays in Judah waiting upon the Lord until circumstances allow him to rise as king of Israel.

Text: 1 Samuel 16-17

Supplemental Text: The Fourth Thousand Years chapter 1

BYU Lecture 25: The Jews use different names for some of their scriptural books than do our Bible scriptures. The following reference table shows these differences:

JEWISH KJV Bible

1st Book of Kings 1st Samuel

2nd Book of Kings 2nd Samuel

3rd Book of Kings 1st Kings

4th Book of Kings 2nd Kings

5th Book of Kings 1st Chronicles (parallels 1st Kings)

6th Book of Kings 2nd Chronicles (parallels 2nd Kings)

All the history and prophecy during this period of time was originally recorded by the prophets Samuel, Nathan and Gad, but the writings were tragically lost. Fortunately, scribes and scholars had extracted some material from the original writings which we have today in these 6 books. It’s important to keep in mind that these writings we have today were not recorded by prophets of God, but rather by scribes.

Near the beginning of the fourth thousand years (about 1,100 BC) the slothful high priest was Eli. His student Samuel was called by God to replace Eli, to be the new prophet and High Priest of Israel.

Samuel’s prophetic voice shapes the nation. But Israel eventually rejects Samuel as their leader and demands a king. Distraught by failure, Samuel is reassured by God that Israel has not rejected Samuel but has rejected God. Meanwhile, a humble shepherd boy named David begins life’s journey in the shepherd fields.

Text: The Old Testament

Supplemental Text: Finish up the Third Thousand Years chapters 21-26 from last semester. The Fourth Thousand Years text begins next week.

BYU Lecture 24: This is the "thundering thousand years" from David down to Christ. This is the thousand years of Bible history in which you have all prophets, not the Patriarchs. Programmed learning includes memorizing the “hook dates” in biblical history so the doctrine of the gospel can be connected to its history and context. For example, 1776 is a hook date that can be related to all the American independence and revolutionary war activities. By memorizing hook dates, the entire Old Testament will come alive and piece together the events, patriarchs, prophets, and kings.

Old Testament Hook Dates, simple and worth memorization:

4,000 BC Fall of Adam and Eve

3,500 BC Enoch

3,000 BC Noah

2,344 BC The Great Flood (just remember 1-2-3-4---4)

2,000 BC Abraham

1,900 BC Isaac

1,800 BS Jacob

1,700 BC Joseph

1,500 BC Moses

1,400 BC Joshua

1,100 BC Samuel and Saul

1,000 BC David and Solomon

922 BC Division of Israel

900 BC Elijah

800 BC Elisha

700 BC Isaiah

600 BC Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekial, Lehi and Nephi

589 BC Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem

538 BC Jews return to Jerusalem

516 BC Dedication of the new temple in Jerusalem