Chapter One Review Questions

 

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.

–I Peter 4:12-13, NASB

 

• • How can we learn to rejoice through fiery trials?

 

• • What greater works do suffering and testing prove in us? Is there a higher calling or assignment connected that we cannot see?

• • In II Kings Chapter 6, Elisha tells his servant that there is more with them than those surrounding him armed with weapons. His servant could not see the spiritual army around him until Elisha prayed for his eyes to be opened.

1. Like Elisha’s servant, do we forget that our Father is with us when we experience intense battles? How important is it to reflect on what the Father has done for us in the past when we need Him?

 

Chapter Two Review Questions

 

• Messiah tells us we are to be fishers of men, but lurking under the deep, along with the salmon and mahi-mahi, are sharks, eels, box jellyfish, and creatures that can pull us under and destroy us with their teeth and poison stings.

 

• • How is water (mayim in Hebrew) concealing? What safety measures should we take in the water? How is water (mayim in Hebrew) concealing?

• Due to disobedience, the Father appoints a giant fish to swallow his prophet, Jonah. When Jonah gets on the ship, a storm comes, so raging is the sea that the passengers cry and throw their cargo overboard. Can you think back to a person who got on your boat and caused a storm, possibly depleting your finances or gifts? What did you learn from this?

The passengers on the ship repent and make a vow with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. After tossing Jonah overboard, the sea is calm. Can you see how others around us can cause havoc due to their disobedience? Can you see how the Holy One used the storm in more ways than one?

• • Can you think back to a person who got on your boat and caused a storm, possibly depleting your finances or gifts?  What did you learn from this?

• The passengers on the ship repent and make a vow with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. After tossing Jonah overboard, the sea is calm. Can you see how others around us can cause havoc due to their disobedience? Can you see how the Holy One used the storm in more ways than one?

 

Chapter Three Review Questions

 

King Saul is displeased when he hears the women chanting and singing praises to David more than him. Saul becomes suspicious afterward. The word suspicion in Hebrew thought simply means to eye someone. It is the eye that is suspecting and waiting for something wrong. The person eyeing has no proof or evidence to go on, but suspicion arises suddenly due to jealousy.

 

• How can jealousy influence us? What do these verses listed below imply concerning jealousy? “Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood, But who can stand before jealousy?” (Proverbs 27:4, NASB). “A tranquil heart is life to the body, but envy rots the bones” (Proverbs 14:30, BSB).

 

• How does pride creep into our souls? What is the root of pride?

 

• What do false humility and low self-worth have to do with ego?

In Chapter 3, we learned that before the (Leviathan) spirit becomes active, it can operate through a person who loves us. After the loving stage, sometimes referred to as “love bombing,” the person fears losing titles and positions or becoming actively jealous. “Saul loved David very much, and David became his armor-bearer” (1 Samuel 16:21, NASB). In just two chapters, Saul has lost that loving feeling. He now has a murdering spirit.

• Have you ever experienced this type of murderous attack? Can you remember a time in your past when you were jealous or had imperfect love for someone that caused fear to spring forth?

 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

–I John 4:18, NASB

 

• How does fear involve punishment?

 

Leviathan accuses and blames the innocent person for the very thing it does itself. The psychological term is called “projection.” Here is an example from (I Kings): When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is this you, you troubler of Israel?” He said, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have because you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and you have followed the Baals” —I Kings 18:18, NASB.

 

• How should we respond to psychological projection in relationships? How can we step back and view the person clearly without judgment?

Chapter Four Review Questions

 

• Jezebel viciously attacks and demonizes her prey. The church of Thyatira mentioned in Revelations was tolerant of Jezebel’s message. Are we? If so, how?

 

 

• How does Ahab fuel Jezebel? What characteristics do they have that feed off one another?

 

• Jezebel’s spirit does not only reside in women, for even the passive-aggressive role of Ahab is not confined to one gender. With this knowledge, can you remember a time when due to someone’s passive-aggressive behavior, you took on the spirit of Jezebel?

 

• The Oxford Dictionary defines passive-aggressive behavior as “of or denoting a type of behavior or personality characterized by indirect resistance to the demands of others and an avoidance of direct confrontation, as in procrastinating, pouting, or misplacing important materials.” [1]

 Oxford defines Co-dependency as “A person with an excessive emotional or psychological reliance on a partner, typically one who requires support on account of an illness or addiction. Co-dependents confuse  and sacrifice with loyalty and love.”[2]

 

• Would you consider Ahab to be co-dependent or passive-aggressive? Can you see both these traits in Ahab and Jezebel?

Chapter Five Review Questions

 

• Have your fiery trials and vicious attacks caused you to run closer to the Father? If so, how?

 

• Trying to fight a person this spirit is working through is like poking a bear. Knowing this, how should we deal with our defensiveness and reaction? The Father mocks Job for attempting to arouse the serpent:

Will he (Leviathan) make a covenant with you?’  No one is so fierce that he dares to arouse him.

–Job 40:4, 10, NASB

 

• How can we know when not to speak compared to Isaiah’s words of rebuking judgment?

No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD.

–Isaiah 54:17, NASB

 

• In Chapter Five, I shared a story concerning my husband and I going on a fast to stop the Leviathan spirit that was pounding us. As we fasted and prayed, my husband was given dreams of him drowning snakes in the water. Can you see Leviathan in this dream?

 

• Have you ever fasted during great spiritual battles and gotten breakthrough?

Chapter Six Review Questions

 

 

Six things Adonai hates, yes, seven are abominations to Him:  haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, ^a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that run to evil,  a false witness who spouts lies, and one who stirs up strife among brothers.

 

–Proverbs 6:16-19, TLV

 

• Can you see the characteristics mentioned in Proverbs 6, working through King Saul? Give examples.

 

 

 

• In Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron speak against their brother Moses and the Holy One hears. In what subtle ways do we lie to ourselves and justify our speech concerning others?
• Meditating on King Saul and his anointing, after some time, Saul can no longer hear the voice of the Father. He receives no warnings from the prophets, no dreams or visions, and yet, David refuses to harm Saul due to his anointing. What can we learn from this situation?

Chapter Seven Review Questions

 

 

1. Have you ever had an enemy continually? If so, how have you dealt with this?

 

2. After reading this chapter, can you see that Leviathan is more about suffering in the furnace to become like gold and less about our adversaries?

 

3. Yeshua speaks in John 12:24 about dying to ourselves. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (NASB). Can you see areas in your life that still need to be handed over to the Holy One?

 

Chapter Eight Review Questions

 

 

David is on a journey to receive the crown. He has already been anointed, but his training started while tending sheep. Can you think of other Biblical characters whose training began tending sheep?

• David fears touching Saul because he knows the Father anointed him as king. When we see men and women in leadership acting like Saul, do we fear touching them? How can we discern if the Father has anointed such men? Could they be self-appointed?

In I Samuel 26, David states that he will wait for the Father to take care of his enemy. Will we do the same during this season

David added, “As Adonai lives, either Adonai will strike him down, or his day will come to die, or he will go down to battle and be swept away. Adonai forbid that I should lay my hand on Adonai’s anointed!

–I Samuel 26:10-11, TLV

 

Chapter Nine Review Questions

 

 Think back to a time when your words caused others harm. How did you resolve the situation? In Samuel 23, Saul believes God is still with him. He is oblivious to his condition. How many times have we been blind to our condition?

“When it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah, Saul said, “God has delivered him into my hand, for he shut himself in by entering a city with double gates and bars” (I Samuel 23:7, NASB). 

 

“The Yaaros Devash explains based on a Midrash, which teaches that when God created the tongue, He recognized its potential to cause harm, so He concealed it inside the mouth and secured it with a double lock? The teeth and the lips? Which are meant to guard the tongue against speaking evil.” (Rabbi Eybeschutz)

 

 

2. Saul thinks David to be an enemy of God because he sees David as one. He looks at David with a stink eye. Can you think of someone you’ve met whom you formed a first opinion of that was genuinely false? Looking back, how could it have been tied to insecurities or jealousy?

 

3. “When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” Then Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said to David, “You are more righteous than I; for you have dealt well with me, while I have dealt wickedly with you” (I Samuel 24:16-17, NASB). What caused Saul to repent, then, later on, harden his heart, and return to destroying his son-in-law? His characteristics mimic those of a narcissist such as Pharaoh. Can you think of other Biblical characters that were narcissistic? Where there is no true repentance, there can be no reconciliation.

 

Chapter Ten Review Questions

 

The Vidui is a prayer of repentance and confession for the Jewish people on Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement). Below is the beginning portion of this prayer. While reading, let us meditate on situations that clearly described King Saul’s sins against David:

 

Our God and God of our fathers, let our prayer come before you and do not ignore our supplication. For we are not so brazen-faced and stiff-necked to say to you, Adonoy, our God, and God of our fathers, “We are righteous and have not sinned.” But, indeed, we and our fathers have sinned. We have trespassed [against God and man, and we are devastated by our guilt]; We have betrayed [God and man, we have been ungrateful for the good done to us]; We have stolen; We have slandered. We have caused others to sin; We have caused others to commit sins for which they are called רְשָׁעִים, wicked; We have sinned with malicious intent; We have forcibly taken others’ possessions even though we paid for them; We have added falsehood upon falsehood; We have joined with evil individuals or groups; We have given harmful advice; We have deceived; we have mocked; We have rebelled against God and His Torah; We have caused God to be angry with us; We have turned away from God’s Torah; We have sinned deliberately. We have been negligent in our performance of the commandments; We have caused our friends grief; We have been stiff-necked, refusing to admit that our suffering is caused by our own sins. We have committed sins for which we are called רָשָׁע, [raising a hand to hit someone]. We have committed sins which are the result of moral corruption; We have committed sins which the Torah refers to as abominations; We have gone astray; We have led others astray.

(English text taken from The Metsudah Machzor, via Sefaria).

1. Do we consider how our sins have consequences that don’t just affect us but the people around us?

 

2. Giving harmful advice is a serious charge. Most people, when asked for counsel, intend to help the person asking.  How often do we think about the words we speak that may cause harm in situations like this?

Chapter Eleven Review Questions

 

     Strong’s Hebrew:4170– moqesh: a bait or lure, a snare.  Seeing that one meaning for the word snare in Hebrew is to be baited. How does fear lay bait to trap us?

 

The fear of man brings a snare, But he who trusts in the LORD will be exalted.

–Proverbs 29:25, NASB

 

2.     “Then Saul disguised himself by putting on other clothes” (I Samuel 28:8, NASB). We can act like a chameleon around certain people and camouflage our identities. Many times, we are unaware of this. In Shakespeare’s words, “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts.”

Even David, at one point in the story, acted like a mad man who had lost his mind to escape from Saul’s clutches. Are there people you act differently around? If so, why?

Chapter Twelve Review Questions

 

Our ego, referred to in Hebrew as Yetzer Hara, longs for self-gratification. Athaliah wanted to be in power. She longed for the crown and was willing to murder her own family members to achieve it. In what ways can we spiritually murder others to gain our achievements?

 

 

2. Have you ever been chastised by someone who mistook your zeal or faith for pride? In 1st Samuel 17, David’s brother rebukes him and says, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart; for you have come down in order to see the battle.” (I Sam. 17:28, NASB).

 

 

3. Define humility and affliction by doing a word search in Hebrew.

 

 

 

Chapter Thirteen Review Question

 

Can you look back on a time in your life when you were busy erecting monuments? What were they?

Samuel told Saul, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel?” (I Sam. 15:17). Having too much pride is never good, but having too little pride can make us a doormat for others to wipe their feet on. How can we stay balanced in this area?

Chapter Fourteen Review Questions

 

 

1. “And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; so she did not tell him anything at all until the morning light. But in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him so that he became as a stone. About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal, and he died” (I Samuel 25:36-38, NASB). Nabal, the fool, is drunk on the wine of the harlot. Nabal’s heart becomes stone, and he dies. His bride, whose name means the “Father of exultation,” will now become David’s bride. This is a prophetic picture of a future event. Beloved David and His joyful Bride—ten days later, they become one. When envisioning the Wedding banquet with Messiah and the wise and foolish virgins, list the characteristics of both.

 

2. The parable of the Ten Virgins mentioned in Matthew 25:1-9 describes five foolish virgins and five wise. Why did the foolish think the wise could give them oil? All became drowsy and fell asleep. We blow the shofar in the month of Elul as a reminder to wake up. Song of Song’s five describes the maiden’s lover. What attributes of Yeshua can you see in this poetic prose?

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Fifteen Review Questions

 

 

 

1. Have you ever had to pull out a testimony to encourage yourself? How did it make you feel to revisit the goodness of God?

 

2. What significance does the sword of Goliath have? What spiritual meaning did you find when reading that the giant’s sword was wrapped in an ephod (Priestly garment?)

 

3. If your greatest enemy were to die today, could you find words to articulate the many good things they had done?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] passive-aggressive adjective – Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com

[2] codependency noun – Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com