Go, Say, Do - 1 Samuel 16:1-13
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The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.” Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, “Do you come peaceably?” And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
Last week we saw that Saul - through his sin and the sin of the people - lost the kingdom. God said He was going to take it from him. And his sin was disobedience. It was wanting to do things his way rather than God’s - it was deciding for himself what was good and right.
And I think we can all relate to that, because we tend to disobey in the same way. We tend to do things our way rather than God’s way and determine for ourselves what’s good and right. We can see a little of ourselves in Saul.
But today, we are going to see a new king chosen. David is going to be anointed and receive the Spirit of God. And while that is the event being recorded here, and while this is a turning point in the book - and in the history of salvation - the real hero of this story isn’t David, but Samuel.
And I want us to consider how much of ourselves we see in Samuel. Because we have the same choice to make that he did.
Now we ended last week with this. Notice how things end up for Samuel:
And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.
Samuel tells Saul that God is taking the kingdom from him, and we see here that Samuel grieved over Saul.
Then here:
The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”
Grieved = mourned (usually translated as “mourned”)
Often, it speaks of mourning over the sin of God’s people. And that’s what’s happening here. Samuel is mourning over all that has happened. The people turned their backs on YHWH and demanded a king, and they got exactly what they asked for, and it was an utter failure.
And as we saw, their initial sin of rejecting YHWH only led to more sin. That’s what we saw last week, the sin of the Saul and the people that wanted him as king.
So Samuel mourned the disobedience and failure of the people, and the failure of Saul.
But here, God says “why are you mourning? Don’t mourn over the situation, I have changed it. I have rejected Saul from being king. And now I have some work for you to do.”
Basically, God says, “What’s done is done. Now I’m going to do something about it.”
And what is God going to do? He’s going to provide the king His people need to save them from themselves.
And this, of course, is what God did for us. We were disobedient. We did things our way. We did things that were well worth mourning over. And there was nothing we could do to change any of it.
So God did something. He gave us a King to make right what we made wrong.
That’s what God was about to do in David.
And notice, God here says “I have provided for myself a king.” This is about God and what He is doing. This is in contrast to the king He appointed for the people.
Remember, the people had a King in YHWH, but they wanted a king like the nations around them - like the sinful nations around them. And Samuel tries to dissuade them from doing such a thing, but God tells Samuel to let it happen.
And notice the wording God uses when He does:
1 Samuel 8:22 (ESV)
And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey their voice and make them a king.”
Saul was their king. They wanted a king like those of the nations around them - so God gave them a king like those of the nations around them. And as we saw last week, that includes the fact that Saul - like the kings of the nations - did not follow YHWH.
That was their king. That was the king of the people.
Here, God says:
1 Samuel 16:1 (ESV)
I have provided for myself a king
This is God’s chosen king. This is His representative of kingship. In other words, God is saying of His people: “We did it your way, now we’re gonna do it My way”
Because David was always the plan. That’s why David is held up in the Bible as the perfect king - the superlative godly king. That’s why, as we will see in a few months, God makes a covenant with him and no other king.
And I know that because Israel had more land and more peace in Solomon’s day that he is thought by many to be the best king. But look at his life. He wasn’t a good king at all. He was an idolater and a womanizer.
It all goes downhill after David. There is a decent king here and there, but for the most part, the kings of Israel and Judah were not good kings at all. David was the prototype and there was no king that could compare.
Until Christ.
He is the promised greater Son of David that would - and does - rule God’s people perfectly.
What God is doing here is typical of what He did when Christ came. The people sinned, but He provided a remedy. He provided a king for His people that would set things right.
He anointed a savior for His people when they very clearly couldn’t do anything for themselves.
Here, God tells Saul that He has chosen the real king. And Samuel has to go anoint Him.
And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.”
But Samuel is concerned. He knows that Saul is not a good king or even a good guy. So Samuel is afraid that if he follows what God is saying and goes and anoints another king that Saul is going to kill him.
And this is how it was done back in the day. This is what the kings of the nations would do.
We see even in the book of 2 Samuel and the books of Kings how when there is a dispute over who is the rightful king in Israel, that everyone who aligns himself with the losing side gets killed. Samuel has a legitimate concern here.
Can we see a little of ourselves in Samuel here? Do we ever hear or read God’s commands and question how we’re supposed to carry them out? Do you ever have concerns that obeying God might cost you something? Or that it might make you some enemies?
And these are practical concerns. There is nothing sinful about realizing the situation you’re in and what the likely outcomes are. And we should do what Samuel does here and bring our very real concerns to God.
But we also need to realize that God nowhere promises to alleviate our concerns before we have to obey. So that is not a legitimate excuse not to act according to God’s Word.
Look at how God answers Samuel. Samuel tells God: “I don’t know how I can do this! I’m going to make Saul my enemy and even put my life in danger.”
And in God’s answer, notice first what He doesn’t say. He doesn’t say “don’t worry Samuel, if you do what I say, you’ll be protected from Saul and from death. I’ll make things easy for you.” He doesn’t say that. He doesn’t tell Samuel that everything is going to work out okay from an earthly standpoint if he obeys God.
He just tells Samuel to obey. Samuel says “God I can get killed for obeying You.”
God answers: “You’re going to go sacrifice to me in Bethlehem, and your going to anoint who I tell you to anoint.”
Now, many say that God is being deceitful here, and giving Samuel a cover for what he’s really doing. Like God is going to help Samuel deceive Saul by having Him pretend to be doing a sacrifice when he’s really on a secret mission to deceive Saul and take the kingdom from him.
But it doesn’t say that. There is a real sacrifice happening where Samuel is to anoint the new king. Nothing is untrue about this. Yes, Samuel expresses his fear to God. But in response, God just tells Samuel to obey.
Put yourself in Samuel’s shoes here. You cry out to God. You fear for your wellbeing. You tell Him that obeying Him can wind up being very costly for you and you're not sure you can do it. And then God doubles down and just tells you to obey.
What would you do?
Maybe this has happened to you before. What did you do?
Maybe you are in this situation right now. Maybe there is something God has put on your heart, or maybe you’ve discovered that your life is not in accord with the Bible concerning some point or another, and you have a hard decision to make. And deciding to obey may cost you something - it might cost you a lot.
Deciding to obey God may cost you friends, or a job, or you’re own idea of yourself.
Deciding to obey and do something God commands may make you uncomfortable or put you in danger.
Doing what God calls you to do may cost you time, effort, emotional energy, and money.
And God does not promise to alleviate any of those concerns.
So what are you going to do?
Let’s look at what Samuel did. God tells Him that regardless of the cost, he has to obey, and we read:
1 Samuel 16:4 (ESV)
Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem.
Now I want to notice a few things here. Samuel did what YHWH commanded. All He commanded. Unlike we saw with Saul last week.
And there are actually four elements to this. God really commanded four things:
1 Samuel 16:1–3 (ESV)
Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons” … “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.”
God tells Samuel:
Go where I send you
Say what I tell you to say - say: “I have come to sacrifice to the Lord”
Do it with whom I tell you to do it with - invite Jesse to the sacrifice
And then do what I command - anoint who I declare to you
Go somewhere, say something, invite someone, and do something.
Go where I send you, say what I tell you to say, do the work command, and do it with those I tell you to do it with.
Those are the four commands.
And we see that Samuel goes where God sends him:
1 Samuel 16:4 (ESV)
Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem.
He says what he was told to say:
1 Samuel 16:5 (ESV)
And he said, “…I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.”
He invites who he was told to invite:
1 Samuel 16:5 (ESV)
"Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
And we will see about the fourth command in a minute, the “do” part of this.
What’s the point?
Well, first, a contrast is being drawn here between Samuel and Saul. We saw last week, God gave Saul very clear instructions. And Saul kinda obeyed God. He didn’t do everything God said. He did some of it. And what he did, he did his way instead of God’s way.
Saul decided for himself what commands of God were good to follow and which ones weren’t. And God considered that rebellion.
Here, Samuel - even though he is afraid for good reason that obeying God is going to mean trouble for him in the world - even though he knows it is going to cost him something - Samuel obeys every bit of God’s command.
He doesn’t change anything to suit his liking. He doesn’t decide for himself what will please God - God told him what to do and doing it will please God.
God said “go” - and he went.
God said “say” - and he said.
God said “do” - and as we’ll see, he did.
And God said “these are the people you are to do this with” - and Samuel carries out God’s will with those God told him to.
There is a striking contrast between Saul and Samuel in this regard.
And what we see here is what Samuel prophesied played out in real time:
1 Samuel 15:22 (ESV)
Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
And as I said, the sacrifices God commanded weren’t about the sacrifices, they were about the “want to” behind the sacrifices. They were about the desire to obey God, His way.
And Samuel - even though he had concerns about how this would turn out for him from a worldly standpoint - he still wanted to obey God. He wanted to preserve his life, but he wanted to obey God even more.
So he obeys.
Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, “Do you come peaceably?” And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
And notice the reaction of the elders of the people. They came to meet Samuel, and they were trembling. The word is almost always used with a connotation of fear. They saw Samuel coming, and they were afraid.
Why would they be afraid?
Well, think about what has happened - what we saw last week. By this point - and we don’t know exactly how long, but God asks Samuel how long he’s going to keep mourning what happened, so some time has passed - but by this point, those in Bethlehem knew all about it.
Bethlehem is only about 20 miles away from Gilgal where the events of chapter 15 took place. So these people heard that Samuel prophesied that Saul will lose the kingdom. They heard that Samuel hacked Agag in pieces. They heard that he abandoned Saul.
And they know what Samuel’s warning was about a king in the first place. He warned them what would happen, he told them that they were turning their backs on YHWH.
And based on Israel’s history, these elders were just waiting for punishment to come. For the earth to open up, or a plague to begin, or fiery serpents to appear. And they may have preferred any of that to the prophet of God showing up after all that’s happened.
But here he comes, and they are trembling with fear. So they have to ask him: “do you come in peace?” They might be in serious trouble here.
But Samuel has no interest in exacting punishment on anyone. He’s only interested in God’s will being done. Even though, as we saw last week, Samuel was angry not just with Saul but with the people. But Samuel wants to please God. He knows that his own emotions have no place in this. So he says “yeah, I come in peace.”
And then he tells them to consecrate themselves for the sacrifice he came to perform. And I bet they were more than happy to oblige such a request. They were expecting retribution, but Samuel just tells them to make sure they are ceremonially clean to take part in the sacrifice.
So the people come to the sacrifice, including Jesse and his sons.
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.”
So one of Jesse’s sons - his oldest son - is physically impressive. Just like Saul was. He is impressive enough that Samuel notices him right away and thinks to himself: “this is the king God has chosen for Himself.”
But then God jumps in:
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
Samuel - for all of his spiritual maturity and his desire for God’s will to be done - even he can fall prey to worldly thinking. Even he sees with worldly eyes at times. It’s easy to fall into that.
We need to be so careful about keeping our eyes on God and His ways, rather the world and its ways.
Here, Samuel sees this impressive - and based on what God says - extremely tall young man, and he thinks in a worldly manner. He thinks of the kings of the nations - including Saul - and he’s thinking outwardly big, strong, tall guy.
But God tells Samuel not to think like that. Not to see with worldly eyes. Because strength, according to God, is not outward. It’s inward.
And as we see, like we saw last week, what God wants is the heart. His king will be a man with the right heart, not the right physical build.
And that God rejects Eliab based on this shows us that he doesn’t have the right heart. And we will see his heart in the next chapter in the way he deals with David.
But also notice what God says. He sees not as man sees. Man looks at the outward. And physically, that’s all we can look at. But God looks at the inward. He knows the heart of man.
And there are a few implications here.
First, God is making a distinction between the inward and the outward - between the physical and the spiritual. God always makes this distinction in His Word.
If you followed the daily blog through the Bible last year, you know that very early on there is a distinction made in the Bible - as early as Genesis 4 - between the physical offspring of man and the spiritual offspring of God - those with hope and faith in God, and those with no hope.
And that carries over to Israel. From when He first promised Abraham offspring, the spiritual offspring were in view. And even when God chose a physical people to be His, this was a type of the spiritual people of God.
God’s true people are and always have been those whose hope and faith are in Him - people like Samuel and David. The people who hope in worldly things or other gods - people like Eli and Saul - regardless of their physical lineage - they were not part of the people of God.
The Apostle Paul brings this out when he says things like:
For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.
And
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
Or
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
And what we see pictured in God’s choice for His king here is that it is the heart that matters. God needs a man of faith to be His king, otherwise, you just have a king like the rest of the nations. You have Saul.
God chooses based on the inward.
1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV)
For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
But we also have a pointer forward to Christ here. By the time He began His ministry, many of those looking for the Messiah were looking for a warrior-king. We see with Christ’s opponents that they easily dismissed Him because He didn’t fit their idea of the Messiah.
We see with the people that knew His family that they easily dismissed Him because, after all, He was the son of carpenter and his family is nothing special.
One of His own followers initially dismissed Him because He was from Nazareth. Even after His resurrection, the Apostles still thought He would reign in an earthly manner in Israel.
When the Christ came, very few expected what they got.
Many didn’t get what they wanted - but they got what they needed.
But there’s more here. We are told that Jesus, on many occasions, knew people’s hearts.
He knew His enemies’ hearts:
Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts?
And He knew the hearts of His disciples:
An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side
YHWH sees not as man sees, but He looks on the heart.
Jesus sees not as man sees, but He looks on the heart.
Do the math.
And note that even here, God knows exactly what Samuel is thinking:
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
There is nothing hidden from God. He knows the thoughts and intentions of the heart. This is how He knows what our “want to” is, which is what He values.
And that’s what God is looking for in His king.
So God rejects Eliab, the oldest son. Then Jesse has his sons pass by from the next oldest all the way to the youngest. We get the names and age order of Jesse’s children in 1 Chronicles 2.
Here we read:
Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.”
Every son of Jesse, except one, passes before Samuel, and the Lord has chosen none of them as king.
And it appears to me that Jesse has some idea of what’s going on at this point, because he is calling his sons one by one for Samuel to consider for something. And he goes in age order, because that’s the way the world would do it.
Jesse is seeing with worldly eyes, too. So much so, that based on his age, and his job, and his standing in the family - Jesse never even considers that David would be chosen.
Because David is so young that he isn’t even in the army yet. He’s young. He’s under 20 years old at this point. Surely, God can’t use someone so young. He can’t use someone so inexperienced.
Can He?
Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.”
Jesse says: “I do have another son, but he’s really young and he’s only a shepherd.”
And once again, we see that David had something in common with Jesus. The world wanted a warrior-king, but God used a Shepherd.
Once again, nobody got what they expected, but we all got exactly what we needed.
And David - though nobody expected it - not even his own family, much like Christ - David turned out to be exactly what they needed:
And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
So David comes. And we are given a description of him physically. He was ruddy - it means red colored. Actually, it means his skin had a reddish-brown hue to it. In ancient civilizations, this was believed to be the color of a physical hero. Like Esau in the book of Genesis who was a great hunter is described the same way.
We are also told he had beautiful eyes. And these are more than just the writer’s opinion of David. Especially considering this book was written far after David’s life had ended. And while David may have had a reputation for being ruddy and having beautiful eyes, there is more to it than just his physical appearance.
In the Ancient Near East, these were believed to be the qualities of a king.
As an example, in the Babylonian Sun Disk tablet of Nabu-Apla-Iddina, we read this of the king:
The Context of Scripture, Volume Two: Monumental Inscriptions from the Biblical World (The “Sun Disk” Tablet of Nabû-Apla-Iddina (2.135):
At that time… Nabû-apla-iddinna, king of Babylon, his heart rejoiced, and shining was his countenance. Towards Nabû-nādin-šumi, high priest of Sippar, the diviner he lifted his face. With his bright face, (and) his ruddy countenance, (and) his beautiful eyes, happily he looked at him.
Believe it or not, the Old Testament pulls very often from other Ancient Near Eastern traditions and even Pagan myths to communicate truth about God and His plan of salvation.
Plug for Genesis study - we will see a lot of this!
Here, David is being described by the writer as having the qualities of a king.
1 Samuel 16:12 (ESV)
Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”
And we know that he has the qualities of a king, because he is who God chooses as His king. He tells Samuel - “time to do what you came to do. Anoint him.”
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
Now I want us to note a few things here. As I just said, David has the qualities of a king, even to God.
And what is God’s concern?
The heart. The “want to” of the king. That’s why Saul was rejected. And that’s why David was chosen. He had the inward qualities God wanted for his king, which is why the Bible uses those outward descriptions. The outward is used to point to the more important inward.
So we see here that this is an inward and spiritual matter. This is about David’s spiritual state. And as soon as David is anointed, the Spirit of God rushed upon Him from then until the day he died.
And this is, of course, speaking of the Holy Spirit. That “rushing” language is used of the Spirit even at Pentecost when He comes like a “mighty rushing wind.”
So David is not just being anointed as an earthly king here. In fact, I submit that isn’t even the most important element in view here. The oil - often associated with the Holy Spirit in the Bible - is a physical sign of a spiritual anointing.
David was here - first and foremost - spiritually anointed by God.
And, of course, we have a pointer forward to Christ yet again. We are told here that at his anointing, David receives the Holy Spirit. When Christ begins His Messianic ministry, He comes to John the Baptist and - what happens?
The Holy Spirit comes up on Jesus. That happens before He begins His Messianic work.
The same is true for David here.
And we see here, that after this anointing, David is not declared king. I mean, Samuel goes home and we will see later in the chapter that David goes right back to tending the sheep.
And as we saw with Saul, the same kind of thing happened. Remember, the anointed king, even after his public anointing like Saul’s was, was not officially king until he did what? Until he won a battle against the enemy of his people.
And we will see that in the net chapter.
But even more, I want to note something else. As I said, this was a spiritual anointing more than it was an anointing for kingship. Because, first, this was not done publicly, as the anointing of a king would be.
But second, David is later anointed as king - not one more time, but two more times. He is anointed publicly as king over Judah:
2 Samuel 2:4 (ESV)
And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.
And then he is subsequently anointed as king over all of Israel:
So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel.
So here:
1 Samuel 16:13 (ESV)
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.
What is most in view is the reality of David’s spiritual state, and His chosenness by God. He is chosen by God, and given the Holy Spirit to make him spiritually able to carry out his calling.
And, of course, the same things has happened for us. This isn’t just about David being chosen to rule over a nation 3,000 years ago. This is about the spiritual reality of being chosen as one of God’s people.
3,000 years ago.
500 years ago.
Today.
Every day until Christ returns.
And I want to notice how this happens. How are people anointed with the Spirit and brought into the fold of God?
They are brought in by God, through those already in the fold.
Think about it, did God need Samuel to anoint David with oil to give him the Spirit? Then why did He send Samuel?
Because our God is not a God that sits back and waits for people to find Him. He is not a God that just gets the word out that He is, and then says “I’m here if you need me.”
No. God comes for His people. He sends His people to His people to make them His people.
As I said last week, we do not save people. God saves people. All we can do is be obedient so He can do His saving work through us.
Like here, what God called Samuel to do was obey. And we saw, there are four aspects to the command God gave him. He had to:
Go where God sent him
Say what God told him to say
Do what God told him to do
And do it with those God told him to do it with
And through Samuel’s obedience - even though it would mean trouble for him here in the world - through his obedience, God’s Spirit rushed on God’s chosen.
So, while God didn’t need Samuel to do all that to give His Spirit to David, that isn’t the point. The point is that Samuel needed to do what God commanded for David to receive the Spirit.
I hope you see the distinction there, because it matters. God did not need Samuel to do anything for David to be given the Spirit. But Samuel needed to obey God for it to happen.
And this is how God works.
We see it in our King, Jesus Christ. The One to Whom David points us.
God sent Him into the world in the likeness of flesh. He told Him to speak the words of life. In fact, Jesus said He speaks only what he hears from His Father. He told Him to obey. Not just one command - all of them.
And He did all of this regardless of what it meant for Him in the world. And what it meant was that He would have to lay down His life just for obeying God.
God said “go” to His Son - and He went.
God said “say” - and He said.
God said “do” - and He did.
And then, God said “keep doing.” And He gave Christ those He draws to Himself.
And He said to His Son “these are the people you are to do this with.”
And here we are.
God tells us to go and make disciples - through the Word and through bringing people into the fold of God.
God tells us to say - to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus.
God tells us to do - to be light and salt - to walk the straight and narrow road - to stand out from among those of the world that they may see His salvation. He tells us to serve and to use our gifts, and to carry our cross and sacrifice for His sake and to love one another so the world may know we are His.
And He tells us - it will cost us something. It may cost us a lot. It may cost us everything in this world.
But He still tells us “go,” “say,” and “do.”
And He gives us His Spirit and says “He is Who you do it with.” And as Christ said, those to whom the Spirit is sent and who obey, they are those with Whom He and the Father make their home. So God says, through your obedience, “I will do this with you.”
But that’s not all. He gave us each other. If you are here this morning, it’s because God said to each of us: “you need to obey - you need to go, say, and do - and these are the people you are to do it with.”
Brothers and sisters, we are being called by God this morning.
Believing the Gospel is a command - God is calling you this morning to believe - obey the call - receive the Spirit - come into the fold
Think of all those things our King did (came for us, obeyed, gave us the words of life) - (died on the cross for His obedience that God may work His salvation) - remember what He said right after His disciples declared Him to be the anointed of God
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
We have a call to obey. And it will cost us dearly.
But we will save our lives by it, and we will save others through it.
Saul had that choice, but he wouldn’t make the necessary sacrifice. Samuel had that choice, and he did make that sacrifice.
We have that choice.
Are we ready to make the sacrifice?