The Annointing of David

Intro

Good evening everyone and welcome back to another Thursday Gathering. If you’re new with us, I wanted to let you know that if you have any questions or need to talk about anything just find one of us wearing a nametag and we would be glad to help you in anyway that we can.

Also, if you’d like to talk about anything after the message I’ll be up here for a few minutes if you wanna come up.

That aside, let’s go ahead and dive into tonight’s message. Go ahead and turn in your bibles to 1 Samuel 16. Tonight we are covering...

The Anointing of David

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about things that have led up to King David…and now it’s time to actually meet him. Last week if you recall, we spent our night traveling through the first fifteen chapters of 1 Samuel, talking about King Saul and the traits he had that caused him to be rejected by God as king.

Don’t worry, we haven’t seen the last of Saul…he shows up a lot in King David’s story…which is why we spent so much time talking about him last week. But for now, let’s be glad to spend the night in just a few verses and get to meet the main character of our series this spring. Follow along as I read 1 Samuel 16. I’m going to start on the last verse of 15 and I’ll stop as I go, rather than reading the full passage and then giving the points... so just keep your finger on the text.

We are dropping into the story right after Saul was rejected by God as King.

1 Samuel 15:34–35 ESV

34 Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. 35 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.

So here we see that Samuel is grieving, which means he truly cared about Saul and was concerned for his Godliness…this just goes to show that Israel had a great Judge over them in Samuel…and yet still wanted a King and rejected God by it…just like we talked last week.

So Samuel grieved Saul and it says the LORD regretted making Saul king. I wanted to cover this verse because I know it can cause quite a bit of confusion…the idea of God regretting something. But, it’s actually not as complicated as we make it. What you need to remember is that when God feels something…love, mercy, justice, grace, and even regret. He feels it perfectly....in a way that we can’t fully understand because we are not set apart and Holy like God is. So when scripture says he feels regret, we need to understand that this is a pure and holy regret...

And what we also need to understand is that the Hebrew word for regret has a few nuances…sometimes meaning to change one’s mind…other times to feel genuine sorrow…this regret here is clearly a genuine sorrow...

And that leads us to our first point tonight. Our points tonight center around some of the things we learn about God through this part of the story and the first is that..

God cares...

I make this point because as we read the OT, it’s so easy to see the sovereign God who commands all of history and works in it to complete his purpose and will…it’s easy to see the God of the plagues, and judgement, and war on his enemies...and yet we far too often overlook the compassion, and mercy, and love that he has in the OT. I also give this point because it continues to show us that the God in the NT is exactly the same as the God in the OT and they are not different Gods who act differently…but rather it is one God, one creator, who is yes sovereign, and just…but also cares.

So before we move one…you need to understand, that even in the consequences that your sin has…as we talked about last week, your sin is forgiven and the wage of death is paid by Christ…but there is still discipline and consequence…and what we see here…in the middle of Saul’s consequence and punishment for his sin…God still cares. He still feels regret/sorrow...

As it says in Romans..we are not separated from the love of God found in Christ...

So that’s the first point…that God cares. Here’s the second point.

God works...

Look back at the passage with me.

1 Samuel 16:1–3 ESV

1 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.” 2 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.’ 3 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.”

So like I said…what we see here is that God works. As in, he works in man and through man to accomplish his will.

He’s not a passive God, he’s not some far away deity…but he is a God who is actively working in human history. Did you see what he says to Samuel? He says in verse one… “I have provided for myself a king among the sons of Jesse”...

Think about the implications there. What does it look like for God to provide for himself a king among somebody’s sons? Well…it means that he was intentional in who was born when....he was intentional in what marriages occured…I mean…think about all the work that one would have to do in order to guarantee that a certain person, would be born at a certain time, in a certain place, with the right giftings and personality to be the King of Israel?

Like…are you beginning to see just how crazy of a statement it truly is for God to say that he has raised up for himself somebody who is able to be King of his people.

It IS sorta crazy…but it shows us that

God works. He works in our lives. He’s intentional with every detail and life experience that we have. It’s just like it says in...

Philippians 2:13 ESV

13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

You hear that? He WORKS in us…for his good pleasure. Meaning…it pleases God to work in our lives and accomplish his means.

So putting these first two points together…what do we learn about God in the anointing of David? We learn that he is a God who sincerely and authentically feels for and with us....and we learn that he is a God who finds pleasure in working among his people to accomplish his will. Let’s keep reading.

1 Samuel 16:4–7 ESV

4 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?” 5 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. 6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” 7 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.”

So in this passage we’ve seen that God cares…that he works…and now we see

God sees.

We learn this by what God says to Samuel about identifying the next king of Israel.

Samuel sees one of David’s brothers, right? A brother names Eliab…and it doesn’t say what Eliab looked like, but whatever it was it made Samuel think… “oh yeah…this is the guy”. Maybe it was because Saul was a tall and handsome guy, and so something about Eliab reminded Samuel of Saul…but either way....Samuel is reminded of something in this moment. He’s not reprimanded, but he is taught something by God and that is...

That God does not see like man sees. Rather, God sees like God sees. Man is captured by the outward appearance, while God is interested in the condition of man’s heart…meaning, his character…emotions, will…his soul. The center of his being.

This should remind us of some of the things that Jesus says in his time with us during his earthly ministry.

Matthew 23:27–28 ESV

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Jesus, as God in flesh, also reveals that instead of seeing the outward appearance of the Pharisees…God sees their hearts…and their hearts are no better than the dead rotting corpses contained within the tombs.

But I want to take this a little deeper tonight, I want to increase our understanding of what exactly God sees within us…because sometimes we can walk away with some misconceptions.

Here’s what I mean. Many of us, will walk away from this text with a notion that when we say “God sees the heart of man”…that what he means is that he sees his inward actions...

For example…it would be easy to think, that as Samuel is going through and finding the king to annoint…that God is looking at the heart of each man…and he can see what they are going to do…who they are going to be…what kind of King they will become...

We, alongside many others....presume (without even noticing it)…that when God looks at the heart of man…he sees their potential. In fact…that’s what we assume he sees about us.

We assume that when God loves us, and chooses us, and redeems us, or any time honestly we feel him working in our lives....we assume it’s because he sees some kind of future us that acts better, does better, loves better, studies better.....is more Godly…is more righteous....is more sanctified.

We immediately apply our future worth and contribution to the kingdom of God as a factor in his choosing or loving us…whether we realize it or not.

But what does the scripture say he looks at? It says he looks at the heart. Not the potential, not the future…but the heart. As in…the sincerity of man.

Think of it this way...

Samuel told Saul...

1 Samuel 13:13–14 ESV

13 And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

So it says in scripture that God was searching for a man after his own heart…and then it goes on to say that God was looking at the heart of David when he was anointed…so what does that mean?

It means that David’s heart was God’s heart....it means that David desired the things that God desired, loved the things God loved, glorified God the way he desires to be glorified...

Now let’s keep thinking about this…we just said that David had a heart after God…and God chose him because of his heart for him…but wait a minute.

Didn’t David have some rough stuff in his heart? Wasn’t he going to murder a man? Wasn’t he going to sleep with a woman that wasn’t his wife? Wasn’t he going to passively let his son murder a man?

Yes…and that’s my point guys. My point is that we are naturally inclined to think God views us for what we are doing and what we shall do....but if anything, this anointing of David proves to us that God doesn’t look into what man will do…but rather God looks into who man is.

We know that David is going to do all those sinful things…and all Saul did was not kill some animals and decide to give them in worship to God. Why does David get to be king and not Saul?

Because of the heart. Because as we will see time and time again…David will respond to the law of God with a sincere heart of love, and honor, and repentance. And Saul was flippant with the word of God. This is all because...

God sees.

He truly sees…not in part, but in whole.

So the anointing of David teaches us a few things about God...

That he cares for his chosen.

That he works in them and through them.

That he sees them for who they truly are, not what they have or will do...

Let’s read the last part of our passage and see another thing we learn about God in the anointing of David.

1 Samuel 16:8–13 ESV

8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” 9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” 10 And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” 11 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.” 12 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.” 13 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.

In case you’re wondering…ruddy means to have a healthy color to them. Like rosy cheeks…well complected skin. So it turns out that David is considered handsome…but that is not the reason the Lord chose him. In fact, even his heart is not the only reason God chose him. We see in this passage that God chose him because God raised him up…but…he did choose him. And in this passage…and King David is being anointed, and we begin the story of his life....we see one more thing about God.

And that is...

God indwells.

Look back at that last verse there…it says “the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward.”

What we see here…is a signature of God.

Do you know what I mean? I mean…that every artist has a signature…a style…a way that they work.

And God…as the ultimate artist…creator…he has a signature. And this right here is one of them.

God indwells those whom he has chosen, with his spirit. In the OT, we see God do this with his chosen leaders. We actually just saw it with Saul in chapter 10…and now we see it with David.

I wanted to bring this up tonight…because I want us to realize something that is very special about his.

In the OT…God indwelled those with his spirit who were to do the work of his Kingdom…who were to work on behalf of God. Not everyone in the OT was filled with the spirit…

And yet…the thing that is really special…is that every one of us who have put our faith and trust in Christ…are indwelled with the Holy Spirit.

We, just like the kings of Old…have been indwelled. And I wanted to drive this home because I wanted to connect the purpose of it...

What did I say the purpose of indwelling of the Holy Spirit is in the OT? To equip those called by God to do the work of God in the strength of God.

And I want you to realize…that we too are indwelled for that very purpose.

It says in John that the Holy Spirit is the great helper. And He is. His role is to help us…as called by God, to do the work of God, in the strength of God.

And how cool is that…that we are indwelled by God in the same way that David was.

Now…as we get through this series we are going to see that many time we are nowhere near like David was…in fact, David has a lot of similarties and foreshadowings of Christ....but, what we do get to see tonight…is that we are like David in this...

We are like David in the fact that when God chose us…he indwelled us.

So…it’s been my prayer that in the anointing of David…and at the beginning of his story that we are diving deep into over the next several weeks....it’s been my prayer that you learn more of God…and grow in a deeper understanding of who he is.

He is a God who cares…who works....who sees…and who indwells.