David
Notes
Transcript
Welcome
Welcome
Good morning everyone and welcome. Last week we were introduce to Saul, who became the first king of Israel. Our passage described Saul as the ideal looking king. Good looking, tall, strong, everything you would look for in a king. But we got some hints that things would not be great with Saul and eventually things begin to fall apart. Saul isn’t obedient to God’s command to completely destroy an enemy, which gets Samuel to a point of realizing that Israel is going to have to have a different king. And so today, we will be introduced to this new king and how he differs from Saul.
Prayer
Prayer
What Now?
What Now?
The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”
But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.”
The Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.”
Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, “Do you come in peace?”
Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
Here in chapter 16, we see a pretty broken hearted Samuel. Samuel is here mourning for Saul, mourning for the person who was supposed to take over leadership of Israel. Imagine what Samuel has to be feeling. He’s getting up there in years, his sons can’t really replace him, so the people choose this king to have rule them. Things start off great, Samuel thinks maybe retirement is around the corner, and then Saul messes up to such a degree that you know he can’t remain king. Samuel is upset because Saul was unfaithful to God’s commands and not only that, Samuel is probably worried about what is going to happen to Israel, how are they going to respond to Saul? Is this whole thing going to blow up and ruin the nation? From Samuel’s point of view everything looks like it is falling apart.
Yet, when it appears like everything is falling apart, God provides for his people. God has already seen who will be king and he tells Samuel to get up and go anoint him. But there is a problem with this, how is Samuel going to travel in order to even get to Bethlehem? In order to get to Bethlehem Samuel would have to travel through or really close by to Saul’s town. If Saul finds out Samuel is off to anoint someone else as king, he is not going to stand for it, Saul would probably kill Samuel. So God gives Samuel an alibi. Take a heifer and simply say that you are going to sacrifice it for an offering. God doesn’t really fill in the details for Samuel. The only details God gives him are, take a heifer, say, “I have come to sacrifice,” invite Jesse, anoint a king.
One of the things that stands out to me just in this passage, is the amount of information that God gives to Samuel. If I get sent to do a task, I want as many details as possible. I will literally google maps a location if I have never been there before so that I have an understanding of the parking lot and where the door is. Maybe that is excessive, but we want and like to have details. Especially in the big things in life. We want God to give us details on how things will work out, what exactly we need to be doing. But, here’s what we see in God’s interaction with Samuel.
God doesn’t always give us all the details. Often, God tells us just enough, just what we need to know, and then asks us to walk in obedience to him and trust that he has a plan worked out. In verse 4 we see that this was enough for Samuel. “Samuel did what the Lord said.” Once again pointing out the importance of trusting and obeying what God says.
Samuel gets to Bethlehem and people start freaking out. The elders of Bethlehem are terrified to see Samuel. They are afraid for a few reasons.
They likely knew Samuel and Saul had a falling out
They weren’t expecting Samuel to be there.
Probably thought he was there to pronounce judgement for some sin.
It was not normal for a prophet to just show up randomly. Normally when a prophet shows up like this it doesn’t end well for the people of the town. They have to be relieved when they find out he’s there for a sacrifice. But yet, they have to realize that something else is going on. So Samuel meets with Jesse, and invites him and his family to join him for this sacrifice that Samuel is going to do.
When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Samuel has gotta be thinking, “Well this was easy.” He sees the ideal candidate before him, tall, strong, everything a king needs to be and thinks, “This is the one, this is the guy who is going to lead us through this difficult time.” But God tells Samuel a truth about him that we need to also hear today. “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Even Samuel, who is essentially God’s man needs to be reminded not to just judge someone by what they look like! If Samuel needs to be reminded, then we also need to be reminded of this fact. Whether you admit it or not, chances are we all have a tendency to do just what Samuel does. We look at someone and we believe we know what kind of person they are just by looking at them. God tells us that isn’t what he looks at though. God looks at a person’s heart.
“The LORD looks at the heart.”
This is good news, but it can also be terrifying to think about. It is good news because we often fall short in many of the outward appearances that the world judges by. We don’t have the perfect body, the ideal resume, the most powerful job, the white fence around the house, there are so many ways that we can fall short according to the things the world looks at. But here is the good news about this. God doesn’t see us based on how many abs you have, based on how much you make a year, or what kind of house you have. God looks at your heart. So while the world may look at you and see someone who doesn’t measure up in all of these areas, God looks at you and sees a beloved child.
Now for the bad news… this idea of God looking at our heart should make us tremble because we have to ask ourselves, “What does my heart look like?” Because if we’re honest, all of us have probably had moments where we thought something hurtful about someone and quickly thought to ourselves, “Well I’m glad they can’t hear what I’m saying in my head.” But God can! God sees all of those thoughts and feelings that you have in your heart and mind. We can put on a show and make everyone else think that we are a living saint, the greatest and nicest person who ever lived, but God can actually see into your heart. He can see all of those things that you don’t admit to other people.
Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, “Nor has the Lord chosen this one.” Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The Lord has not chosen these.” So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”
“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.”
Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”
So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features.
Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.”
So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah.
After Samuel’s first choice is shot down, Jesse brings out all of his other sons to pass in front of him. Yet none of them are the one that God has in mind. Samuel basically asks Jesse, “Are you sure this is all of your sons? Are you sure you haven’t forgotten any of them?” Jesse does still have another son, but he is out tending the sheep. Jesse didn’t even have David there to go before Samuel probably for a couple of reasons.
David is a shepherd, slaves and rejects took this job. Not exactly what anyone aspired to be.
Youngest can also mean smallest. David is basically the runt of the family. It says he is handsome, but not in the way you want your king to be.
And throughout this encounter, notice how they never give David’s name until after he is anointed. That is how insignificant they thought David was.
Illustration:
Picking David goes completely against who you would normally pick for a king. It’s like if you were picking people to play on your football team, you don’t pick the small cute kid. When you pick your football team you pick the meanest, toughest looking guy there.
After the Anointing
After the Anointing
Just after this anointing, what would you expect David to do? I would expect an anointed king to start doing something, kingly, I guess. But David goes back to what he was doing. After this mountaintop experience David returns to his daily grind. He goes back to the pasture to tend sheep until Saul eventually calls for him to come serve in his court. But during this time, God is still shaping David. David grows in his ability to care for the sheep, to protect them from lions and bears, all things that will come in handy when he takes the place of king.
Ultimately, David is setting up the Biblical narrative for someone else. A true king who is without fault, one who will care for and protect his sheep just as David does. David is pointing us ultimately to Jesus, the real king and messiah. And Jesus also doesn’t look at the outward appearance of people. Throughout Jesus’ ministry you see him hanging out with sinners, just look at who he picks to be his disciples! In fact, in Matthew 23 Jesus warns the pharisees about only being concerned about outward appearances.
25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.
28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
This passage about David’s anointing and Jesus’ warning to the pharisees makes us ask two very important questions about ourselves.
Application
Application
What do you see when you look at someone?
Do you see their job? Title? Wealth? Body? Clothes?
Or do you see their heart?
What does God see when He looks at your heart?
If you don’t have a savior, someone who can take away you sin, your life is like the dirty cup Jesus talked about. We all have sin. We all have these thoughts in our head that we know are not right, we know they are wrong. But yet, there is nothing you can do to wash all of those thoughts out of your heart. There is only one person who can do that.
Or are you like the pharisees? You have spent all of this time coming to church, doing all of the christian, religious things, but yet it’s all just an act. You don’t actually let Jesus have your heart.
Or, is Christ ruling as king of your heart? This is where we really need to land. We can’t clean ourselves up, we can’t put an act on before God because he sees our hearts. We have to really give our hearts to Christ and live our lives like he is our king.
Communion
Communion