Power in the Pulpit Sermon Prep (Jim Shaddix) | 1 Samuel 16:1–13 (4)

Seeing What We Cannot See

—> We’ve noticed up to this point, the very reality of Israel’s disastrous entry into the monarchy. At times we’ve been struck by moments of inspirational faith and at other times, we have been baffled by the ignorance and spiritual amnesia demonstrated by the people of Israel. Once again we find ourselves on the baffled end of the spectrum, as Saul, over the last couple of chapters, has shown that he just doesn’t get it. And we are left hanging onto these words at the end of chapter 15, “the Lord regretted he had made Saul king.”

Well that certainly doesn’t clear things up for us any. But rather it leaves us asking, “how do we make sense of this?” It’s a question you can ask all throughout Israel’s history really, and it’s a question we can even ask now, and I think particularly today many Christians are asking themselves this question.

I remember going to bed on November 8th 2016 very certain that I would wake up to the news that we would have our first woman President. You couldn’t have convinced me that night that our next President would be someone with no political experience, who was a billionaire businessman and TV personality. But that’s what happened. And for the next four years the church was asking “how do we make sense of this?”

Then on November 3rd 2020, I went to bed very certain that that same man was undoubtedly getting reelected. You couldn’t have convinced me that night that our next President would be a man with such radically liberal ideologies and who I’m not entirely convinced knows where he is most of the time. Yet, here we are. And the church is still asking, “how do we make sense of this?”

And this confusion in the church over what is going on has in a way, led to great despair. It is as if the people believe that the fate of the church is dependent upon the administration of the government. What is more troubling is the notion that Christians believe this is something never experienced before. It’s never been so bad, they say. It would seem that Christians in America have become far too comfortable, and it most certainly is a troubling thing to know that the church in America has been spared the rod for so long. But anyway, on another note...

It is as if we have forgotten our convictions that the Bible is the living word of God. That it was written for our instruction, here today. And in fact, it has a lot to say about crooked and ill equipped leadership. And I’d argue that this passage here in the 16th chapter of first Samuel, gives us the answer to the plaguing question, “how do we make sense of all of this?”

CONCLUSION:

—> It may be hard for some of us to imagine how humble and strange the beginnings of King David are. This is a man who, outside of Christ, may be the most well known figure in the scriptures. David’s name is mentioned nearly 1,000 times in scripture and is the most talked about OT figure in the NT. The mentions of his name come short of only one other figure, and that is Jesus Christ.

Who, by the way, was known as the Son of David. He wasn’t the son of Abraham, or of Moses. No, He is the Son of David. How do we make sense of that? Surely we could argue that Abraham excelled more greatly in his faith, and Moses communed with God for more than anyone else, and yet it is this young shepherd who would go on to be the forerunner of the Messiah.

We start by knowing that we do not see as God sees. For He sees according to His heart. According to His will and purpose, according to His glory. He would not have the people look upon this King whose physical appearance would have them say, “he has great strength.” Rather, He would have them look upon His servants as they did with Samson and ask, “what is the source of his strength?”

They wondered the same with Christ did they not? The Pharisees expected a mighty ruler. One who would crush the Roman government and free them from oppression and raise them up. But Christ was humble. Meek. Low. He would not have been the one chosen by man. Yet, He is the greater King. The everlasting King. It is as if God is demonstrating that the first godly King of His people would come just like the last: from a town that had no significance, too low to be considered by man, but empowered with a supernatural strength from the Spirit of God.

It is not that David was special, it is that God is sovereign. And He placed David in His own heart not because He saw worth in Him greater than his brothers, but because He saw from the beginning of time that this boy was who He created to be used for His purposes.