A New Consecration

1 Samuel 16:1-5 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.” 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.

This past Wednesday, we all woke up from our Tuesday evening slumber and hung new calendars on our walls that had the number 2025 on them as we began a new year.

And with the new year now being upon us, we now begin a new series of sermons. And when it comes to the sermons that we will explore this year, we will be doing something that we have done before but may seem new to us all over again.

Last year, our various series of sermons were longer, lasting several months. This year, we are going to revert to the format that we had done in years past, doing monthly series’, preaching sermons from the Old Testament on odd numbered months, and sermons from the New Testament on even numbered months.

And because January is an odd numbered month, we begin the year with a series of sermons from the Old Testament. And what it is from the Old Testament that we will be focusing on specifically this month is the narrative concerning God’s selection of a new king to rule over Israel, found in the first book of Samuel, chapter 16, verses 1-13.

And as we begin our series and our sermon for this morning, what we initially see is one who is devastated at what had recently taken place, but the hope for better days arises within him, and therefore, he moves forward confidently.

It reminds me a lot of Cubs’ fans. Almost every year around the end of September, you will see a lot of depressed Cub fans. The reason why they are depressed is because another season has come and gone, and their Cubbies missed the playoffs again.

But then someone will place a hand on their backs and say, “There’s always next year!”, and with that, their sorrow turns from utter despair to here’s hoping for better days ahead!

Well, as we know, this hope of our dear friends who are Cubs fans doesn’t always pan out the way that they had hoped come next season.

But in our reading for today what we see is Samuel being led to despair and God giving Samuel hope for better days. But unlike the hopes of Cub fans for better days in the coming season, this hope that God gives to Samuel is certain, and indeed, coming from God, this hope can be nothing but certain.

And in order for us to understand the background of our reading for today, we need to talk a little bit about what it was that led up to this situation.

Back in the beginning of chapter 15 of this book, God, speaking through Samuel the prophet, had commanded Saul, who was king over Israel at that time, to strike down the Amalekites and to completely devote every last one of them, man, woman, child, and every bit of livestock to destruction as a consequence for their ancestors opposing Israel along the way when they came up out of Egypt.

Thus, this was the command of the God of Israel to the king of Israel. But though this was the command of God to Saul, Saul nevertheless spared the life of the king of Amalek and also the best of the livestock of Amalek.

This was in direct opposition to the command of God, and because Saul rejected the command of God, God then rejected Saul from being king over Israel.

And because Saul had been rejected by God as king, the last verse of chapter 15 tells us that Samuel returned home and grieved, wept over Saul. This grieving was over the missed opportunities of Saul’s reign and the implications of his demise for the fortunes of the nation.

And as we look to the first half of the first verse of our reading for today, Samuel must have still been at his home grieving over Saul, as we read:

1 Samuel 16:1a ESV

1a The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel?

So, in the midst of Samuel’s weeping and grieving over Saul, he receives a visitation from God, Who asks him, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel”?

We see a couple of different things in this question that God asks Samuel.

The first thing that we see is that the decision has already been made, the verdict stands and is irreversible; God has rejected Saul as king, therefore, continuing to be absorbed in grieving over what is irreversible is not wise.

And the second, more serious matter is that in continuing to grieve over what God has rejected, it would seem to appear as though Samuel disagreed with what God had decided.

And so, because God’s determination in the matter is settled and unchangeable, He commands Samuel to cease grieving over Saul; for a fresh start is to be made with another king.

We see this in the second half of this first verse when God tells Samuel:

1 Samuel 16:1b ESV

1b 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.”

God tells Samuel to “fill your horn with oil”. The oil which is spoken of here is in reference to a special “anointing oil”. At the end of chapter 30 in the book of Exodus, we read where God gives instructions to Moses for making an anointing oil that would be holy.

The Tent of Meeting, the Ark of the Testimony, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering, and all the utensils associated with the tent, the ark, and the altars were to be anointedwith this anointing oil. The priests too were to be anointed with this anointing oil. What it representedwas God setting these things and these people apart for His holy service.

Whether or not this was the same kind of anointing oil used in our reading is unknown, but it was nonetheless that which would be used to anoint the new king. And it was to be poured into an animal horn, which would be used as a container to carry the anointing oil, and that which Samuel would use to pour the oil on the head of the new king.

And while Samuel does not know who exactly this new king will be, God does make known to him that he will be among the sons of Jesse, a descendant of Boaz and Ruth who lived in Bethlehem. Thus, God commands Samuel to go to Jesse in Bethlehem.

But though this is God’s command to Samuel, Samuel is initially reluctant to obey the command. We see this in the first part of verse 2 in our reading where we read:

1 Samuel 16:2a ESV

2a And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.”

You see, in order for Samuel to go to Bethlehem from his hometown of Ramah like God commanded him, he must pass through Gibeah, the hometown of King Saul.

And Samuel knows that when he passes through Gibeah, Saul will question him and wonder what he is doing there, and he also knows that if he discloses to Saul that God has sent him to Bethlehem to anoint a new king, Saul will retaliate and kill him.

But God provides Samuel with an alibi if this situation happens, an alibi which we read of in the second half of this verse, where we read:

1 Samuel 16:2b ESV

2b And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’

God tells Samuel to take with him a heifer and to tell Saul that he goes to Bethlehem to sacrifice to the Lord. Some may presume that God is encouraging Samuel to lie here, but He does not, he would indeed sacrifice when he got to Bethlehem. No, what God does is He tells Samuel to not disclose everything that he is going to do to Saul.

Then as we continue to verse 3, we read of the instructions that God had then given to Samuel once he reached Bethlehem, where we read:

1 Samuel 16:3 ESV

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, God reveals to Samuel that when he arrives in Bethlehem, he is to personally invite Jesse to attend the sacrifice that he will make there.

Now, what is interesting here is that God, at this juncture, does not fully reveal to Samuel everything that he is to do, He simply tells Samuel, “I will show you what you shall do.” Basically, God says, “Just go there, invite Jesse to attend the sacrifice, and I will fill you in on the details as you go along.”

The only thing that God makes clear to Samuel is that as He shows him what he shall do; Samuel shall anoint for God the one whom God declares that Samuel should anoint. And to anoint this one as king.

Thus, as we now continue to verse 4 in our reading, we see Samuel’s arrival at Bethlehem, where we read:

1 Samuel 16:4 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?”

So, Samuel did as he was commanded, he came to Bethlehem, but it says that when Samuel arrived at the city, the city’s elders came to him trembling, asking if he came in peace.

Now, in order for us to understand why these elders of the city would be so fearful of Samuel, we must fill in a little bit of what we left out earlier when we talked about God judging and rejecting Saul as Israel’s king.

Remember, we said that Saul had spared the king of Amalek and the best of Amalek’s livestock. And when Samuel had seen this, he declared to Saul that God had rejected him as king. Samuel also had Amalek’s king brought before him and he personally executed the king, doing what Saul refused to do.

Now, knowing that this had recently taken place, knowing that it was Samuel who had declared God’s judgment against Saul, and knowing that it was Samuel who had executed the Amalekite king, and also knowing that this was the first time that Samuel had appeared in public since those events took place, the elders of Bethlehem were fearful that perhaps they too would be judged.

For this reason, they trembled, and asked Samuel if he had come to their village in peace.

We then see Samuel’s response to the elders and what he subsequentlydoes after that in verse 5, the last verse of our reading, where it says:

1 Samuel 16:5 ESV

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.

Samuel assures the elders that he comes to them in peace and even invites them to participate in the sacrifice and the feast by telling them to “consecrate yourselves.”

Now, for something to need to be consecrated indicates the need for ritual purity, including the abstinence from sexual activity, avoidance of contact with a dead body, washing one’s own body, and wearing clean garments.

And it wasn’t just the elders who were consecrated, for our reading for today closes by saying that Samuel also had Jesse, and his sons consecrated, which implies to Jesse and his sons that this occasion has special significance for them, but no clue is given to them as to what that significance may be.

And beloved, as we go now to partake in this most holy sacrament, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, we partake in something that God had made new nearly two thousand years ago.

The Old Testament saints had found themselves wanting in regard to meriting their salvation. The Law had been given to show Israel how to be holy, how to live holy, but they had consistently found themselves missing the mark, therefore the Law served only to show them that they do not meet God’s standards and cannot meet those standards through their own strength.

Thus, they threw themselves at God’s mercy and trusted that if they were to be made holy, consecrated, and ultimately saved from damnation, it must come through the grace of God.

And then, when the Lord Jesus came, and He lived, and He died, and He rose again did the elect people of God see in Jesus, their righteousness.

And on the eve of the crucifixion and subsequent death of Jesus, He gave to the church a gift. The gift of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. And it is through this Supper that we are reminded of what Christ has accomplished on our behalf, and even more, it is through the partaking of this Supper that He continues to communicate His grace to us.

Therefore, beloved, as Samuel commanded the Bethlehemite elders in our reading for today, as he had commanded Jesse and his sons, may we inwardly consecrate ourselves that we may receive this sacrament in a worthy manner.

*Communion