The Spiritual Rush

1 Samuel 16:13 ESV

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.

A few years ago, before Jordan and I were married and we were still dating, I remember talking to her on the phone one night while I was on my laptop and kind of window shopping on Amazon when I came across this coffee table that I thought looked like it would be just right for my living room.

But what was even better was when I looked at the price and saw that it was in my budget! So, I boldly clicked “Add to cart” and purchased said coffee table. I saw the picture online, envisioned it being in my living room, and eagerly waited for its delivery.

A couple of days later, it arrived. Unfortunately, though, it did not arrive assembled, so I opened the box and began to pull the pieces out. Once everything was out, I was ready to put that table together so that my living room could look the way that I had envisioned it.

I opened the instructions and realized that all the parts were there, but for some reason, several of the screws that I needed to put it together were not in the box for some reason. But I didn’t let that get to me, I just got in my car and made my way to the hardware store and purchased the missing screws myself.

Once I arrived back home, I was determined to put my new table together, and so I started. To me, it seemed as though everything was going great and after a while, it was done.

I was very impressed with the way that it looked, and I immediately set it up in my living room. Just a few minutes later, Jordan came over after getting off of work and she walked in the front door. After coming inside, I proudly pointed at my new coffee table. She said, “Wow! That looks great!”, walked over, set her purse on it, and one of the legs on the table gave out and then the rest of the table gave way, and it lay on the floor, a pile of assorted pieces of wood and screws.

Now, it could have been that the table itself wasn’t the best quality. Or it could have been that me, the table maker, didn’t really know what I was doing. Or it could have been a combination of both.

Either way, I had envisioned in my head what I wanted, but in not even having all of the necessary parts shipped to me, I wasn’t equipped to do what I had envisioned. But even more than that, with me, well, being me, I wasn’t even capable of doing what I had envisioned doing.

As I woefully looked at that pile of wood and screws, I was reminded of an important theological truth. And that truth is how powerless man is.

And because man is powerless, we may envision something being done, but just because we envision it, that doesn’t mean that we possess what is necessary to accomplish what we desire to accomplish. And even if we do possess what is necessary to accomplish what we want to accomplish, that doesn’t mean that the end result is going to be what we envisioned.

God, though, doesn’t ever have that problem. For God, being omnipotent, all-powerful, whatsoever He envisions, whatsoever He desires to come to pass, most certainly comes to pass.

And the reason why what God desires to come to pass always comes to pass is because God ordains not only whatsoever comes to pass, but He also ordains the means that are required for it to come to pass.

You see, there are a lot of people, even I myself, who will at times, view God as one would view a human. So, with the example that I just gave, I had envisioned a certain coffee table sitting in my living room. I saw it, I wanted it, and I desired for it to come to pass. But I did not possess the means to make that happen, so it didn’t happen.

In the same way, there are many times when we will say that God wants this or wants that to come to pass. He really wants it. But God freely chooses to leave His hands tied, saying that He wants this or that to come to pass, but He is going to leave the end result to His creatures.

Thus, we say that Gods wants things to happen, but they don’t always happen, because we won’t cooperate with Him. As though the unfolding of the Creator’s plan is left in the hands of the hands of the creature.

Scripture, though, refutes such erroneous reasoning. For scripture, as has already been stated, declares that God ordains not only the end, but also the means to achieve that end.

And we see the truth of this fact fully on display in our reading for today, where we see God bringing to pass, that which He had already ordained.

Throughout the narrative that we have been working through this month, we have seen that it was God’s desire to anoint for Himself a new king to reign over His people, Israel. And God had a specific young man in mind whom He desired to reign as king. Having this specific young man in mind, He sent Samuel out to anoint him as king over Israel.

Now, throughout the course of this narrative, we have seen that there were situations that arose that appeared to be obstacles for God to overcome in order to carry out that which He desired. But of course, they seem like obstacles only to us, for there is no real obstacle that can stand in God’s way.

We saw the reasoning of Samuel, that the one whom God chose should be tall and handsome. We saw the action of Jesse as well in that though he was commanded to bring all of his sons to Samuel’s presence, he willingly left his youngest son in the pasture.

But of course, neither one of these supposed obstacles stood in the way of God or thwarted His plan for even a moment as the youngest son was brought forth and God revealed to Samuel that it was he whom the Lord had chosen.

Thus, we begin our reading for today, looking at the first part of this verse, where we read:

1 Samuel 16:13a ESV

13a Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers.

We see here that “then”, or, when God had removed all supposed obstacles and revealed that this youngest son of Jesse was the one whom he was to anoint as king, that Samuel had taken the horn that he had filled with oil back in the first verse of this chapter, and he anointed him in the midst of his brothers.

This anointing officially designates David as one divinely appointed to a special role, but it is not reported whether or not Samuel had made it clear to the others that this anointing was in regard to the kingship.

But though we don’t know for sure whether or not Samuel had made it clear that he was anointing David as king over Israel, still, what we do know, especially when we take the statement that he had performed this anointing “in the midst of his brothers”, we know that Samuel had made it plain to everyone present that God had chosen David, the unlikely shepherd boy, while He rejected the others, those whom society deemed as more acceptable.

And after this had taken place, we read of something equally interesting in the next part of this verse when we read:

1 Samuel 16:13b ESV

13b And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David

The Spirit Who is mentioned here is, the Spirit of the Lord, God Himself. Thus, the remarkable act that we read of here is that of the Spirit of God, indeed, God Himself coming upon David.

And I love the way that this coming upon David is described in our reading when says that the Spirit of the Lord “rushed upon David”. Now, when I think of something rushing upon something, I think of something powerful, something fast, something that is effective.

For example, if I am walking along and you see me slip and twist my ankle, you could rush to my aid. Once there, you can ask me, “Nick, can you stand up so that I can sit you down in a chair?” And if I say, “No, I can’t stand”, you lift me up and set my down in a chair. Thus, you came to me fast, you worked powerfully in my favor, and what you desired had its effect. You rushed upon me.

Well, in a similar but much, much greater way, when our reading says that the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David, what it indicates is that God powerfully came upon David, overtaking him in order to enable him and compel him to effectively serve as the anointed king over God’s people.

Do you see how this connects with what I was saying earlier? God ordained the end: that David would be king. And here we see that God also ordained the means: coming upon David so that he would not only be able to serve as king, but to also compel him to follow the God-ordained path to inevitable kingship.

Thus, the remarkable, amazing, awe-inspiring reality is that the entirety of David’s kingship, his path to the throne, and all of his wonderful and effective work during his reign was owing to God alone, as He powerfully and graciously worked through David.

And what is especially interesting about the Spirit of the Lord rushing upon David is that, as the next part of our verse tells us, He rushed upon David,

1 Samuel 16:13c ESV

13c from that day forward.

Now, what makes this especially interesting is that in verse 14 of this chapter, in the verse that comes after our narrative, we read that “the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul”.

Now, if you will recall, as we began our series of sermons in this narrative, we had spoken about how God had rejected Saul as king over Israel. And when we read of the Spirit of the Lord departing from Saul, we see God’s rejection of him fully taking place; no longer is Saul able to effectively serve as king, for God’s enabling power has departed from him.

But as our reading reveals to us, the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David “from that day forward”, in other words, He remained with David and never left him.

And we ask again, why was this? I believe that we find the answer in the meaning of the two names.

The name “Saul” means: “asked for, or, prayed for”. And if we will remember, we know that Saul became king over Israel because the people “asked for” a king to reign over them.

But though the people “asked for” Saul, as we said last week, the name “David” means, “beloved”. Thus, though the people asked for Saul, David was beloved by God. David was chosen by God.

And thus, his work being concluded, we read of Samuel’s departure at the end of our reading, where it says:

1 Samuel 16:13d ESV

13d And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.

Having performed his duty, Samuel returns to his hometown of Ramah. He still lives for some time after this, but this act of anointing David was the conclusion to his public career. And indeed, a fitting conclusion it was!

Beloved, is it not remarkable that every passage in the Bible points to and in one way or another, describes the absolute sovereignty of God?

Is it not remarkable that our God is truly an omnipotent God, possessing all power and actively using that power? That He ordains what pleases Him, and what pleases Him He effectively brings to pass.

In awe-filled wonder, I ask, what shall we say to this? Let us look to the words of A.W. Pink in this matter, where he says:

Here then is a sure resting-place for the heart. Our lives are neither the product of blind fate nor the result of capricious chance. Every detail of them was ordained from all eternity and is now ordered by the living, reigning God. Not a hair of our heads can be touched without His permission. “A man’s heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). What assurance, what strength, what comfort this should give the real Christian! “My times are in thy hand” (Psalm 31:15). Then let me “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7).

Beloved, as the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David at his anointing that he may effectively serve as king, so has the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon us believers at the moment of our regeneration so that we may effectively persevere in this life with our salvation intact.

Therefore, rest in God as His will for you is at this time coming to pass.

Amen?