David Chosen as King

ask things that we have talked about in weeks past

Now we get to David. We are going to see David get chosen and we are going to look at how he dealt with Saul and Goliath and we will look at the covenant that God made with David as well.

1 Samuel 16:1 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.”

Samuel looks for the king in Jesse’s sons, but God tells him that outward looks are not what makes a king.

1 Samuel 16:7 ESV

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.”

How much weight do we put on things that we see on the outside of people?

1 Samuel 16:11–13 ESV

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.

So David is chosen. Not chosen by Samuel. Remember that Samuel would have chosen one of the brothers. No, he is chosen by God.

When we see that, what does that bring to mind about our salvation?

God gives Saul a harmful spirit

1 Samuel 16:14–15 ESV

14 Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. 15 And Saul’s servants said to him, “Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you.

Now, these can be verses that are harder to understand. God giving someone a spirit that is bad. But, I think that one way we can have comfort in this is how events play out as we continue. Because of this bad spirit, Saul sought someone to comfort him. That person ends up being David. Because of this relationship, when David shows up to the battlefield with Goliath, Saul lets him go forward and kill Goliath.

We trust God in verses like this just as much as we do in the verses we understand completely.

Saul seeks worldly comfort

1 Samuel 16:16–17 ESV

16 Let our lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well.” 17 So Saul said to his servants, “Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me.”

1 Samuel 16:18–19 ESV

18 One of the young men answered, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the Lord is with him.” 19 Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me David your son, who is with the sheep.”

David faces a giant

1 Samuel 17:4–11 ESV

4 And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5 He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6 And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. 7 The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. And his shield-bearer went before him. 8 He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” 10 And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” 11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

David was busy working for his father.

1 Samuel 17:14–15 ESV

14 David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.

His father wanted him to take food to his brothers on the front line. When he was there, Goliath came out and started his daily routine of intimidating everyone.

1 Samuel 17:26 ESV

26 And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

David understood that Goliath was not just against an army, he was against God. This despised David. But when he was speaking like this, his oldest brother heard him and started questioning him as to why he was talking like this. He tells him that he didn’t come down to the battlefield for this, and that he needed to get back to his sheep tending duties.

Word got back to Saul about what David was saying. So David told Saul to let him go and take care of Goliath.

1 Samuel 17:32 ESV

32 And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”

Now, there wasn’t this big rally when David said this. They weren’t all excited that finally someone is standing up to the giant. In fact, they try to talk him down. They lay out the reasons why he shouldn’t do this.

1 Samuel 17:33 ESV

33 And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.”

David though isn’t fazed by Goliath. He tells them that Goliath is nothing compared to the things he has dealt with in the field with the sheep.

1 Samuel 17:34–37 ESV

34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. 36 Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”

My God’s got me.

So they make him put on armor. The armor is too heavy because it was too big. The armor wasn’t his armor. All he needed was the tools God had trained him with. He didn’t need a sword. A shepherd staff and a slingshot would be just what he needed. So he grabs 5 stones and puts him in his patch.

Now, do you think Goliath thought that he was going to have any issue with David? But David has something on his side that strength didn’t mean nothing to. David had God.

1 Samuel 17:45–46 ESV

45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,

Now, that is something that they leave off in the kids story. David said that he was going to cut off his head and leave their dead bodies for animals to feed off of. Not to prove any strength or fortitude that David has. But that all the world may know about God.

1 Samuel 17:47 ESV

47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

For the battle is the Lord’s. What would happen if we had this mentality more often?

And the victory is God’s as well. If David wins the battle, it is because God has made it so. If David loses the battle, it is because God has made it so. Not every battle that David is in is a victory for him. There are times when his battle for sin sways the other way. But this time, God displays for the world this victory against those who oppose the Israelites.

1 Samuel 17:48–49 ESV

48 When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.

So there is victory. The Philistines are defeated all because God used a little boy with a slingshot and a stone. God can use many tools to bring victory. He can use swords and guns. He can use a leather strap with a stone in it. God is not limited by any tools.

And, just because we seem to skip over it, I want to read this verse.

1 Samuel 17:51 ESV

51 Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

But after this, Saul became very jealous of David. When they got back to town, David got more attention than Saul did from people because he was the one who killed the giant. And what we see in Saul is how bad a hold sin can get on us when we are focused on the wrong things.

Saul was jealous of David and he let that stew in him and let the anger and the rage get to him and it manifested itself in a dangerous way.

1 Samuel 18:10–11 ESV

10 The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand. 11 And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice.

Saul knew what was happening though. He knew that David had God’s hand on him while he had lost it.

1 Samuel 18:12 ESV

12 Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul.

And this just continued. David kept growing in God’s favor and he did very well with everything that he was doing.

See, God had plans for David. God was going to use David to bring forth Jesus. We will continue to see this play out until we get to the gospel accounts. So, because God had plans with him, he made a covenant with David.

In 2 Samuel chapter7, God makes this covenant. In this covenant, God reaffirms the prior promise of the land that he had promised to his people. But on top of that, he promises David to have a great name. He promises a great house(lineage) and an eternal throne(Jesus).

Now, all of these promises have an immediate fulfillment. But they also have an ultimate fulfillment in the likes of Jesus.