God Calls: David

Last week we heard God calling to the child Samuel.

Samuel grew up to be a trustworthy prophet who revealed God’s word to the people, and so the people began to recognise that they needed a more formal leader.

They asked for a king. Samuel reminded them that God was their king, and a human king would inevitably go wrong, but they insisted, and God agreed, and Samuel anointed Saul as the first king of Israel. Saul was head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the country, and he was handsome and charismatic.

Unfortunately, he also chose political expediency over faithfulness to God’s way, and when waiting for God and Samuel to give their blessing in the midst of a military situation became too difficult, he took matters into his own hands.

As a result, Samuel told him that God would choose another king to take his place.

We pick up the story today in 1st Samuel chapter 16, when Saul is still on the throne but has just heard from God that his days as king are numbered.

READING: 1 Samuel 16:1-13

1 Samuel 16:1–13 CEB

1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long are you going to grieve over Saul? I have rejected him as king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and get going. I’m sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem because I have found my next king among his sons.” 2 “How can I do that?” Samuel asked. “When Saul hears of it he’ll kill me!” “Take a heifer with you,” the Lord replied, “and say, ‘I have come to make a sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will make clear to you what you should do. You will anoint for me the person I point out to you.” 4 Samuel did what the Lord instructed. When he came to Bethlehem, the city elders came to meet him. They were shaking with fear. “Do you come in peace?” they asked. 5 “Yes,” Samuel answered. “I’ve come to make a sacrifice to the Lord. Now make yourselves holy, then come with me to the sacrifice.” Samuel made Jesse and his sons holy and invited them to the sacrifice as well. 6 When they arrived, Samuel looked at Eliab and thought, that must be the Lord’s anointed right in front. 7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Have no regard for his appearance or stature, because I haven’t selected him. God doesn’t look at things like humans do. Humans see only what is visible to the eyes, but the Lord sees into the heart.” 8 Next Jesse called for Abinadab, who presented himself to Samuel, but he said, “The Lord hasn’t chosen this one either.” 9 So Jesse presented Shammah, but Samuel said, “No, the Lord hasn’t chosen this one.” 10 Jesse presented seven of his sons to Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord hasn’t picked any of these.” 11 Then Samuel asked Jesse, “Is that all of your boys?” “There is still the youngest one,” Jesse answered, “but he’s out keeping the sheep.” “Send for him,” Samuel told Jesse, “because we can’t proceed until he gets here.” 12 So Jesse sent and brought him in. He was reddish brown, had beautiful eyes, and was good-looking. The Lord said, “That’s the one. Go anoint him.” 13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him right there in front of his brothers. The Lord’s spirit came over David from that point forward. Then Samuel left and went to Ramah.

Have you seen posts with the “how it started/how it’s going?” They’re all over the place these days…

- a product of 2020, posts showed up all over the place… depicting couples “then & now”, family pics “then & now”

puppies or kids (then and now)

… some people used it to show how childhood dreams turned into vocational realities (astronaut in cardboard box spaceship and then in the Int’l Space Station)

But since it was a meme that orginated in 2020, there was also space to process some of the toll that a year like 2020 took on us… led to memes like this (Baby Yoda/Yoda)

David would have had some pretty sweet content for a meme like this.

David the shepherd boy in the first pic, and then King David in the second.

David out killing the lion with his bare hands or David slaying Goliath with just his slingshot - juxtaposed perhaps with David running for his life when Saul wants to kill him or dancing naked before the ark? David has a lot of memorable moments…

Our texts today do the same thing for us in some way… but we just read them in reverse order. We heard Psalm 51 as our call to worship - which is connected to one of David’s biggest failures. It’s a prayer of contrition - an honest turning when one recognizes authentic guilt and wants to go a better way. In essence,

How it started/How it’s going

David the anointed 8th brother vs King David the mess-maker confronted by Nathan

How it started: The Anointing of David

At a sacrifice that David’s father Jesse and his 7 brothers all get invited to by Samuel.

A ritual act accompanied by a feast made of the substantial parts of the animal not burned on the altar. So. A big event. A feast.

Samuel, of course, was the priest who anointed the first king of Israel. The people demanded a king. Neither God nor Samuel thought it was a great plan, but eventually they were convinced. It has gone well. Saul has proven to be all the things that God warned the people a king would be. Self-seeking, manipulative, and disobedient.

So David here is being anointed as a kind of public secret. Saul is still king, but has been given a warning that this isn’t going to last. He will not pass on the power to his sons and grandsons, etc.

David will be king. Wait. David? Jesse’s youngest? Surely one of the older boys is a better fit for KING?

No. David.

(And note here, how when Samuel assumes that the oldest, tallest, strappingest, man child of Jesse’s is the obvious choice, God says, “don’t look at the outside stuff Samuel, I’m looking at the heart.” But when we do finally get David in from the fields, the narrator can’t help but tell us that while still young, he’s got serious “smoulder” potential.

How it went: The Repentance of David

Spring time = war time

Bathsheba - Uriah’s wife

What this story shows us is that David, like Saul can also be self-seeking, manipulative, and disobedient.

Wait? What? I thought we were trading in a “bad king” for a “good king” - a jerk for a nice guy. A potential tyrant for a benevolent shepherd?

Nope. We traded a self-seeking, manipulative, disobedient king for another one.

But we also traded a king who would not repent. Would not admit his wrong. Would not stop and reconsider.

For a king who was willing to face his mistakes (not perfectly and not without help)

Devotion and contrition.

Commitment and re-commitment.

So, knowing how things will go, how is it that David is someone who is “after God’s heart”? What is it about David we’re meant to emulate? Or are we meant to see him as a model at all?

Perhaps more about inward realities than outward perfection. For David failed outwardly much as Saul did.

I see two things in David - one personal and one communal/community:

1. David possessed a longing for God. A thirst. A soft-heartedness. (we see this in the psalms that are attributed to him and in many of the stories we have from throughout David’s life)

But also he listens to those around him… so even in his own story, he might not have repented if not for Nathan. Look at Psalm 51 for a minute… do you see the note there in the title?

What is God’s heart anyway? How do we know what God cares about? If we want to be people “after God’s heart” - what would that look like?

Jesus as the revelation of God’s heart as well as the human who perfectly embodies what it looks like to be “after God’s heart”

when we follow Jesus, we are on a trajectory where we are not only “fixing the outer” but being transformed so that out of our inner beings will flow actions that match. And that will be a slow process, so community and repentance will need to be ever-present in our journeys.

Jesus as the centre. Our trajectory. But we veer off. Sometimes intentionally. Often by inattention and drift.

SO. Do you long for God even a little?

Are you willing to listen to God in the people God has placed in your life?

May God continue to transform us … little by little. Moment by moment.