David was speaking about manipulative preaching this morning; a lot of hollering and pounding and slobbering! I thought that sounds familiar! I promise I’ll keep the hollering and slobbering to a minimum! I may pound a little bit, but no hollering and slobbering! Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, we ask You to open our hearts and open our eyes and our ears. Let us see You in Your beauty as we see You in Your Word. Speak to us of the great works You do in the lives of Your people, for Your own glory. Feed our souls now. We make our prayer in Jesus’ name, amen.
Tonight we begin our summer study of the life of David. And let me just spend a moment to try and cast a framework for that study. What’s the value of studying David or any life we find in the Scripture? David in particular is an old friend, isn’t he? We know David. We read about David. We can’t really sometimes get enough of David. I love the study of David. I look so forward to this study of his life this summer. And I think in David’s life, in the lives of Bible characters in general, we find the works of God writ large. That’s really what I want us to think about the study this summer, all of us who are participating – the works of God writ large. David is a man like we are, and yet God describes him as a man after His own heart, a man who casts himself upon God’s mercies, a man who repents without excuse, a man who fights the Lord’s battles, yet a man who is prone to doubt. We’ll see him making doubt-ridden choices and decisions. A man who’s weak, who’s weak at times in the worst of ways; whose weakness is the worst of weakness, like the rest of us. And yet, here’s David in whose life we find the works of God writ large.
We’ll look at 1 Samuel 16 tonight and we’ll see the work of God here. We don’t really want to talk so much about David; we want to talk about God. What is God doing? So let’s give our attention to God’s Word. I’ll read the whole chapter and we’ll walk our way through the whole chapter in the time we’ve got tonight. First Samuel chapter 16. You’ll find that on page 238 if you’re using the Bible that’s in the pew.
“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.’ 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.’ 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.’ 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?’ 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.
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.’ 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.’ Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, ‘Neither has the Lord chosen this one.’ Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, ‘Neither has the Lord chosen this one.’ And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The Lord has not chosen these.’ 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.’ 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.’ 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.
Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. And Saul’s servants said to him, ‘Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. 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.’ So Saul said to his servants, ‘Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me.’ 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.’ Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, ‘Send me David your son, who is with the sheep.’ And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them by David his son to Saul. And David came to Saul and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, ‘Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight.’ And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.”
The grass withers and the flower fades but the Word of our God stands forever.
Let’s set the context here for a moment for these events here in 1 Samuel chapter 16. And I want to go back to verse 35 of chapter 15 where the writer of 1 Samuel says, “Samuel did not see Saul again” – this was after the great moment of Saul’s clear disobedience and even hardness of heart towards God in the matter of God sending the Israelites to annihilate in judgment the Amalekites. God was going to pour out His judgment on the Amalekites for their actions against the Israelites during the exodus and Saul did not follow through on what God had told him to do, so “Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul and the Lord regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.” That really sets the context for what’s happening here in chapter 16. On Samuel’s part, there’s grief for Saul. He had high hopes for Saul. Saul started well in his kingship over Israel, and now there is not only grief for Saul but even fear for the nation of Israel with a rejected king on the throne. What does that look like? There’s not really much for Samuel to do. He’s the last judge. The judgeship, the cycle of the judges, ended with Samuel. During Samuel’s judgeship they asked for a king; we’ll talk about that more later. So now Samuel faces a diminished public role. If the Lord has rejected Saul then there’s no revelation for him. God is not speaking to him. Samuel was the communicator, the mediator bringing to Saul the message of the truth of God. There’s no more speaking from God to Saul. What good can come to the nation in such a situation as this? Israel has a king now and there’s no return to the judges.
Besides all that, Saul, or rather Samuel, is old. He knows, along with the elders of Israel, that his days are numbered. He is grieving, and the writer tells us that “the Lord regretted that He made Saul king over Israel.” The Lord knows the end from the beginning. How can He regret anything? Well there’s more than one translation for that Hebrew word that we translate “regret” right here. Give me a minute to kind of walk through a couple of things. There’s one translation of that word that is more like “relent; to relent or to change one’s mind.” Numbers 23:19, “The Lord does not change His mind as men do.” Jonah, as he preached to the Ninevites, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed,” there was a response, remember; there was a response of repentance on the part of the Ninevites who were saying, “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from His fierce anger so that we may not perish.” We know that God did relent in the face of the repentance of the Ninevites which causes us to ask a question – “What was the goal of Jonah’s preaching? Was it destruction or was it repentance?” God’s goal was met in the repentance under the prophetic preaching of Jonah. Now Jonah had his own issues with that but there’s another take or another translation for that word, “to relent.”
Or, “to have pity or compassion on,” as in Judges chapter 2 where the cycle of the judges was laid out. The cycle of the judges was – Israel has turned from the Lord, God hands them over to their enemies, they cry out to Him, in His mercy God provides a judge. That’s an indicator of His compassion. That’s another translation for this word. In compassion, God brings a judge to deliver the Israelites from the oppression of their enemies that God handed them to for their unbelief and their disobedience. And while the judge was yet living, the nation walked with the Lord.
Finally, there is this third translation for this one Hebrew word, “to be sorry, to have regret.” “God was sorry that He made mankind on the earth,” as it says in Genesis chapter 6, verses 6 and 7. I think that’s the best way to translate this business of God’s regretting He made Saul king over Israel. That’s irrespective of God’s knowing the end from the beginning. He’s sorry that Saul turned out to be the type of man that he is. The Scriptures tell us that God has compassion. Scripture describes God as one having compassion. The Scripture describes God as one having sorrow, as in the case of Saul. That’s the best way to understand the business of God’s regret. It has nothing to do with surprise, unanticipated turn of events. It has everything to do with God’s sorrow over the effect that this sinful man will have upon his people.
Well, that being said, let’s look more closely at chapter 16 with that bit of context. I’ve got two points to my outline. I’ve got a lot of pages of notes so don’t get excited about two points! God provides for Himself a king – that’s the first part, verses 1 to 13. And the latter part a bit more briefly – and God prepares His king, verse 14 to the end of the chapter.
Let’s talk about this – God provides for Himself a king. Following the disaster of Saul’s clear unwillingness to obey God in the matter of bringing the judgment of God upon the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15, and his subsequent rejection as king, it’s in that moment that Samuel, speaking for God, says, “God has rejected you as king, is tearing the kingdom from you and giving it to a neighbor.” God might really simply revert to the old way of doing things. He’s the King of Israel, He always has been, Saul or no Saul, He always will be the King of Israel, but He’s actually about a work that’s bigger than Israel. And it’s important for us to understand that here. A work that stretches back to the promise He made to Abraham in chapter 12 of Genesis. “And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” God is capturing the anointed office of king to complete the triad of Biblical offices that demonstrate to His people what the work of Messiah will be. We find that in Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1, 2, and 3. I won’t take the time to read it right now, but you can go back and look at it. Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1, 2, and 3 clearly show us the Son of God as the Prophet who speaks the Word of God, as the Priest who makes atonement for sin, as the King who rules and reigns over His people and all things.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism does an excellent job of expounding and drawing out the truth of that passage and many others related to the mediatorial offices of Christ. Questions 23 to 26 in particular teach us about Christ and His offices, Christ as the Prophet who reveals to us by Word and Spirit the will of God for our salvation. Christ as the Priest who has offered Himself as a sacrifice to satisfy God’s justice, and in that way reconciles us to God and who continually prays for us. And Christ as the King who subdues us to Himself in ruling and defending us, in restraining and conquering all His and our enemies. Recognizing these three offices of Christ help us understand what the Bible teaches about His work as a mediator, as the Mediator between God and man. God wants this office. He wants to fill it. He wants to inhabit it. He wants David in this spot because He wants to unpack David as both the type and eventually the ancestor of the Redeemer He has promised.
But, we remember 1 Samuel chapter 8 where the elders of Israel first asked for a king and they weren’t thinking Messianic realities and they weren’t thinking Mediatorial offices. They were thinking about stability. Samuel was old and his sons did not walk in his ways. They were men who turned aside after gain. They were corrupt. And the elders of Israel, in Samuel’s old age, come to him and say, “Now appoint to us a king to judge us like all the nations,” verse 5 of chapter 8 – a pivotal moment in the life of God’s people. And it was the Lord who told Samuel,
“They have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me as King over them.” And God gave them what they asked for – a king like the other nations.
Where was the desire for obedience? Where was the hard relief of repentance? Where was the love for God and His Word? Where was the striving to think God’s thoughts after Him? God gave them Saul – self centered, self promoting, weak in his core. He had regard for religion but no love for God. You see, the desire for obedience, repentance, love for God and for His Word, the striving to think God’s thoughts after Him – it wasn’t what they asked for. God gave them what they asked for – a king like the nations have. Now God has rejected the king they asked for and here He tells Samuel, “I have provided Myself a king. I have provided a king for Myself.” God is not done with the office. He is going to fill it with a man after His own heart. A man who will be both a type and an ancestor of Christ to come. A king who will bring security and shalom to the people of God living in the land He promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as Messiah brings both security and shalom. I am reminded of the prophecy of Micah, chapter 5 verses 4 and 5, “And He shall stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. They shall dwell secure, for now He shall be great to the ends of the earth and He shall be their peace.” He’s not talking about David; He’s talking about Jesus, David’s greater Son. This move is the mercy of God for His people. “I have provided for Myself a king among the sons of Jesse.” It brings glory to Himself.
One application point here. It just points to us and it shouts to us – our aspirations for ourselves are always less than God’s aspirations for us. Our aspirations bring us Saul, while God wants to give us David. Our aspirations bring us Saul, while God wants to give us David.
The passage really kind of makes us ask this question too – “Is the sacrifice a ruse?” God tells Samuel to go to Bethlehem and anoint a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite. He doesn’t mention a sacrifice until Samuel expresses concern about his safety if Saul finds out what he is doing, what he is up to. Already, you see, Samuel suspects that Saul’s desperation at the possibility of losing the throne. And as we see these events wind out over time, we see that Samuel’s fears bear full fruit in time. Saul becomes a cold blooded killer to keep his hands on the throne. God encourages the sacrifice as a cover for Samuel’s actions. And how is that not underhanded? Well let’s remember that Saul is under the judgment of God and God apparently is intent to give to Saul what He received from Saul. Again, remember, if you go back and look at 1 Samuel 15, remember Saul’s explanation as Samuel points out his disobedience in the matter of the Amalekites. Samuel gets to the camp – I hope there’s a video of this – gets to the camp, there’s a great fanfare as Saul approaches him and says, “Oh, I’ve done it. I’ve done everything the Lord commands!” And Samuel must have had a dead-eye look on his face to say, “So what is this bleating of sheep I hear in my ears? What’s all this livestock milling around? You’ve not done what the Lord commanded. The Lord commanded that all of that, all of that be destroyed!” He’s destroying every mark of Amalekite presence, including their livestock. There is to be nothing left of the Amalekites or anything they possess.
Saul explains, “Well I have saved the best of the animals to sacrifice to the Lord our God!” It’s only after prodding, and intense prodding, that Saul admits that he feared his soldiers who intended to save the best of the flocks and herds. I can’t imagine that they really had sacrifice in their minds. “I feared the people,” he says. He obeyed their voice. He didn’t come out with that. He didn’t come out with that when he was caught, when he was accused. He came out with it later when Samuel had to almost force it out of him. Saul was unwilling to be straightforward with Samuel, God’s representative. Judgment – God’s not going to be straightforward with Saul. Just remember that. In judgment, God’s not going to be straightforward with Saul. Psalm 18 verse 26, “With the pure, or the purified” – that is, unmixed, unalloyed, “with the purified you show yourself pure,” unmixed, straightforward, exactly as he is. “With the crooked, you make yourself seem torturous.” God’s masking His ways before Saul. He’s keeping him in the dark. He’ll know about David soon enough, but here at the outset He’s making His ways torturous to Saul.
Well, we will pass by the nervous elders of Bethlehem for a moment. It’s kind of like the church member you call and say, “I want to visit you.” “What have I done wrong? What’s this visit all about? Am I in trouble?” We’ll just say on our way by that Samuel’s last public appearance was in this moment, this interchange with Saul where he eventually hacked Agag, king of the Amalekites, to pieces. They don’t know what Samuel has in mind. They didn’t know there was a sacrifice on the calendar and they didn’t see any reason for him to be there, so there’s quite a bit of nervousness. We won’t say any more about that.
But let’s pay attention to the king that God provides. Samuel has done all that God commanded him. The sacrifice has occurred, and as they are preparing the fellowship meal, Samuel now is cloistered with Jesse and his sons. From the indication of the passage, they’re just the ones there. In whatever place they are, it’s just Samuel and Jesse and all his sons who are present, seven of his sons who are present. He’s waiting to hear from God as to whom he should anoint to be Israel’s next king. And of course he knows who it’s going to be. It’s going to be Eliab, right here – handsome, tall, stately. Every inch a prince. Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him. Why look elsewhere? Here he is; right here! Samuel learns, even as an old man, a surprising lesson. “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not see as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Ironically it was the same standard that Saul had applied to Samuel when he was so sure – I’m sorry, let me get that right again – as Samuel had applied to Saul when he was so sure of Saul as king.
So now here we are, each of Jesse’s sons present for the sacrifice, pass before Samuel. But the Word of God comes each time, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one. Neither has the Lord chosen this one. Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Samuel’s mind might be reeling, but it’s interesting that he doesn’t go back and question God. He turns to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” Samuel’s sure of the Lord. He’s suddenly not so sure of Jesse. “Well, there’s one more. There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he’s out there keeping the sheep.” Now maybe with unscheduled sacrifice and the haste of organizing such an event with Samuel the last judge and most likely the prophet of God, nobody had been able to locate David and it was a frenzy of events to try to pull everything together and make everything nice. They did seem to find him quickly enough when it was noted that they were not going to go further in the evening’s activities until David was there.
We know who David is – he’s the youngest; he’s the least. He’s the one not included when the prophet of God comes to town and he invites Jesse and his sons to share that meal with them. Perhaps there was an older brother. Perhaps it was Eliab who would say to his dad who might be fretting over David, maybe not, he’s fretting over many things I’m sure – “The boy needs to pay his dues, dad, just like we did. He hasn’t earned the right to be here yet.” Can you see an older brother? I’m the youngest and I have an older brother and he would have been saying that! “Come on, daddy! He needs to pay his dues! Don’t worry about him. He’ll grow up. He needs to grow up some.”
Who is the king who God provides? The youngest. The least. The overlooked. The one who hadn’t paid his dues yet nor earned his place. That’s God’s way – to exalt the least, in grace to advance the one who hadn’t yet paid his way or earned the right, to take the little that we can do and make much of it for His glory. “Arise, anoint him, this is he.” David here is anointed king of Israel, not before the whole population of Bethlehem but in the presence of his father and his brothers. And note this, “The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.” Know this, every good and noble thing we know of David from this moment forward stems from that event. It is the equipping, the enabling, the empowering of the Spirit that made David the great king he became. David had great gifts, David had much in his favor, but it was the equipping with power of the Spirit of God who made David what we know him to be. Everything good and noble that we look at from this point comes from God’s Spirit at work upon him. And he apparently was on him from that day forward.
Now the New Testament reality is the Spirit lives within us. The Old Testament reality was the Spirit was upon and working perhaps intermittently. In David’s case, God’s Spirit was with him in a unique way from that day forward.
Well that brings us to the second point that we’ll try to cover briefly here. God prepares for Himself a king. He has provided the king and now we have God’s preparing Himself a king. And again we meet the strange, beginning with verse 14, we meet the strangeness of God’s judgment on Saul. God’s Spirit departs, Saul won’t hear from God in the way that he was accustomed to, God’s not going to direct him as He directed him in the past. God has withdrawn from him and now God allowed him to be tormented by this harmful Spirit instead. We don’t know exactly what all that made up, but it worked on Saul in terrible ways. And it leads me to ask the question, and maybe we could all ask the question, “In how many ways does the mercy of God protect us from the evils that would afflict us?” By his hardhearted disobedience, Saul has forfeited that mercy and he now faces the terrors of judgment rather than the sweet restraints that accompany God’s favor.
We’re going to say more about this in just a minute, but let’s give it some thought. The terrors of judgment is what Saul lives with rather than the sweet restraints that accompany God’s favor. You and I enjoy sweet restraints if we are in Christ. We are the children, the sons and daughters of God. We enjoy the sweet restraint of God’s mercy as He protects us. Now the servants – I guess you can’t tell an autocrat he needs to repent and return to God otherwise you’ll lose your head – they look for a way to find something less drastic than telling the king he has to repent and return to the Lord. So they’re saying, “We think music will help, so let’s look for somebody who can play some soothing music sometimes when this harmful spirit from God is tormenting you so.” And so one of those servants says, “I happen to know a man, a son of Jesse of Bethlehem” – he lists all these wonderful qualities that we know of David and we will know of David – and this final phrase, “and the Lord is with him.” Again, that’s that Spirit of God, that presence of God with David who will supercharge his service to the Lord. “The Lord is with him.”
And now we ask, “How does God prepare David for kingship?” Here’s the newly anointed king of Israel, a teenager, probably doesn’t know what to do with everything that’s just happened, and what does God do? God calls the newly anointed king into the service of the rejected king. The rising king serving the rejected king. It’s the pattern of Christ. It’s the pattern of Christ. Paul points it out in Philippians chapter 2. “Jesus, who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” This is not the lowest point of David’s humility in his preparation for kingship. We’ll see David much lower still before we see him exalted. It is the way of God, it is the way of God to prepare His servants with hardship. This is hardship. David is brought into the king’s court, but he’s brought into the king’s court as a servant. And to serve the king at the worst of times. Remember, as you know the story of David, he’s dodging javelins at times, even before he becomes a fugitive, the harmful spirit, working so powerfully upon Saul.
David pointed out to us last Sunday evening from Matthew chapter 20 – “The Son of Man came to serve, not to be served.” Here’s David called to serve, not to be served in the house of the rejected king. Think of the wonder of the ways of God. David is the anointed king. He receives the Spirit as a guarantee, the empowering promise that the fullness of God’s blessing is coming. The current king is rejected and as judgment does its awful work on him, he begins to degrade almost before David’s sight. It’s a downward spiral for Saul from here. While David may have rallied his brothers and others of the clans of Judah and take the crown, forcing himself into his destiny, God brings him into the king’s house with hardly even a knock on the door. Who could guess at God’s wonderful ways?
And how does he come? As a minister of mercy to a man troubled in the grip of God’s judgment. Every time David plays, Saul finds comfort and the harmful spirit passes. Every time that happens it’s a gift of God’s mercy. Saul is given in those moments that opportunity to rise from those fits brought on by the harmful spirit and turn to God in repentance, in faith. “Saul was refreshed,” verse 23 says, “and was well and the harmful spirit departed from him.” Every time we find Saul picking up the pieces of business as usual and moving forward in his flight away from God, the mercy of God is there to be called upon. The mercy of God that has brought him one more time clarity of mind out of the inner hurricane in which he is caught in the judgment of God. There is mercy to be called upon. Maybe it’s part of why David writes in Psalm 51, his great psalm of repentance, “Take not Your Holy Spirit from me.” David saw firsthand the tragedy of losing the Spirit of God He gave. It’s as though Saul is blind to God’s kindness.
Let me wrap up with this. In this room, television, livestream, radio, let me just ask a question. What about you? What about all of us? Do you soak up the kindness and goodness of God towards you without ever a thought of turning to Him in repentance and faith? Do you take the mercies of God as you do what ought to be coming to you while you run headlong away from Him? Now is the time, this is the moment. Stop, turn, embrace Him through faith in Jesus Christ and the work that He did on His cross to make you right with Him. Open your eyes. See the kindness of God meant to draw you to repentance and enter life and not death. Saul is a signpost to us. Call on the mercy of God! But he’s blind. His heart is hard. Don’t go to bed a blind man tonight. Don’t go to bed a blind woman tonight. Don’t go to bed without turning and embracing. If this is not your faith, make it yours today. Saul is a signpost to us. He will end in despair. You don’t have to because of what Jesus did – Jesus, David’s greater Son.
Let’s pray.
Father, we thank You for what we see here in Your Word. We thank You for bringing this man to a place, the place of Your service. Father, what do we learn about You as we watch this life move forward? We pray that You would teach us much about You and about Your kindness and Your mercy in calling, in equipping. Father, let us see. Go with us now. Go with us. Let this last warning ring in our ears, especially those who are where Saul is. Let this warning ring in their ears. Father, bring light and bring life to those souls. Thank You, our Father. Hear our prayer. Bring us back next Lord’s Day to worship and to praise and to hear from Your Word. Walk with us in the days between now and then, for Jesus’ sake. We make our prayer in His name, amen.