1 Samuel 16:1-23

And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons. ² And Samuel said, How can I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me. And the Lord said, Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord. ³ And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will shew thee what thou shalt do: and thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee. ⁴ And Samuel did that which the Lord spake, and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, Comest thou peaceably? ⁵ And he said, Peaceably: I am come to sacrifice unto the Lord: sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice. ⁶ And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him. ⁷ But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. ⁸ Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this. ⁹ Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. And he said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this. ¹⁰ Again, Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, The Lord hath not chosen these. ¹¹ And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither. ¹² And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. 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 brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah. ¹⁴ But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. ¹⁵ And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. ¹⁶ Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well. ¹⁷ And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me. ¹⁸ Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the Lord is with him. ¹⁹ Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep. ²⁰ And Jesse took an ass laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son unto Saul. ²¹ And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armourbearer. ²² And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me; for he hath found favour in my sight. ²³ And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.

What does God value? As we come to the beginning of a series where we will examine God’s workings through the life of a man in Scripture who is described by Him as “a man after mine own heart” (Acts 13:22), we will learn what God’s desire for His people is. David is first introduced to us in the pages of Scripture in 1 Samuel 16 as a young shepherd boy who is going about the business assigned to him in Jesse’s (his father) house. When we are introduced to him, there is nothing special about his appearance and he doesn’t possess charismatic leadership qualities. He is just a humble shepherd boy who is not even old enough to join Israel’s army at the time. This is perhaps why no one involved in his anointing believed him to be God’s next chosen king of Israel, including God’s prophet Samuel. What David had going for Him and what made him a man after God’s own heart was simply that he walked with God. What does God value? Micah 6:8 gives us an answer, “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Walking with God is not something that we accomplish on our own. It is something that God does when He reveals Himself to us and changes our hearts. We get caught in the trap of analyzing and observing all of life on the surface. We judge people based on their appearances and what we can see in their lives. However, what we will learn is that many things that may look good to us do not impress God and many things that we think lowly of may be of utmost value to God. This week and next, we begin our series on the life of David in 1 Samuel 16 with four principles that help us understand what it is be after God’s own heart. We look at the first two this week.

First, we learn that God’s Word directs us to trust in His plan. 1 Samuel 16:1 begins this section with a call from God to Samuel the prophet to stop mourning over the rejected King Saul, take his oil, and go to the house of Jesse in Bethlehem to anoint God’s chosen king. Why was Samuel mourning? To understand the circumstances in which David was anointed as king, we must rewind a bit in the book of 1 Samuel to 1 Samuel 8. There we find that the Israelites recognized that Samuel was getting older and that his sons did not follow the Lord faithfully as he did. They demanded of him to give them a king “like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8:4). Upset by this, Samuel inquired of the Lord who told him, “Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them” (8:7). In the same pattern demonstrated throughout their history, the people of Israel were rebelling against God’s rule over them and plan for them. Samuel warned the people what they should expect from a king and they echoed their demands for that king. In 1 Samuel 9, we are introduced to Saul, the Benjamite, who would be that king that would be what the people had wanted. Remember that they wanted a king “like all the nations” around them had. God gave them that king in Saul. Saul seems to have humble beginnings. Despite standing “higher than any of the people from his shoulders upward,” when they went to anoint him, they found him hiding “among the stuff” (10:22-23). Despite this seemingly humble start, Saul proved himself to fear men rather than God and to be disobedient to the Lord. He was afraid his army would leave him when fighting the Philistines, so he rushed ahead of God’s instructions to wait for Samuel and offered the sacrifice in his place (1 Samuel 13). In 1 Samuel 15, Saul was commanded to utterly destroy the Amalekites and keep back nothing from the victory. He kept back valuables, animals, and the Agag, their king, as a trophy of his conquest. He even erected a memorial for his actions. Samuel confronted Saul and told Saul that he had disobeyed the Lord. Saul tried to blame the people for pushing him to do what he did, but Samuel informed him that he had been rejected as king and God would provide a new king, one after His own heart (1 Samuel 13:14; 15:26-29).  After chopping up Agag in obedience to the Lord, Samuel mourned for Saul and for Israel. God sent Samuel to Bethlehem, to the house of Jesse, to anoint one of his sons as the next king. To protect Samuel from any suspicion, God gave him instructions to go and sacrifice and invite the family of Jesse to the sacrifice. “I have provided Me a king” is an important phrase in all of this. The plan of God for His people had not failed. It did not rest on Saul. It rested in what God would do for His people. It rested in His provision. He would provide a king. Samuel was called to trust in God’s plan. Think about how God had already told Samuel that Saul was rejected and that He would choose another king. Samuel had no need to mourn for Saul or for the failure of the kingship. God had everything under control. When all the world around us seems in chaos, we must always remember that God’s Word calls us to trust in His plan. He has provided a King for us. King Jesus is our King and one day He will return for His people and establish His eternal kingdom. Nothing can thwart God’s plan. He is working all things together for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28).

Next, we learn that God’s wisdom teaches us to follow His instruction. When Samuel arrived and was introduced to Jesse’s sons, the oldest son, Eliab, was the first he met. When Samuel saw him, he thinks, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him” (v. 6). Eliab, no doubt, looked the part. He was the firstborn son, probably strong, tall, and a seasoned military fighter. He would be the most obvious and natural choice for a king among Jesse’s sons. “But” is one of the most powerful words in the Bible. Here it captures our attention and tells us that God intervened by telling Samuel, “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (v. 7). “Countenance” (appearance) and “height” were the same criteria used to judge King Saul back in 1 Samuel 8-10. God essentially tells Samuel, “Don’t make that mistake again.” Last time, God gave Israel the king they wanted, which was a king “like all the nations” around them. Now, He was going to give them the king that He wanted, one who was after His own heart. Seven sons of Jesse passed before Samuel and they were all rejected. The eighth son, David, was out in the field tending sheep. His father never imagined he would be chosen and, therefore, didn’t even call for him until Samuel requested. Before we are hard on Samuel, Jesse, or Israel for their criteria in selecting a king, we must recognize that we do the same thing. We choose people because they look the part. We choose people according to “fleshly” and “carnal” criteria. In 1 Samuel 17:28, we are given a glimpse into the heart of Eliab when he chastised David for asking about Goliath and he told David, “Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?” Eliab regarded the task that David did as beneath him, but it was that very task that God used to equip David to shepherd His people (Psalm 78:70-72). The same integrity that David had in faithfully shepherding his father’s sheep, he would walk in when he shepherded God’s people “according to the integrity of his heart” (Psalm 78:72). Shepherding was always regarded as a lowly task, so much so that it passed through the other seven sons of Jesse to David. He did the task no one else wanted to do. However, shepherding was the responsibility of several great leaders of God’s people including Moses, David, and Amos. How can we know whether someone will be faithful in serving God in a position of any kind? We must simply examine whether they are faithful in what they are doing now in life. Every task you and I are given in life is service to God for His kingdom. It doesn’t matter whether we cook hamburgers at a restaurant, shepherd sheep like David, serve in an elected government position, manage a company, or pastor a church; we are serving God. We are to be faithful in the place God has us, first. He may call us to something else. He may not. What matters is that we are faithful to Him where we are. David wasn’t looking to be king when God sent Samuel. He was chosen by God. We are not qualified for service to God because we get education, training, etc., we are qualified because God calls and equips us. Just like Samuel, we must learn that God’s wisdom teaches us to follow His instructions. We must learn to see all of life as an opportunity to be faithful of God.

The Lord looks on the heart. You and I must learn to trust in God’s plan as revealed in His Word. As we walk in obedience with God, we will gain wisdom as His Word sheds the light of its truth on our lives and we will learn to see things as He does. Rather than looking on outward appearances, we will learn to allow His Word to guide our thinking and actions. We will be reminded that we do not qualify ourselves nor can we qualify others. That’s God’s business. We must simply recognize that calling and walk in faithful integrity where He currently has us. Only then can we be faithful servants of the Lord in any capacity. God sees everything. He examines our hearts and lives every moment of every day. What does God see in our hearts? Let us join with David in praying, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).