Written by: Revd Murray McBride

1 Samuel 16 v 1-3
The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you continue to feel sorry for Saul? I have rejected him as king of Israel. Fill your container with olive oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse who lives in Bethlehem, because I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”
But Samuel said, “If I go, Saul will hear the news and will try to kill me.”
The LORD said, “Take a young calf with you. Say, ‘I have come to offer a sacrifice to the LORD.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice. Then I will tell you what to do. You must appoint the one I show you.”

Notes
Have you ever been badly let down by someone you had introduced to friends, or recommended someone to join a team because of their God-given gifts and potential? Samuel the great prophet of God felt desperately let down by Saul who he had anointed as Israel's first king, perhaps he felt embarrassed and worried that it would undermine people's confidence in his judgement. However, he was not bitter but felt deeply sorry for Saul. Perhaps out of affection Samuel was prayerfully making excuses for Saul's inexperience but eventually God would not tolerate Saul's persistent habitual disobedience. Saul had become intoxicated with his self- importance, perhaps he believed he could impress God, like Israel, with his obvious gifts, and that God would overlook his arrogance. Ultimately arrogant leaders never corner God into making bad decisions.

Samuel is spiritually shaken awake by God to catch up with His Spirit who was preparing to do a new thing. Saul, like other failed leaders, was badly wrong if he thought he had ownership of God's spiritual blessing. The Spirit of God is a slave to no one, no matter how impressive their religious credentials or how powerful they are, God is in chains to no one. 

Samuel needed all his courage to defy the now paranoid and violent Saul. Following God often demands courage in us to defy corrupted leadership, which opposes God, courage to trust in God not without fear, but despite it, and even though leaders use fear we have a God given right to oppose godless leadership. 

1 Samuel 16 v 4-5
Samuel did what the LORD told him to do. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the older leaders of Bethlehem shook with fear. They met him and asked, “Are you coming in peace?”
Samuel answered, “Yes, I come in peace. I have come to make a sacrifice to the LORD. Set yourselves apart to the LORD and come to the sacrifice with me.” Then he set Jesse and his sons apart to the LORD, and he invited them to come to the sacrifice.

Notes
Sadly we can all think of people who are all words but no action, they promise mountains but deliver molehills and unfortunately this can be true of Christians. We make bold promises as we sing worship songs, applaud the preacher and pray earnestly for revival, but if we don’t act on our promises to God our lives can be a hollow sham. However you don’t want to be like that otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this. I thank God that you want to be a promise keeper with God.

Samuel and Saul are wonderful examples for Christians who want to be promise keepers. Saul had slowly neglected his relationship with God until he didn’t notice when he had stopped keeping his promises. Like all relationships, in a family, with friends or in a marriage, when promises are broken it’s a clear sign that relationships are falling apart. What marked Samuel out as a great hero of God was despite the fact he seemed to have failed, he did not gloat or lose faith with God. Despite the fact he had good reason to be afraid, Samuel would not be intimidated by Saul's anger into doing nothing. Samuel's relationship with God was strong and it strengthened his obedience.

In today's culture obedience is given a bad image, something to resist as it infringes our personal liberty. However Samuel, and our own Christian experience, reminds us that obedience with God is in a league of its own. It is incomparable with other relationships because it is a partnership with our loving Heavenly Father, who gave his only begotten Son Jesus Christ, who himself obediently chose to sacrifice his own life for us out of love. Imagine what God could do through you if you simply, quietly, but obediently followed God's instructions. 

1 Samuel 16 v 6-7
When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab, and he thought, “Surely the LORD has appointed this person standing here before him.”
But the LORD said to Samuel, “Don’t look at how handsome Eliab is or how tall he is, because I have not chosen him. God does not see the same way people see. People look at the outside of a person, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Notes
At school when it was time for a class to play football the teacher would appoint two "captains" and the rest of us would line up on the edge of the football field and let the captains choose their team. If your strength is not in sports you will know how predictable it is, the strong athletic people are picked first, and how depressing it is to be left until last. The line up of Jesse's sons always reminds me of such a sports line up however when God is captain things are never predictable, anything can happen. All of us who are passed over as second rate with few skills can be picked out by our divine talent scout, because God's judgements are not based on the same "must haves" as humans look for. 

I hope you are encouraged with today's scripture. In a world that worships the image of the perfect body, it is truly liberating to be assured that God looks deeply into our hearts to see our worth. However don't misunderstand this scripture, we should not be perverse and despise beauty, but recognize that it is only one of many gifts God gives to his children. Christians need to be people like Samuel, of deep "insight", to pray that we should have the "mind of Christ" that sees deeply into the heart of someone, not simply to be impressed with the outer wrapping. This is not easy, even Samuel, a great spiritual leader of the nation, found it difficult not simply to use a worldly criteria of strength and good looks as qualities that would make a great king. While Saul assumed he knew God's will, Samuel continued to seek God's will. Let us try seeing things better with our eyes closed in prayer. 

1 Samuel 16 v 8-10
Then Jesse called Abinadab and told him to pass by Samuel. But Samuel said, “The LORD has not chosen this man either.” Then Jesse had Shammah pass by. But Samuel said, “No, the LORD has not chosen this one.” Jesse had seven of his sons pass by Samuel. But Samuel said to him, “The LORD has not chosen any of these.”

Notes
How often do we ask for God's guidance about a decision we are uncertain about, because we don’t hear a clear "yes" from our daily Bible reading, the sermon or service, we wonder if God has heard our prayers. Have we ever considered that God's silence is simply a "no, wait, I have something else"? Samuel was in an awkward position surrounded by Jesse and his sons, he was spoilt for choice. Surely God could make do with any one of them. 

A great lesson for us all to learn from a great man of God is not to panic when you have asked God for guidance. Don’t simply make a hasty decision you will regret because you felt you had run out of choices and none of them seemed to have God's blessing. Holding out with God takes a trusting relationship with the Lord and emotional courage, not going for second best to please onlookers. Imagine if Samuel had panicked and chosen the eldest brother to be king. David would have been disinherited of his crucial role in God's plan for Israel. However Samuel was patient in prayer and on such small events history can take a new direction. 

We may consider our lives unremarkable in the great scheme of the world. Yet it is through people like us, in lives like ours, that God can begin a chain of seemingly small but divine events that can shape a nation's relationship with God, it is true of Samuel and David, and it is still true for you today. So do not underestimate the importance of your decisions, they shape the world in ways that we could not possibly imagine, but do not feel panicked into making a second rate decision but have the courage to wait on God's "yes". 

1 Samuel 16 v 11-12
Then he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”
Jesse answered, “I still have the youngest son. He is out taking care of the sheep.”
Samuel said, “Send for him. We will not sit down to eat until he arrives.”
So Jesse sent and had his youngest son brought in. He was a fine boy, tanned, and handsome.
The LORD said to Samuel, “Go, appoint him, because he is the one.”

Notes
Have you ever felt that an event in your life was a happy coincidence, or that you are part of a bigger plan? A friend of mine talks not about random coincidences but about God-incidences, events that are brought together because people are open to God's leading. All the saving plans of God and the earnest prayers of Samuel are finally coming together, the events with Jesse and his sons are only the tip of the iceberg of preparation and prayer. The events about to unfold are not a coincidence yet the two key player's, king Saul and the shepherd boy David, are completely unaware of these events. 

These two people had a very different relationship with the living God. Jesus reminds us if we are faithful in the little things God can trust us with bigger responsibilities. While Saul's arrogance with God had slowly but systematically undermined his working relationship with God, until he did not consult the Lord in the great things of state, David is faithful in chores that would seem trivial to a king. It must have been a huge temptation for David to join his brothers who were all called to this special celebration with Israel's most important living prophet. David does not shirk his daily chores, but faithfully guards his father's flocks as a good shepherd. Let yourself be challenged by God's word in scripture today. How much responsibility can our God give you? Are we faithful in the small things? David proved himself to be trustworthy, when no one was looking, when he was no one important and without prospects. David proved himself to be habitually faithful, can we? Imagine then what greater things God can do with and through you. 

1 Samuel 16 v 13-14
So Samuel took the container of olive oil and poured it on Jesse’s youngest son to appoint him in front of his brothers. From that day on, the LORD’s Spirit worked in David. Samuel then went back to Ramah.
But the LORD’s Spirit had left Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

Notes
Have you filled in a job application recently? We needed to select a secretary to join our evangelistic team, the advert went out and the applications came in. Then sheer quantity of information about the people made it difficult to identify simply if the applicants were professionally qualified to do the job.

Selecting a secretary is one thing but imagine interviewing applications for the position of king for God's people. What qualification do you think God's king needs? The scripture is clear that kings were human, not divine, thus they would make mistakes so the basic qualification was that the king needed to be in relationship with God and be equipped by the Holy Spirit of God.

The anointing with oil that David received from Samuel was an outward symbol of the inward activity of God pouring his own self into the life of the future king. In Britain Queen Elizabeth the second is celebrating her golden jubilee, that is fifty years as monarch. As they re-broadcast the queen's coronation you can plainly see the act of anointing that took place, a distant echo of the anointing of David for service. 

In an age where Christians can get tied in knots about their personal relationship with God the Holy Spirit it is worth noticing that the Old Testament anointing seems very unemotional even outright functional. This reminds us that the Spirit comes to "equip" us, not to take us on a spiritual roller coaster of thrills and spills. The Spirit of God had a practical function to equip the leader of God's people in making wise and godly decisions. Today the same is true within the body of Christ, the Spirit is given for the benefit of others not for self-gratification. 

1 Samuel 16 v 15-17
Saul’s servants said to him, “See, an evil spirit from God is troubling you. Give us the command to look for someone who can play the harp. When the evil spirit from God troubles you, he will play, and you will feel better.”
So Saul said to his servants, “Find someone who can play well and bring him to me.”

Notes
"I have a right to do whatever I like in my own space". In a generation that values the privacy of our own personal space, it is a counter cultural revelation from God that it does matter what goes on in our private space. God needs to share that space with you because it is in this sacred space that stuff we call sin can get a grip on our lives and ruin everything. Contrary to what the media say, God's Bible says sin is never just a private problem, by its nature sin is a like a spiritual cancer that starts secretly but will eventually publicly destroy all relationships with family, friends and God. Saul's sinful arrogance ruined his relationships with everyone including God. This is a warning to all leaders, our sin weakens those who look to and depend on us. 

Christian leadership can seem attractive, but it is simply a function in the "body of Christ" (the Church). Sadly Saul like other leaders ceased to be a servant of God to the people. He became addicted to the power of leadership, addicted to control and use power, that in the end loses sight of the purpose of leadership and simply craves the gratification of power itself, slowly distorting perception of reality and destroying the image of God in him.

Saul would learn that no leader is indispensable. God will eventually replace such leaders for the health of the community, they fail to serve. For those of us who feel that a "Saul-like" leader is blighting our lives, take courage from David's story. In prayer we should try to enlarge our vision of God, who is not only interested in our lives but also subtle and powerful enough to change the course of our history for good. 


word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes