March 10, 2002 -- FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Psalm 23
You have anointed my head with oil. (Ps. 23:5)
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41
Color: Purple
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Title: “Anointing is the symbolic expression of the transmittal of power from God to a human.”
Chapter fifteen tells why God has rejected Saul as king. Chapter sixteen, tells how David is anointed as his successor, unbeknownst to Saul at the time. Saul disobeyed God and the prophet Samuel, the very prophet who anointed Saul as king in the first place, informs Saul that his kingship will be taken from him. Now, Saul’s sin may be hard for us to understand, knowing what we now know about God. There was a belief in the ancient world that war was “holy” and that certain wars required the total destruction of the enemy. The idea is similar to the holocaust sacrifice offered in the, later, Temple. In such a sacrifice the entire animal was burned, offered totally to God, with nothing left for the offerers to eat as a symbolic communion with God or gods. The notion of the “extermination,” Hebrew herem required the total destruction of the enemy to signify the deity’s supreme control over the outcome of war. There were to be no prisons nor spoils, no “booty,” as was more often the case. This was war to the end. Ironically, in later times, Hitler would apply this “solution,” the “extermination,” of all members of a particular tribe or race to the Jews themselves. While this notion is abhorrent to us and to God, the people of the time believed in it. Samuel had told Saul that God wanted the Amalekites “under the ban,” and completely destroyed in punishment for their attacks against the Exodus generation centuries earlier. Instead, Saul took prisoners, notably the Amalekite king, and he kept the best of the booty to sacrifice to the Lord, or so he claimed. Thus, his intentions were good, and the modern reader has difficulty understanding what all the fuss is about. One would have expected Saul to be praised, not rejected and certainly not impeached and removed by God himself. However, the Scriptures are more concerned with the theological interpretation of the facts than with the cold facts themselves. God gave Saul a clear command through the prophet and Saul disobeyed. He subjected God’s command to his own reasoning, exalting human thinking above divine order. Just because he had a pious, religious purpose does not excuse his behavior. The prophetic point of view, that the, obedience, real “sacrifice,” is more pleasing to God than sacrificial ritual, requires that Saul be rejected. Saul’s well-meaning offense paints him as a tragic figure, not an evil one, but it opens the way for David. The Spirit of the Lord, given to Saul, is withdrawn and Saul will rely on violence to hold on to his throne and dispose of David. Saul’s spirit, absent God’s, will grow in suspicion, envy, persecution, and even, superstition.
Chapter sixteen, begins the story of David’s rise to the throne with Samuel’s privately anointing him in the presence of his immediate family and the elders of Bethlehem, if not other Bethlehemites, and ends in 2Samuel 5:3 with his public anointing in the presence of representatives of all the tribes of Israel. He is publicly accepted as king because of all his military successes. However, his relatively private anointing tells a different story and gives a different reason. He is king because he is God’s anointed, not because of any powers he has in himself.
In verse one, I am sending you to Jesse…for I have chosen my king: Just as God sent Abraham without telling him exactly where, he sends Samuel, to anoint a new king, without telling him exactly who. God’s revelations are frequently on a “need to know,” and “know as you go,” basis.
Verses two to five, Samuel objects that if or when Saul hears of his trip he will kill him or have him killed. God says tells him to say that he is coming to offer sacrifice and is to invite Jesse and his sons to the ritual celebration. We are not told what type of sacrifice this would be and get the definite impression that God is telling Samuel to concoct a believable pretense as a cover for his real purpose. This is a very human story, even if it has a divine purpose. When he arrives, the elders of the city suspect he comes to bring bad news or to upset their peace. He assures them otherwise and invites them and Jesse’s family to the celebration.
In verse seven, do not judge from his appearance: Eliab, one if Jesse’s sons, “appeared,” to Samuel to be the chosen one. The implication is that he had the physical looks, strength, etc. to qualify as a candidate for “king.” But the author-editor is more interested in interpreting the facts and in using human situations to reveal divine perspectives. God does not judge by or value outward appearances. Such are human ways. God sees “into the heart.” We would say that God gets to the heart of the matter, the essence of things, not mere appearances. Thus, Eliab is not the one. It does not mean that God rejects him, only that he is not God’s choice for the role of king.
In verse ten, the Lord has not chosen any of these: None of the seven sons of Jesse are the “chosen one.” God loves them all, but none are his choice for the special mission he has in mind. At this point, Samuel knows who is not God’s choice. He does not know who it is. It seems that he has exhausted the possibilities, until Jesse reveals he has one more son, his final, his youngest.
In verse twelve, Jesse sent and had the young man brought to them: Jesse obeys Samuel, the prophet. David obeys Jesse, his father. God’s plan is advanced by cooperation with his demands and commands. The big picture is drawn by small strokes working in sync. David will one day do great things, but nothing would have happened were it not for the obedience of others, helping to make it possible.
A youth handsome…a splendid appearance: Eliab was handsome and so were the other brothers. They were neither qualified nor disqualified because they had good looks and strength. Having or not having “the look,” of a king meant nothing to God and should mean nothing to humans. This is a common folktale motif, namely, the choice of the least likely person for a task.
In verse thirteen, Samuel…anointed him in the midst of his brothers: Either this anointing was deliberately kept secret, so as not to incite the wrath of Saul, something virtually impossible if the elders of the town- and possibly others- were there, or this anointing was done off to the side with only the brothers present. If the latter be the case, perhaps the brothers missed the import of what Samuel, the anointer of Saul, was doing. In any event, David would be anointed again twice more- once by the Judahites in 2Samuel 2:4 as their king and again by the Israelites in 2Sam5:3 as theirs.
From that day on, the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David: This is the point of the story. The belief was that if God wanted someone to do a more-than-human task, such as unite the kingdom, conquer enemies, and rule with justice in peace, God would give him the power, his spirit, to do so. Anointing was the symbolic expression of the transmittal of power from God to a human, in this case to a king. Everything David did subsequently can be credited to the spirit of God, not David’s appearance, strength, prowess or any other powers. The story also shows that David was no usurper, but God’s choice to be Saul’s successor. He is not a son of Saul, but a son of God.
Sermon
For Samuel to anoint David while Saul was alive was seen as an act of courage by some and an act of treason by others, especially Saul and his supporters. Thus, some degree of secrecy was necessary until David could be seen in the best and fullest light as savior of his people. He would need to have been victorious over the peoples’ enemies before they could accept him as more than an imposter, usurper, or pretender. This story anticipates what is called the “Messianic Secret” in Mark and the other Synoptics. Jesus’ anointed identity, seen by a relatively few at his baptism, had to be kept relatively secret until after his victory over death, lest people misunderstand his true nature and mission. Like Saul in the case of David, those who knew who Jesus was, as did the demons, or suspected who he was, as did the Pharisees, tried to violently kill him to prevent him from succeeding them, they would say “usurping,” on the throne, a throne they themselves usurped.
David’s identification card was issued and authenticated by none other than God himself. This is also true of Jesus. By this world’s standards both would seem least likely to succeed or to qualify. Yet, with God, inner qualities are more important than outer ones. Moreover, both would receive their “qualities,” and “qualifications,” from God’s spirit.
In the Old Testament the Spirit came and went, descended and ascended. In the New Testament, the Spirit remains. In the Old Testament only special persons received the Spirit. In the New Testament everyone is “special,” and the Spirit descends and remains on all who are receptive. We cannot use the excuse that we do not have the qualities and or qualifications to be a good Christian or to carry out any task assigned by the Lord. He gives us the wherewithal. Others may seem more “naturally,” endowed, but that cuts no ice with God, as this story reveals. David went on to become Israel’s greatest king not because of his abilities, but because of God’s abilities freely bestowed upon him. Of course, he, like we, had to cooperate with God’s Spirit. God’ Spirit may freely come down on a person, but he will not remain unless invited to do so by a person intent on doing things God’s way The Spirit withdrew from Saul because he preferred his own way to God’s revelation.
Kingship or any other “position of honor,” was not meant as a gift to the individual be he David, Jesus, or anyone, in order to feed arrogance and vanity. It was a gift to the nation, the people, towards whom the king was to act like a shepherd. The fact that David was already looking after sheep, verse eleven, meant that he would have learned by that smaller task how to conduct himself in the new bigger task of being a shepherd of men, just like Peter and Andrew learned how to be “fishers of men,” from their fishing experience. The faithful doing of one assigned task equips us to do the next ones. The same Spirit who enabled David and Jesus enables us, but he does so by teaching us through smaller tasks how to do and be equipped for greater ones, Matthew 25:21. God’s Spirit on David would also “unequip” him, disable him from doing certain other things harmful to the character and Spirit of God. He will not, for instance, return Saul’s violence and vengeance. He will remain non-violent towards him and respectful. Ironically, in chapter fifteen, Saul showed a respect for the Amalekite king by sparing him against God’s express will, which he did not show towards David, God’s express choice to succeed him as king. This is an indication that Saul’s motives in sparing the king and claiming to intend to offer the best booty as sacrifice to the Lord may have been an afterthought designed to get him out of a tight spot. In other words, it may have been a lie and God would see it as such. David, like his successor, Jesus, would treat Saul and all who grasp onto their thrones at all costs, better than Saul treated him or deserved to be treated. To the world that seems like weakness, but to God it is strength.
God does not judge by externals but by internals, not by appearances but by what is inside.
First impressions may be lasting ones, but they are frequently wrong.
Openness to and obedience to God’s word gives us the only light strong enough to see as God sees, to see into the heart of the matter.
God chooses who will be his children and his servants without regard for human prejudices.
Appearance vs. Essence: One of our most cherished gifts is physical sight. It opens us up to the outside world. It is a magnificent world of color, shape, form, motion and variety. Yet, for all its wonder, it is a limited gift. It does not enable us to see past the surface of things. With our physical eyes we see how things and people “appear.” We do not see into them. As far as the physical world of objects and even people perceived as physical objects, is concerned, we have also developed other kinds of “eyes,” that enable us to see things and aspects of things we cannot see with our physical eyes. Some very bright people have discovered the principles of physics and have developed “eyes,” like the microscope to see tiny things like bacteria; the x-ray machine to see underneath the human skin; binoculars to see things far away; bifocals to see both close up and far away, even trifocals; telescopes to see things really far away, even the Hubble telescope in space. Yet, for all of that, there is no device, no machine, no physical set of “eyes,” to give us insight. Insight is sight of a completely different order or level than physical sight, even though it might be based on physical sight to some extent. Insight has to do with understanding, that is, how individual things, people, ideas, relate to everything else in the universe; whereas, physical sight has to do with how each thing is different from, stands out and apart from, everything else. Thus, a person can have excellent physical sight, but little or no insight. Likewise, a person can be physically blind or “legally,” blind or sight-impaired and still excel in insight. There is always more to any reality than what meets the eye. How an object or a person appears is one thing; how it is is quite another.
Insight: Our physical eyes, along with our brain, likes to group things together. Even though physical sight separates objects one from another, we humans still prefer to categorize things to make it easier to file them away in our mind. For instance, we categorize people under all sorts of headings. The categories used in this story are “age,” and “physical beauty.” The prophet, on encountering the eldest son of Jesse, Eliab, was, upon first impression, inclined to think that he must be God’s choice to be the next king, given his age and his physical beauty. But, he thought twice. That is where insight begins. The Old Testament prophets called it “returning;” Jesus called it “repenting.” Insight begins with re-visiting our first impressions, impressions we are inclined, even impelled, to categorize according to the ways our culture and upbringing has instilled in us. Had the prophet gone with his “instincts,” his feelings, his hunch, he would have been wrong. Fortunately, for him and for the future of the world, he thought twice. Ironically, his first feelings did not “feel,” right when he consulted God’s word. There was unease about his first impression and thoughts. So, he moved on, six more times, about to give up, when his “unease,” caused him to ask more questions. When he saw David, the youngest, he knew it was him, though he did not know how he knew. It was an insight, a grace, more than a guess or hunch. Like his other brothers, David was physically beautiful, too, but that was not the essence of the matter. Insight, invision, does not come from within us, but is from an outside source, God, whom we must ask in and let in. Equipped with that invision we can make right decisions, regardless of what our culture or even our personal prejudices tell us. Invision is never an unwanted or unbidden invasion of our prejudicial privacy. It begins and ends with prayer. With insight we can see things that otherwise we would swear are not there, for there is little or no physical evidence to prove anything. With insight we not only see into, we also can hope. For, seeing things that others cannot, we behave in such a way as to make them visible to an otherwise blind and dark world. That is what faith is; what hope is; what love is. Amen.
