I Samuel 16:4-13 Life of David
Part 2: The Anointing of David
Thesis: David’s anointing as king of Israel reveals to us that God doesn’t make decision based on the same factors most humans see as important.
Introduction: After Samuel overcame his paralyzing grief and fear, and began to obey the Lord again, where did God send him and why and to whom did the Lord send him. Why are all these things important to us thousands of years later?
The account of the early life of David teaches us that God does not view things from our horizontal perspective, but from heaven He looks down into the heart and evaluates us from that way. He does not choose His servants the way the world chooses them. He has His own standard. It is important for us to know that God uses those whom He chooses. As He calls on us to serve Him, it is not our place to put up the obstacles that we think will keep us from being faithful to God. Moses tried that and it didn’t work for him either. You can try it too but it wont work. We can ask why would God use me to witness to the lost or to teach a class or to care for the sick in His name. I don’t know, but He does. I don’t know how many times someone who has known me from childhood will say to me, ‘I cant believe you’re a preacher’. ‘I never would have guessed you would grow up to be a preacher’, but friends that’s Gods plan, not the worlds, but I am glad He called me. God is in sovereign control where He sends, why He sends us and to whom He sends us.
I. Where Did God Send His Prophet Samuel?
A. God sent Samuel to Bethlehem. Bethlehem was a little village about 6 miles from Jerusalem. The name Bethlehem means house of bread. This was due to the fertile fields around that area. Yet, like the Lord so often does, there is a message even in the name.
The message in this name Bethlehem signifies not only that the fields around the village were fertile enough to feed many, but that from the little town of Bethlehem, God would send that promised child of David who would be able to satisfy the spiritual hunger of all who will believe. In John chapter 6:35 we find these words from our Lord, ‘And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.’ Jesus is the bread of life to the starving soul and the spiritually malnourished.
It is the choice of this little village which first tells us that God often uses small insignificant things to confound the wise of the world. As a matter of fact the Bible tells us that plainly in 1 Corinthians 1 God does this ‘because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.’ Why does He does this? That no flesh should glory in His presence. King Saul gloried in himself and God rejected him. The Bible says God rejects the proud but gives grace to the humble and out in the fields of Bethlehem there was a humble young man tending sheep whom God had his hand on.
B. God sent Samuel to See Jessie.
Jessie was David’s father. We do not know much about the father of David, except that David never refers to him, but he does mention his mother twice. Perhaps it is that David never had much of a relationship with his father and the failures as a parent that David would later commit were learned from his own father. At any rate we do not know much about David’s father except that when a feast was called with the preacher in town, David was left out alone on the hillsides tending the sheep. We do know that David did not dishonor his father, even in the face of what appears to be a problematic relationship. After all had he been dishonoring his father, he would not have been a man after Gods own heart.
Application: Saul’s sin and rebellion did not catch God off guard. His weaknesses were not a surprise to God, just as David’s weaknesses would not be, nor are our weaknesses a surprise to God. God was not sending Samuel to Bethlehem in order to anoint a perfect man to be king, but He was sending Samuel to Bethlehem to anoint His man to be king. David was God sovereign choice. Do you feel as if God cannot use you because you have weaknesses? Someone has suggested that God can use our weaknesses in 4 ways:
It makes us more dependent on God and more prayerful.
It keeps us from becoming arrogant and proud.
It makes us realize our need for other people and fellowship.
It actually makes us more sympathetic and effective in ministry to other people with weaknesses (which actually includes all of us if we are honest).– Mike Barres
II. Why Did God Send His Prophet Samuel To Bethlehem?
Why Bethlehem? That’s where David was. Actually the answer lies in what one time preacher would call the imponderables of God. It was merely a sovereign choice of Almighty God that He choose Bethlehem to be the place from which He would call the second king of Israel, or the place where the God Man would enter this world of His own creating in order to redeem it.
God sent Samuel there to anoint the next king. God has a specific person in mind and He has a specific plan for that person. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:10, ‘we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.’ God has a plan beforehand that we should live according to. Psalm 100 says, ‘Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.’ Would you believe that God had you in mind before the world was created. Ephesians 1 says, ‘He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,.’
Jesus was sent into this battle zone behind enemy lines in order to carry out a specific mission. His mission to destroy the works of the devil,’. 1 John 3:8 says, ‘For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.’ Jesus came on a search and destroy and rescue mission, ‘He came to seek and save that which is lost.’ He said of Himself, ‘I have come to do the will of Him that sent Me.’
Application What is your mission for the Lord? Are you fulfilling the plan He has for you life. If you are lost you have no plan until you get right with God. Gods plan for you is that you repent and be saved, then He will lead you to serve Him. Remember fellow believers we are saved to serve not saved to sit.
III. Whom Did God Send His Prophet To Anoint?
Surely the king God chose for His chosen people would be a tall good looking man with flowing locks and impeccable credentials. No actually that’s what Israel choose for themselves when they made the first selection for a king. God allowed them to have what they wanted. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 9:2 that Saul was ‘a choice and handsome son, and he was a head taller than everyone else.’ He had all the credentials that men looked for in a supposed leader. He was Israel’s choice for a king but have you ever had the experience of getting what you wanted but not really wanting what you got. I think in the end the people of Israel did not want what they got when they made their choice of a king.
The second king is Gods choice, not theirs. There is a type of Christ here in David being the second king of Israel. Man made his choice in the garden of Eden to usurp the authority of God over his life and put himself in that place. Man got what he wanted but he didn’t want what he got, a world corrupted by sin and the stench of death in his nostrils. The Bible tells us of a Second Adam who, unlike the first, did not fail to be obedient to God. Unlike the first Adam, who represented all humanity in his decisions, this Second Adam is the Lord Jesus Christ who represents all who trust in Him as Savior and Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is Gods choice for Savior and in this case Gods is the only vote that counts. David was Gods choice of a king. You can make your choice whether you rule your life or you will yield and submit to God and allow the Lord Jesus to rule your life. Who will be your king?
David was only a boy in the eyes of his family, just barely able to keep the sheep. He was perhaps anywhere from 15-20 years old. Maybe it was his singing that banished him to the hillsides. You know all those church songs about the heavens declaring the glory of God and walking through the valley of the shadow of death. We don’t really know why David wasn’t included with the rest of the sons of Jesse when Samuel came to find and anoint the new king. David had to be summoned from the pastures to come into Samuels presence.
Why did God choose David? Someone has suggested these reasons why God picked David over all the other sons of Jesse or boys in Israel. It is because David had a...
1. True and genuine faith.– Who can forget young David’s words to Saul as he prepared to go face Goliath, he said to Saul, ‘Your servant used to keep his fathers sheep, and when a lion or a bear came out and took a lamb out the flock, I went out after it ...And when it rose against me, I caught it by its beard and struck and killed it.’ ‘The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.’ Oh I wish we had that faith to meet the devil on his own ground today. David knew that greater is He who is in me than He who is in the world, a lesson that we need to learn.
2. Truly grateful heart. In Psalm 30 David said, ‘I will give thanks unto thee for ever’. David was grateful to God for all He had done in His life. He never let it go to his head.
3. Truthful nature– When David sinned he admitted his sin to God. David knew what kind of person could walk with God. He knew it had to be a person who walked uprightly and worked righteousness and spoke the truth in his heart. He knew what qualities God looked for and he desired to have Gods approval upon his life.
4. Transparent life– Psalm 26:2 David even prayed that God would examine his life. Would you and I be so quick to pray that God would examine our lives. Would we ask God to, ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts,’ Do you want your life to be so transparent before God? The truth of the matter is that it already is, whether you knew it or not.
5. Trusted God at His word.– Psalm 119:14 David knew that Gods word was forever settled in heavens. He realized that God keeping His word was more certain than the sun coming up in the morning. He was certain of it that he says thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against God.
Gods choice of David wasn’t based on criteria that met the worlds expectations. David’s early life teaches us that God is looking for men and women who are faithful in the small things, thankful in all things, truthful always, transparent before Him and the world, and trust totally in His word. Its not all your talents or even the lack of them that decides if God will use you, and He will if you are saved. He desires to use you. Remember its He chooses us first before we choose Him. To illustrate what I mean remember the verse ’we love HIm because He first loved us’. He first chooses us. He first loves us. He first convicts us and calls us to Himself. He took the boy everybody ignored and made a king out of him. God knew where David was before David knew He was present. God took him from the shepherds field and made of him a king. When you say God cant do much with me, that is evidence you don’t have much faith in God.
