1st Samuel 16:1-13. ANOTHER BEGINNING In our life with God as children in His family, we have privileges that we often take for granted and perhaps forget sometimes that privileges bear responsibilities with them. The fact that God can entrust His people with responsibilities of eternal importance is another great privilege. Consecration indicates we are in a condition of soul and life that we can approach God with clean hands and an honest heart. God wanted a "man after His own heart" to be king over Israel after the moral, spiritual and leadership failures of Saul. A new beginning for a divided, unhappy nation means a leader is needed who is in touch with God and can sense the needs of the people.
Samuel began his life for God as a young boy with a clean new garment of clothes made by the loving hands of his mother each year. This was in contrast with the moral and spiritual darkness that had settled over the priesthood, and consequently over the nation. An old priest who was too blind to see what was needed and a failed priesthood did not stop the sovereign dealings of God with the young boy, Samuel, who brought hope to the nation. David comes on the scene of scriptural history in the freshness of one who knows and loves God in contrast to a self-willed king who has been left alone by God because of his disobedience and disregard of divine authority under which he was intended to lead the people of God.
It may be impossible to not mourn over the loss of a man of great potential who because of his great pride and egocentric life brings dishonor on the people of God and the Lord's name. But to dwell on that is also not right. We do not so much, have to "get over it" when there is failure, as to "get on with it" and find out the mind and will of God in relation to His work and move ahead in spite of setbacks. Samuel mourned over Saul, but that didn't help the situation in which Israel was found. God's people were still needing a king for whom they had asked, and life still had to go on in spite of the "talking head" Saul had become. Even the Lord Jesus wept over Jerusalem when He came to the city and looked ahead into the future, but then He moved ahead and did what the Father had sent Him to accomplish.
God Himself provided a king to replace the one the people had asked for out of a desire to be like the nations around. When God wants a man for His work, He will provide the exercise and the means to bring it to pass. We do not have to manipulate or pressure others to get a place of leadership among the Lord's people. We just have to be faithful in doing what we already have in our hands to do, and be satisfied with the fact that God knows who we are and what He wants from us, and can bring it about in His own will and time. Previously the Lord "sought Him a man," and now He "found David My servant." David had already been set apart, sanctified and "meet for the Master's use." He had been in training out in the fields where no one else could see what was happening. He had been in "training for reigning" for quite some time although he may not have known it himself and certainly others, even his family, didn't know it.
There is always much more to learn from the Lord than we have already experienced. We can be thankful for the on-going education process in the school of God that lasts for our lifetime. David had a lot more to learn from the Lord who filled him for service and was going to use him as a tool for the Holy Spirit to "move" and write down psalms and hymns of praise and worship to testify of God's grace and glory. We are blessed today by the training time of that young man who enjoyed God and loved Him. He had already been learning by experience how to handle rejection, reproach and humiliation before he would be called by God to lead the nation. Training in the things of God is not always easy. As a matter of fact, we learn more, and our character is built, in times of difficulty and problems rather than when life is easy and we complacently move quietly through life without any major concerns. Our Lord Jesus was humiliated and rejected when He was on earth, so it should be no surprise to us if we too experience the same things when we live as servant of the Lord.
David was identified as God's choice by God's sovereign electing will. It is no accidental happening, or merely human choice that leads those who love the Lord to be set apart for Him, and by Him. We cannot see behind the scenes to all the divine purposes of God, but we can rest in confidence that when our desire is to walk in the light with the Lord, He will reveal to us all of His will that we should know. God sets in place who He will and removes who He will by His divine prerogative. Saul's beginning was based on the natural human desire of men and the end of his life with God was because of the fleshly desire of his fallen nature. David was in fellowship with God long before Samuel came to visit the family of Jesse. When one is in the heart of God, the results of that life will be directed by God to His glory and the blessing of His people.
Samuel had his horn filled with oil, a symbol of the Holy Spirit's power at his disposal in his work for the Lord. The heifer he took along with him for sacrifice testified to the subjection of natural power to spiritual power as he walked from Ramah to Bethlehem leading this animal to a sacrificial death, and to provide a sacrificial feast. We look on our Lord who was sacrificed for us in all His innocence and perfection, and we keep the feast in fellowship with God and with the One He has anointed, and by whom we are accepted with God.
Jesse's seven sons passed by Samuel and apparently each seemed like he could be a king. Yet in spite of their natural attraction outwardly, they were not chosen by God. We are not "chosen for good in me," but by God's sovereign electing grace. "Man, looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart." God looks on the heart for the qualifications He wants from those involved in divine service. In spite of ourselves we often make judgments only on what we see outwardly in a person. All of the first seven sons were by-passed by God even though Samuel, and perhaps Jesse, favored them. David was forgotten because he was already serving others by caring for the flock.
Religious movements come and go often because of the person who rises to leadership. When people are gathered to the charismatic personality of a man, they fade away when that man dies, moves away or falls into disregard. A religious group that starts by natural choices on the basis of natural principles are acceptable to men but not necessarily to God. God only accepts that which is of the Spirit and owns Jesus Christ as Lord. Those who God accepts into His kingdom have been "chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world." It is only the Lord Jesus Christ who can satisfy God or us.
David (beloved) was taken by God to be ruler over "My people Israel." The humiliating process of those seven men passing before Samuel and being rejected was necessary to clarify to everyone the fact that the fleshly rule of men over God's people was over. It was not acceptable to God. The man God chose was first seen as a shepherd, and that characterized him for life. A shepherd loves his helpless sheep and is committed to caring for them and even dying for them if it is necessary. Saul was introduced as a searcher for lost asses which he never found, and in a sense his search in life for gratification of the flesh never ended. To seek satisfaction from the world in the energy of the flesh is a futile search.
David had already risked his life in a battle against a lion and a bear to rescue one sheep or one lamb. Such a pledge to caring for sheep that belonged to his father is an example to us to follow as we care for "the sheep" of our Father's flock. If a man is faithful to that extent for the sake of one life saved, God can entrust him with all of His sheep. He looked upon his vocation and calling with devotion and willingness to sacrifice himself. The Lord Jesus is the True Shepherd of the sheep, who "having loved His own, He loved them unto the end. That qualification sets the standard high for those to whom God has given the responsibility to care for His people.
It is of great significance that "the Spirit of God was upon David from that day forward." God had found His man, so Samuel could go home and rest after he anointed him as God's choice. No doubt he found he could rest in peace since he knew unmistakably that God had chosen His servant David. We cannot change all the things going on around us that we know are wrong. We can find our rest in the will of the Lord being done even in difficult and crisis times. Saul was bigger than everyone else outwardly, and had become like that in his own eyes even though he was anointed alone. David was anointed "in the midst of his brethren" and apparently returned to his humble occupation as a shepherd with grace and the inward beauty that had set God's heart upon him. The one who was rejected to lowly servitude was sitting at the feast in the attitude of his graceful spirit as the one God had chosen. To be selected for divine service is cause for humility and consecration, not pride and self-exaltation.