We're in 1 Samuel chapter 16,
and we're going to read from verse one. 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
Bethlemite, for I have provided me a king among his sons.' 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. and
call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show thee what thou
shalt do. And thou shalt anoint unto me
him whom I name unto thee.' 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? 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. And it came to pass when they
were come that he looked on Eliab and said, surely the Lord's anointed
is before him. 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. Then Jesse called
Abinadab, and made him to pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither
hath the Lord chosen this. Then Jesse made Shammah to pass
by, and he said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this. Again Jesse
made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel, and Samuel said
unto Jesse, The Lord hath not chosen these. 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. And he sent, and brought him
in. Now he was ruddy, and withal
of a good countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord said,
Arise, anoint him, for this is he. 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. But the Spirit of the Lord departed
from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. This chapter begins the history
of David, and David is a man who greatly influences the history
of Israel. Now, his birth is not recorded,
but his story begins here with him being anointed king in Saul's
place. There are lots and lots of interesting
things recorded about David. And when I say that he greatly
influences the history of Israel, that is no exaggeration. He's a warrior and a successful
warrior. He is a king. He is a father,
he is a husband, he is a builder, he is a poet, he is a musician
and he was a great sinner and yet he was also a man beloved
of God and a man who had great experiences of the Lord, a man
who had faith and who trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and
a man who struggled at times with his own weaknesses as well
as relishing the strength of God. And we see much of David's
own experiences in the Psalms that he wrote and we can enjoy
much the highs and the lows that we discover in his heart. But We also need to say right
at the very outset that David was also a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ in many eminent ways. Now I know that you know what
a type is because I keep speaking about that, but let me just say
one more time that a type is a picture that we see of the
Lord Jesus. that we are given perhaps an
incident, perhaps a characteristic, perhaps a person, perhaps an
experience, an event and we can see in that event a picture,
a likeness of something to do with the Lord Jesus Christ, something
that points to the Saviour. And in many ways, David is a
type of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that we can see things in
David's life that are paralleled and shed light upon the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ and his person and his character
and his works. And we'll see that as we go on
in our study together. In fact, the Lord Jesus actually
came from David's family line. So David was, well, how do we
put it? An ancestor, a great, great,
great, great, great many times grandfather of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord was of David's family
line after the flesh. And like David, the Lord was
born in Bethlehem. That's why we sing the carol,
Once in Royal David's City. We're speaking about Bethlehem,
and David was a king, so it's Royal David, and the Lord Jesus
Christ was born in Bethlehem. in the same place as David was
born. And for that reason and other
reasons, Christ is sometimes called the son of David. You'll remember that Blind Bartimaeus
called out that Christ was the son of David and he cried for
mercy from him. So this is David being introduced
to us in this chapter today. We begin the chapter by learning
that Samuel mourned for Saul. We closed the previous study
by reflecting on the fact that the Lord rejected Saul from being
king. That didn't mean that Saul immediately
died because he lived for many years after this, nor does it
mean that he was instantly taken away from ruling over Israel. What it means is that the Lord
had appointed another to take Saul's place when Saul died,
and another house to lead the people of Israel. Saul, had he
been obedient, would undoubtedly have been blessed of the Lord
for many generations, but he proved himself to be a rebel
and a disobedient man, and therefore the Lord withdrew the blessings
that he had previously given to him and gave them to another,
and that is David. But Samuel, was perturbed about
this, he was saddened about that because he looked, because Saul
had looked so promising and yet his reign had turned out so badly,
both for Saul personally and for the people of Israel. And
Samuel had a burden for the well-being of Israel and therefore he lamented,
he mourned, he grieved for what had happened in the land. Israel
had put their trust in this man and he had let them down by failing
to be obedient to the Lord. But God had another plan. It would not be Saul's family
who would rule over Israel. God instead chose David to replace
Saul. And now Samuel's task is to go
and anoint David in Saul's place. And Samuel's at first reluctant
to do this. And it's interesting to observe
that he fears that Saul will kill him if he goes to Bethlehem. And I think that that probably
reflects the vicious state of Saul. into which Saul had descended
because of his sin. Because Saul had rebelled against
God and because Saul now knew that God had rejected him, He
descended in his brutality, he descended into his sin and he
became more and more bitter both against God and against God's
prophet. It would not surprise me if Samuel
was being watched to see where he went, to see what he did because
of Saul's envy and jealousy and because of the evil spirit that
descended on Saul this time. But it also indicates that in
his old age Samuel was giving some evidence of a weakness in
his faith that we have not seen before. He had trusted the Lord
implicitly in so many occasions and times past and yet here he
was in his old age when perhaps one might think that he was not
any longer holding on to life as being as precious as it once
had been. As a youth or as a young man
he had spent his energy, he had spent his strength, he had spent
his years and yet he was still anxious about his coming death. He began to fear Saul more than
it seems he trusted the Lord to protect him. And so the Lord
encouraged his old servant and he provided him with a reason
to explain why he was travelling to Bethlehem. But it's interesting
to see that the people of Bethlehem were anxious as well and this
again may indicate that they knew that Saul and Samuel were
now at loggerheads, now opposed to each other and that Saul was
careful about what Samuel was doing and perhaps Samuel's presence
could bring trouble to the people of Bethlehem. Saul might suspect
the reason for Samuel's journey and have the people of Bethlehem
slain just in case he might thereby prevent a rival from rising amongst
them. And that's not an entirely off-the-wall
thought. This was the fear, indeed, that
motivated Herod to kill the children of Bethlehem in a day in the
future at the time of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. That
wicked man realised that Christ had been born in Bethlehem and
he took the life of all the children there in that town. So the people
of Bethlehem were somewhat concerned at Samuel's arrival. God had
told Samuel that the new king would come from amongst the sons
of Jesse. The family were invited to sacrifice
with Samuel at a feast that he had arranged for the occasion
and Each of seven sons of Jesse were presented to the prophet. It seems that Jesse had eight
sons and he presented these seven to Samuel to see which one of
them would be the Lord's anointed king. Some of these sons were
tall and handsome. Some of them were mighty, as
Saul had been, and they looked as if they would make superb
kings. However, the Lord tells Samuel
something important, and it's something that we should all
remember. The Lord tells Samuel that none of those had been chosen. And Samuel learns that there's
another son, the youngest son, and he's not present because,
well, he's out watching the sheep. Nobody thought that he could
possibly be the one that Samuel was looking for. But Samuel calls
for him, and the Lord tells Samuel that this man, David, is God's
choice. He is to be anointed king. Now I think that this was probably
a secret anointing and it was perhaps known only to David himself
and to Samuel and to Jesse. Saul undoubtedly would have been
angered and he would undoubtedly have been dangerous had such
news been publicly known. And we're told that Samuel took
the horn of oil and anointed him, that is David, the midst
of his brethren and that probably means that rather than anointing
him before or where his brothers were spectators, rather that
David was taken from amongst his brethren and anointed perhaps
in the presence of Jesse. that 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 that the
Spirit of the Lord who had previously equipped Saul to be king now
rested upon David and equipped and prepared him for the task
that lay before him. I've got a few thoughts, just
a couple of little applications that I want to leave with you
from this passage, if I may. The first one is this. Samuel didn't know which of Jesse's
eight sons he was to anoint. And when he looked at Eliab,
he admired this man. He thought, surely this is the
man that the Lord would have to be king. He admired his height,
he admired his strength, he admired his stature, what the Bible calls
his countenance. Eliab looked as though he'd make
a good king. But the Lord told Samuel that
while he was looking on the outward appearance, God looked on the
heart. God looks on the heart of men
and women and Eliab was not the man of God's choice. And this
is a good principle for us to remember, that the Lord seeth
not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. We can only tell
what a person looks like, but the Lord knows what is in a man's
heart, a woman's heart, a boy's heart, and a girl's heart. He
knows our thoughts. He knows the reasons for why
we do things and say things. He knows our true nature. And nothing is hid from the Lord. Sometimes we deceive one another.
Sometimes we deceive ourselves. But we can never deceive God. He knows us as we really are. And that ought to concern us.
He knows our sins and we can never hide our real sinful nature
from God. Many, many years before this,
a lady had fled from the presence of Abraham, out of Abraham's
camp. Her name was Hagar. She was a
young Egyptian girl and she fled with her son Ishmael out into
the wilderness. And she said of the Lord, thou
God seest me. And that is something that we
should all remember, that the Lord sees us. He knows us. He knows our heart and he knows
what is in our heart. And we cannot hide anything from
him. And there's something else that
is interesting, I think, about Samuel's anointing one of Jesse's
sons. Which one? Which one was it to
be? When a preacher preaches, he
brings the gospel. He brings Christ to all the people. We are to take the gospel to
all the world. All the world is to hear the
gospel preached as much as we are able. Now sometimes that's
in a building and we preach in the building to everyone who
gathers under the sound of our voice. Sometimes we preach in
the open air and we preach so that anyone who is passing by
might hear what is said. Sometimes we preach through the
written word and we might write a book or write a tract or a
pamphlet and hopefully someone might pick that up and read it
and be interested in what they hear, they read. Sometimes we're
able to preach like this and send it over the internet and
who knows where it might end up. We are to preach to as many
as will listen. The Lord said to his disciples,
go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. But like Samuel,
the preacher does not know whom God has chosen, or who God has
chosen. The preacher does not know who
amongst his hearers is anointed of God. appointed to salvation. And sometimes a preacher thinks
this person would make a good believer or this person seems
like she's interested in the gospel. But we can only look
on the outward appearance, and God looks on the heart. The Lord
knows them that are his, because he has chosen some to life eternal,
and he has passed others by. He has chosen some to be cleansed
from sin in the blood of Jesus Christ, and he has left others
under judgment. It is the Lord who gives grace. It is the Lord who makes a person's
heart right with him. And this is God's distinguishing
work of mercy. And the gospel, the gospel that
we preach, the gospel we declare, the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ and salvation by him, well, Paul calls it a two-edged
sword. because it cuts its way between
and it distinguishes between one person and another. It reveals
the ones who will believe and who trust in the Lord and the
ones who reject and don't trust in the Lord. It is a weighty
matter to preach the gospel to sinners. because that gospel
sword is going to render some guilty before a holy God for
all eternity while bringing others to faith through the power of
the blood of Jesus Christ. May God be merciful to all who
hear these words today. And finally, let me just make
one more quick point and then I'm done. David, I've mentioned,
is a well-known type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And whenever we
hear about David, we should try to look beyond the man to discover
things about the Saviour. David was the least of his brothers.
He was out in the fields looking after the sheep. He was given
the lowest jobs and the meanest jobs in the family. And similarly,
the Lord Jesus was despised and rejected by men. But David was
God's choice, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David. And similarly, Christ is God's
choice. And God the Father says of the
Lord Jesus in Isaiah 42 in verse 1, Behold my servant, it's look
at my servant, behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in
whom my soul delighteth. The Word of God is telling us
to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? I have put my spirit upon
him and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Really,
the whole Bible is Christ's story and as we learn of these men
and women like Samuel and Saul and David and Jesse, as we learn
about these men and women from the pages of our Bibles, we must
always be beholding, always looking for the Lord Jesus Christ, because
Christ is God's anointed King. Christ is the first chosen in
whom the Father's soul delights. This is the gospel message of
peace with God through cleansing from sin. And it is only as we
are united in Christ by divine love and sovereign grace that
the Father delights also in you and in me as we are united in
Christ. May the Lord give us faith to
trust him today. Amen.