1 Samuel 16:1-23

God’s perspective of people and the events of history is far different from our perspective.  Our vision is very limited and is often obstructed by our circumstances and our personal opinions.  This is why trusting God is so vital to every step of our lives.  We cannot see the whole picture.  We do not know the future; nor do we know the implications that our present choices will have on the future.  But there is a God in heaven who know all of that and He calls us to trust Him and make our decisions based on what He would has revealed to us and not based on our own perception or understanding.  God is in the process of starting a transition in leadership and is about to identify the next king of Israel.  This involves a very difficult process of stripping Saul of the throne and then putting his successor in place.  We might be able to come up with a dozen ways to do this, but God puts His plan into action through Samuel and this process is long, drawn out, dangerous and goes against everything that we might call logical.  It is exactly during these types of events that God calls us to trust Him.

GOD SELECTS DAVID TO REPLACE SAUL: God sends Samuel to anoint a new king, but Samuel admits to being very afraid that Saul will kill him for this act of “treason.”  This fear reveals a little about the condition of the relationship between Samuel and Saul as well as the depth to which Saul’s character had sunk.  Saul had become proud and stubborn and even though he had been warned by God and reproved by Samuel he simply refused to repent and seek out Samuel pleading for God’s mercy.  Samuel sets up a sacrifice and invites the family of Jesse to come to the sacrifice as God had revealed that one of his sons would be the next king.  Jesse naturally assumes that it will be his oldest son but God reveals to Samuel that none of the older sons was chosen by God.  In desperation Samuel asks if there are any other sons so Jesse brings out David, the youngest, who is tending sheep.  God confirms that this is the man because He can see David’s heart.  We do not have the perspective that God has of the hearts of men.  We look at the exterior of men and the various skills or talents that they may demonstrate, but God can see to our very hearts.  David has a heart that seeks after God and trusts God in difficult circumstances.  We must be very careful of how we judge people and trust that God will be the people in leadership of His choosing and according to His eternal and all encompassing perspective.  We need to be careful to look at the character of people’s hearts and not just the characteristics of their bodies.

GOD SENDS DAVID TO RELIEVE SAUL: Once David is anointed, the Spirit of God comes upon him and he is filled with the presence of God in His life.  At the same time, an evil spirit is permitted to torment Saul.  Sin is usually punished with more sin.  This is what Saul is experiencing.  Ironically, the only relief that Saul can find comes from the ministry of David in his life.  David knows that he will be the next king but he is in no hurry to assume the throne and knows that this transition process is within the hand of God.  He also trusts that this was no coincidence for him to be placed in the presence of Saul at this time.  David’s reaction is to simply trust what God is doing and serve Him faithfully where he is.  David plays his harp to bring comfort to Saul and Saul loves David deeply.  God is obviously at work in all of this process.  I doubt that any of us would have come up with such a plan.  Many of us would have had difficulty doing what David did knowing what David knows.  It is important that we recognize that this is God’s plan and that from His perspective this all makes perfect sense.  David is being trained to be king while learning from Saul’s examples both good and bad.  David is also demonstrating his complete trust in God and his willingness to wait for the timing of God to do whatever God wants to do.  David is not going to take matters into his own hands; he is simply going to be faithful with whatever is in his hands to do and leave the details to God.  This is a great example from which all of us should learn.