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1 Samuel 16
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
We are continuing our study in the life of David, and after 6 weeks, we are finally going to talk about David. We are going to be in 1st Samuel chapter 16. It's printed in your worship guide, but if you want to find it in your Bibles, we'll be going through, kind of verse by verse in our time together. But I would like to begin by reading, 3 verses from Paul's letter to the Roman Christians. And it's a letter that we spent a a good bit of time looking at together, not that many months ago.
Jeffrey Heine:But but I would like to to kind of root us and and set the stage for our time in First Samuel 16 by hearing these words from the apostle Paul. So let us listen carefully to Romans chapter 11. I'll be reading verses 33 through 36. And let us listen carefully for this is God's word. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.
Jeffrey Heine:How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him, and through him, and to him are all things.
Jeffrey Heine:To him be glory forever. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray together.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, we gather today each one of us here, whether we know it or not, in desperate need of you and each one of us needing to hear your truth. So in love and grace, will you draw near to us by your spirit and lead us to trust in you alone today? Help us to give up on somehow trying to save ourselves, but to look upon Christ, our eternal king, our living hope. So would you speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. We pray these things in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen. You know, it's funny what a young man recollects. I vividly remember the day I first got glasses. It was February 12, 1990 3. If that's your birthday, please come see me afterwards.
Jeffrey Heine:It'd be a great moment. You see, these are not just for fashion. I've had LASIK twice, twice, and I still require corrective lenses. The thing with getting glasses is that you need them long before you get them. That need sets you on this path to getting glasses, And on February 12, 1993, I got my first pair.
Jeffrey Heine:And one of the reasons that I remember this day so vividly is because immediately following my visit to the eye doctor to pick up my glasses, I went straight to the movies with my friend Kyle. And we watched Harold Ramis's groundbreaking motion picture, Groundhog Day. Now, if you haven't seen Groundhog Day, you must have been so confused by the nonstop references to the movie during the pandemic. But I don't think I remember the movie so clearly just because it was that good, though it was. I think I remember it so clearly because I saw it so clearly.
Jeffrey Heine:If you've ever had vision problems, you understand the frustration of poor eyesight. And hopefully, you've also known some relief that comes from seeing clearly or at least more clearly. Every time I get new glasses with an updated prescription, for about 2 or 3 days, I go on and on about how much better I can see. In many ways, you don't even realize how poor your eyesight has become until you get new lenses. And seeing clearly, seeing rightly is a central theme of 1st Samuel 16.
Jeffrey Heine:It has a twin, a partner theme, a central theme in last week's text, 1st Samuel 15. In chapter 15, the theme was hearing or listening. The Hebrew verb to hear and its root appear multiple times throughout chapter 15. Joel noted one of the more ironic times that it comes up, and that's when the prophet Samuel says to King Saul, if you have listened to the voice of the Lord, why am I listening to the voice of these livestock? Chapter 15 was about hearing, and chapter 16 is about seeing.
Jeffrey Heine:In particular, chapter 16 is about the divine and supreme clarity with which God sees. The chapter opens up with the Lord speaking directly to Samuel, the prophet. Samuel is in mourning over Saul. And as a reminder, the people of Israel had demanded a king, someone to rule over them, to fight their battles for them, and God called the prophet Samuel to anoint Saul, the king over Israel. And with haste, Saul ignored the commands of the Lord, and in doing so, God said that he would remove the kingdom of Israel from Saul's rule and raise up another king.
Jeffrey Heine:Samuel has taken this failure and fall of Saul very hard. Harder, it seems, than Saul himself, even. Samuel is in mourning. Let's look together at chapter 16, verse 1. Then the Lord God speaks and asks Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel?
Jeffrey Heine:How long? God asks. Are you going to mope around about Saul? You see, God is not moping. He's not sad about what happened with Saul.
Jeffrey Heine:God is moving. And the Lord says that it's time for Samuel to get moving too. Verse 1 continues. Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I've provided for myself a king among his sons.
Jeffrey Heine:The Hebrew translated, for I've provided for myself a king among his sons, literally reads, I have seen me among his sons a king. Just as listening and hearing in chapter 15 had the connotation of obedience, this seeing in chapter 16 bears the meaning of provision and action from the Lord. God is saying that he has provided the next king of Israel from among the sons of Jesse, the Bethlehemite. Now Jesse is the son of Obed, and Obed is the son of Boaz and Ruth. And I know the college ministry recently went through the life of Ruth.
Jeffrey Heine:In short, the life of Ruth is a story of loss and trust and God's providence. And here in chapter 16, we see the results of the providential work of God in the life of Boaz and Ruth, and their grandson, Jesse, and his eight sons in the little village of Bethlehem. But even though it is the Lord commanding Samuel to go to Bethlehem, Samuel is hesitant. He's worried that such a journey would raise suspicion with King Saul, and rightly so. Let's look together at verse 2.
Jeffrey Heine:And Samuel said, how can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me. And the Lord said, take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord and invite Jesse to the sacrifice. I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.
Jeffrey Heine:The Lord gives Samuel a task. And with the task of offering a special sacrifice in Bethlehem, Samuel has, in a sense, a cover for going to meet with Jesse and his sons. And Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and he went to Bethlehem, and he took with him a sacrifice. And as he was approaching, the elders of Bethlehem see Samuel coming to their village, and they come out to meet him. And when they do, the Scripture says, they were trembling.
Jeffrey Heine:But why? Why were they trembling? Well, maybe it was because of the surprise of having such a powerful and highly regarded prophet in their midst. Or maybe they had heard that he had told King Saul that the throne was gonna be taken away from him by the Lord. Or maybe they had heard how he had just recently hacked King Agag into pieces, in case you read the end of chapter 15.
Jeffrey Heine:But whatever reason, the elders came to him trembling, and they asked, do you come peaceably? And Samuel responds in verse 5, peaceably, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. He consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. And when the sons came to be consecrated, he took on he looked on Jesse's oldest, Eliab.
Jeffrey Heine:And he thought to himself, surely, the Lord's anointed is before him. Verse 7. But the Lord said back to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
Jeffrey Heine:Some of your translations might say the lord looks with the heart. But either way, the primary point is this. The lord does not see the way we see. We'll come back to this truth in a few moments. Verse 8.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, neither has the Lord chosen this one. Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And Samuel said, neither has the Lord chosen this one. And Jesse made 7 of his sons pass before Samuel.
Jeffrey Heine:And Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these. Now we don't know what information Samuel has given to Jesse about what exactly the Lord was choosing among his sons. It appears the intent of the choosing and the anointing of a new king is still veiled to Jesse and his sons. Soon, all 7 sons of Jesse have passed before Samuel, and the lord has not chosen any of them. Samuel is confused.
Jeffrey Heine:And so he asks Jesse, are all of your sons here? Verse 11. Jesse said, there remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep. The 8th and youngest son of Jesse wasn't even invited to this highly honored sacrifice and feast. Jesse's youngest son would have been 13, 14 years old, a young man and certainly viewed as a little kid in the eyes of his older brothers.
Jeffrey Heine:And while they were all being consecrated and attending this extraordinary blessing and feast, the little brother remained out on the hillside, unaware of the remarkable things going on back home. No one knew that someone was about to be anointed the next king of Israel, least of all, the youngest son of Jesse, because David was out watching the sheep. Verse 11. Samuel said to Jesse, send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here. And Jesse sent and brought him in.
Jeffrey Heine:Now he was ready and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said to Samuel, arise, anoint him for this is he. And then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
Jeffrey Heine:It would be about another 15 more years before David would assume the throne and reign as the king of Israel. And it's not clear in this passage if David or his brothers were told what this anointing was actually about. But the Spirit of God rushed upon David that day, and it was and he was with him from that day forward. Samuel went back to Ramah, and it appears that David went back to watching the sheep on the hills of Bethlehem. But the lord was with him, readying him for the kingship ahead.
Jeffrey Heine:King Saul, however, was beginning to spiral. Let's look at the second part of this chapter, beginning with verse 14. Now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. While the Spirit has just rushed upon young David at his anointing as king, the Spirit has now departed from Saul. And not only has the spirit, the Holy Spirit left Saul, a harmful spirit has come at the direction of the Lord to torment Saul.
Jeffrey Heine:And this was not a hidden or private suffering. The royal attendants and advisers to the king were all aware of the desperate state of Saul. This tormenting was all consuming, and the advisers discussed this problem with the king. Verse 15, And Saul's servants said to him, behold now a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our Lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre.
Jeffrey Heine:And when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, He will play it and you will be well. The advisers have an idea. Perhaps a musician could calm the torment of Saul by playing the lyre. They are suggesting someone seek out a musician. And Saul agrees and says, provide, find, see for me a man who can play well and bring him to me.
Jeffrey Heine:Verse 18. 1 of the young men in Saul's court spoke up. Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, a man of good presence, and the Lord is with him. Now, we don't know how this young man in Saul's court knew of David. But he says that he has seen him firsthand, and he can testify that he's very skillful in playing the lyre.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, the rest of this introduction of David seems a little out of place, a man of war, prudent in speech. But let's keep in mind that this chapter is introducing the future great king of Israel. As this is being written down, the future of his kingship is known, and so he is spoken of with this flowery language that foretells his greatness to come. David has spent most of his days as a youth watching over sheep. And while that doesn't seem like the the most likely training ground for kingship, the work of the shepherd, watching, protecting, defending, nourishing.
Jeffrey Heine:This work of tending the sheep is the image of the exemplary king, who will tend to the needs of his people. And it is during the often idle work of the shepherd that David learned to play the lyre. In ancient Israel, it was called a kinor, a small, 10 string harp like instrument. The kinor was a perfect instrument for a shepherd. They are light, easy to pack around, and would have been entertaining to play on the hillside while you just watch over sheep.
Jeffrey Heine:And if you broke a string, well, those are made out of sheep intestines, so a perfect instrument for a shepherd. David couldn't know it at the time, but as he sat tending his father's sheep and playing his lyre, the Lord was preparing him to be a king. Let's look at the last few verses of chapter 16 beginning in verse 19. Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, send me David your son, who is with the sheep. And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat, and sent them by David, his son, to Saul.
Jeffrey Heine:And David came to Saul and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight. And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. And so Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed him.
Jeffrey Heine:Do you see that irony in the passage that it's the Lord who sends a harmful spirit upon Saul, and it's the Lord who uses David to take it away? In setting up this need in Saul and this skill in David, the recently and secretly anointed king of Israel enters the court of Saul. Saul never would have let David near the court if he had known that he had been anointed by Samuel to one day reign as king. Samuel said as much earlier, that if David found out, he would kill him swiftly. But God created a need in Saul, a desperate need.
Jeffrey Heine:And David was given by God an exceptional skill to meet that need. So it was Saul himself who eagerly welcomed David into the royal court. And I wonder if David ever looked back on those years when he was tending sheep, and he smiled to himself about how God had always been preparing him. All along, I wonder if he ever realized that the first entryway into his kingship was not through a mighty battle or by overthrowing Saul, it was through the lyre. I wonder if he ever glimpsed that incredible and mysterious work of God.
Jeffrey Heine:But maybe David never did. Because we don't see like God sees. And I don't believe it's our responsibility to figure out how we can see like He sees. In fact, I think we can end up doing a lot of harm to ourselves and to other people when we suppose that we can see like God sees, when we think we can connect invisible dots and explain away our pain or struggles or sorrows. Here's what I mean by that.
Jeffrey Heine:When someone is suffering, people with good intentions often try to explain it away by pointing to what good might come out of it, as though it simply offsets the suffering. We try to make all the pieces fit together and say, sure, this bad thing is happening, but it's going to turn around any day now, right before our eyes. And while God certainly can bring immediate good to our places of pain, we can set ourselves up for even greater confusion and pain with false expectations of what must happen next. That isn't in our purview. That's not our job.
Jeffrey Heine:We we don't see like God sees. We we don't have to pretend like we do. Not every sorrow gets a Rascal Flat's bless the broken road moment. And yes, I know that the nitty gritty dirt band wrote that song, but it charted higher with Rascal Flat's. Sometimes, God closes a door, and it's just a closed door.
Jeffrey Heine:No extra window. No side door. Faith in God doesn't require us to get him off the hook every time there is a storm without a rainbow. Sometimes a loss is a loss, and sorrow is sorrow. That does not mean that God is any less God, or any less sovereign, or that His steadfast love for you is failing for even a breadth of a second.
Jeffrey Heine:It just means that there isn't always an immediate bow tied to our circumstances. The promise isn't immediate resolution. The promise is that God sees and is at work. As I read at our beginning of our time together, Paul wrote to the Roman Christians saying, Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways.
Jeffrey Heine:We don't see like God sees. His judgments are unsearchable. His ways are inscrutable. That does not mean that we stop asking or searching or wondering. It just means that we can trust him while we ask and search and wonder.
Jeffrey Heine:In all of it, we are called to trust him. We don't see as He sees. And yet, sometimes, sometimes in His grace and kindness, sometimes He gives us little glimpses of His seeing and His working. We get glimpses, like seeing how in hindsight, God was preparing the way for David's kingship when he was just a boy tending sheep and playing his lyre on the hillside. We get these little glimpses, like seeing how when David watched the sheep by night, he was looking at the same Bethlehem sky that would one day explode with the brilliant glory of the heavens as angels shout and rejoice in front of shepherds just like him that the Christ child was born.
Jeffrey Heine:We don't have to pretend to see as God sees. That's not our task. What we are called to do is to trust and rest in the clear and certain promise that God sees. He sees you. He sees you and your struggles.
Jeffrey Heine:He sees you and your successes. He sees you and your sorrows. God sees you. And in his seeing, he's not merely observing from afar. He's not merely looking from a distance.
Jeffrey Heine:He is also working. God's seeing is inextricably bound to his working. And that is what we mean by the providence of God. God seeing is bound to His working. And when He sees you, He is also working for you, for your eternal good and His eternal glory.
Jeffrey Heine:And I know it might not always feel that way. In fact, it might rarely feel like God sees you and is working. But one of the reasons that we come to the scriptures, particularly scriptures like the one we have before us today, is to behold how God has moved before, how he has worked in the history of his people. And in that, we lean forward, hoping and longing that we might know his power and his character, that we might trust and believe in him alone. Believing beyond our feelings, believing beyond what we can see in front of us, and trust that there is more, more than what we can see with our own eyes.
Jeffrey Heine:Our task is to trust and rest in the certain promises of God's providence. The theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, don't meddle in what is not your providence. God sees and is at work. That is his providence. He is ordering all things according to the counsel of his own will.
Jeffrey Heine:And at the epicenter of that providence, the English preacher from the 17th century Thomas Watson wrote this, The center where all the lines of providence meet is God's glory. In other words, God is ordering all things, our rebellion, our surrender, our rejection, our obedience, our refusal of his love, and our heartfelt worship in him. He's ordering all of it. He's moving it all to the ultimate goal of his glory. And in that glory, our greatest good.
Jeffrey Heine:And the father is using his son, Jesus Christ, to accomplish it all, the perfect life of Jesus, his sacrificial death, his resurrection and new life, and his promised return as the king over everything. This son, our savior, is the promised shoot, the promised branch from the stump of Jesse. We read from the prophet Isaiah, chapter 11. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:By the prophet Isaiah, God was promising that through the bruised and battered line of Jesse, through the seemingly barren stump of Jesse, god would raise up the Messiah. Messiah, which means the anointed one. God was seeing, and in his seeing, he was providentially at work. That from the sons of Jesse, there would be a descendant, another even greater anointed one, Jesus the Messiah. When the Lord says to Samuel, this one.
Jeffrey Heine:Anoint this one. He was not only anointing young David, he was ordering the line that would lead all the way to Jesus. The anointing of David is a glimpse into the great and mysterious providence of God. The way of our salvation is a path that traverses through a coarse history, through unrefined humanity, and it is a path that slogs through real life messes of sin and sorrow. And in all of it, the Lord sees his children and is at work.
Jeffrey Heine:So what does the anointing of young David have to do with us today? We have to remember that this is an account of history. It's not a parable or a metaphor for our lives. But at the same time, the God of young David is our present lord today. So I think it's right for us to ask, how might the lord be seeing you today?
Jeffrey Heine:How might he be preparing you today, even through what seems like mundane or incredibly challenging means to move you into his calling on your life. How has he brought you here today to this point? We sang earlier, from Come Thou Fount, Here I Raise My Ebenezer. And you may know the picture that it's calling to there, this picture of stacking stones, stacking stones to remember to symbolically mark the place God has brought me this far, to today. And I will stack these stones and remember his providence at work.
Jeffrey Heine:And so I I mean that question. How did you get here today? Really? How did you end up in this place at this hour? What what province of God has led you all of your days to this singular moment?
Jeffrey Heine:When the sovereign God of the universe looks at your life, what might he see that you don't? And how might he be leading you to trust and rest in the promise of his providence today? You don't have to connect invisible dots to explain everything happening in your life. You don't have to break some hidden code of God's will. That's not your task.
Jeffrey Heine:But it's imperative that we all ask the Lord how we might trust him afresh and anew today. Because he has led you to this moment and he is asking you to trust him. Jean Pierre de Cassade was a monk and a theologian during the 18th century in France, but you already knew that. Part of his work, though, in ministry was through written correspondence. And after his death, many of those letters were gathered together and published.
Jeffrey Heine:They were published under the title Abandonment to Divine Providence. And in one letter, he wrote these words, quote, when the soul lives in God, it ought to abandon itself entirely to his providence. To escape the distress caused by regret of the past or fear about the future, this is the rule to follow. Leave the past to the infinite mercy of God, the future to his good providence, and give the present wholly to his love, end quote. To abandon ourselves to the providence of God is to trust that he sees us right now.
Jeffrey Heine:And that right now, in his love, he is at work. He's at work in us and through us and around us, and even sometimes in spite of us. This it's not our task to guess how he is working or connect those invisible dots. It's our charge to trust the lord with all the faith that he has given to us, to love him in the light of his perfect love for us, and to obey him in all that he directs us to do. And in that, we surrender to the relentless love and providence of our gracious and eternal king.
Jeffrey Heine:So let's go to him now in prayer. Lord, I pray that all the men and women here who know you and love you, that they would seek from you how they might trust you more today, how they would believe in Christ and trust in your providence all the more, that you would give them deep roots of trust, a confidence in who you are, and all of your promises. Lord, I pray for those who are new believers and have only been walking with you for a short while that you would strengthen them in their hope and their trust in Christ alone. And what I pray for those who know you not or love you not, that they would find peace and grace as they turn from the striving of this world to rest themselves, to somehow be good enough that they would turn and find life in Christ alone this very morning that you would move in our midst. Lord, would you continue to refine us that we would ruminate on your truth, that you would bring us closer and trusting you.
Jeffrey Heine:We pray these things in the name of Christ our King. Amen.