1 Sam 16:1–13 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
David stands on the line of God’s story in the age of the kings.
Before him, Israel said to Samuel, “Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Sam 8:5). God gave them Saul. But Saul did not keep what the LORD commanded, and Samuel told him, “The LORD has sought for himself a man after his own heart” (1 Sam 13:14).
This lesson is the day God found that man.
The first verse of the New Testament calls Jesus “the son of David” (Matt 1:1). So getting to know David is also a way of getting to know the King who came from David’s family.
1The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided a king for myself among his sons.”
2Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” The LORD said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’
3Call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. You shall anoint to me him whom I name to you.”
4Samuel did that which the LORD spoke, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?”
5He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” He sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice.
6When they had come, he looked at Eliab, and said, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him.”
7But the LORD said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I don’t see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
8Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “The LORD has not chosen this one, either.”
9Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. He said, “The LORD has not chosen this one, either.”
10Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen these.”
11Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your children here?” He said, “There remains yet the youngest. Behold, he is keeping the sheep.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down until he comes here.”
12He sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with a handsome face and good appearance. The LORD said, “Arise! Anoint him, for this is he.”
13Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the middle of his brothers. Then the LORD’s Spirit came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
God deals with Samuel’s grief first. God asks him, “How long will you mourn for Saul” (v. 1). God does not say the grief is wrong. But he tells Samuel to fill his horn with oil and get going. Saul’s story is over. God’s story is not.
Samuel’s fear is real. He says, “If Saul hears it, he will kill me” (v. 2). God does not scold him. He gives him a way: take a heifer and go to sacrifice. And God does not tell him everything at once: “I will show you what you shall do” (v. 3). Samuel only has to take the first step.
Samuel gets it wrong. As soon as Eliab arrives, Samuel is sure: “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him” (v. 6). God answers right away: “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature” (v. 7). That sounds familiar. The last time Israel got a king, Saul stood among the people and “he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward” (1 Sam 10:23). It is easy to be won over by the same thing twice.
Appearance does not count. “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (v. 7). And here is something worth noticing: the passage goes on to describe David’s looks — “he was ruddy, with a handsome face and good appearance” (v. 12). God did not choose David because he was plain, or because he was handsome. Appearance simply does not count. God looks at the part of a person that others cannot see.
The one who was not called. Seven sons pass by, and none of them is the one. Samuel does not give up. He asks, “Are all your children here?” (v. 11). Only then does Jesse say, “There remains yet the youngest. Behold, he is keeping the sheep.” The prophet invited the whole family, and this youngest one was not brought.
Everyone waits for him. Samuel says, “We will not sit down until he comes here” (v. 11). The whole household sits and waits for the one nobody had thought of.
God chooses, and God gives strength. After the anointing, “the LORD’s Spirit came mightily on David from that day forward” (v. 13). There is no crown and no cheering. Samuel simply “rose up and went to Ramah” (v. 13). Later, when Saul sends for him, the message still says “David your son, who is with the sheep” (1 Sam 16:19). From this anointing to the day the elders “anointed David king over Israel” (2 Sam 5:3) is a long road. The next lessons walk that road.
When Israel asked for a king, they wanted one “like all the nations” (1 Sam 8:5). They chose the way the nations chose — by what they could see.
That day in Bethlehem says: the king of Israel is chosen by God, and God does not choose the way the nations do.
You may be in a corner nobody notices, doing work nobody cares about, like the youngest son out with the sheep. Verse 7 tells you that God has never begun with the outside of a person.
This week: Think of someone you tend to overlook. Find a moment to talk with them, and listen until they have finished what they want to say.
David was anointed in Bethlehem, and “the LORD’s Spirit came mightily on David” (v. 13).
Later, an angel spoke to shepherds near Bethlehem: “For there is born to you today, in David’s city, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).
Peter, preaching, spoke of “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power” (Acts 10:38).
David was the king God anointed. Jesus is the one God anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power — the one the New Testament’s first verse calls “the son of David” (Matt 1:1).
Scripture: World English Bible.