WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:12.960 Now, I know I'm going to disappoint at least one person tonight because I know someone 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:17.160 during that reading was thinking, I can't wait to hear him explain those harmful spirits 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:23.359 in chapter 16, but I'm only actually going to look at the first half of chapter 16 because 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:27.039 really what we read in that chapter was two different stories. 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:31.600 And so what we're going to look at tonight is the anointing of David, which is verses 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:34.960 1 to 13. 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:40.640 And like Corey said, we're starting a new service tonight on the life of David. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:49.200 A number that I always keep in my head that's really helpful is the year 1000. 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:52.480 The year 1000 was in the middle of David's rule, so that's a great way of navigating 00:00:52.480 --> 00:00:53.480 the Old Testament. 00:00:53.479 --> 00:00:56.640 You know 1000, you know where David was. 00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:04.479 And as I'm sure many of you know, David was the second king of Israel, but he was Israel's 00:01:04.479 --> 00:01:08.519 greatest king in the ancient world before Jesus came. 00:01:08.519 --> 00:01:13.439 And the funny thing about this passage that we read, which is David's introduction in 00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:18.519 chapter 16, is that you actually don't hear David's name until the very last verse. 00:01:18.519 --> 00:01:24.280 And so in one sense, what we're going to talk about tonight is hardly about David at all. 00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:26.879 And in another sense, it's all about David. 00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:31.000 And historically, there's two things that we learn in this passage. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:35.359 Number one, why God saw that David should be king. 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:40.239 And number two, why Samuel couldn't, or at least why he couldn't at first. 00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:45.840 And of course, in one sense, the answer comes to us very simply in verse seven, where God 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:51.439 says to Samuel, the Lord sees not as man sees. 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:56.040 Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. 00:01:56.040 --> 00:01:59.840 Man sees on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:05.640 And I don't know about you, but to me that is a painfully non-specific statement. 00:02:05.640 --> 00:02:10.039 Because what God could have done is he could have looked at Samuel and he said, when Samuel 00:02:10.039 --> 00:02:14.159 made the wrong choice, he could have said, Samuel, that is just like you. 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:17.560 You shallow little man, you chose Eliab. 00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:20.919 But what he says isn't Samuel, you are uniquely sinful. 00:02:20.919 --> 00:02:25.919 He says, Samuel, you are like all people. 00:02:25.919 --> 00:02:31.519 And in a sense, that's a word to Samuel, but it's also a word to the reader saying, when 00:02:31.519 --> 00:02:35.240 you look at Samuel, in some sense, you're meant to see yourself. 00:02:35.240 --> 00:02:38.439 Because what Samuel does here is not a sin unique to him. 00:02:38.439 --> 00:02:43.439 It's a propensity in all of our hearts to look to the outward appearance. 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:49.759 And so what you have in this story is God exposing Samuel's heart and in doing so, exposing 00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:55.280 our hearts, but then he doesn't leave Samuel there because he walks alongside Samuel and 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:59.439 he shows him a better way and he shows us a better way. 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:01.960 And so what I want to do tonight is three things. 00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:08.439 I want to talk about, number one, why Samuel could not see the true king. 00:03:08.439 --> 00:03:12.479 Number two, how he was meant to see the true king. 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:15.799 So why did he go wrong and how should he have gone right? 00:03:15.799 --> 00:03:20.799 And then finally, what does this story tell us about seeing our king? 00:03:20.799 --> 00:03:24.079 So number one, why couldn't Samuel see the true king? 00:03:24.079 --> 00:03:28.159 And again, in one sense, the answer's obvious and I don't want to overstate the point because 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:31.879 God says Samuel was looking to the outward appearance. 00:03:31.879 --> 00:03:37.599 But there's a specific reason when you read the story that we're supposed to understand, 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:41.560 even though he's committing the sin of all people, there's a specific reason why he 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:45.000 does that and the text wants us to see it. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:53.520 And the way that the text wants us to see it is to see Samuel's life and to see what 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:55.120 has brought him to this point. 00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:58.360 And you see it in verse one. 00:03:58.360 --> 00:04:04.240 What you need to know about Samuel is even though we come to this as the beginning of 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:10.360 a new series saying we can't wait to see David revealed, for Samuel coming into chapter 16, 00:04:10.360 --> 00:04:12.400 this doesn't feel like the beginning of a story. 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:14.440 It feels like the end of a story. 00:04:14.440 --> 00:04:22.400 And Samuel in chapter 16 verse one is a man who lacks hope, who is downtrodden, who is 00:04:22.400 --> 00:04:24.080 sick with grief. 00:04:24.080 --> 00:04:28.560 And all he can think about, literally all he can think about is how his life and his 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:31.000 nation has gone wrong. 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:36.000 And the reason is, aside from David who appears in the last verse, there's a man who appears 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:40.319 in the first verse here, who lurks in the background of Samuel's life, which is Saul. 00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:48.480 And it had been, it had been Samuel's task in life to raise Saul up and to present him 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:52.279 to the country as the first king of Israel. 00:04:52.279 --> 00:04:56.600 And for a time, Saul was really the hope of a nation. 00:04:56.600 --> 00:04:58.000 Saul was a great man. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:00.959 You looked at him and you were impressed with him, but it wasn't just his looks. 00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:04.680 Saul actually did things like subdue Israel's enemy. 00:05:04.680 --> 00:05:09.279 And so you looked at Saul and you thought to yourself, this is a hero. 00:05:09.279 --> 00:05:12.759 But then as Saul's life develops, he falls. 00:05:12.759 --> 00:05:17.919 And what you see is this repeated pattern of a man who on the outside looks strong, 00:05:17.919 --> 00:05:20.719 but on the inside won't listen to God. 00:05:20.719 --> 00:05:22.959 He's not obedient. 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:29.319 And ultimately God looks at Saul and says, I have rejected you from being king over 00:05:29.319 --> 00:05:31.479 Israel. 00:05:31.479 --> 00:05:36.159 And when that happens, no one was more devastated than Samuel. 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:40.640 Just a few years before Samuel had literally held Saul up to the people. 00:05:40.640 --> 00:05:42.000 And this is a quote. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:47.280 He looks at Saul in front of the people and he says, there is none like him among the 00:05:47.280 --> 00:05:49.200 people. 00:05:49.200 --> 00:05:52.840 And you get this sense that Samuel had fallen for Saul. 00:05:52.840 --> 00:05:57.400 I mean, he was in on Saul being the great hero. 00:05:57.400 --> 00:05:59.480 Samuel was the one who anointed Saul as king. 00:05:59.480 --> 00:06:01.600 He was the one who officially made him king. 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:09.920 And when God comes to Samuel and says, I'm rejecting Saul, first Samuel 1511 tells us 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:13.640 that Samuel, his response to what God said was that Samuel was angry. 00:06:13.640 --> 00:06:19.439 And it says that he cried all night, all night long. 00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:25.000 And I don't know if you've ever been so sickened with the circumstances of your life that all 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:29.080 you knew to do was to cry out all night long to God. 00:06:29.080 --> 00:06:30.320 But that's what Samuel did. 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:35.439 It's how devastated he was with what had happened in his life. 00:06:35.439 --> 00:06:37.639 And that's where our story begins. 00:06:37.639 --> 00:06:42.839 All that baggage of how grieved Samuel is comes into this passage. 00:06:42.839 --> 00:06:47.519 And in verse one, God comes to Samuel and he says to Samuel, Samuel, it's time to stop 00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:49.839 grieving. 00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:52.079 Why are you grieving over the man that I have rejected? 00:06:52.079 --> 00:06:56.959 It's time for you to choose, for me to send you to choose a new king. 00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:01.639 And so for the first time in Samuel's life and perhaps a few years, there's hope because 00:07:01.639 --> 00:07:06.239 God is going to raise up another king where Saul failed. 00:07:06.239 --> 00:07:11.979 And the obvious obstacle as the passage goes on is how will Samuel know the right guy? 00:07:11.979 --> 00:07:13.279 How will he choose the right guy? 00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:17.919 But there's other obstacles in the passage, which we read over lightly, but they're very 00:07:17.919 --> 00:07:18.919 serious. 00:07:18.919 --> 00:07:24.879 Like, Samuel looks at God when he tells him to go to Bethlehem and he says, God, I cannot 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:31.959 go to Bethlehem because if I go, I will be killed because Saul is still the king of Israel. 00:07:31.959 --> 00:07:37.560 And if Samuel gets caught going to anoint a new king, there's a word for that and it's 00:07:37.560 --> 00:07:38.560 treason. 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:40.680 And Samuel could be executed. 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:42.839 And so this is a covert operation. 00:07:42.839 --> 00:07:48.360 And God says, when you go, bring a cow with you so that if someone stops you on the road, 00:07:48.360 --> 00:07:51.800 you can tell them, well, I'm making a sacrifice. 00:07:51.800 --> 00:07:54.199 That's why I'm going to Bethlehem. 00:07:54.199 --> 00:07:56.719 And I don't think Samuel would be lying there. 00:07:56.719 --> 00:08:01.719 I think he really did go to make a sacrifice, but he had this other motive of going to choose 00:08:01.719 --> 00:08:02.719 a new king. 00:08:02.719 --> 00:08:08.719 And so God says, take this cow, go to Bethlehem, which would have been about a 10 miles journey. 00:08:08.719 --> 00:08:12.319 And when he gets there, he meets these elders who are terrified of him because, you know, 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:17.240 for all they know, the prophet could be coming to say, God has judged you. 00:08:17.240 --> 00:08:19.039 Your wrath is coming on you. 00:08:19.039 --> 00:08:20.480 And he tells them not to worry. 00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:23.120 And he finally goes to see the sons of Jesse. 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:29.399 And the climax of the story, in one sense, is when he gets to this young man named Eliab. 00:08:29.399 --> 00:08:35.560 And we know from a later verse that Eliab is the eldest brother of Jesse's eight sons. 00:08:35.560 --> 00:08:41.560 And Samuel looks at him and he, the text that we read says he thought to himself. 00:08:41.560 --> 00:08:43.240 I don't know why that is. 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:48.799 In the Hebrew, it says he just, he said, he said to himself, surely the Lord's anointed 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:51.560 is before him. 00:08:51.559 --> 00:08:57.759 And again, when you hear what God says, you say, well, Samuel's problem is because he 00:08:57.759 --> 00:08:58.959 was looking on outward appearance. 00:08:58.959 --> 00:09:02.679 But that doesn't answer the question that I think the text is trying to show us that 00:09:02.679 --> 00:09:05.279 there's a reason that Samuel is looking to outward appearance. 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:12.479 And it's because when he sees Eliab, he sees Saul. 00:09:12.479 --> 00:09:16.839 That's where Samuel goes wrong. 00:09:16.840 --> 00:09:23.000 He looks at, he looks at Eliab and he sees a man who is tall and who is strong and who 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:24.000 looks brave. 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:29.519 And it reminds him of Saul, who for all of his failings, that was what he had going for 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:31.920 him was he had the look of a king. 00:09:31.920 --> 00:09:36.480 And it seems like that's what God is hinting at in verse seven, where God says, do not 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:42.200 look on his appearance or on his height or his stature because I have rejected him. 00:09:42.200 --> 00:09:51.680 And the inference, right, is that what Eliab must have is height and appearance and stature. 00:09:51.680 --> 00:09:58.360 And Samuel looks at this and he says, surely here is the next king because he looks like 00:09:58.360 --> 00:10:01.879 the last king that God had chosen. 00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:06.480 And he looks like a brave man and he looks like the kind of man that when you're in battle, 00:10:06.480 --> 00:10:10.720 you look behind you and you see him and it gives you courage. 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:14.800 And God says, no, you have, you've chosen wrong. 00:10:14.800 --> 00:10:16.879 You've got the wrong man. 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:22.879 And the way that one commentator describes what God does when he explains, Samuel sent 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:31.240 to him as he says that God is engaging in a deconstruction of social conditioning because 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:38.879 Samuel had been trained in his society to see certain things as being valuable and certain 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:43.919 appearances as telling you what really is and what is truth. 00:10:43.919 --> 00:10:48.799 And so the Israelites had been socially conditioned to think that they needed a king and they 00:10:48.799 --> 00:10:51.439 needed someone strong to protect them. 00:10:51.439 --> 00:10:57.919 And they, when they were so socially conditioned to imagine that that king must be tall and 00:10:57.919 --> 00:11:02.879 brave and have the look of a hero, that when they saw Saul, it was obvious that he should 00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:03.879 have been king. 00:11:03.879 --> 00:11:11.799 And when Samuel saw Eliab, it was obvious to him that he should have been king. 00:11:11.799 --> 00:11:14.759 And what is God telling us here? 00:11:14.759 --> 00:11:22.120 What he's not telling us is that you never want to choose someone for a job who is attractive 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:24.439 and who actually looks like they could fit the part. 00:11:24.439 --> 00:11:28.440 Because one of the ironies of the passages that when they finally do get to David, what 00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:29.919 does David look like? 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:30.919 He's ruddy. 00:11:30.919 --> 00:11:33.559 He has beautiful eyes and he's handsome. 00:11:33.559 --> 00:11:40.279 But the point that God is making is it doesn't matter whether David is handsome or not. 00:11:40.279 --> 00:11:43.039 And in his defense, he wasn't tall. 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:46.159 But the point is all of those things, they're not bad. 00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:50.599 They're just irrelevant and they're not the way that we should judge character. 00:11:50.599 --> 00:11:58.399 And to go back to what I said at the beginning, where God looks at Samuel and he says, you 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:02.639 are like all men in the sense that you can only judge by appearances. 00:12:02.639 --> 00:12:08.639 One of the things that this text asks us to do is not to make sure that we're not choosing 00:12:08.639 --> 00:12:10.879 tall brave men for leadership. 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:15.419 It's to say, what do we have to have deconstructed in our society? 00:12:15.419 --> 00:12:19.199 What has our society trained us to see as valuable? 00:12:19.199 --> 00:12:24.000 That we don't need to say these things are bad, but that they can blind us to what is 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:27.679 actually valuable around us. 00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:34.839 There was just yesterday in the Times, Scotland, there was an article, and I told Carly I was 00:12:34.839 --> 00:12:39.519 going to say this in Jesus' sugar head when I said I was going to mention the word Botox. 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:44.359 But there was a passage, not a passage, an article in the Times. 00:12:44.359 --> 00:12:49.599 And it said this, and I just thought it had so much to say to what our passage was tonight. 00:12:49.599 --> 00:12:55.399 It was about the dangers of cosmetic surgery, but this is the one positive that it said 00:12:55.399 --> 00:12:56.799 about cosmetic surgery. 00:12:56.799 --> 00:13:04.559 It said Botox has brought happiness, has brought happiness and greater confidence to countless 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:09.719 people looking to hold, longing to hold back the ravages of time and to feel more comfortable 00:13:09.719 --> 00:13:11.799 in their skin. 00:13:11.799 --> 00:13:13.559 And then it gets even more particular. 00:13:13.559 --> 00:13:16.959 It says, this is not mere vanity. 00:13:16.959 --> 00:13:20.439 Cosmetic surgery makes people richer. 00:13:20.439 --> 00:13:24.919 Individuals who are perceived as beautiful, however fickle in shifting that concept may 00:13:24.919 --> 00:13:25.919 be. 00:13:25.919 --> 00:13:30.559 They enjoy higher earnings than those considered plain. 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:34.799 Cosmetic surgery can flatten the playing field of opportunity, reducing the advantages 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:38.120 enjoyed by those with natural good looks. 00:13:38.120 --> 00:13:41.919 And it can also help combat ageism. 00:13:41.919 --> 00:13:50.719 And I'm not here to attack Botox, but what the article implied was, what it said outright 00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:57.480 was that we still live in a society where you will be judged by your outward appearance. 00:13:57.480 --> 00:14:01.720 And the obvious way that we're judged by our outward appearance is the way that we look. 00:14:01.720 --> 00:14:06.360 But of course, there's all kinds of ways that we can judge outwardness, not just our facial 00:14:06.360 --> 00:14:10.480 features that can be how successful we are in our jobs. 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:14.000 I don't know if you would agree with this, but I heard a minister once say that the most 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:18.000 Scottish of all questions is, what do you do? 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:22.879 And that question can be so loaded sometimes, and depending on our situation in life, we 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:26.399 can either be proud of the answer that we have to give, or we can be ashamed of the 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:30.960 answer that we have to give. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:37.840 God looks at our looks and at our success in life, and at our jobs, and at our finances, 00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:42.399 and at our family lives, that we want to be so perfect. 00:14:42.399 --> 00:14:44.840 We want all those things to be great. 00:14:44.840 --> 00:14:52.160 And he says, those in one sense are all appearances, and what I care about is your heart. 00:14:52.160 --> 00:14:55.440 And one of the things that the gospel asks us to do, and the scriptures in this scripture 00:14:55.440 --> 00:15:00.120 asks us to do, is to make sure that we are not judging the world around us, and we're 00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:05.080 not judging ourselves by outward appearances, but that we're training ourselves to look 00:15:05.080 --> 00:15:06.080 at the heart. 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:13.000 One of the most beautiful things about Jesus was when we think about Jesus, we think about 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:17.279 how he stooped down to the lowly, and he was willing to engage with anyone. 00:15:17.279 --> 00:15:22.639 But if you really see the way that he acts in society, in a sense he's blind to all 00:15:22.639 --> 00:15:26.960 distinctions and he's willing to talk to anyone, and even the rich young ruler who 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:32.799 walks away from him, Jesus says that Jesus looked at him and loved him. 00:15:32.799 --> 00:15:36.440 I assume with a love of grief that he walked away. 00:15:36.440 --> 00:15:43.000 And that's what God calls us to do, is to be so unlike our culture, and to say, I will 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:46.200 not judge by appearances. 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:50.200 And it's not a small thing, because think of it like, it's easy to overlook the gravity 00:15:50.200 --> 00:15:52.840 of what Samuel does in this passage. 00:15:52.840 --> 00:15:58.040 If Samuel had been actually given the chance to choose the king, he would have chosen a 00:15:58.040 --> 00:15:59.040 terrible king. 00:15:59.040 --> 00:16:00.240 That's what he was about to do. 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:03.840 And God doesn't say you've chosen a second tier candidate. 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:08.399 He says, you have chosen one that I have rejected, that you would have chosen one that I have 00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:11.720 rejected. 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:16.360 And so why did Samuel not see the king? 00:16:16.360 --> 00:16:19.399 Part of the answer is he looked on outward appearances. 00:16:19.399 --> 00:16:22.080 The second question I want to consider is this. 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:26.399 How was Samuel meant to see the true king? 00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:34.639 And there's a question behind that question, which is why did God choose David? 00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:38.959 And that's actually a tricky question to answer if you know David's life, because you want 00:16:38.959 --> 00:16:44.199 to say, well, God looked at David and he saw his heart and he saw that he had a good heart. 00:16:44.199 --> 00:16:47.240 And because he had a good heart, he made him king. 00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:51.639 And that's a tempting answer, but part of the problem with that is that if you know 00:16:51.639 --> 00:16:58.000 David's life as many great things as David did, David also did terrible things too. 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:04.559 There were moments which it's almost surprising that the scriptures are willing to record 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:10.759 them because they're so embarrassing and they're so shameful and namely him committing adultery 00:17:10.759 --> 00:17:17.200 and then in order to cover up what he had done, killing this woman's husband. 00:17:17.200 --> 00:17:21.759 When you look at David's life at certain moments and you say, is this really an improvement 00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:24.120 on who Saul was? 00:17:24.120 --> 00:17:28.720 Can we really say that God chose David because he saw his heart? 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:34.799 And even David in Psalm 51 looks up to God and cries out to God about how unclean his 00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:37.519 heart was. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:42.120 But I think in that moment when David looks up to God and he cries out to God, he says, 00:17:42.120 --> 00:17:43.240 God give me a clean heart. 00:17:43.240 --> 00:17:48.160 That actually gives us part of the answer to why God was willing to choose David. 00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:55.519 And it's because he saw in David a man who when he was confronted with his sins, didn't 00:17:55.519 --> 00:18:00.440 excuse them, but he looked up to God and begged for mercy. 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:06.359 And you could see in David's life a man who as deeply flawed as he was, he did love God 00:18:06.359 --> 00:18:10.319 and he cried out to God. 00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:16.879 And so I can't give all the reasons why God chose David. 00:18:16.879 --> 00:18:19.839 And I think there's mystery and sovereignty here. 00:18:19.839 --> 00:18:24.039 But the question that I want to answer in the second point is again, how was Samuel meant 00:18:24.039 --> 00:18:26.279 to see the king, which is a slightly different question. 00:18:26.279 --> 00:18:29.519 I think it's a lot easier to answer. 00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:37.279 If you look in verse three, God tells Samuel, invite Jesse to the sacrifice. 00:18:37.279 --> 00:18:39.559 This is how he will know the king when he sees him. 00:18:39.559 --> 00:18:45.079 He says, invite Jesse to the sacrifice and I will show you what you shall do. 00:18:45.079 --> 00:18:49.720 And you shall anoint for me him who I declare to you. 00:18:49.720 --> 00:18:57.079 So the way that God expects Samuel and all Samuel's great wisdom to know who the king 00:18:57.079 --> 00:19:01.159 should be is not with his own mind. 00:19:01.159 --> 00:19:06.839 It's to actually lay aside his own sight and to trust entirely in what God tells him to 00:19:06.839 --> 00:19:08.839 do. 00:19:08.839 --> 00:19:14.359 And there's a play on words here throughout this whole passage that goes back several 00:19:14.359 --> 00:19:22.279 chapters because there's a parenthetical verse in 1 Samuel 9 verse 9 where it says, and it's 00:19:22.279 --> 00:19:26.599 talking to the reader and it says, just so you know, formerly in Israel, when a man was 00:19:26.599 --> 00:19:31.879 to inquire of God, he would say, come let us go to the seer. 00:19:31.879 --> 00:19:35.679 For today's prophet was formerly called a seer. 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:41.400 And the point of it was saying Samuel in his day was known not as a prophet, but as a seer, 00:19:41.400 --> 00:19:46.799 even though the jobs were the same, but Samuel's job was to see things. 00:19:46.799 --> 00:19:52.039 And so it's ironic, right, that he goes to Eliab and it says he looked on Eliab and he 00:19:52.039 --> 00:19:54.759 thought this should be the king. 00:19:54.759 --> 00:20:02.360 And the problem is the seer's job wasn't to act independently and say and choose the 00:20:02.360 --> 00:20:03.960 king for himself. 00:20:03.960 --> 00:20:09.160 What it meant to be a seer wasn't to see with your own eyes, but to rely totally on what 00:20:09.160 --> 00:20:13.120 God showed you and to communicate only that. 00:20:13.120 --> 00:20:15.039 That's what it meant to be a seer. 00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:21.039 And even after, you know, even after God corrects Samuel and even after he tells Samuel, don't 00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:24.640 look on the outward appearance, look on the heart. 00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:29.360 When they finally bring David in, Samuel doesn't say, well, now I have this ability, now I'm 00:20:29.360 --> 00:20:33.240 reminded to look past appearance and now I can see that David should be king. 00:20:33.240 --> 00:20:34.799 That's not what he does. 00:20:34.799 --> 00:20:47.400 It says that God looked at David and he said, arise and anoint him for this is the one. 00:20:47.400 --> 00:20:54.799 So the only way that David was going to know that Samuel was going to know that Saul, excuse 00:20:54.799 --> 00:21:00.079 me, the only way that there's so many names here, the only way that Samuel was to know 00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:04.839 that David was the true king was not through his own wisdom whatsoever, but to rely totally 00:21:04.839 --> 00:21:06.839 on God. 00:21:06.839 --> 00:21:11.799 Now if I could try to apply that one more time, again, it's not our job in life to anoint 00:21:11.799 --> 00:21:19.240 kings, but it is our job to see the world the way that God sees it as best we can. 00:21:19.240 --> 00:21:22.679 And the way that we do that is not by creating our own wisdom. 00:21:22.679 --> 00:21:27.759 It's by constantly looking back to God and waiting for him to speak and looking to him 00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:33.319 in his word to teach us so that we're not relying on our own wisdom and we're not going 00:21:33.319 --> 00:21:38.079 around thinking, relying on our gut to tell us how we should live our lives, but we're 00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:46.960 constantly going back to God saying, God, show me how to make wise choices in this life. 00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:52.960 One of the greatest gifts that any of us can have in this life is to have someone, either 00:21:52.960 --> 00:22:00.079 a parent or a friend or a mentor who we can trust and who we can go and ask advice from. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:04.960 And when you have someone like that in your life and when you have a really hard decision 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:10.000 to make, you don't need to be told to go see that person because you're desperate to hear 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:12.759 what they have to say and you want their advice. 00:22:12.759 --> 00:22:16.079 And that's what God offers us. 00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:21.319 He commands us to obey him and he commands us to listen to him, but he does that because 00:22:21.319 --> 00:22:25.799 he is the one who has the answers that we need. 00:22:25.799 --> 00:22:32.200 And he doesn't always, he doesn't speak to us in words and you may be wondering, who 00:22:32.200 --> 00:22:33.359 should I marry? 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:35.639 What job should I take? 00:22:35.639 --> 00:22:41.119 And you may not hear the verbal words of God telling you what to do, but what God wants 00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:48.480 of all of us is to wait like Samuel did, to hear from the Lord, to study his word and 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:53.000 to try to discern his will that way. 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:59.200 And there's all kinds of hints in this passage that God was actually even in the passage 00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:02.599 trying to train Samuel to do the very same thing. 00:23:02.599 --> 00:23:08.880 And one small way that we know this is that, you remember when God tells Samuel to go to 00:23:08.880 --> 00:23:13.440 Bethlehem, he doesn't say go to Bethlehem and find David. 00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:19.360 He says go to Bethlehem and go to the sons of Jesse and I will show you what you will 00:23:19.360 --> 00:23:20.360 do. 00:23:20.360 --> 00:23:27.039 So all the way to the very end of this passage, God is making Samuel continually look back 00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:31.000 to God and wait for him to speak and wait for him to guide him. 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:37.160 I want to close with this last point. 00:23:37.160 --> 00:23:39.720 What does it mean for us to see our King? 00:23:39.720 --> 00:23:43.759 What does this passage teach us about seeing our King? 00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:49.360 And I'm sure many of you know this, that in the New Testament Jesus is called the Son 00:23:49.360 --> 00:23:50.360 of David. 00:23:50.360 --> 00:23:54.559 And part of the reason he's called that is because of his actual ancestry that he was 00:23:54.559 --> 00:23:56.720 a descendant of King David. 00:23:56.720 --> 00:24:02.839 But the New Testament points to him as the one who is, you know, I said that in the Old 00:24:02.839 --> 00:24:06.839 Testament, all the kings that came after David were compared to David, but it was always 00:24:06.839 --> 00:24:09.000 a lesser than comparison. 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:11.440 This king was fine, but he wasn't David. 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:15.599 And then Jesus comes and finally you have one who you can look back and you can compare 00:24:15.599 --> 00:24:19.319 to David, but he is the true and the greater David. 00:24:19.319 --> 00:24:21.559 He's better than David in every way. 00:24:21.559 --> 00:24:27.279 And even in this one passage, there's all kinds of comparisons we can draw between David 00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:30.400 and Jesus that help remind us how great Jesus is. 00:24:30.400 --> 00:24:39.440 I mean, just to list a few, and this isn't my main point here, but that one of the distinctives 00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:43.680 of King David was that no one recognized him. 00:24:43.680 --> 00:24:48.000 And the exact same thing is true of Jesus. 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:52.000 When Jesus came to this world, he lacked all outward signs of majesty. 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:57.240 And Isaiah says that he had no form or majesty that we could look at him. 00:24:57.240 --> 00:25:02.120 And even when Jesus worked miracles in his own hometown, he was dismissed by the people 00:25:02.120 --> 00:25:05.200 in his own town and they looked at him and they said, isn't this David? 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:08.680 Isn't this the carpenter's son? 00:25:08.680 --> 00:25:14.920 Jesus was completely unremarkable in his appearance. 00:25:14.920 --> 00:25:17.759 And yet when he's born, what does God do? 00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:24.279 He sends the wise men to Bethlehem, just like Samuel was sent to Bethlehem to find the true 00:25:24.279 --> 00:25:26.640 king and to worship him. 00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:31.560 And then when Jesus matures, he comes before John the Baptist to be baptized. 00:25:31.560 --> 00:25:35.280 And when John baptizes him, the spirit descends on him. 00:25:35.280 --> 00:25:39.520 In a way almost analogous to the way that at the end of this passage, the spirit descended 00:25:39.520 --> 00:25:40.920 on David. 00:25:40.920 --> 00:25:46.440 And what's happening partly, I think, is that in both of those anointings, God is equipping 00:25:46.440 --> 00:25:52.280 these men with the spiritual gifts that they need to complete the task that's been given 00:25:52.280 --> 00:25:54.480 to them. 00:25:54.480 --> 00:25:57.920 And there's that beautiful moment in Jesus' baptism. 00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:06.000 You remember where the spirit descends like a dove and then God looks down and he says, 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:09.599 this is my son with whom I am well pleased. 00:26:09.599 --> 00:26:16.960 And it's as if he's saying, finally, one has come whose heart is pure. 00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:17.960 Excuse me. 00:26:17.960 --> 00:26:18.960 That's embarrassing. 00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:27.120 I'm getting a little... 00:26:27.120 --> 00:26:31.799 God looks and says, finally, one has come whose heart is pure. 00:26:31.799 --> 00:26:35.840 And God could not say that of David, but for the first time, he can say, here is one who 00:26:35.840 --> 00:26:41.000 has the heart of a king in every sense. 00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:48.920 And then Peter's confession in Matthew chapter 16, when Jesus looks at Peter and he says, 00:26:48.920 --> 00:26:51.400 who do you say that I am? 00:26:51.400 --> 00:26:53.360 And Peter says, you are the Christ. 00:26:53.360 --> 00:26:55.000 And you remember what Jesus says to him? 00:26:55.000 --> 00:27:01.120 He says, blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this 00:27:01.120 --> 00:27:05.840 to you, but my father who is in heaven. 00:27:05.840 --> 00:27:11.680 And in the same way that Samuel could not see the true king unless God revealed it to 00:27:11.680 --> 00:27:12.680 him. 00:27:12.680 --> 00:27:20.720 Peter could not see his true Messiah, his true king until God revealed it to him. 00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:24.920 And the same thing is true of us that when we become Christians, that is the moment when 00:27:24.920 --> 00:27:30.200 God comes to us and shows us who our true king is in a way that we could never see for 00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:31.720 ourselves. 00:27:31.720 --> 00:27:38.720 And one way to describe the whorist of the Christian life, one aspect of it is that now 00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:41.560 that we know that Jesus is our king, we look at him. 00:27:41.559 --> 00:27:44.960 And we look at his heart as we see it in the scriptures. 00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:50.839 And we remind ourselves over and over again that this is the heart of a true king. 00:27:50.839 --> 00:27:56.119 And we see our king go to the cross for us. 00:27:56.119 --> 00:27:59.000 And our love for this king grows and grows. 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:02.919 And God shows us this is what the heart of a king looks like. 00:28:02.919 --> 00:28:09.599 And one of the most beautiful things is how God, that king whose heart is so pure, looks 00:28:09.599 --> 00:28:16.000 at us, pushes us out of all of the appearances that we have that we use to try to hide who 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:21.079 we are, looks right into our hearts and sees the ugliness and sees the sin. 00:28:21.079 --> 00:28:26.439 And he says, even though I can see right into your heart past the appearances and I can 00:28:26.439 --> 00:28:30.759 see the sin, I will die for you and I will cleanse you from your sins. 00:28:30.759 --> 00:28:34.159 And that's what our king offers us. 00:28:34.160 --> 00:28:41.759 And so once, that's our call tonight, is to see our king for who he really is and to 00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:46.759 worship and bow down because we have gotten a picture of his heart in the gospels. 00:28:46.759 --> 00:28:49.600 Let's pray. 00:28:49.600 --> 00:28:52.400 Heavenly Father, we praise you for your word. 00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:59.600 We praise you that Jesus' story was a thousand years in the making. 00:28:59.600 --> 00:29:02.800 And we continue to praise him 2,000 years later. 00:29:02.799 --> 00:29:08.599 And we ask that you would show us our king, that you would guide us, that you would walk 00:29:08.599 --> 00:29:15.759 with us, that you would teach us to adore his heart and that we would be changed by that. 00:29:15.759 --> 00:29:16.759 In your sons name we pray. 00:29:16.759 --> 00:29:35.759 Amen.