Our Sermons

Bible Passage: 1 Samuel 16:1-13
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  January 9, 2022

When you stop to think about it, our sight tends to be the sense we trust the most. We use phrases like, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” or “I don’t believe what I just saw!” One of the states of our Union is called, “The Show Me State.” However, this dependence on sight becomes problematic when it comes to the work of the LORD. So often, what we see differs from what the LORD decrees. And this disconnect can lead us away from the LORD and his will. It certainly did for a time for Samuel. 

It’s hard to see Samuel like this at the beginning of chapter 16. He’s a disaster. He’s wallowing in grief over the LORD’s rejection of Saul as king. It’s unlimited grief. He’s grieving without hope. He’s forgotten the LORD’s promises. He’s despairing. And his unlimited grief is keeping him from carrying out his vocation. And so the LORD says in verse one, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I see a king for myself among his sons.” The LORD has work for him to do. Israel’s next king needs anointing. And that picture of anointing is a powerful one. It was a clear, outward, visible sign of the LORD binding himself to his chosen servant. And notice how the LORD describes the next king. He sees him. The Lord sees him among the sons of Jesse. Keep that picture in mind as we go forward. So the LORD is giving Samuel instructions about anointing the next king, but before the LORD can finish his instructions, Samuel cuts him off.      “Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.” 

What has happened to Samuel? Here’s the man who as a young boy said, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” cutting off the LORD mid sentence, not listening! He’s making excuses. He’s wallowing in grief. He doesn’t want to do it. Can you imagine? And what does the LORD do? He shows patience, amazing patience. That’s another thing that jumps out in this story. The LORD’s patience with Samuel. He doesn’t really even acknowledge Samuel’s objections. He just patiently continues with his instructions. The Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.    “Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will let you know what you are to do. You are to anoint for me the person that I point out to you.”” 

To his small credit, Samuel does finally listen. “So Samuel did what the Lord had told him to do and went to Bethlehem. Trembling with fear, the elders of the city came to meet him. They said, “Do you come in peace?” He said, “Yes, in peace. 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.”  Samuel has seemingly turned the corner, but then he trips up again. “When they had come, he looked at Eliab and said, “Certainly this is the Lord’s anointed.”” Do you remember the LORD’s instructions for Samuel? “I will let you know what you are to do. You are to anoint for me the person that I point out to you.” Only Samuel doesn’t wait for the Word of the LORD. He sees the first son of Jesse and says to himself, “He’s got to be the one!” Why does he do that? Because he looked the part. Just like Saul, he looked like what a king should look like in the eyes of the world. We see that in the LORD’s answer. “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at how tall he is, because I have rejected him. For the Lord does not look at things the way man does. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”” 

Up to this point, Samuel has been a total disaster. He couldn’t see what the LORD saw because he was looking with his physical eyes instead of eyes of faith. But again, we see God’s patience with Samuel. And that patience allows Samuel to stop and start to listen to the Lord and his Word. “Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” Then Jesse had Shammah pass by. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel. Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.”” Seven sons that Jesse thought could be king, all rejected by the LORD. Imagine what Samuel must have been thinking at this point. Almost in desperation, “Samuel said to Jesse, “Is that all of the young men?” Jesse said, “There still is the youngest, but he is tending the sheep.” 

“There is still the youngest…” What must Jesse have thought of David? He’s like Cinderella. His brothers get to go to the feast and he’s left to tend the sheep.  He doesn’t even call him by his name or use a normal title for a young boy. The word Jesse uses can be translated “youngest” as it is here. It can also be translated as smallest or insignificant or unimportant. Clearly that’s how Jesse saw David. There are even some who speculate that as the 8th son, David was somewhat of an “oops” baby. If you had seven sons, that revered number of completeness, would you really want to go past that and have an eighth? But Samuel would not be deterred. He wasn’t going to make the same mistake a third time. Samuel said to Jesse, “Send for him, for we cannot sit down to eat until he comes.   He sent for him and brought him in. David had red hair and striking eyes, and was good-looking. The Lord said, “Get up! Anoint him, because this is the one.”” 

Just as he promised, the LORD made it clear to Samuel whom he had seen as Israel’s next king. It’s interesting that David is described so outwardly positively considering what Jesse seemed to think of him. And once Samuel got the word, he acted.    “So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers. The Spirit of the Lord rushed on David with power from that day forward. After that Samuel set out and returned to Ramah.” The LORD’s anointing uncovered for Samuel and for Jesse who would be the next king. By anointing David, the LORD was binding himself to David. In a powerful display of that binding, we’re told, “The Spirit of the Lord rushed on David with power.” It was clear that he was God’s choice. The double anointing made it clear. And somewhat anti-climatically, “Samuel set out and returned to Ramah.”

So who do you identify best with in this story? Maybe you’ve felt like Samuel at the beginning of the story? You’re worn out by the world, you’re tired of it all. And you quickly go from being tired to despairing, from being beat up by the world to defeated. And we do this to ourselves. Instead of listening to the LORD and seeing what the LORD sees, we only see what the world sees. We focus on the outward circumstances of life and connect them to the LORD’s favor. And so when things aren’t going well, when money is tight, when there’s strife in the home, when a loved one dies, we think that the LORD doesn’t love us anymore, that his promises won’t be kept. Or maybe you identify with David, the unimportant, the insignificant. You feel like you don’t matter to the LORD or to anyone else. You look around at the success that others have who don’t have any kind of a relationship with the LORD and you wonder if all this is worth it. 

Thankfully, the LORD knows how the human heart works. He knows that by nature we are nothing and we can’t see what he sees. And that’s why he uncovered his Son, our Savior Jesus at his baptism. Just look at the parallels between the anointing of David and the anointing of David’s Son. Both are set apart, marked by their anointing in a powerful way. The work and presence of the LORD is emphatic in both. In Samuel, “The LORD said, “Get up! Anoint him, because this is the one.” In Luke chapter 3 the heavens are ripped open and divine fireworks rain down as the Father booms from heaven, “You are my Son, whom I love, I am well pleased with you.” In Samuel, David is anointed by the major prophet in Israel. Jesus is baptized by an even greater prophet in John. The Spirit of the Lord rushed on David with power and in a powerful and visible way, the Spirit of the Lord descended on Jesus like a dove. 

These anointings uncover God’s choice. Jesus was God’s child, God’s chosen one, full of the Holy Spirit and no one would have noticed, no one would have known without God’s anointing. In his baptism, God is choosing Jesus to die to take away the sins of the world. God is choosing Jesus to die so that he can choose us to live. You are God’s child, God’s chosen one, full of the Holy Spirit. This is what God has declared you to be. But we can’t see that with our physical eyes. It doesn’t look like it to the world. And so God helps by connecting a sign to his Word. The water of Baptism gives us visible assurance that we are what God says we are, that God has bound himself to us, to be faithful to us always. Our anointing in our baptism empowers us to listen to the LORD, to believe him, and do what he says. God never anoints someone to do something without giving them the skill to do it.

 May this new year be a time where we see what the LORD sees. Where we see ourselves as God’s chosen, God’s anointed. Where we see God’s Word as powerful to save, as meaningful for everyday life. Where we see what’s happening in our world not as cause for concern and worry, but as a reminder that the LORD is coming back soon. Where we see our lives as a daily reliving of our baptisms, daily confessing, daily repenting, daily reborn to live before God in righteousness and purity. May we stop trusting our eyes, and instead, with hearts of faith, may we See What the LORD Sees. Amen