God sends Samuel to Bethlehem with a horn of oil and a secret: the next king is one of Jesse’s sons. Seven of them file past — tall, strong, kingly — and each time Samuel is sure, and each time God says no. The one God has chosen is not even in the house; he is out with the sheep. Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart. David is anointed, the Spirit comes on him — and the same day, the Spirit leaves Saul.
A study in 1 Samuel 16 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 8 min read
How Long Wilt Thou Mourn For Saul?
“How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Beth-lehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.”
1 Samuel 16:1
Samuel’s grief for Saul is real — and God gently tells him it is time to move. There is a point where mourning what God has ended becomes a refusal to see what He is beginning. Samuel is also afraid: “if Saul hear it, he will kill me.” He goes anyway, under the cover of a sacrifice, and the elders of little Bethlehem tremble at the sight of the prophet at their gate. God has been quietly raising a king in that town for years, out on the hills, unnoticed.
The LORD Looketh On The Heart
“Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7
Eliab is the eldest — tall, handsome, built like a king, built like Saul — and Samuel thinks, “surely this is the man.” He of all people should have learned: Israel’s first king was chosen partly for his height (1 Samuel 9:2), and look how that turned out. God refuses Eliab — who, for all his bearing, did not fear the LORD. The one sentence that governs the whole rest of the book — and much of ours — is spoken here: the LORD looketh on the heart. Seven sons pass; God chooses none of them.
“Eliab did not fear the Lord. Had he been called to the throne, he would have been a proud, exacting ruler… No outward beauty can recommend the soul to God.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 638
There Remaineth Yet The Youngest
“There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep… And the LORD said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward.”
1 Samuel 16:11-13
Jesse did not think it worth bringing the youngest in from the field — he is an afterthought even to his own father. “We will not sit down till he come.” David is anointed in front of the brothers who were passed over, and the Spirit of the LORD comes on him “from that day forward.” He goes back to the sheep. The kingship will take years to arrive; the calling, and the Spirit, start now, in obscurity.
David Took An Harp, And Played
“But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him… And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well.”
1 Samuel 16:14, 23
The chapter puts the two men in the same room. The Spirit has left Saul, and a dark torment has moved in; the Spirit has come on David, and his music is the only thing that quiets the king. Saul “loved him greatly,” not knowing this is the neighbour “better than thou” to whom the kingdom has been given. The harp that soothes him now will not always be enough — but for a while, the rejected king rests to the playing of the anointed one.
