¹On the heels of Saul’s disobedience and failure, God directed Samuel to anoint a new king. God sent Samuel to the town of Bethlehem, and specifically to the family of a man named Jesse who lived there. Samuel was deeply grieved over Saul’s failure. By doing this, God was showing Samuel that Saul’s rejection did not meant that God was prevented from moving forward with His plan.

²Samuel was worried that Saul would track him and be suspicious of why he was going to Bethlehem. God provided a ready-made reason that Samuel could share. He was going to Bethlehem to offer sacrifices. As a result, God told Samuel to bring a cow with him. The heifer would lend validity to the sacrifices that Samuel would offer there.

³The text says that before making any offerings, Samuel demanded to see all of Jesse’s children. The public offering would have happened after Samuel had completed the king-making activities. But it would have been sufficiently visible that any questions about Samuel’s trip to Bethlehem would have been satisfied.

Jesse presented his sons in the order of their birth. Eliab, the oldest was presented first, and Samuel was impressed with what he saw. Based on appearances alone, he was ready to anoint Jesse’s firstborn a s the king on the spot. This set the stage for God’s great revelation that while “man looks on the outward appearances, God looks on the heart.” God knew that Eliab did not have the correct heart to be the king of God’s people.

As if to make His point, Jesse brought his oldest seven sons to be shown to Samuel. For each son, God said, “No, not him.” After the six sons had been rejected, Samuel had to ask, “Are there any more?” Jesse admitted that yes, the youngest was out tending to the flocks. Samuel demanded that he come and present himself, and that nothing else would happen until that was completed.

⁴When David finally showed up, God told Samuel to get up and anoint him as King. When Samuel poured the oil on David’s head, the Spirit of God rushed upon David and indwelt him. As with Saul, the indwelling was not for the purpose of salvation or sanctification. It signified that the power of God was upon David, and that God had supernaturally empowered David to lead His people.

Even though he had been anointed, and filled by the Spirit of God, David did not immediately become king. Saul still lived and ruled the children of Israel. David was in a waiting period. While Saul lived, he could not be crowned king. He remained the king-in-waiting until God would make it clear that his time had come.

⁵After this anointing, David killed the giant, Goliath, became a successful war-leader and married Saul’s daughter. Finally, Saul, possessed by a harmful spirit, drove David out of the court into exile. There David collected a band of warriors and they lived way from the royal court in the wilderness. From time to time, Saul would hear where David was hiding and send soldiers to kill or capture him.

One time when Saul was in pursuit, David and his men were hiding in the back of a cave. It must have been a deep cave, because Saul came in to relive himself in private, but did not see or hear David and his men.

⁶David’s men encouraged him to kill Saul. The king was alone, and not in a position to easily defend himself. David could have sneaked up and killed him by stealth. Failing that, the entire band could have rushed Saul and easily overwhelmed the vulnerable king.

David rejected this option. Saul had been anointed by God just as he had. That meant God had made Saul king. David was convinced that God would end Saul’s reign in His own time. David would not take any action against the man that God had appointed to rule over His people. That would have been presuming on God’s authority to raise up and take down leaders over His own people.

Instead of harming Saul, David stealthily crept up behind him and cut a piece off the edge of Saul’s robe. This served as physical evidence of his ability to have killed Saul, but his unwillingness to harm God’s anointed.

⁷After David had removed a piece of Saul’s robe, David’s heart struck him. Even though he had not killed Saul, he had assaulted the person of the King whom God anointed. Gripped by guilt, he forbade them from taking any further action. Eventually Saul left the cave, blissfully unaware of the threat to his life.

David followed Saul out of the cave and when they were separated by a suitable distance, David called out to the King. When Saul turned, David did him honor by prostrating himself before the King. David also described what had just happened. He told how he could have killed Saul and showed the hem of the king’s robe that he had cut off instead. David explained that he had no desire to kill the king, and that he presented no threat to Saul’s reign.

⁸With the evidence of his robe, Saul knew David was telling the truth, and could have killed him. Saul admitted that between them, David was the more righteous man. Saul had been pursuing David to kill him, but David did not respond in kind when he had the opportunity to do so.

Even though Saul did not know that Samuel had anointed David, he could see God’s hand on David’s life. He was aware enough to realize that David was the man God had selected to follow him as King – and not his own son in the normal fashion. Saul admitted this publicly to David and asked for a favor, that David not kill all his family and eradicate the family name. David swore that he would not so so.

In 2 Samuel 9 we read of how David sought out a descendant of Saul and honored him. Mephibosheth was a son of Jonathan, David’s good friend and the son of Saul. When David eventually became king, he sought out Mephibosheth and provided for him, allowing Jonathan’s son to eat at his own table as a sign of his faithfulness to the oath made to Saul.

⁹David’s mercy toward Saul was not just a one-time thing. 1 Samuel 26 relates a second event where David could easily have killed Saul, but instead took a memento that proved his power over the king’s life. When confronted with the evidence (from a safe distance away), Saul once again said that David was the better man and admitted that he, Saul, was in the wrong for pursuing David to kill him. Saul said that he had acted foolishly, and blessed David before leaving and returning to his own home.

¹⁰Despite claiming that he would not kill David, Saul continued to pursue him. David realized that it was just a matter of time before Saul would be fast enough to catch him in the wilderness. So David took desperate measures to escape beyond Saul’s reach and find a greater measure of safety. David showed up at the royal palace in Gath of the Philistines. Even though he was famous for being a “Philistine killer”, he appealed to Achish the king of Gath for asylum. This was not David’s first visit to Gath. 1 Samuel 21:10-15 tell of an earlier time when he tried to find safety there, but was not accepted.

¹¹David was still living among the Philistines when Saul finally died on Mount Gilboa. Three days after the Philistine victory, a messenger came to him, bearing the royal crown and some of Saul’s jewelry. David asked for news of the battle, and the messenger said that Saul and his sons had fallen. Further the man made up a story about how he had been the one to kill the Saul when the king was seeking to die before the Philistines took him. Clearly the man thought that telling David he had done the deed would gain him favor in David’s eyes. But it was a lie. Saul had died at his own hands. This man had only come upon the body later.

¹²Consistent with his earlier statements to Saul David did not celebrate Saul’s death. He saw it as the death of God’s anointed king. David tore his clothes in lament, wept and did not eat for the rest of the day in mourning for Saul. His later interrogation of the messenger showed that he continued to hold God’s anointed in great esteem and considered it tarnishing to God’s glory for a mere man to kill the one God Himself had selected.

¹³David judged him and condemned him to death for daring to raise his hand against the Lord’s anointed. David did not kill the messenger himself, but had one of his young warriors do the deed on his behalf.

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