Lesson 3 – Samuel Selects a New King

Lesson 2 and Lesson 3 cover much of the same timeframe. While Lesson 2 covers Saul’s perspective, Lesson 3 covers David’s perspective.

¹God told Samuel to go an anoint a new king. God provided him with the city to which he was to travel and the family to visit. He would select a new king from that household. Samuel was overcome with grief over Saul’s disobedience of Saul and God’s subsequent rejection of Saul as king. Even though Saul’s sin was not against Samuel, and God had instructed him to anoint Saul, the failure of this first king made Samuel very sad.

²Samuel was worried that Saul would learn of the trip and understand that he was selecting a new king. That could bring down Saul’s wrath against Samuel or against Jesse’s family. However, God told him to go and make a sacrifice there and use that as the official reason for his trip to Bethlehem.

³When Samuel explained he had come Bethlehem to make a sacrifice, he told Jesse to consecrate himself and his family. As the family made ready for the sacrifice, Samuel was able to see all of Jesse’s sons. Most likely Jesse presented them to the prophet to make proper introductions, from the oldest to the youngest. Samuel looked at Eliab, the first-born, and thought, surely this is the young man whom God would choose to be the next king. However God corrected his perception by saying “Man looks on the outside, but God looks on the heart.” In Eliab, God saw a heart issue that disqualified the oldest son. So it went through seven sons, with God rejecting each of them.

Finally Samuel had to ask if there were any other sons. Only then did Jesse mention David who was out in the fields tending sheep. Samuel commanded that they wait until David had come before beginning any of the sacrifices. When David finally arrived, God said what the process of elimination suggested. Samuel was to anoint him as the next king of Israel.

⁴Samuel anointed David right there in front of his father and brothers. The text says that at that moment, the Spirit of God “rushed upon David from that day forward.” In the next verse we also read that the Spirit of God left Saul. This indicated God’s rejection of Saul and selection of David. As with Saul, this was not an indwelling of the Holy Spirit as a sign and seal of salvation, but as the authority of God giving him the ability to rule God’s people as their king on behalf of God.

Even though Samuel had anointed David and the Spirit of God indwelt him, David did not immediately become king. Saul still sat on the throne, taxed the people and led the army. Until Saul died, David would have no opportunity to rule. In order to avoid deadly reprisals, Samuel and Jesse’s family kept the anointing a secret.

⁵Fast forward through time a bit. David had been introduced to Saul’s court to play the harp to sooth the king when the harmful spirit attacked. David had also defeated the giant Goliath and, as a sign of his growing reputation, married Saul’s daughter. But Saul began to feel threatened by David’s fame and the obvious signs of God’s hand upon him. So Saul turned on David and sought to kill him. David fled the royal court and became a fugitive in the rough wilderness lands of Judah.

In 1 Samuel 24 we find David hiding in a cave with his band of fighters while being pursued by Saul and the Israelite army. The cave must have been large so that David and his men could hide in the darkness deep in the cave while Saul came in to relieve himself. But David saw Saul, and saw that he had come into the cave alone.

⁶At this point, David had Saul in his power. He could have done anything he wanted to the king, including capturing him or killing him. Saul was alone while David had the element of surprise and a band of armed men. But while Saul was distracted with his business, David only snuck up and used his knife to cut off a portion of Saul’s robe.

⁷After David cut the piece of Saul’s robe, the text says that “his heart struck him.” Apparently he felt some kind of remorse or guilt for having done this thing to the Lord’s anointed King. He issued stern instructions to his men hiding in the back of the cave that they would take no action against the king. Even though God’s Spirit had come upon David, Saul had still been the man that God chose to rule the nation. David would not do anything to change that.

⁸After Saul left the cave and rejoined his army, David and his men followed him out. When Saul was a suitable distance away – likely across a valley to give them some safety, David stood up and called out to Saul. He directed Saul to look at his robe and notice the piece that was missing. David showed him the cloth in his had as evidence that he had been close enough to Saul to do him harm, but had done nothing. David argued that he had no ill will against the king and that Saul could trust him because of what he had just done.

Saul responded by weeping, realizing that David’s noble actions had shown how his pursuit of David was wicked and selfish. He acknowledged that David was more righteous for having repaid Saul’s wicked act of hunting him down with the good grace of preserving the king’s life. Saul also acknowledged God’s hand on David, saying that he knew David would be the king after him and not his own son.

⁹1 Samuel 26 tells a similar story to 1 Samuel 24. David had an opportunity to harm or kill Saul. However, he refused to lift a hand against the Lord’s anointed. It seems that David used these opportunities to try to make a case to Saul that he did not wish the king ill and would not kill him. Both times Saul acknowledged that David was more noble than him and left David alone – for a time at least.

¹⁰Despite David demonstrating that he did not wish to harm the King, Saul continued to pursue him. Eventually the pursuit got so hot that David feared he would not be able to escape every time and that eventually Saul would capture him. So David decided to go someplace that Saul would not go. He went to the Philistine city of Gath, the great enemy of the kingdom of Israel.

David showed up bearing the sword of Goliath (the giant from Gath), and drooling into his beard. He feigned insanity so that the king of Gath would not kill him on the spot. It must have been great notoriety such a celebrated Hebrew celebrity to come and submit to the Philistines. God gave him favor with the king and David was given a city where he and his men could live.

¹¹The Philistines mounted a large attack against Israel. David mustered his own fighting men to join the attack, but the lords of the Philistines did not trust him, so he was told to stay behind. This was the battle in which the ghost of Samuel told Saul he would die. And so he did on Mount Gilboa.

David was not present to see the death of Saul. But an enterprising man escaped from the camp of the Israelites and found him. He shared the news of Saul’s death. But he lied about it, saying the he had been the one to kill Saul. As evidence to substantiate his story, he gave David the crown Saul wore and an armlet that David would recognize. We can only surmise that he came upon Saul’s dead body and looted it to try to curry favor with David.

¹²When David heard of the death of Saul, he was wracked with grief, tore his clothes and fasted until evening in mourning for Saul and his son Johnathan. As the Lord’s anointed and the leader of Israel, Saul’s death carried nothing but bad news for David. It was a terrible day when such a dark deed occurred. The death of the Lord’s anointed diminished God’s glory, and David was clear that this was not good.

¹³When he finished mourning, David questioned the man who brought the news. He learned that the man wasn’t an Israelite – he was descended from the Amalekites, whom Saul had utterly wiped out years before. He escaped Saul’s victory because his family had been living in Israel as foreigners. David asked him, “Weren’t you afraid to lift your hand against the man that God chose to lead Israel?” The question was rhetorical. Clearly the man wasn’t afraid, and in punishment for the act that he claimed to have done, David had him killed on the spot. David would not give any honor to a man who claimed to have harmed God’s chosen king.

In this, David behaved consistently with his actions when he had the opportunity to harm Saul. He honored God’s choice of king and would not do anything to change the course that God had set out. He was content to wait on God to deal with Saul in God’s own timing – even if that meant his own claim on the throne must also wait.