The Shepherd Who Became King

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Transcript:

We’re going to be in 1 Samuel chapter 16 tonight. 1 Samuel chapter 16. We’ve been looking on Sunday nights at some of the events from biblical history that stand out as the most significant, maybe have a greater impact on the world that we live in today.

The last time we talked about the Exodus, we talked about how God led his people out of Egypt through this one man whom he’d chosen for the task. And really, Moses thought he was ill-equipped for what God had called him to do. You know, God said, I want you to go and talk to Pharaoh, and I want you to tell him that I’ve said, let my people go.

And Moses’ response was, I can’t talk to Pharaoh. I’m not a good speaker. And yet what he didn’t realize was that God had been using the circumstances surrounding his entire life to prepare him for this one job.

It’s yet another example. I know every time I preach on Abraham and God calling him to get up and go, I point out the fact that he was 75 years old when he really started his journey of faith with God. And the point I always make with that is don’t ever feel like you’re too old or you’re past your prime and unable to serve God.

I’ve done my time, there’s nothing that he has left for me to do. No, no, if he’s left breath in your body, he’s got something for you to do. And God spent the first 80 years of Moses’ life just preparing him for the final 40.

God used the circumstances to prepare somebody who was unique in that he understood what it meant to be an outcast from Egyptian society as a Hebrew slave, though he didn’t grow up in slavery. He was born a Hebrew and then spent his life in exile for 40 years for defending a Hebrew slave, but also somebody who understood how things worked at Pharaoh’s court. And God took these seemingly winding path of Moses’ life, And really God was at work behind the scenes the whole time orchestrating this to prepare him for what he was to do to lead him out of Egypt.

And we see a little bit of a precedent there that God can call and use anybody. God can call and use whomever he chooses, whether we meet up to the world’s expectations of somebody he would use or not. And we’re going to look tonight at 1 Samuel chapter 16 and see yet another leader that God called out of seeming obscurity.

God called him out of nowhere. And I’m not hitting on this on purpose, but it seems like that’s a theme throughout all of Scripture because Elijah, that’s one of the things I told you about him. He was obscure.

Nobody really knows where he came from, who his people were. We have a general sense of the area that he came from. But in contrast to so many others in the Bible, we don’t know, okay, here’s his father, here’s his grandfather, here’s his great-grandfather.

He was born in this town. He was educated under this person. We just don’t know.

And so God has a habit of calling sometimes the last person you’d expect. And God has a habit of calling the last person you’d expect and using them to do incredible things. And so we turn in 1 Samuel chapter 16, starting in verse 1, and it says, If you’re familiar with this part of Israelite history, God was their king.

They had this great deal set up where God was their king, And outside of the laws that he gave, they were free. Think about it. There’s no government you’re having to pay taxes to on top of everything else you give.

You’re not having to support the government officials. You gave to the temple, and beyond that, you’re free to keep whatever you had. You weren’t being conscripted into somebody’s army.

There were all these things that God warned them about because the people came along and said, We want a king. And God told Samuel, Go back and tell them, No, you don’t want a king. And the people insisted, no, no, we want a king.

We want to be just like everybody else. And part of the point of being an Israelite was you weren’t just like everybody else. You were called out by God to be a covenant people.

They said, no, no, we just want to be like everybody else. And God said, fine, you want it? Just remember, you asked for it.

And so God gave them somebody who had the potential to it. You know, if you’ve got to have a king, at least he had the potential to be a good king. But he got a little too caught up in his potential to be a good king and thought more highly of himself than he should have.

He became prideful. He became arrogant, King Saul. And eventually he thought, I don’t really have to listen to God either.

Well, that’s what you call too big for your britches. When you think you’re too big to have to listen to God. And one of the final straws for God was when they were doing battle against the Amalekites.

And God told Saul and his army, don’t leave anybody alive. And they weren’t even supposed to leave the women or children alive. And I know that sounds, I mean, we look at that today and that’s awful.

That’s so bloody and why would God do that? How could he do that? First of all, we can’t put ourselves in a position to judge God and ask why he decreed the things he decreed.

But one possible explanation was realizing that if you didn’t take care of all the Amalekites, They were going to grow up and they were going to be resentful of what was done to their previous generation. And they were going to come back and be a thorn in the side of Israel again. And they were going to introduce the idol worship.

Now, I don’t know if that was God’s reason or not. But it sounds like a good explanation to me. So he said, you’re supposed to get rid of the entire Amalekite nation.

And King Saul, when they’re out doing battle, sees King Agag, who was the king of the Amalekites, And thinks, hey, I’m a king, you’re a king, maybe we could be buddies. And he keeps Agag alive. And God says, you have disobeyed me for the last time.

I’m tired of this. Your reign is coming to an end. I’ve decided you are no longer going to be the king of Israel.

And he sent Samuel in to deal with it. Now Samuel is mourning over King Saul. not necessarily mourning over the loss of King Saul as the monarch, because he wasn’t gone yet, and not necessarily even mourning about the fact that Saul was going to be leaving.

It’s not so much an emotional attachment to Saul, as it says in chapter 15, the last verse of it, verse 35, that he mourned for Saul, and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel. is probably just a, in general, what’s going to happen now? We are down this bad, bad road.

And so I think more than so much mourning for Saul, when it says he’s mourning for Saul, I think Samuel’s probably mourning for the circumstances that the country now finds itself in. And so God asked Samuel, how long are you going to sit there and mourn over this? Tell you what, get up and go to Jesse in Bethlehem because I found me a new king.

And it’s interesting to me that he says, I found me a new king. I have provided me a king among his sons. Because the king ultimately worked for God.

The king was ultimately there to serve God and do God’s bidding. Not to make the people happy. Not to make everybody feel good.

Not to serve himself. And a lot of the kings of Israel will forget that and they will serve themselves. They weren’t there to serve themselves.

He said, this is my king over Israel. I’ve provided a king for me. Not in a sense that he was over God, but in a sense that I own him.

He works for me. And Samuel said, verse 2, how can I go? How can I go do this?

If Saul hear it, he will kill me. This parallels what we were talking about this morning with Elijah and Ahab. Obadiah said, wait a minute.

Elijah, if I go tell him what you want me to tell him, If you want me to go tell Ahab that I found you, he’s going to kill me. Well, here, Samuel says, God, if I go anoint another king, he’s going to find out and he’s going to kill me. And that’s what they called in the old days treason.

And you didn’t get away with that. I mean, that was one of the capital offenses. Murder, treason, either way, you’re losing your head.

He said, if I go do this, Saul will hear it. He’ll kill me. And the Lord said, Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord.

And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show thee what thou shalt do. And thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee. So God’s not telling him, just lie and pretend you’re going for a sacrifice.

He says, go down to Bethlehem and be prepared to sacrifice. Go down there to Bethlehem prepared to worship me. And if you go down there and you’re prepared to worship me and you go worship me, Call Jesse to come worship with you.

And not only are you then worshiping God, but that’s also going to be your cover. Call Jesse the sacrifice, and I’ll show thee what thou shalt do. So he says, just go down there.

Just do the last thing I told you to do, and then I’ll give you the rest of the directions. And that’s something I think we get out of step with in our own lives. When God tells us to do something, and it just doesn’t seem like this is going to work in our lives, and we say, wait a minute, God, I can’t do that, what about this, and we expect God to tell us 15 steps down the road what he wants us to do and how this is going to work out, when what God really expects us to do is just be obedient to the last thing I told you to do, and then trust that I’ll fill in the steps when you need them in my time.

So he tells Samuel to do this, and it says in verse 4, and Samuel did that which the Lord spake and came to Bethlehem, and the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, comest thou peaceably? And he said, Peaceably, I am come to sacrifice unto the Lord. Sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.

And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and called them to the sacrifice. So the people were worried about why is he coming to Bethlehem as the recognized servant of God, the spokesman for God. He had tremendous authority and had tremendous power at his disposal. They don’t know what he’s going to do, What’s going to happen?

Is he going to declare judgment on the city of Bethlehem? Is he going to cut down somebody in God’s name like he had done with King Agag? What is going to happen here?

And he says, I’ve simply come in peace to worship the Lord. Let’s get ready for a sacrifice. And it came to pass, this is verse 6, it came to pass when they were come that he looked on Eliab and said, Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.

So this is one of Jesse’s sons. And this first of Jesse’s sons came to him, or he saw him, and he said, Oh, this must be the king. This must be the one that God has picked.

He looks like a king. Now, one of the reasons, one of the things that was said about Saul, I won’t say this was one of God’s reasons, but it’s one of the things that was pointed out about Saul, is that God had picked a man who looked like a king. I don’t see that as being the reason why God would pick somebody even now we hear that all the time and I think it is the dumbest conversation we as a country have when it comes to politics does he look presidential who cares who cares you hear some of the descriptions of what the founding fathers looked like And people talk about John Adams being a short, chubby little man, and they wore those goofy powdered wigs.

Are we really having a beauty contest here to see who’s the best looking person? Thankfully, I don’t think we, well, no, maybe not thankfully. I’ll say if it was a beauty contest this time around, Marco Rubio would be president of the United States in 2016.

But people talk about this and say, do they look presidential? Who cares if they look presidential or not? It matters what they’ve got up here.

That’s nothing new. We think it’s because we live in a media-obsessed country. It’s nothing new.

They looked at Saul, and that was the first thing they thought. He looks like a king. He’s so much taller than the rest of us, and he’s got that great beard.

He looks like a king. And by the way, if any of you voted for Marco Rubio, that was not a jab at him or at you. He’s the most telegenic of the ones who were running.

But they looked at Saul and said, he looks like a king. And Samuel, we would think better of, because Samuel was so in tune with what God wanted. But even Samuel bought into this, it looks like, because he looked at Eliab.

He looked on him and said, surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.

and the only thing I can conclude is that it’s because of the outward appearance because God comes and corrects him in the next verse in verse 7 it says the Lord said unto Samuel look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature because I have refused him don’t look at what he looks like on the outside just because he’s good looking and he’s tall and he looks like a strong man don’t pay attention to that he says I’ve already looked at him and I’ve already passed him by he’s not even in the running because I for the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart God does not look at or look for the same things that we look for when it comes to someone to serve him we want somebody who looks the part we we’re concerned with how people look with how they sound, with how they carry themselves.

And there’s nothing wrong with taking those things into consideration. But God says, I’m concerned with the heart. Who they are on the inside is who they really are.

Since you’ve looked on the outside, I look on the heart. And so Samuel has Jesse called the others. Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel.

I love his name. Growing up, I’d hear my pastor say all the time, Abinadab, oh, do you? I don’t know.

Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, neither had the Lord chosen this. So at this point, God is revealing to Samuel.

And in a way that everybody else apparently can’t hear. Samuel’s hearing the voice of God and saying, nope, not him either. again God everybody looks on the outward appearance and God looks on the heart and God sees the inward things of the heart that we sometimes even hide from ourselves and so God says nope not Abinadab then Jesse made Shema to pass by and he said neither hath the Lord chosen this not him either again Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel.

And Samuel said unto Jesse, the Lord have not chosen these. So God has sent Samuel there and said, one of Jesse’s sons, I’m going to make king. And Jesse said, here are my sons.

I’m going to have them all parade before you and you’ll pick one of them. And after each of them, God says, nope, not him. And Samuel said to Jesse, verse 11, Are here all thy children?

And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and behold, he keepeth the sheep. Well, that bodes well. When you ask, Are those all the kids you have?

And the dad says, Oh, well, yeah, just the other one. He’s out there watching the sheep, the youngest. Did you want to look at him too? That doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence that this is going to be a kingly character when even dad forgot about him.

Yeah. there remaineth yet the youngest and he’s just out there with the sheep I didn’t even bring him up for the sacrifice and Samuel said unto Jesse send and fetch him for we will not sit down until he come hither we’re not done here until we see him too and he sent and brought him in now he was ruddy as Brother Kim said and with all of beautiful countenance and goodly to look to and the Lord said arise anoint him for this is he okay so the Bible does point out again that he’s fairly good looking as man would observe it but God has already made clear hey if he happens to look good that’s just icing on the cake that’s not why God chooses who he chooses God looked on his heart and David was a man as the Bible says after God’s own heart now that’s difficult for me to square with the man who later on committed adultery and messed up his family for generations.

Except the one redeeming trait, and you don’t often see from somebody in great power, is a humility that’s willing to say, I messed up and I need to get right with God. And so for the Bible to say that David was a man after God’s own heart, and for God to look at him and see something in there that he could use, is not to say that David was a perfect man, but to say that he’s a man whose heart was softened toward the voice of God. 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.

So Samuel arose up and went to Ramah, but the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. So we go on, and Saul isn’t finished being king yet, but God has basically started pulling the rug out from under him and has prepared somebody else to take his place. So we see this story as really the beginning of the end of Saul’s reign and the beginning of the beginning of the house of David that would reign over Israel, would rule over Israel, as the Bible says in many places for all time.

It’s the beginning of a dynasty that would have no end, and that no end applies to our time as well today. So how does this affect our world today, this story of God choosing David out of this relative obscurity? As I said, it’s the beginning of the kingdom of David, and this idea of David’s kingdom is going to be one of the most important themes that we see all throughout Scripture.

As you read through the rest of the Old Testament, and you see this king after this king after. . .

They are all compared against David. In some cases it will say, he did well like David did. Or sometimes it will say, he did evil not following the path that David followed.

And sometimes it won’t even mention David. But there’s always that assessment, whether they were a good king or a bad king. And it always comes back to, not were they perfect, but did they have that kind of faithfulness toward God and that kind of humility before God.

every king whether it’s spelled out for us or not every king from that moment on every ruler of Israel is compared against David he was the gold standard for Israel so to understand how to understand the rest of scripture the rest of the Old Testament history you’ve got to understand David you’ve got to understand David’s reign and how they were trying they wanted desperately to be back in the golden age under David that wonderful time under David when he was king you know we sort of look back on certain time periods of history and say oh if it was just like that was today and it’s not the same for all of us give me a year or a decade that you’re nostalgic for anybody you afraid you might be dating yourself anybody nostalgic for the 50’s okay I kind of you know I watch a lot of documentaries about World War II and the Cold War and all that stuff I sort of feel like morally and just in terms of cultural strength western civilization peaked in the late 40s and early 50s and it’s just been downhill since then I wouldn’t even have lied to know that for sure that’s just the sense I get some people are nostalgic for that time period there are certain songs that come on the radio and I can My dad is transported back in the 70s and back in his high school days.

I loved the time period. I mean, you couldn’t pay me to go back to it now, but I loved the time when I was in college. That was a great period of time in my life.

There are things that we look back on in our own lives as individuals, or maybe our life as a church. Oh, it was great back in the years when so-and-so was here. or as a nation, and it was great when Ike was president, and we look back on time periods, and we get stuck in these, and we measure everything else against it, that’s what David was for the nation of Israel.

That’s what they were always looking to get back to. Even as we see the promises of the Messiah, and people misinterpreting those promises, and they’re in Jesus’ day looking for a king, they’re looking for someone who’s going to come and set up a kingdom just like David, who’s going to come in and kick the Romans out just like David kicked the Philistines out. They’re looking for someone to set David’s kingdom back up.

As Christians, today, we are still looking for the restoration of David’s kingdom. Now, we realize that the Messiah who’s going to sit on David’s throne is the Lord Jesus Christ. And it’s in his resurrected glory when he returns one day. Again, I don’t understand all the order of how everything’s going to work out.

Theologians have been arguing about that for centuries, and I’m not as smart as they are. But somehow or another, it’s all going to work out, and when everything’s said and done, the Lord Jesus Christ sits on King David’s throne, and he reigns in glory forever in that perfect kingdom. And we’re looking for that.

And today, there are still observant Jews who look for a Messiah and think he’s going to come and set up David’s kingdom. much of the world is still looking for the restoration of this perfect kingdom and it began right here to understand a lot of why people do the things that they do when it comes to the Middle East when it comes to what we understand about the last days it all has its roots right here at the beginning of David’s reign this golden era of Israel and so even today we look to this as the beginning of the great theme of scripture that this kingdom would be raised up under a man who was after God’s own heart. But there’s another effect that this story has in our world today that hits a little bit closer home for us and that’s what we see in Saul.

But Saul was set up by God to occupy a particular position, and he lost it through disobedience. He lost it through disobedience. He was set up to be God’s representative to God’s chosen ruler over the nation of Israel, over God’s people, and he lost it through disobedience.

That is something that applies to every man, woman, and child on earth. We were put here to occupy a place and a relationship with God. You know that place of harmony that we’ve talked about on Wednesday nights that God created us for.

Peace and harmony with him in this relationship, and we’ve lost it through disobedience. And in both cases, God’s answer is the same. In both cases, God’s answer has this one thing in common, that he’s raised up somebody from the seed of Jesse to restore what was lost. While Saul is ruining the kingdom because of his disobedience, God raises up someone from the house of Jesse, King David, to restore the kingdom.

While we have taken the relationship with God, this harmony that we were supposed to have, And we’ve ruined it through disobedience. God raised up someone out of the house of Jesse, the Lord Jesus Christ, to restore what was lost. I’m telling you, I’m telling you, if you start looking for it, Jesus is all over the pages of the Old Testament. Road signs.

Maps pointing to who he would be. So how do we respond to this? First of all, I would tell you, we respond by understanding that like Saul, what we’ve lost. And in our case, it’s not a kingdom.

It might be a place in the kingdom. Our place in the kingdom, our place in this perfect, harmonious relationship with God, we’ve squandered through sin and disobedience. And look to the one that he’s called up, that he’s raised up to restore that.

We look to Jesus Christ for our salvation. We look to Jesus Christ to be restored. But there’s also another lesson in here tied to the text where we see throughout it God’s looking at Eliab and he’s looking at Abinadab and he’s looking at Shema and he’s saying, no, not him.

No, not him. No, not him. Sure, they look good.

They look great. They looked the part, but no, not him. Saul, he looked the part, but no, he’s done too.

And God picks David who, yes, he looked good, but he was so underwhelming in human terms that his father forgot about him. Forgot to even call him up there for this. God said, that’s the one.

The youngest? The youngest wasn’t supposed to be in charge. Why would you pick the youngest?

Why would you pick the scrawny one of the litter? God said, that’s the one I want. That’s the one I’m going to use.

Like with Moses. Somebody fished out of the river in a basket who can’t talk well. Or Elijah, somebody nobody’s ever heard of.

Or Amos, he was a fig farmer. And said, I have no idea how to proclaim God’s word. I’m not a prophet or a son of a prophet.

We look throughout the scriptures. God is using the most unlikely people. The people you’d never look at and think, God can use him.

Look at all the credentials he’s got. Look at all the experience. He looks the part and he sounds the part.

Surely God can use him. God says, I’ll put that person in the back there. Yeah, that one.

No, the one you’re missing. The one nobody’s paying attention to. God says, I don’t have to have your credentials.

I don’t have to have your stature. I can use whoever I please to. As I was thinking about this concept, something came to mind, and I want to make very sure you understand that you don’t interpret this as sour grapes on my part, Because I’m quite happy with how my search for a church turned out.

And I didn’t get too worried about it because I knew in time that God would lead me to the place that he wanted me to. But when I was looking for a church months ago, before I ended up here, I would read in the messenger the openings for staff positions. And I’d look on websites and I would see these descriptions of the kind of candidate they wanted.

There’s nothing wrong with these candidates. I mean, with these descriptions. But I’d see things like, must have a minimum of a Masters of Divinity from an SBC school.

Or must have a PhD. Must have 10 years experience. Must have this.

Must have that. And there’s nothing wrong with having any of those things. Don’t get me wrong.

I wish I could afford to go get one of those degrees. I’d love it. There’s nothing wrong with any of those things.

And God can use somebody with those degrees, but God can also use somebody without them. And I’d read this and I’d think, your church has 20 people in it. And no offense, but you’re wanting somebody who’s paid $90,000 roughly for their education to now come and work for part-time pay.

I don’t think that’s realistic. And please understand, I’m not bitter and wasn’t bitter then. I just kept looking at these things going, you’re setting the bar so high here for these credentials, and you want someone who looks the right part and has the right letters after their name and all of this.

And is it possible, big church or small church, is it possible you could be missing out on the person who God is wanting to send you, just the right person you need, Because you’re looking at all these qualifications and all these things that, while good, don’t make you God’s man. Now please understand, please don’t think I’m bitter because I couldn’t send in a resume. You know, if they were going to be that black and white about it, I’m not sure I wanted to go there anyway.

But I just, I wondered, and it kind of made me sad. Are we getting so focused on what somebody has, the paper they have hanging on their wall? or the part they look or how they sound.

There were some that were wanting to send in video videos of your service. Again, that’s fine. That’s great.

If you come from a church that has that capability. But some of the things that I looked at, I thought, I just wonder. I just wondered, can we get so focused on they’ve got to have these qualifications that we miss out on who God would have us call, who God would used there.

And folks, it’s not just true in pastoring. I can use that as an example because it’s something that I’ve come up against. Sometimes I’d send them my stuff anyway just to see what they’d say. But folks, we all sometimes fall into that trap when it comes to us.

We feel like God’s calling me to do this. I can’t do this because I, you fill in the blank. Either because I have this problem or because I don’t have this, this qualification.

I can’t teach Sunday school. I mean, I’ve never, I’ve never taught. I’ve never, I’ve never really stood in front of people.

God’s calling you to teach Sunday school. He’s going to equip you to teach Sunday school. When I first really felt like God was calling me to preach, they put me in children’s church to test me out.

Standing in front of 30 of your greatest first through third grade critics, you quickly get tried by the fire. But I thought, I was in high school at the time, I don’t know what to say to little kids. Okay, God, I can’t do this.

You know what, He gave me the, I knew it was something I needed to do, and He gave me things to say. And most of them stayed awake, and most of them didn’t get up and run around the room. God will equip you for what He’s called you to do.

Was I qualified? Was I qualified as a 15-year-old to preach in children’s church? Probably not.

And I look back now on some of the notes that I cobbled together for those things and think, Oh my goodness, I’m just grateful I didn’t lead any stray. It’s pretty shallow there starting out. God’s not concerned about your qualifications.

God’s not concerned about whether or not you look the part. God is not concerned about whether or not you sound the part. If God has called you to do something, then He’s already looked at your heart where it matters and determined that He will use you.

And if He’s determined that He’ll use you, just like He determined with King David, He will give you what you need to fulfill what He’s called you to do. So if He’s called you to teach Sunday school, He’ll give you what you need to teach Sunday school. If He’s called you to drive the van.

. . You have a driver’s license, He’s called you to drive the van.

If He’s called you to drive the van, He’ll provide the driver’s license. Whatever He’s called you to do. He’s called me to work with teenagers.

Yes, He’ll give you whatever it is you need to do that. Folks, we serve a God who doesn’t look at us and the outside characteristics and the qualifications and the paper on our walls and the letters behind our names and whether or not we look the part. We serve a God who looks on the heart and knows us better than we know ourselves, and knows where He can best use us, and will equip us for whatever He calls us to do.