"How the Lord sees"

This has been automatically generated, and therefore may contain some unintended inaccuracies.

The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you mourn for Saul since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way. I'm sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen 1 of his sons to be king. But Samuel said, how can I go?

If Saul hears about it, he will kill me. 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 show you what to do. You are to anoint for me, the 1 I indicate. Samuel did what the Lord said.

When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him, They asked, do you come in peace? Samuel replied, yes, in peace. I have come to sacrifice to the lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me. Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

When they arrived, Samuel saw Elliott and thought surely, the lord's anointed stands here before the lord. But the lord said to Samuel, do not consider his appearance or his height for I have rejected him. The lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the lord looks at the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass in front of Samuel.

But Samuel said the lord has not chosen this 1 either. Jesse then made Shama pass by But Samuel said, nor has the lord chosen this 1. Jesse made 7 of his sons passed before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, the lord has not chosen these. So he asked Jesse, are these all the sons you have? There is still the youngest.

Jesse answered. He is tending the sheep. Samuel said, send for him. We will not sit down until he arrives. So he sent for him and had him brought in.

He was glowing with health, and had a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the Lord said, rise and anoint him. This is the 1. So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers. And from that day on, the spirit of the lord came powerfully upon David.

Samuel then went to Rama. Now the spirit of the lord had departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the lord tormented him Saul's attendants said to him, see an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our lord commend his servants here to search for someone who can play the liar. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes on you you will feel better, and you will feel better. So Samuel said to his attendants, find someone who plays well and bring him to me.

1 of the servants answered, I have seen the son of Jesse of Bethlehem, who knows how to play the liar. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine looking man, and the lord is with him. Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, send me your son David, who is with the sheep. So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine, and a young goat, and sent them with his son David to Saul.

David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became 1 of his armor bearers. Then Saul sent word to Jesse saying, allow David to remain in my service for I am pleased with him. Whenever the spirit from God came on Saul, David would take up his liar and play. Then relief would come to Saul.

He would feel better, and this evil spirit would leave him. Let's get comfortable. Am I on? Can you hear me? Excellent.

Good. Good. Alright. Also helps me find notes the right way up. There we go.

Well, what a what a passage did you get a Maers Road vibes? As you were listening to this, I did. A shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse. The town of Bethlehem that when they anointing the Messiah King, the Shepard King, the son of David. Jesus on the road to emmaus taught 2 of his disciples about how the Old Testament pointed to him, and I I would imagine this formed part of his teaching often.

It's all about the coming of the king, but we mustn't get ahead of ourselves. There's still much to see about the lord Samuel, David, and Saul in this passage. So we need to get into this passage and try and see how this speaks to us. So let's pray. Heavenly father, we bow in your presence May your word be our rule, your spirit, our teacher, and your greater glory, our supreme concern through Jesus Christ, our lord, amen.

Right. You've heard of doom scrawling. This could be doomed scrawling. Let's see if it works. Yes, it works.

So we're about to discover how the lord sees Have you ever interviewed anyone for a job? Hands up if you have? Okay. Now it is claimed that interviewers often make their mind up within the first few minutes of the process. And then the rest of the time is spent trying to work out how can I confirm that initial choice I've made?

Now in today's passage, it's all about selection again, selection of a king, And interestingly, the lord has already made his mind up. He's made his mind up in Samuel chapter 13, where it's written, but now your kingdom will not endure this at all. The lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people because you have not kept the lord's command. So in chapter 16, but already, God has decided on another king. And then last week, in chapter 15, Samuel says again to saw the lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to 1 of your neighbors, 1 who is better than you.

Now Saul was told the first bit of bad news because he failed to wait for Samuel. He was told again he's being replaced because he failed to obey the words of the lord. He failed to listen. So we all we all want to know who is this new king that God has selected? We actually know, don't we?

Yeah. So there's no surprise, but we want to know how and why? Why has David been chosen? How is he chosen? Now throughout this chapter, when the key verse is a word, sorry, the Hebrew for chosen or to see to look to choose.

And this word appears several times more than several times in this passage. So it's about how God sees and how God looks and how God chooses. So let's turn to the passage. If you shut your bibles time to reopen them. It's on page, 2 8 7.

We're in Samuel 16, and we're about to see some important things at the start of the passage. In verse 1, we learn that Samuel Monde I feel for Samuel. He he felt rejected earlier on in the book when the people seemed to be wanting a king, they were not satisfied with a prophet. They wanted a king. And Samuel took this personally.

He felt he'd been rejected. But the lord said it's not you that's being rejected. It's me. They want an earthly king. They don't want me as king.

And then Samuel Oint's soul and he becomes he performs a relationship with soul. He is attached to soul and now saul is being replaced in the game Samuel mourns because God is going to send a new man. Whereas this new man, this new king, the search is narrowed down to Bethlehem. Bethlehem is in Judah. Judah is a neighbor of the tribe Benjamin.

So that's why we have the neighbor reference in chapter 15. It's not a man from Benjamin. It's a man from Judah who's going be the king who is better than you. Now in chapter 16 verse 2, Samuel is quite rightly concerned. He's gonna anoint another king while there's a king on the throne.

This is I believe the word is treason and he's rightly scared, but the lord instructs him as how he shall go to Bethlehem. And he arrives in verse 4. He arrives in Bethlehem and the elders come and greet him. You can imagine it's they're almost you can imagine outside the town. I go again.

I feel like it's an old western. There's a gunsling arriving, and the people of town say you've become peacefully. I mean, they have a good a good reason for asking him because, they know he's broken with saul. If they associate with with Samuel, are they being treasonous to? And they also know that Samuel has killed the king of the Amalekites So they're rightly worried about him and they ask if he's going to come in peace.

And he said, yes, I come in peace. And we move into the center of the passage. The lord sees with the heart and chooses according to his will. Now we're in the center now of this passage. We're in verse 6, if you look down.

Samuel calls Jesse and his sons together. I'm not sure how much they know about what's going on. There's a sacrifice going on, but there's more to it than this. And he parades his sons past Jesse, sorry, past Samuel 1 by 1. And unsurprisingly, Samuel's trying to work out who is it.

I haven't been told, but who is it? And he's looking and using the president established in his mind when he he saw chose that's all being chosen. He's looking at the outward sign. What does he look like a king? I see someone who looks like a king.

He's the eldest brother, and this is a society where the eldest inherits everything. And so he sees eliab and he says, wow. He's tall like so. Let's go around again. This is ironic.

Another word for profit is Sia, s double e r. Here's a prophet who is unable to see as the lord sees, and he is corrected by the lord. He's corrected in verse 7. Let's look at verse 7. It's a very well it's incredibly well known verse in the Bible, but the lord said to Samuel do not consider his appearance or his heights for I have rejected him.

The lord doesn't look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the lord looks at the heart. Now it may surprise you that this verse is incredibly well known. I I've known it for a very long time. I'm sure you have as well, but there are 2 ways this verse can be translated.

Okay. And the way it's translated also links back to this verse in chapter 13 where the lord has sought a man after his own heart. So when I was preparing this, I thought, how on earth do I stop this becoming a session on Hebrew and English bible translation? We've got quite a lot to get through. So how do we how do we understand how is it possible this there are 2 ways of this first being translated.

Now I thought about a famous poem by an American poet, Rob Frost, the past not taken. Anyone familiar with that? Okay. You're not poets. Now I know it.

He he talks about in his poem about a man walking in the forest and he comes to 2 paths and he can't go on both. He must choose 1. And he can choose the path that is well trodden, well used, or he can choose the path that's less well trodden. 1 looks fairly safe and unexciting. O 1 looks risky and adventurous.

And he can only choose 1. He chooses the latter. He chooses the less well trodden, the adventurous. Now we're almost faced in a similar way with 2 ways to go with this first. And the good news is, well, it may be good news.

I'm gonna take you down both and still fit communion, we hope. I left my watch at home purposely, but we'll see. So let's let's look at this framework. 2 paths, 1 path world trodden, 1 less world traveled. Okay.

The the version you have in front of you is the traditional translation in your Bible verse 7. And to understand what it's saying, we need to we need to look at I've just I said it was doomed. I'm doomed to scroll. I always over scroll. Don't let you.

Here we go. Alright. This verse in Samuel 16 must be understood through the lens of what's said here. The lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of the people. Okay.

So if you read this, to be after is to follow and in a way the man here being described is a man whose heart is following God. He is aligned with god, and he is aligned with god's will. He's seeking to obey the lord's commands. He is a godly person. A man with a heart for God.

So if we understand this verse and verse 7 of chapter 16, it's saying God is in David's heart. Okay. Now we learn that God sees things differently. Okay. He's not limited and reliant on outward appearances when he makes decisions or chooses he's omnipotent He's omniscient and he sees so deeply he looks within our hearts and he makes his choices.

Therefore, this translation is saying that God is looking in David's heart and he sees the place that he has in David's heart, and this is the reason why David is better is better than soul. Now this has been described as a default way of reading this passage. The translation's been around and it's been used since probably the King James version. When was the King James version published? Anyone?

Any bible scholars? 16 11? That's a lot of years. Okay. So this is the established traditional translation, and it's ingrained in our culture.

Taskmaster, anyone? Taskmaster on television? Alright. Again, I'm speaking to myself. Oh, well.

Not to worry, but Greg Davis, the comedian, the taskmaster. He actually said a couple of weeks ago to 1 of the contestants, Kamal Nanjani. He said, Kamal, you're a man after my own heart. He was saying my views, my values, my interests, my preferences, and beliefs are like yours. We are aligned.

We are kindred spirits. So that's the traditional established well trodden translation of this first. Okay. Let's switch paths and look at the path less traveled. Now several scholars and probably the most famous 1 is John Woodhouse, who was principal of more theological college in Australia, have said, this is true.

Yes. The lord sees the heart, but maybe there's a little bit more going on in this passage. And they said, well, let's go back to the Hebrew. The Hebrew that's been translated heart It can actually be translated differently. It can mean something else.

It can mean the will, not the heart, but the will. And they feel this fits in better with the context of 1 Samuel. Okay. Now at the same time they're not in any way dismissing that God can see the heart. The Bible is full of passages that affirm that fact.

The lord searches every heart and understands that every desire and every sort. That's just 1 example of how the Bible of firms God sees things differently to us. So let's go back to how the lord has spoken to Samuel. The lord has sought this time we'll say, a lord has sought a man after his own will, his own will, and appointed him ruler. Therefore, if we go back to verse 7, it says the lord has sought out a man according to the lord's will, the lord's own will, and appointed him rule of the people.

He is a man of god's choosing, a man that God has set his heart on. This time, we're talking about the place the man has in god's heart. David is in god's heart. And this fits well within the context of 1 samuel. In 1 samuel, the people expressed their will, what they wanted, what their heart desire was, to it was to have a king like everyone else, all the people in the nations around him.

They had a heart for someone who looked like the kings that other people had. They wanted that. That was what their heart's desire was. That is what their will was. And the lord gave them their wish.

He literally gave them what they wanted. They he gave them someone that like a foreign king looked the part in their eyes alone. And that king failed. And now it's the lord's turn to choose. So then if we come to this translation of the passage, God sees with Not with eyes, but with his heart, and his heart is the soft is sovereign will and purpose.

And that is why soul is beth sorry, soul. David is better than soul because he is in the lord's heart. The lord has chosen. Him. Is that okay?

All clear? So what do we make of this? 2 different translations of the words in Hebrew. What I'm gonna leave you with is the conclusion is both translations express a truth about the lord. There are 2 aspects to the lord's choice.

The lord sees the heart. He sees the heart of the future king of Israel. And he chooses a coin to his set will and foreknowledge. So how do we apply this to our minds and our lives? It's all about seeing the passage is all about seeing, and we're learning how God sees us and how we should see ourselves in relation to him and in relation to each other.

God is omniscient. Unlike us, he's not limited in his experiences understanding your knowledge. Unlike us, he doesn't make mistakes. Even Samuel got it wrong. The Sia failed to see He didn't look correctly at the people being put in front of him.

In the previous chapter, saul didn't listen correctly. And this passage reminds us that God has a set will and purpose that he will achieve. So if it's David's heart that leads the choice, we could we can say that we seek to have a heart like David. But remember that that heart will not be totally pure. We still sin.

And actually applying that to the passage is difficult because this is the first time. This passage is the first time David's name is mentioned. We haven't actually got to his name yet. He's not even named till later in the passage. We don't know much about David from the passage at this point.

And we don't know exactly how his heart relates to the lord. That all comes later in the bible. And at this point, we could probably we might say that the good things that David does is not is the results are of being chosen, not the consequence or not the reason for his choosing being chosen in the first place. So I look forward to hearing more of this in Samuel. I'm doing a trailer for you, Bart.

All this will come out in later in Samuel. And we look forward to it. So God is omniscient. He can do what interviews cannot see. When when I've interviewed people, I've often said, I really want to see if I can assess the potential of this person.

God can do that. He sees the potential of David and sees he is better than saul. If it's god's heart is the translation that we're using and his sovereign willing purposes, this then leads us to a a very different application. If this is true, it's all about David being god's heart. Any sense of personal merit on David's part at this point fades away and the doctrine of election comes into focus.

We gotta be careful about applying this to ourselves. This is about a selection for the office of kings. So applying this passage has to be done carefully. But we can say that as Christians, we are chosen not by works, not by merit, but by the grace of God. We are chosen not for earthly kingship, we're chosen for heavenly salvation.

We are if chosen by god, according to his will, we are his elect. Alright. Jesse and his sons have been kept waiting as we've gone through this. Let's go back to the passage and look at 8 to 10. Eli Ab is followed by Abinadab and Shama and Nespinal and Radial and Osium.

Sorry. Did I read that wrong? Those are some of the other names of Jesse's sons. We're not told. There are 7 I've only got 5 fingers.

Sorry. They've they've got 8. There are 7 of them who come past. The number 7 is a measure of completeness. Samuel must be quite worried.

And he asked the question. I asked this question sometimes in the supermarket, a similar question. If you ever been to a supermarket and you found what you want on the shelves, and you've taken the lot, you need all of them. And then you ask the shop assistant, are there any more in the storeroom? What do they say?

No. Everything's out in the store. I think Samuel was really good. He said, you know, have have you got any more sons? 7 complete.

Where where are we going with this? How can we proceed? You've you've shown me 7 sons. The Lord has not appointed on told me it's 1 of them. Have you got any more sons in stock?

And Jesse said, well, actually, there is 1 round the back. Up the hill, he's looking after the sheep. He's the youngest son I have, and I didn't think he needed to come. He's missed the sacrifice. I just get Hannah's prayer at the start.

Lord exalts, the humble, the people on the edge, the people on the margin. David is on the edge of things. Hannah's theme in Samuel chapter 1 chapter 2 is reinvigorated. And I'm indebted to a scholar called Robert Alter. He says this is a Cinderella man.

Do you realize that he's a Cinderella man? He's in the back doing all the chores while his brothers actually, they're not ugly, apparently. The brothers are not ugly. They're looking good. It's not ugly brothers.

His ugly brother sorry. Hansen brothers are invited to the feast. He's not. He's kept in the background, and yet he's brought to the front. And it's not about a slipper.

It's about a crown. His crown the crown doesn't fit them. It fits him. And this unlikely young man is the 1 that God has chosen and anointed. So let's move on.

The lord makes his choice. We're now midway through. If you look at, the end of this section, which is, chapter 16 verse 13. So Samuel took the horn and anointed him in the presence of his brothers and from that day, on the spirit came powerfully upon David, Samu went to Rama. David is anointed.

He's messiah ed. It's a private family ceremony, but there are more people witnessing this than witness souls anointing. But what, but what did they make of all this? We're not told how they understood what was going on at this point. And then the lord equips, David, the spirit of the lord comes powerfully upon him Some of things happen in the old testament to leaders.

We've seen it happen to Samsung. We've seen it happen to saul. The equipping of leaders in the old testament by the spirit is often for specific purposes and a specific time the spirit departs. But if you notice here something is happening that's slightly different. It says in the verse, it says, and from that day on the spirit of the lord came powerfully upon David.

Something different is now happening. The lord's spirit seems to be dwelling with David equipping him for what is to come. And Samuel disappears from the stage. Now again, application of this has been done carefully. As I said in the old testament, the work of the spirit was slightly different today.

We know as believers, we have the holy spirit permanently living within us, indwelling within us. So we may serve the lord. So this is slightly different from the old testament experience. And now we move into the final section into the final part, which is, verse verse 14 onwards. The man may appear to choose, but is the lord who directs.

Okay. Now this is Interesting. 2 kings in this passage, 2 kings in the same palace. Doesn't sound promising, does it? You know, in America, you can have 2 presidents in the in the White House at the same time.

When the Americans have their election in November, the president-elect doesn't go and live in the White House till January, and the outgoing president stays in the White House until that time. And so you can have 2 presidents in the same building at the same time, but it's only temporary. They visit temporarily. But here, We've got 2 kings in the same palace, and it's not temporary. This is, this is a long term situation.

The spirit in verse 14, the spirit has departed from soul. He's been rejected as king. His authority, my god, has been removed. He is no longer equipped to lead. In your own private time, you might want to read Psalm 51.

What happened to saul made David fear himself about the lord's spirit departing? The lord's spirit has left saul. The lord's spirit is with David, and an evil spirit comes from the lord to saul. Now, again, we have to be careful here. The Hebrew doesn't equate to demon spirits in the new testament.

It relates to something that's disturbing or harmful or bad that comes from the lord. And it creates a problem. The attendants see the problem, and they seek the king's authorization to do something. They haven't realized that the king's authority has departed. They still see him.

He appears to be the king, and they're going to try and help him. And they recommend music therapy. And he says go and find someone to give me music therapy. Do you get Joseph and Egypt vibes? The king in Egypt, the pharaoh had dreams, and they troubled him.

He wanted to know what they meant and they went and they remembered there was a man who could interpret dreams Joseph. They're gonna find a man who can play the liar or the harp, and that's David. So they're authorized to search and the word see comes again to another servant sees the sees David. It is likely this is some time after the anointing because we're told a lot more about David now about how he is, how he appears on what he does. And or by the way, the the servant says the lord appears to be with him almost as an afterthought.

And saul appears to choose David, but is he choosing? Mine may appear to choose, but it is the lord who is directing here. David is chosen. Saw thinks he's chosen, but it's the lord who is directing. Jesse is asked if his son can come, and he shows deference to saw.

Again, he thinks the sword is still the king. He sends in gifts like you'd send to a king. Again, the outward appearance says 1 thing, the inner reality is another. And David does well. He gets to become armor bearer.

And again, this is symbolic sometimes. If somebody hands over their armor, it's often a sign of surrender or passing on the responsibility to someone else. David becomes armor bearer. He passes his probation period and he gets a permanent position in the court, and his music therapy helps. So how do we apply this part to our hearts?

The lord works in many ways, often in ways we don't always see. He will work his purposes out. This is often described as providential God is working providentially. He is moving behind the scenes to get David into the palace. And there's irony here.

There's dramatic irony. We know something they don't know. Yeah. There's also situational irony. Saul expects 1 thing to happen, but there's gonna be something very different working out.

We know that David is in peril. Is it mild peril? Moderate peril or strong peril. It sounds like a rating on the film, doesn't it? What's gonna happen to David?

Let's not get carried away. We'll find out next week. Okay. Let's turn let's turn back to Ameyer's in closing. What do we see?

We see God choosing, and we see kings. We see a bad king, a better king, and the passage points us to the best king. Saw was a bad king. He was chosen according to the will or the eyes of the people. They chose him on his outward appearance.

He proved disobedient. He didn't listen to the lord. He showed remorse, but not repentance. He showed himself to be a son of the first Adam, and he was rejected. We see a better king.

He's chosen by the lord. He has The heart's the lord, and the lord has a heart for him. He's more obedient. He still fails sometimes, but he is remorseful and repentant, but he's still a son of the first Adam, a better king, but still imperfect. But a point, it points this passive points us to the better king chosen by the trinity god, the father, god, the son, and god, the holy spirit.

He is qualified, the only qualified mediator we have. He is the son of God and the son of man. He shows total obedience, perfect righteousness. He is the perfect savior. He is the second Adam.

He is the best king. Is he your king? Let's pray. Any father, we do thank you for this important passage in in your bible. We thank you the points to the king Jesus that we have sovereign over us.

We thank you for the examples we have of David how we served you. We thank you, lord, that we we can serve you. We thank you that you choose us not on merit because our our good deeds are like filthy ranks. It is only through your grace that we are saved. It's through your grace you chose David.

Help us lord to show results from that choice in our lives as we live for you day to day. In Jesus's name, we ask this, amen.