1st Samuel Chapters 16 – John Karmelich

1. My title for Chapter 16 is “waiting on God’s timing”.

a) One of the difficult things a Christian has to do is learn to discern God’s timing.

b) Remember to be a follower of Christ is to submit to His will. A big part of His will is having the patience to work on God’s timing and not ours.

c) This leads to the natural question: What is God’s timing? When do I wait? When do I move forward? When I do stand still?

d) This gets back to the idea of understanding the concept of “God’s will” for our lives.

i) God’s will is not for example lying in bed and praying, “OK, Lord, is it your will for me to get up and brush my teeth today?” ☺

ii) God’s response is “I gave you a brain, now use it”.

iii) God’s will is for us to:

a) Pray “regularly” (to me, that is daily) for God’s will to be done in my life. That is part of the Lord’s Prayer. (Matthew 6:10, Luke 11:2)

b) Another part is to “regularly” study God’s word. We study the patterns in the stories and study the direct commands as to how to live our lives.

c) We also spend regular time with other Christians. This is to help us be accountable to each other, help us mature each other and work together all for God’s glory, as well as to corporately praise God.

d) With that said, we can then do what we want. If we are truly seeking God through these methods, then we can go about our lives knowing we are living “God’s will” by being obedient to his commands.

e) The next step is to combine our abilities, our passions with our God-given talents for His Glory. If you are not sure what they are, ask people and ask God. Ask people, “What am I good at?” You may get examples of how you can be of service to God.

f) Finally, as we go through life, we have opportunities “open and shut” in front of us. That is another way of discerning God’s will for us.

(1) For example, as you study Paul’s missionary journeys in Acts, he rarely got “heavenly messages” as to his next step. Often, he just kept moving and let God worry about the results.

e) Which gets us back to the concept of “timing”.

i) There are situations in life that simply require patience. Remember that God answers all of our prayers. Sometimes the answer is “no” and sometimes the answer is “not yet”. That is a big part of discerning God’s timing. You may shoot for a spiritual goal and one must wait on God’s timing for that to happen.

ii) For example, the pastor of one of the largest churches in California had to work at over 50 different locations with the same flock until God finally gave them a permanent location of their God. God was working with that pastor, teaching him patience. He learned to live on God’s timing and God has blessed him.

iii) In today’s lesson, we’re going to read of Samuel and David learning to wait on God’s timing. The verses in this chapter are full of examples of success because they waited on God’s timing and setbacks due to the failure to wait on God.

f) This is one of those chapters that are best understood by reading it first. I’ll come back to the topic of God’s timing after I wrap it up. With that said, let’s go to the first verse.

2. Chapter 16, Verse 1: The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel?

a) To understand this verse, it might help to look at the last sentence of the last verse of Chapter 15 here: “Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul, and the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.” (1^st Samuel 15:32 NKJV)

i) Remember that in the original text there were no chapter breaks.

ii) Here was Samuel grieving. God had announced awhile back that Saul would no longer be king. Samuel was grieving over that fact. In Verse 1 of this chapter, we have God saying in effect, “OK Saul, how long are you going to grieve anyway? Get over it and let’s go anoint the next guy”.

b) The “why” of Samuel grieving is speculation.

i) Most believed it was out of his love for the Nation of Israel. In Chapter 12, Samuel believed a big part of his ministry was to pray for that nation (See 1^st Sam. 12:23).

ii) Some argue that Samuel developed some sort of affection for Saul. Because Saul was the anointed King of Israel, and Saul failed to be obedient, it grieved Samuel to see what happened to it.

iii) Remember the bible rule: “The plain things are the main things and the main things are the plain things”. That means here that if the bible does not say why Samuel was grieving, then that issue should not be our primary focus.

iv) What should be our focus is what the bible does say: It tells that God wanted to Samuel to “get on with his life” and stop grieving for Saul.

c) This leads to the topic of long-term grieving. First of all, the bible is not “anti-grieving”:

i) “(There is) a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance”. (Ecclesiastes 3:4, NIV)

a) That means there is an acceptable time period to grieve when one is hurting. At the same time, that time is not meant to go on forever.

b) There is a time to “get over it”. I saw a great t-shirt message a few weeks back that summarizes this: “Build a bridge and get over it”.

ii) The exact length of an acceptable grieving time is up to the individual. My point is simply that when one is hurting, one needs to take some time and emotionally deal with it. At the same time, God does want us to get on with our lives. Once we do that, we are no longer focusing or obsessing on our past and getting back to what God called us to do.

iii) This is what is happening to Samuel right here. God is telling Samuel, “OK, Sam, enough grieving. I know you’re hurting over this. Remember that I called you to be my prophet to Israel and I don’t have a retirement plan of you.”☺

a) Samuel once tried to “retire” back in Chapter 8 and put his sons in charge. That was a disaster as his sons were not obedient to God.

b) I take the view that we are never to truly retire from being a witness for God. Even when we get to the point where we don’t have the physical strength anymore. The main purpose of the Christian life is to live it out for God’s glory and not ours. We never stop serving him. Even if we can’t physically do much, we can still pray or praise God.

3. Verse 1, (second sentence, God is still speaking to Samuel): “Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."

a) If you remember, the way a new leader was anointed in Israel was to take an empty horn (like a ram’s horn) and fill it with oil, and then pour it on the head of the new leader.

i) An animal’s horn is the source of their power. Thus it is a symbol of power.

ii) “Oil” is representative of the Spirit of God working in one’s life.

a) Think of oil as a “lubricant” to make things run smoothly.

b) Also think of oil as “soothing”, especially in a desert climbing. In both word-pictures, it represents the power of God in one’s life.

b) What is interesting to think about is the name “David” has yet to be mentioned.

i) Notice God did not say to Samuel, “Go to Bethlehem and there is a guy named Jessie who has eight sons. The youngest is named David. Go get him and anoint him as the king. Do this a week from Tuesday.” ☺

a) Some of you are thinking, “Is that the same Bethlehem where Jesus was born?” Yes it was. David and Jesus were born in the same town. More on that topic another day.

ii) Back to my point: God “only” told Samuel to go find “Jessie of Bethlehem” because one of his sons will be king.

iii) Why did God only give Samuel limited information? The answer is that God wanted to teach Samuel and us a few lessons about “His timing”, which just happens to be our theme for this week. ☺

a) The first is that God often works with us on a “need to know” basis. If God told us His plans for us in detail for the next say, twenty years, it might kill us. God only reveals what He wants us to know at that moment. Often God works in stages like this as He is trying to teach us something. That “something” is usually obedience. Once we have obeyed a particular instruction, God then gives us the next set of instructions.

iv) The next lesson God wanted to teach Samuel is that God still has a wonderful redemptive plan for the Nation of Israel. King Saul was disobedient and lost, and will lose his kingship. That’s not the end of the story. The story ends with the promise of a redeemer to help Israel. David will lead the Nation of Israel to conquer all of its surrounding enemies and lead it to its peak of power.

a) If I had to pick one word to describe the bible as a whole, I would use “redemption”. The whole of the bible is based on the promise of a better future day as God “redeems” His people.

b) To paraphrase God some more, “Hey Samuel, I know you’re hurting about Saul and the fact the nation is disobedient. Don’t worry, I have good news. I’ve got a plan. I know you don’t know that plan, but I do. I have a great future planned for You and your people. Even better, I want you to be a part of that plan. Come one, follow me and let’s go anoint the next leader”.

c) Some of you can see where I’m going with this. ☺ God has a wonderful plan for our lives. He doesn’t want us to grieve forever. God is saying, “Hey come on, follow me. Let me “use you” to be a part of my redemptive plan. Come follow me, submit to My will and watch the great things that I’m about to do!”

d) If you think God can’t use you, think about these guys:

(1) Samuel was a baby given to the priesthood because her mother struck a deal with God because she couldn’t get pregnant.

(2) Saul was looking for the family donkeys when God picked him.

(3) David, who will get to, is the youngest of 8 boys and watches the sheep. He had no idea how God was going to use him.

(4) With a few exceptions, God usually picks “nobodies” to be used greatly by Him. We’ll discuss this some more in verse 7.

c) OK, I just spent two pages on one verse. God’s timing is for me to move on. ☺

4. Verse 2: But Samuel said, "How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me." The LORD said, "Take a heifer with you and say, `I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.' ³ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate."

a) For those who think the prophet Samuel is a perfect person who never sinned, take a close look at Verse 2.

b) God just said in Verse 1 to go to Bethlehem and anoint a “Son of Jesse” to be the king.

c) Samuel’s first words in Verse 2 are about fear. He is afraid that King Saul will find out about Samuel anointing someone new and try to kill him.

i) First of all, those fears are real. We’ll read in upcoming chapters about King Saul’s temper. Several times he tries to kill David. I suspect Saul had a temper for a long time and Samuel knew about it.

ii) The point is Samuel forgot the proverb: Where God leads, God provides”.

a) If God gives you a command to do something, don’t you think God is going to make it possible for you to obey that command?

b) One of my favorite short stories in the bible is about the time Jesus was in a boat with the disciples. The waves were roaring and the boat was tossing. Where was Jesus? He was asleep! (Mark 4:38). Why was Jesus asleep? Because in Mark 4:35 Jesus gave the command to go to the other side of the lake. Again, “Where God leads, God provides”. Jesus knew he would make it safely to the other side, because it was God’s will.

d) Notice God does not scold Samuel for doubting him. God does not say to Samuel, “I just told you to go to Bethlehem. I don’t see your feet moving. Get going!” ☺

i) The rest of verses 2-3 are God “compromising” with Samuel. For Samuel to get to Jessie in Bethlehem, the only road goes right past where Saul lived, and therefore, Samuel was afraid Saul would kill him if he found out what he was up to.

ii) God gives Samuel a plan. That plan was to bring along a heifer to sacrifice. For When Samuel was passing by King Saul, Samuel needed to tell Saul “something”. That plan was to tell Saul that he was going to Bethlehem to do a sacrifice. King Saul would “shrug his shoulders” at that one as Samuel regularly traveled from location to location as being top-minister to the people of Israel.

iii) God often “works on our level”. If we refuse to obey God without question as Samuel did in these verses, I find that God often says, “Sigh, ok. I want to teach you to trust Me. If you can’t handle the direct order to go to Bethlehem without further instructions, then I’ll give you a plan to get past King Saul.”

iv) This verse shows that God never stops working with us to build up our faith in Him. Samuel has been obedient to God for a long time. Yet, in a moment of doubt, God does not punish Samuel, but works on Samuel’s level.

v) If you remember in the last chapter, Saul gets ousted as king for disobedience. Samuel told him that he would no longer be king because he refused to kill all the Amalekites. So why isn’t Samuel punished here for doubting God? The difference is Samuel still agrees to go to Bethlehem. Saul was punished for lack of obedience. God will work with our fears as long as we keep moving and keep following Him. It is when we deliberately disobey God is when we “get in trouble”.

5. Verse 4: 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?"

a) Samuel was in fear about the wrath of King Saul.

b) The residents of Bethlehem were in fear about the wrath of Samuel! ☺

i) Why were the residents afraid? Remember Samuel is the one who scolded all of Israel for wanting King Saul. He validated his message by having rainfall during a time when there was no rainfall. The people “trembled” at Samuel then. (Reference 1^st Samuel 12:17-18).

ii) One has to remember that Israel at this time was not in “revival mode”. ☺

iii) They wanted Saul as king “because they wanted to be like the other nations”.
(Reference: 1^st Samuel 8:5 and 8:20).

iv) The application to us is the times of our lives where we are ashamed of what we are doing from God’s perspective. For example, ever notice we are on our best moral behavior when the pastor/priest comes over for dinner? We tend to forget that God is always watching us, yet we are embarrassed when our “religious friends” catch us doing something we shouldn’t be doing.

6. Verse 5: 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.

a) Samuel comes to Bethlehem and organizes a town-wide religious sacrifice to God. Samuel specifically looks for a man named Jessie and invites him and his sons.

i) To “consecrate” Jessie is a Jewish ritual that involves washing and cleaning of the clothes. The concept is similar to the idea of “clean yourself up to go to church”.

b) Notice what Samuel did not say, “I have come here to pick the next king of Israel. Now for the rest of you, do whatever you want, and I’ll be about my business”. ☺

c) Samuel was told by God to do a sacrifice in Bethlehem. Even thought that was not the prime intent of the visit, Samuel was fully obedient to God’s instructions.

7. Verse 6: When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD."

a) Here is Samuel checking out the oldest son of Jessie and Samuel mentally thinks, “This is the guy. He’s strong, good looking. God must want him to be the next king of Israel.”

b) What we are going to read in a matter of verses is that the father Jessie had a total of eight sons. David is the youngest of the eight. All seven older brothers were brought before Samuel before David was brought to him.

c) It must have been a shock to Samuel that God would pick someone so young. After all, if God was going to get rid of King Saul, Samuel expected someone who was old enough to be king. That is why Samuel probably thought the oldest one was God’s choice.

i) The lesson here has to do with learning to be obedient to God’s timing (there’s that word again! ☺) and not our timing.

ii) Samuel saw the oldest son of Jessie and thought, “OK, God is going to replace Saul now, and therefore I need a replacement who is old enough to be king”. The problem was that was not God’s plan at all. Samuel made a bad assumption because Samuel was thinking about “His timing” versus God’s timing.

8. Verse 7: 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 man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

a) Here is your memorization verse of the week. Just like the last lesson, I’ll even make it easier for you. ☺ Just memorize the last sentence: “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

b) One of the purposes of this whole ritual was not just to pick David, but to teach Samuel (and us) a lesson about how God works.

i) First of all, God works in stages in our lives. God reveals information one step at a time. When we are obedient to the first step, God reveals the next step. God told Samuel to go to Bethlehem and then God reveals who is the next king.

c) The next lesson for Samuel (and us!) is how God chooses leaders.

i) God is not interested in how good looking or how strong a person is. God is interested in the heart. The Jewish concept of “heart” refers to the inner being. Just as the heart pumps blood to all parts of the body, so the word picture of “heart” is the inner-self that “makes” the person alive.

ii) This alone is a great lesson that should build our self confidence. In this sense, God does not care if we are too old or too young, or whatever excuse we have. God does not care if we have a handicap or some deformity. God is interested in our “inner self”. God picks people to lead based on our inner character.

a) God is always looking for people who are willing to say, “I want to make myself available for God, as opposed to showing God our “ability”. God is not impressed by your resume. God is interested in our availability to be of service to Him.

b) If we make ourselves available, then and only then does God say, “terrific, here is what I want you to do and I will make it possible for you to do it”.

c) Does that mean if you tell God, “Hey God, I want to pastor a church of 200,000 people”, it will happen tomorrow? No. First of all, you are telling God what You want and not what He wants. That is not His will, but your will. Second, if God does have a grand scale plan for you, God usually has a “100-steps” to get there as to train you for that large-scale ministry. Every person in the bible used greatly by God had to go through lots of steps to get to that point. (Remember, it’s all about God’s timing!)

iii) Next, God does not measure success in “quantity” as much as “quality”.

a) I’m convinced that when we get to heaven some of the greatest rewards will go to say, a mother who’s sole job was to raise her child up in the Lord. She prayed for him or her daily and worked with that child to be a great follower of Jesus. God is looking for success in life, but the way God measures success is different from the way the world measures success.

b) God is looking for people to live a life that is significant for Him. That means to make an impact upon people. Again, God could call you to minister to one person or millions. It is not the quantity of the results, but the quality that God is interested in.

9. Verse 8: Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either." ⁹ Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, "Nor has the LORD chosen this one." ¹⁰ Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these." ¹¹ So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?"

a) The father Jessie had a total of eight sons.

i) David was the youngest. Apparently, David wasn’t even invited to the feast.

ii) The father made all seven older brothers “pass by” Samuel.

b) We don’t know how God communicated to Samuel, just the fact that he did. Too many commentators obsess on the “how” God communicated to Samuel and ignore the “why” issue. Ever since Samuel was a little boy, God somehow spoke to him. It was probably “audible in Samuel’s head”. The point is Samuel knew how to distinguish the voice of God from his own thoughts and knew when God was speaking.

c) OK, so how do we know when God is speaking to us?

i) The best clue I know comes from Peter. Jesus asked Peter who he (Jesus) was. Peter responded that Jesus was the Messiah. “Jesus (then) replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” (Mathew 16:17 NIV)

ii) Jesus is saying God the Father told Peter that Jesus is the Messiah. My point here is Peter did not have a deep booming voice from heaven tell him that God was speaking to him. Peter just said what was in his heart and Jesus told him that God himself revealed that information to him.

iii) Therefore, hearing “God’s voice” is not a special audible voice in your head.

a) God does speak to individuals today. I’m convinced of that. You know it is God telling you by 1) There is no violation of the Word of God and 2) I usually find there is some validation to support that “urge” to do what you believe is God’s will.

b) For example, if a voice in your head says to steal your neighbor’s TV, you know it is not God because it violates God’s commandment to not steal.

c) Let’s say you have been praying about a situation and have this “urge” to go take some action. There is no way of knowing whether or not it is God’s will. Getting back to Peter, he rebuked Jesus a few verses later. Jesus said, “Get behind me Satan” (Matthew 16:23) as to teach Satan himself told Peter to make that statement. My point here is to be cautious of “urges”.

d) On the other hand, I write these lessons because “I can’t stand not writing them”. I can’t explain how I know it is God’ will for me to do it, but somehow, I just know. Further, these lessons are “bearing fruit” for God and as best I can, I’m not violating any biblical principal.

e) When you study the Book of Acts and Paul’s travels, you don’t read of God every three verses telling Paul, “Now turn left here, go ahead one mile and go preach to this town”. Paul just moved. Sometimes it was successful and sometimes it wasn’t. The point was “God’s will” for Paul was just to go preach the Gospel. Paul just went forward to wherever he believed was the best place to go and God used that situation for His glory.

d) Meanwhile, back to Samuel. ☺ Samuel told all seven (of eight) of Jessie’s sons to pass before him. Samuel knew that God has not spoken to him to anoint any of them.

i) This makes me wonder how much Samuel told Jessie of God’s plan.

a) Did Samuel tell Jessie that one of his sons would be the next king?

b) How much did Jessie and the other sons understand of the anointing?

(1) The only clue is Samuel says out loud “God has not chosen these” in Verse 10, which leads us to suspect Jessie was “in on all of this”.

10. Verse 11: "There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep." Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives."

a) Up to this point, the word “David” was still not even used in the bible.

b) Assuming Jessie understood Samuel’s purpose, Jessie thought so little of David being chosen that he wasn’t even invited the feast.

i) From a human perspective, this is understandable. David was the youngest, probably between 10-15 years old at this time. If God wanted a king, then God would want someone old enough to be king.

ii) The point is “not to put God in a box”. We assume God wants someone of a certain age, or certain look and again, God is interested in the inside, not the outside. God can and does work with anyone whose heart is right for Him.

c) Give Samuel a little credit here. Samuel is saying in Verse 11 that the sacrificial ritual won’t begin until Jessie goes back and fetches his youngest son. That could be a long time frame as dad doesn’t even know where he is.

d) Stop and think about this from David’s perspective:

i) His father tells David, “Look son, the whole family is going to see Samuel and do a sacrifice for God. Rumor has it that one of your older brothers might be the next king. You sit here and watch the sheep while were gone.”

ii) Was David thinking, “Why wasn’t I invited?” Was David thinking, “My gosh, my dad thinks so little of me that he didn’t even invite me to this feast”?

iii) It is almost a “Cinderella-like” story at this point where David gets called to the feast and then he is picked over his wicked stepbrothers. ☺

iv) Imagine David’s shock when say, a brother comes out to the family farm and yells, “David, get your behind over here quickly. Samuel himself said you have to come to the feast.”

v) Remember the father and the brothers had to “consecrate” themselves for the feast. That means washing of themselves and the clothes. David probably watched them do all of that while he tended the sheep. Now here was David “with no time for all of that stuff” being called to the feast.

e) Last, think about this from the Samuel’s perspective:

i) Samuel is all about obedience. Samuel knew that God called one of Jessie’s sons to be the next king. Samuel asked if Jessie had any more sons and Samuel “wouldn’t sit down” until the job was complete.

ii) Remember in the last chapter. King Saul “stopped” prior to complete obedience by failing to kill all of the Amalekites. Samuel on the other hand, would not even sit down and do the “feast thing” ☺until all of Jessie’s sons had been checked out. It is a reminder of God’s desire of total obedience.

11. Verse 12: So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."

a) So here is the moment where David was brought before him. Somehow, someway, God communicated to Samuel that “this guy is the one”.

b) I probably should talk about the word “ruddy”. David is described here as “ruddy”.

i) The word can mean red and some theorize that David was a redhead.

ii) More likely the word refers to “masculine” in the sense that David was a “man’s man”. The word can refer to strong and self-confident.

12. Verse 13: 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 upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.

a)