God Chose Who!?! David's Origin Story

Listen to the story of how David was chosen to become the new king of Israel.  
Based on 1st Samuel 16 

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Transcript

Sermons from Mission Hills UCC

San Diego, California

 Rev. Dr. David Bahr

david.bahr@missionhillsucc.org

June 23, 2024

“God Chose Who!?”

1st Samuel 16: 1-13 – Common English Bible

The Lord said to Samuel, “How long are you going to grieve over Saul? I have rejected him as king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and get going. I’m sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem because I have found[a] my next king among his sons.”

2 “How can I do that?” Samuel asked. “When Saul hears of it he’ll kill me!”

“Take a heifer with you,” the Lord replied, “and say, ‘I have come to make a sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will make clear to you what you should do. You will anoint for me the person I point out to you.”

4 Samuel did what the Lord instructed. When he came to Bethlehem, the city elders came to meet him. They were shaking with fear. “Do you come in peace?” they asked.

5 “Yes,” Samuel answered. “I’ve come to make a sacrifice to the Lord. Now make yourselves holy, then come with me to the sacrifice.” Samuel made Jesse and his sons holy and invited them to the sacrifice as well.

6 When they arrived, Samuel looked at Eliab and thought, That must be the Lord’s anointed right in front.

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Have no regard for his appearance or stature, because I haven’t selected him. God[b] doesn’t look at things like humans do. Humans see only what is visible to the eyes, but the Lord sees into the heart.”

8 Next Jesse called for Abinadab, who presented himself to Samuel, but he said, “The Lord hasn’t chosen this one either.” 9 So Jesse presented Shammah, but Samuel said, “No, the Lord hasn’t chosen this one.” 10 Jesse presented seven of his sons to Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord hasn’t picked any of these.” 11 Then Samuel asked Jesse, “Is that all of your boys?”

“There is still the youngest one,” Jesse answered, “but he’s out keeping the sheep.”

“Send for him,” Samuel told Jesse, “because we can’t proceed until he gets here.”[c]

12 So Jesse sent and brought him in. He was reddish brown, had beautiful eyes, and was good-looking. The Lord said, “That’s the one. Go anoint him.” 13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him right there in front of his brothers. The Lord’s spirit came over David from that point forward.

Then Samuel left and went to Ramah.

Sheila was there that day.  She watched as Samuel stopped in front of every one of Jesse’s boys to see if he was the one God had chosen to be the new king.  She said, “I might have expected  God would do something unusual but it was still a shock when Jesse’s oldest son wasn’t chosen.  I mean, he had everything – tall, dark, and handsome.  He was the complete package, a tested warrior in the army of King Saul.”  His younger brothers poked each other and smirked and puffed up their chests in preparation for Samuel to pass by.  But, one by one, no one was the right one.  And with each son, Samuel looked more perplexed.  Had he gotten the message wrong?  Did his GPS send him to the wrong address – his God Positioning System?

When Samuel asked if he had any more sons, Jesse laughed and said, “Oh, that’s right.  I do have one more son, but he’s just a sweet boy.”  “Send for him anyway,” Samuel said.  So, several brothers ran through the pastures looking for David.  He was out watching the sheep, although to be honest, most of the time, he wasn’t really watching.  He was busy running around trying to catch butterflies or laying on his back watching the clouds pass over – that one looks like a duck!  Or singing and playing his harp and daydreaming.  Occasionally he looked over to see if the sheep were OK, but to his credit, he could sense if a predator was approaching.  He could whip out his slingshot in ten seconds flat and use a single stone to put down a wolf or even a bear.  The sheep were in good hands with this good shepherd, even if he was easily distracted.

The brothers ran with David back to Samuel and Jesse.  Right as he approached, David tripped over a rock and fell face first, right in front of Israel’s great prophet, Samuel.  Jesse gave Samuel a look as if to say, “see why I forgot?”  David just brushed the dirt off his clothes and grinned from ear to ear.  His apple cheeks were red from embarrassment, but he stood up and did his best to look tall and adult.  Samuel said, “It’s you!”  This clumsy boy was exactly what God was looking for.  Jesse pulled him over and proudly proclaimed, “He’s my boy!” while the brothers looked on in disbelief.  God chose who?!  

The question is, why.  Why was Samuel there in the first place? He was looking for a replacement for the very king he himself picked.  Well, reluctantly picked.  If you remember last week, the people demanded to have a king.  They felt insignificant as they looked at the surrounding nations and decided that if they had a king, they would be more prosperous and powerful.  If only we could be like everyone else.  With God’s consent, Samuel did as they demanded, but not before telling them what they can expect from a king.  God warned them:  A king will use you and abuse you and take from you what he wants until you ultimately end up his slave.  But, it didn’t matter.  They wanted a king just like everyone else and so a king they got.  

Samuel was directed to anoint tall and handsome Saul; a foot taller than everyone else.  And in the beginning he did some pretty impressive things.  Saul came up with an organizational plan that rallied men to come from every tribe for the defense of a small town.  Finally, a victory.  He was a hero.  But then he started acting like a king and the people didn’t like it.  “We wanted a king.  Not someone who acts like a king.”  

As the years went by, it got worse.  Saul was carried away with his sense of power and began to make excuses and rationalized some of his decisions that were directly in opposition to his instructions.  He thought he knew better than Samuel.  And God.

Kings may have been kings, but they still had to follow the religious laws.  No one is above the law… And there were certain things only religious leaders could do.  One time, Saul had waited 7 days for Samuel to show up to make a sacrifice and offer a blessing so they could go into battle.  Saul grew impatient and decided to do it himself.  When Samuel arrived that same day and learned what Saul had done, he was outraged and declared that one day Saul would be replaced with someone who would “actually love the Lord more than his own self.”

Another time he got caught in a lie.  So, trigger warning, the details are really disturbing:  at the end of one battle with the Amalekites, he was supposed to kill everything, every single person and animal – so, understatement, that’s a problem – but, in the context of this story, the problem was that he decided to hold back some animals.  Samuel arrived and asked, "Why do I hear sheep bleating and cows mooing?”  “Oh, I wanted to hold them back so you could sacrifice them.”  Big fat lie.  Samuel said, “To obey is better than to sacrifice.”  Saul begged for forgiveness but Samuel refused and never spoke to him again.  

It’s said that even God regretted choosing Saul and its interesting to ponder the idea that an all-powerful, omniscient, omnipresent God would have such a thing as “regrets.”  Isn’t the idea that God is always right?  Anyway, God tasked Samuel with finding a new king and was directed to find him among the smallest of the tribes.  Specifically, Jesse in Bethlehem.  

A quick back story:  Jesse’s great-grandma was Ruth.  She was a Moabite, as in “those damn Moabites.”  Jesse’s grandfather was conceived after a night on the “threshing floor,” a forbidden encounter between a foreigner and Boaz.  Jesse’s household should have been the last one from which God would direct Samuel to find a new king.  It really says something to pick the apple-cheeked youngest from a perfectly-ordinary family in the smallest and most insignificant of the tribes with a “those damn Moabites” as a great-grandma.  Of course, to follow this logic, remember that this is the ancestry of Jesus too.  Every Christmas when we sing about the “root of Jesse,” this is what that’s all about.  But it comes down to, God chose who?!  

And why?  Because Saul fell out of favor for all the reasons above. He also fell into a deep depression with wild mood swings and behavior that was unhinged from reality.  Although the British Journal of Psychology would seem to be an unlikely source for biblical commentary, the Journal labeled King Saul the victim of “work-related stress.”  They offer a remarkable insight on this character in the Bible.  We may even relate to some of it.

1)      Neither Samuel or God wanted the people to have a king in the first place.  They relented but thought it was a bad idea from the beginning.  Would you like to go into a new job with that kind of support from your bosses? 

2)      The people had never had a king before so they could only have brought unrealistic expectations to his performance.  A king acting like a king would only bring criticism.

3)      He is supposed to lead an army of a few thousand against the military might of enemies with tens of thousands of soldiers.  He had sticks and stones to fight people who had mastered the art of metal – iron chariots, armor, spears.  Their enemies were at an impossible advantage.  He’s supposed to lead that?

4)      Saul was supposed to be in charge, but he could go into battle only after Samuel gave him permission.  Was he really in charge at all?

No support, unrealistic expectations, performance against overwhelming odds, not allowed to make final decisions.  According to the Journal, Saul’s story shows a combination of high demands and low control which can lead to psychological stress and even lead to chronic disease.  Some of you know about that kind of stress.  Expectations that can’t be met, conditions over which we have no control, work demands that conflict with family needs...  Some of you are shaking your heads.

Did you know that pastors are among the “fattest, sickest, and most depressed people in America?”  Why?  Impossible demands and unrealistic expectations of one’s self and from others to reverse the cultural trend away from Christianity resulting in congregations shrinking and closing.  And when congregations are in stress, they look at the person most visible as their scapegoat.  Sometimes when a congregation is shrinking, they treat each other worse instead of with extra loving care.  Fear does that.  And this information is from a study pre-pandemic.  It’s a lot worse today.  I give thanks every day to serve such a healthy and hopeful group of people like you but many of my colleagues are working in situations with little hope.  Leading many to ask, “God chose who?!”  More than half of seminary graduates leave ministry before finishing 5 years of being a pastor.  Say a prayer for them.

Saul descended farther and farther and finally into madness.  But one thing gave him comfort.  Music.  And he will soon be introduced to an apple-cheeked little shepherd who liked to chase butterflies and watch clouds floating overhead, whose singing and harp playing were the only thing that soothed Saul’s soul and gave him relief.  Until Saul tried to kill him.  And then tried to kill his own son who fell in love with David.  Those and more light-hearted stories to come.

So why do I tell these stories?  Because these characters are fascinating.  They are not fairy tales with happy endings.  They’re real people because they’re our real stories too.  They are true stories in that we can find our own lives reflected, just like we try to do our best in situations where we have no control and try to meet expectations we can’t possibly meet and have demands that conflict with what our families need from us.  

Sometimes we need help and stories like these provide comfort – like, first, you are not alone.  Even Jesus asked, “Why have you forsaken me?”  So, like Saul, perhaps try a little music therapy.  Unlike Saul, we have access to much more than that.  So when we need it, seek help, follow the advice of your physician, seek guidance from a psychologist or psychiatrist, take the medicine that is prescribed.  It’s as important for our mind as much as it is for our body.  Remember, all of these resources are God given gifts that are thankfully available today that were not available for people like Saul.  In his time, they had no explanation so they said Saul was plagued by an evil spirit.  Today we can recognize that he had undiagnosed mental health challenges – which is not a sign of evil or judgment.

I love David’s origin story – later to become the Great King David – with his own issues.  But, to me, here is the most important line of the whole text:  “Humans only see what is visible to the eyes.  God sees into the heart.”  Perhaps that seems too simplistic, but when you find yourself asking, God chose who?!  There’s a reason God chose you.  God sees your heart.  And it’s beautiful.