A Heart after God

1 Samuel 16:1-13

¹The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” ²And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ ³And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.” ⁴Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, “Do you come peaceably?” ⁵And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. ⁶When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” ⁷But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” ⁸Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” ⁹Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” ¹⁰And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” ¹¹Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” ¹²And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” ¹³Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.

After God rejects Saul as king, a replacement must be chosen. We know that David is God’s choice as the next king, but his arrival at that position is rather a long journey, taking almost 20 years. Samuel is sent to David’s father with the commission from God to anoint a new leader. God has chosen the family of Jesse of Bethlehem, who has 8 sons! Samuel goes to Bethlehem (albeit with some fear and trepidation, as he knows that Saul might be after him) to anoint the one God has chosen. When he arrives, he naturally picks the eldest son of Jesse, but this is not the one God has in mind. In fact, Samuel goes through all 7 of David’s older brothers and when he runs out of sons, he inquires if there might be anyone else. Jesse answer rather dismissively that there is the youngest or “insignificant” one. He’s out in the field watching the sheep. This was a job almost always relegated to the lowest of the low. That’s David.

The people had chosen Saul as the first king and doesn’t go very well, as we have seen. Now, God will choose, and of course, He chooses someone no one else would have ever suspected would be king.

Yahweh emphasized that his way of choosing is different that the way humans choose, since he looks at the heart. When God chose Saul he gave the Israelites the king they had requested, and so Saul was a choice that accorded with the way humans would have chosen. This is why Samuel could refer to Saul as the king Israel had chosen, even though God had the ultimate choice. God had given the Israelites their type of king in Saul. However, in rejecting Saul, God had also rejected Israel’s way of choosing. The choice of a new king was not prompted by Israel’s demand, as was the case for Saul. In this instance, God’s rejection of Saul prompted him to choose a new king, and the choice would be made now solely by God’s criteria—according to God’s heart. The declaration that “God looks at the heart” is also, then, a statement about David’s heart. When Saul was anointed, God saw fit to change his heart. In Hebrew idiom God “changed” his heart into “another heart”, implying that Saul’s heart was defective. He needed to “be transformed into another man”. If Saul had been an apostate Israelite, an unbeliever, this could explain why those who had known him were astonished when he began to prophesy among the prophets. No such statement is ever made in Samuel about Yahweh transforming David or giving him another heart. This may imply that he was already a believer and an Israelite who lived by faith in accord with the Torah.

Steinmann, A. E. ©2016. 1 Samuel. (p. 308). Saint Louis, MO: CPH.

We are given a physical description of David that includes his “beautiful eyes” and “ruddy complexion”. But he is a fairly young person and still growing. His anointing must have come as quite a surprise, not only to his father and brothers, but to himself. God makes sure to mention that David’s heart is what has drawn him to the throne, for it belongs to God.

David’s anointing took place in a semiprivate setting. Only his brothers are mentioned as present, though presumably Jesse was also there. Then we are told that with the anointing came the Holy Spirit, who rushed upon David that day as he had previously rushed upon Saul. However, there is also a contrast between Saul and David: the Spirit twice rushed upon Saul, but only once upon David, and we are informed that Yahweh’s Spirit continued to rush upon David from that day forward.

Steinmann, A. E. ©2016. 1 Samuel. (p. 311). Saint Louis, MO: CPH.

Upon his anointing, the Holy Spirit comes to David and remains with him. While we know that David is still a sinner, he is given this special gift of the presence of the Holy Spirit a thousand years before Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit joins the Church on earth. This is one (if not the only) person in the Old Testament about whom this is said. We know the Spirit comes upon Old Testament believers at times, but He does not remain. He comes to provide for a special task, but in David’s case he stays. David’s heart is after God’s and that will be his strength.

I can think of no high characteristic than to have it said you have a heart after God’s. David’s story opens with this remarkable trait and we will follow his life as he lives it for the Lord (most of the time.)