1 Samuel 16
July 29, 2010
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Bible Passage: 1 Samuel 16
I was thinking about what belovedoftheLord said about Saul being the young man that was chosen by God and loved by all men, not just the common men but also the prophet of God, Samuel. In the beginning of this chapter, we see God telling Samuel to stop mourning for Saul and that he should arise to anoint the next king.
Indeed if we find a person like Saul when he was first chosen to be king, many people would place their hopes on him and expect him to do great works for God. However when such sparkling characters fall, it is often difficult to accept or let go. May we all keep an eye on ourselves and the rising youths among us.
It is interesting for me to compare the process of Saul and David “ascending” to the throne also.
For the case of Saul, one can say things went smoothly and everything seems to work out well. In my field of study, some mentors used to say this about judging whether our concept is the right one or not.
If it is the right concept, we will discover that the more we develop the scheme, everything will fall into place nicely and smoothly and the concept will be enhanced to a full good end result.
However if the concept is not suitable, as we develop it we will meet with all kinds of problems and contradictions.
However this idea is totally reversed in the case of Saul vs David.
As we all know that after this chapter of David being anointed, the following chapters will show that the path of David to become king was a difficult one, full of dangers and tribulations. But this is the way of God.
We may not understand why we meet with much sufferings and obstacles on our journey of faith, but God has given us His words beforehand.
Isaiah 30:20-21
20 Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. 21 Your ears will hear a word behind you, “ This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.
May all who are suffering today in the Lord not lose their ways but find the voice of God that comforts us
1 Sam 16:2 And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.”
Why did Samuel mourn for a man who would kill him?
Was Samuel mourning for Saul? Or was Samuel mourning for the Israelites?
1 Sam 13:14 Samuel had already declared to Saul that his kingdom would not be long.
1 Sam 15:10 Now the word of the LORD came to Samuel that the LORD greatly grieved that He had set up Saul as king.
1 Sam 15:23 and 26 Samuel declared to Saul that he rejected the word of the LORD and He also rejected him as being king.
1 Sam 15:29 “And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent.”
So what was Samuel grieving about?
May be Samuel was grieving for the Israelites that they had a king but the king was not able to lead the people of God back to Him, especially Samuel knew that the Spirit of the LORD would depart from Saul (1 Sam 16:14)
May be Samuel was grieving that the Israelites would enter into dark days when there was a king in Israel but he did what was right in his own eyes, everyone also did what was right in his own eyes.
Samuel was grieving bec the people of God were not following God.
Then the LORD reminded Samuel again that He had sought for a man after His own heart (1 Sam 13:14).
Thus Samuel did what the LORD said and went to Bethlehem to anoint the one whom the LORD had commanded over His people (1 Sam 16:4, 12-13, 13:14)
Samuel trusted the LORD not to leave His people as orphans.
Old Samuel remembered that the LORD has great delight in obedience and to obey is better than sacrifice.