In 1 Samuel, we meet God
preparing a boy to become a man of God and a God-anointed king. The years of
travel and training for David lasted a long time, about twenty-five
years. When David began his reign of the Israelites, he was almost
middle-aged. What made God choose someone of lowly birth to lead His
people? What is it that David possessed that made him fit to be
king? How did David’s reign presage the coming of Christ?
From the beginning of
David’s life, he realized he would be in the shadow of his brothers. His
brothers probably teased and taunted him every day. David had seven older brothers.
His father, Jesse, was the grandson of Boaz, who married Ruth and made her
acceptable in the community of the Israelites (Ruth 4). Ruth believed in the
one true God enough to follow Naomi, her mother-in-law, from Moab back to
Israel because of the drought in Moab.
Jesse was a leader of his
time, according to the Midrash, an ancient commentary on the Jewish Torah. The
people considered him more blessed than others because he had eight sons. Why,
then, did they treat David like an outcast? The Bible gives no specifics why,
but Jewish writers say that his mother, Nitzevet, conceived David through
trickery with Jesse. David’s seven brothers thought she had been unfaithful.
They wanted to kill her and the unborn child. Yet Jesse told them not to harm
her and the baby. This provides a possible explanation why David's
brothers and father belittled David and gave him the lowliest job of being a
shepherd. There are, therefore, two reasons for the brothers to think so
little of David – he was the youngest and possibly conceived through trickery. As
the eighth son, though David was the lowest of the brothers, he was in the best
position to learn. He was humble. David, being meek, sought after God in
the quiet times when he was with the sheep. He had time and quiet to learn
the voice of God. David penned the words, “Be still and know that I am God”
(Psalm 46:10). He was open to hearing the voice of God; he was a young boy
after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14).
God told Samuel to anoint
another king for the nation of Israel. Saul disobeyed God when He told him
to kill every Amalekite and their animals. Saul kept king Agag and the best of
the animals alive against God’s command (1 Samuel 15). He did not repent
for disobeying God then and just sporadically during the next twenty-five years
in which God trained David to be the king of the Israelites. God was sorry
He listened to the Israelites when they wanted to choose a tall man who was a
natural leader to be their king (1 Samuel 9:2, 10:23-24). The problem was
this natural leader would not subjugate his will for God’s will. God cut Saul’s
line from the generation of future kings because of his disobedience.
Because God removed Saul’s family
from being kings of Israel, He sent Samuel to Jesse’s family. Samuel, one
by one, went by each of the first seven of Jesse’s sons. God did not tell him
to anoint any of them. Samuel inquired if there was another son since he
understood God said he would anoint one of Jesse’s sons. With trepidation,
Jesse mentioned the youngest son, David. Samuel sent for Jesse’s last son, the
one whom God desired to be king of His people. He anointed David as the
future king of Israel. (Notice God did not tell him his reign would begin many
years later and not then.)
Why, of these large
strapping young men of Jesse, did God want David to lead Israel? Maybe the
question should be - what could God do with young David that would make him fit
to be king of His people, Israel? Think about birth rank in families.
Often fathers train the first sons to be strong men who lead families and
people. Since Jesse was a leader in the community, his community would
expect the son’s of Jesse to be future leaders. Jesse and the rabbi trained
them in tradition, history, wisdom from their patriarchs, and in the knowledge
of the Lord. They were a family to whom Israel would turn to find
their future leaders. Yet, there always is a last son when a first
son exists. The role of the last son often turns out to be the baby, the
momma’s boy, or the scapegoat. He is the one who is least considered to be
a leader and who, by his place in the family, is least expected to make
decisions. Family members look upon the last son as needing specific directions
about what to do. Did David live up to that role? It appears his seven
older brothers and Jesse wanted to put him in that role. They wanted to get him
out of the home to avoid him dishonoring the family name. (When David took
bread to his brothers as they trembled at Goliath’s feet, they ridiculed him
for thinking he was good enough to leave the sheep fields and face
battle.)
We find out who young David
was in our reading of 1 Samuel. David was an obedient boy. He learned obedience
at his mother’s knee and through the teaching harshness of his father and
brothers. Doing right was easier than wrong. By doing right, David could
stay out of the limelight. This obedience put him in the right place for
hearing from God. David grew accustomed to subjugating his wants to those of
his parents and elder brothers. As a son in an Israelite family, he would
have learned the ways God spoke to and took care of His people. In the
fields watching the sheep was a good place to learn to be still and
quiet. It was a perfect place to hear the voice of God. For David, it
became the perfect place to speak to God, too. The fields, too, became his
battleground as he fought lion, bear, and wolf in defense of his sheep. Does
God use people whose ears are attuned to Him? Does God use people who will
fight for the sheep? As others have noted, God does not necessarily choose
the equipped, but He equips those He chooses.
God chose David. David’s was
more than just in the sheep fields and with his family. He would have
royal training, too. David became the psalmist for tormented king Saul. It
was the words and music God put into David’s heart that soothed
Saul. Later David’s presence enraged Saul. His presence always reminded
Saul God removed His blessing from him and placed it on David. David’s
close friendship with Jonathan, Saul’s son, made Saul jealous. Eventually
Saul became jealous for the position of king Jonathan and his descendants could
have had as his heirs. Saul became so tormented he even tried to kill his
own son with a spear at a public banquet (1 Samuel 20:33). From that point
in time through another twenty to twenty-three years, Saul spent most of his
waking hours plotting to capture and kill David. He wanted to remove God’s hand
from David and place it back on himself. Saul became so obsessed with this that
he compromised the security of the Promised Land.
During David’s time of
running from Saul, he hid and grew. David grew in leadership, military acuity,
diplomacy, judgment, and faith in Yahweh. With each attempt on his life by Saul,
he grew to be the man God would have be the king of His people. Saul grew more
self-absorbed as shown by his actions. As David grew in the knowledge of the
Lord, Saul decreased in power and control. This does not mean each of David’s
teaching moments were brilliant shining examples of growth for later
generations to follow. David was human, too. He slid into the depths because
of making human choices instead of following God’s choices, such as asking
Achish, the king of the Philistines, to give him protection from Saul (1 Samuel
26-27). Yet David learned he must ask and listen to God’s decisions about
each step upon the way (1 Samuel 30).
What was the difference
between Saul and David? They both started their reigns listening to God. Still
they both disobeyed or followed their own desires. Yet David learned and
repented while Saul never repented for allowing king Agag to remain alive or
for most of his other sins. As a human, David possessed none of the “things”
that made him more of a king God wanted on his throne. He was not the tallest
of Israelites as the Israelites wanted when they chose Saul. David was not
the one who commanded the following of many people when God chose him. He
was, though, a young man from God’s chosen people who listened to God’s voice.
David’s job as shepherd and musician for the king was not so exalted that he
thought himself bigger than Yahweh God. His financial security was not so
large he felt he could depend upon himself. David’s birth did not commend
to him supernatural power and authority, as would his descendent, Jesus. He did
not dress better than anyone dresses, smell better than anyone smells, or
command vast numbers of people. David was the last son of a son of Israel
who received no promise of an inheritance. He stank like the animals he tended.
David’s family mocked and forgot him. David possessed nothing except his belief
in God Almighty.
Why was David’s reign so
important then? Why do we look to it as the foretelling of the future
reign of Christ? To answer these questions, let us look at it backwards in
time. Jesus was the son of the human woman, Mary, and the heavenly Father,
Yahweh. For humanity, Jesus needed to be seen as a human, one of them,
having gone through things each person normally goes through and faced what
they would face. Yet humanity needed a Messiah who would come in power and
might, like a warrior king, to defeat the forces of Satan and reign in power
and majesty. For God the Father, the sin of humanity separates each person
from Him because His holiness cannot be in the presence of sin. Humanity
needed an adequate means to remove the stain of sin so they could have a
renewed and clean/pure relationship with God. Jesus is the answer to both these
needs - the needs of the Father and the
needs of humanity. Jesus was the little boy born into a poor carpenter’s
home. He lived life as an Israelite boy growing up under the tutelage of his
father, Joseph, and the rabbis at the synagogue. Jesus, too, was the
perfect sacrifice the Father required to purify humanity of their sins. He
lived His life without sin, even in the face of blatant temptation by Satan
during his forty days in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11).
David, in comparison to
Jesus – boy and man, was a young boy, the lowest of his brothers. His
family cast him out (as a shepherd), almost to the point of not acknowledging
him as family. David learned to recognize God's voice as a
youth. Jesus knew the Father’s voice as a youth, too. At age twelve, Jesus
stayed in the temple and taught the other temple-goers. He came to earth
to lead the people to know and follow the Father. God chose David to lead
His people to perceive, understand, and follow Him, Yahweh, I AM. Both David
and Jesus began their work for the Father at a tender age. The people
despised them. David and Jesus chose not to do his own will but that of
the Father.
How did David’s reign
presage Jesus’ reign? Old Testament prophets foretold Jesus would come and
be a king from the line of David. Jesus came to be the sacrifice for His
people. (David sacrificed his will most of his life to God’s.) How is
Jesus’ reign more important? David was the king of the chosen
people. Jesus came to be the King of God’s children, Israelite and
Gentile. David’s sacrifice of himself and his will to God was for the
people of that time. Jesus’ sacrifice of His life was for the people of all
time. David's sacrifice could not erase sin. Jesus' sacrifice erases the penalty
and guilt of sin for those who repent and believe in Him.
Knowing this, the reign of
David as “a man after God’s own heart” and the reign of Christ as God’s Salvation,
both of which required sacrifice, it might be scary to consider allowing
yourself to subjugate yourself to the Father (1 Samuel 13:14). Consider this: if
you do not allow God to lead you on a daily, personal basis to live the best
life, you are choosing the opposite that of allowing Satan to win by demanding
your own way. Your way is not the best way because your view of life is
limited, but God’s is endless. He knows best how to go through the path of your
life. If you refuse to live God’s way, you are choosing to live Satan’s
way. There are just two ways. God loves you and wants the best for
you. Satan, as the master of chaos, does not know love and seeks his own
best. He sees life as a game. The game, to him, is to keep the Father from
getting as many people as He can from entering heaven’s gates. Satan
cannot go to heaven and he does not want you to go to heaven either. He is
jealous. He is tricky. He is confusing.
Which
path would you rather choose –
wait
and earn God’s voice and listen to and follow Him as the young boy David did
or
stand
on your own two feet, be the master of your own life, and be wrong and unable
to make it right because of your human limitations, like Saul?
Forever after, God and His
followers recognized David as a “man after God’s own heart.”
You
can choose.
Do
you want to be a person after God’s own heart?
