START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Samuel 15:34-16:13
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OBSERVE:
Saul has proven to be a disappointment as a king. Though somewhat successful in battle, he has failed to be strictly obedient to Yahweh’s directives as mediated through the prophet/ judge Samuel. Saul’s leadership has been erratic — and will become even more so as mental/spiritual illness begins to damage his sense of judgment.
So Yahweh has rejected Saul as king of Israel and directs Samuel to anoint another. This isn’t easy for Samuel. He has invested time and spiritual energy in Saul. But Yahweh couldn’t be more clear:
How long will you mourn for 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 a king for myself among his sons.
However, this is a chaotic time for Israel. Paranoia and suspicion are rampant. Samuel worries that Saul will kill him if Samuel plays kingmaker yet again. Samuel pleads with Yahweh:
How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.
Yahweh gives him instructions to provide a cover for his royal search:
Take a heifer with you, and say, I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh. Call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. You shall anoint to me him whom I name to you.
Even Jesse’s people are cautious when Samuel approaches. He is asked:
Do you come peaceably?
What ensues is a combination of American Idol and a beauty pageant. The sons of Jesse are paraded one by one before Samuel, while Samuel waits upon a sign from the Lord. Each son of Jesse appears to Samuel to be a likely candidate: handsome, strong, regal.
But the Lord makes clear that his criteria for leadership are not determined by human considerations:
Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I don’t see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.
When none of the sons of Jesse pass muster, Samuel must ask if Jesse has any other sons – and the one that had been overlooked and underestimated is summoned — David, who is keeping his father’s sheep. He was so un-regarded that no one even thought to include him in the “beauty pageant.”
The truth is, he does have the family genes:
Now he was ruddy, with a handsome face and good appearance.
However, we get the distinct impression that how he looks is not what matters to Yahweh. Subsequent events will confirm that David’s character is what determines his selection.
Moreover, it is important to note that when Samuel anoints David as the new king, there is more involved than merely David’s own natural qualities:
Then Yahweh’s Spirit came mightily on David from that day forward.
It is not David’s natural gifts that matter — what matters is that Yahweh’s Spirit is with him.
It should be noted that though David is anointed as king, he will be so only in potential for quite some time to come. Saul is still ruling as monarch. In fact, David himself will become a loyal warrior on the king’s behalf, until events force him to seek refuge from Saul’s jealousy.
APPLY:
What does the Lord look for in those who serve him? Appearance, strength, intelligence, charisma? These can all be assets. But they are natural qualities that many people may possess.
The passage doesn’t really tell us why the Lord rejects the older brothers and chooses David. But we know from other passages in Scripture that Yahweh tends to choose the weaker, more vulnerable, less impressive vessels rather than the most impressive. Mary, a descendent of David, celebrates the Lord’s tendency to choose the humble rather than the proud:
He has put down princes from their thrones.
And has exalted the lowly. (Luke 1:52).
Paul describes the early Christian believers in similar terms:
God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are: that no flesh should boast before God (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).
God chooses to work through the weak and the foolish — in the eyes of human beings, anyway. As Paul says:
we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves(2 Corinthians 4:7).
To resort to a cliche, “God doesn’t call the qualified; he qualifies the called.” God is the one who calls us; and then , as he does with David, empowers us with his Holy Spirit.
RESPOND:
Anyone who has ever experienced a genuine call from God to leadership, ministry, or any form of servanthood, typically expresses the same reaction: “why me? I’m so unworthy, incapable, unprepared!”
I remember hearing an older minister say something in a gathering of clergy that I’ve never forgotten. He confessed that when he got into the ministry, he felt overwhelmed. And then he said this: “I realized that I don’t feel inadequate; I am inadequate!”
The point is that our adequacy and competence isn’t really the point. If all we have to offer is human ability and answers, we are simply offering more of the same thing that has been found wanting. God chooses those who are willing to submit to his authority — a David, an Isaiah, a Jeremiah, a Mary — and then lifts them up so that they are able to do things they never thought they could do.
Lord, your election and call is what really matters. May I simply be responsive to whatever your Spirit directs, wherever you tell me to go, whatever you tell me to do. Amen.
PHOTOS:Background texture for “God doesn't call the qualified. God qualifies the called” is “Chalk Board” by Dave Linscheid is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.
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