1 Samuel 16: Samuel's New Command- Arise and Anoint
1 Now the LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.” 2 And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” But the LORD said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3 Then invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; you shall anoint for Me the one I name to you.” 4 So Samuel did what the Lord said, and went to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” 5 And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons, and invited them to the sacrifice.
Conformity to the will of God forbids "prolonged mourning over human failure. If Saul had failed, God had not, and Samuel was now commissioned to arise and anoint His king.” (Morgan's Biblical Exp.)
“How long will you mourn for Saul,”— “Mourn he might, but it was too long that he mourned.” (Trapp) —“seeing I have rejected him?”— “that is, his posterity; for he himself reigned as long as he lived, though in a very inglorious manner.” (Gill) We “should not show ourselves more pitiful than God, nor to lament those whom he casts out.” (Geneva Study Bible)
“In one of the visions of the prophet Ezekiel, a man with a writer’s inkhorn in his hand was commissioned to ‘set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst’. of Jerusalem. Samuel was one who sighed and cried for the abominations which were done by Saul in his day. But sorrow, however reasonable and becoming, may be carried too far. It may be indulged until it unfits us for duty, or darkens our hope in God; it may disturb our peace and weaken our energies; it may be made an occasion of our halting, and of our neglecting public duty.“ (The Biblical Illustrator)
“But the true cure for overmuch sorrow is work.” (Alexander MacLaren) “Fill your horn with oil, Heb., ‘the oil’; probably, as Stanley suggests, the consecrated oil preserved in the Tabernacle at Nob. ” (C. J. Ellicott)— “and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite”; “the son of Obed, whom Boaz begat of Ruth the Moabitess, 4:21.” (John Gilll) “First, Samuel was told that God had found him out a man after his own heart; [1 Samuel 13:14] now, that this man shall be one of the sons of Jesse.” (John Trapp)
“For I have provided Myself a king”—
“This phrase is very emphatical, and implies the difference between this and the former king. Saul was a king of the people’s providing, he was the product of their inordinate and sinful desires; they desired him for themselves, and for their own glory and safety, as they supposed; but this is a king of my own providing, one that I have spied out, one of that tribe to which I have allotted the kingdom, Genesis 49:10. A king ‘for me’; not one to gratify the people’s desires, but ‘to fulfil all my will’, as is said, Acts 13:22, and to serve my glory. Or, ‘my king’; the Hebrew phrase, ‘to me’, or ‘for me’, being commonly used for the word ‘mine.’” (Matthew Poole)— “among his sons:” “Jehovah had looked them over and chosen one of them.” (The Popular Commentary by Paul E. Kretzmann)
A man had been “selected from that tribe to which the pre-eminence had been early promised (Genesis 49:10).” (Jameison-Faussett-Brown) “Here the dying prophet would revive. He would now see, according to Jacob’s prediction, the sceptre invested in Judah, from whom it should not depart till the advent of the true Shiloh. Now Samuel would hope for his country, and hope for the church. Never did he take a journey with so willing a mind, or apparently with steps so light.”(Joseph Sutcliffe)
“And Samuel said, ‘How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.’” See how far Saul had fallen. “Of what would he not be guilty, who durst think to kill Samuel [- Yahweh's prophet]?” (Matthew Henry)
Yet those who disregard their counsel do the same. "But the LORD said, ‘Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice’”- the word used is ‘zebach’, and means a sacrifice followed by a feast,” (Pulpit Commentaries)- “that is, to make a peace offering.”(Geneva Study Bible)
There is “nothing in the least inconsistent with truth in the occurrence here related. (Cp. Exodus 7:16; 8:1; 9:13)” (Albert Barnes) These Exodus verses relate to Moses’ request to Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go that they may serve Him in the wilderness by sacrificing to Yahweh God. That act of faith secured their freedom from slavery in and it would here ensure Samuel’s safety from Saul. “His fears are allayed by a command to sacrifice a peace-offering at Bethlehem.”(Joseph Sutcliffe)
“Then invite” — call — “Jesse to the sacrifice,” “i.e. invite him to the feast, which, after the manner, was made of the flesh of the sacrifice; and it belonged to Samuel, as the offerer of the sacrifice, to invite whom he pleased.” (Matthew Poole)— “and I will show you what you shall do; you shall anoint for Me the one I name to you. So Samuel did what the Lord said, and went to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming,” — knowing his recent judgment on the worlds king, as well as the king of Israel. “For Samuel had been wont to move from one town to another to punish offences (1 Samuel 7:16).” (Dummelow's Commentary)... as a judge of Israel.— “and said, ‘Do you come peaceably?’ It is a good thing to stand in awe of God’s messengers, and to hold good terms with them upon all occasions. Zedekiah is blamed for not humbling himself before Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord. [2 Chronicles 36:12]” And he said, “Peaceably” etc.
“‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.”
“Israel's disobedience has left an uneasy conscience: they knew of Samuel's strong censure of Saul, and wonder if he has come to Bethlehem to take severe measures. But he answers them that he has come peacefully with the intention of sacrificing to the Lord,” (L.M. Grant)
“‘Sanctify yourselves,’— by washing your garments; [Exodus 19:14-15] but especially your hearts: [Isaiah 1:16] prepare yourselves both legally and spiritually. — ‘and come with me to the sacrifice.’ and to the feast that followed the sacrifice with part of the peace offering, kept, likely, at the house of Jesse.”(Trapp) “Then he consecrated” — sanctified— “Jesse and his sons,” by the preparations described... The elders were to sanctify themselves. Samuel himself took the greatest care in the sanctification of Jesse‘s family. “ (Jameison-Faussett-Brown)
Repost: 1 Samuel 16: Samuel Anoints David
6 So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before Him!” 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 8 So Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” 9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” 10 Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen these.”
“Samuel taking up his lodging with Jesse, contemplated his seven tall and hopeful sons. Happy fruits of Rahab’s faith; happy progeny of virtuous Ruth; once aliens to the covenant, but honoured by piety above the freeborn virgins of the land.” (Sutcliffe) “So it was, when they came”’— to the sacrifice and feast of the peace offering— “that he looked at Eliab”— the son of Jesse— and said, “Surely Yahweh’s anointed is before Him!” “There was something in the tall and stately presence of the eldest born of Jesse which reminded the old man of the splendid youth of Saul.” (Ellicott) “It was strange that Samuel, who had been so disappointed in Saul, whose countenance and stature recommended him, should judge of another man by that rule.” (Henry)
“But Yahweh said to Samuel'— “by a secret impulse upon his mind, as if he had spoken with an articulate voice to him.” (John Gill), “’Do not look at his [Eliab’s] appearance’;…which was comely and majestic: ‘or on the height of his stature’; which was like that of Saul’s; ’because I have refused him’.” (C. J. Ellicott) “’For Yahweh does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance’ — and [the natural man] confine[s] his looks to that...” (Adam Clarke)—“but Yahweh” — and the spiritual man— “looks at the heart.” “His judgment depends, not on appearances, but on reality.” (The Pulpit Commentaries) He was looking for a man after His own heart.
The seer of Israel heeded the voice of Yahweh and judged with spiritual discernment. “And the other sons of Jesse, an imposing band of gallant youths, passed in review before the old seer, and were severally introduced to him.” (C. J. Ellicott) “The prophet said in the case of each, ‘This also Jehovah hath not chosen.’” (Keil & Delitzsch)
11 And Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all the young men here?” Then he said, “There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here.” 12 So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the LORD said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!” 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.
There remained the young, yet unnamed, keeper of sheep. Jesse knew nothing of his real person. He spoke of him as the most unfit. He had not even been sanctified, ceremonially, with the rest of Jesse's sons before the feast. But he was already clean by his goodly meditations. “Him God called ‘from following the ewes great with young, to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.’ [Psalms 78:71].” (John Trapp)
And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he”— the guest of honor— "comes here.” So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, — “red; as in Genesis 25:25,… Esau and David were alike in being red-haired, as well as in their wandering habits and skilful use of weapons…. —‘with bright eyes,’ —…This indicates that his eyes were keen and penetrating, enlivened by the fires of genius, and beaming with a generous warmth, by which the hearts of men and women were alike affected.— ‘and good-looking’— that is, of a comely and prepossessing appearance.” (Whedon's Commentary)
Yahweh said, "'Arise, anoint him';- for he is primed by right thoughts- 'for this is the one!' Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of Yahweh came upon David from that day forward.” “David certainly knew that this was the regal unction, and he felt the Spirit accompany it.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)- qualifying "him to be governor of His people, by infusing such graces as wisdom, prudence, counsel, courage, liberality, and magnanimity.” (Adam Clarke)
“Critics agree that his brethren did not then so understand it.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) “Greatly astonished must Jesse and his other sons have been to see Samuel pouring on the ruddy stripling the holy oil, and anointing him for whatever the office might be. But it has often been God's way to find His agents in unexpected places. Here a great king is found in the sheepfold. In Joseph's time a prime minister of Egypt was found in the prison. Our Lord found His chief apostle in the school of Gamaliel. The great Reformer of the sixteenth century was found in a poor miner's cottage. God is never at a loss for agents, and if the men fail that might naturally have been looked for to do Him service substitutes for them are not far to seek. Out of the very stones He can raise up children to Abraham.” (Expositor's Bible Commentary)
When entering on His ministry, even Jesus' brethren did not believe on him (John 7:5). Yet he will be designated King of kings and will one day sit upon the throne of His father David. "So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.” Obedience had turned his mourning to joy and he went home.
1 Samuel 16: The Sprit of Yahweh Departs From Saul
14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the LORD troubled him. 15 And Saul’s servants said to him, “Surely, a distressing spirit from God is troubling you. 16 Let our master now command your servants, who are before you, to seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp. And it shall be that he will play it with his hand when the distressing spirit from God is upon you, and you shall be well.” 17 So Saul said to his servants, “Provide me now a man who can play well, and bring him to me.”
The Spirit of Yahweh had come upon David and here departed from Saul- “From this time forward David is the central figure of the history. Saul has been rejected, and though, as being the actual king, he must still play his part, more especially as his decline goes on side by side with David’s growth in every kingly quality.. .” (Pulpit Commentaries)
“‘But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul,”— And once Saul’s house was swept, “agents of Satan seek congenial soil for their operations.” (Preacher's Homiletical Commentary)—“and an evil spirit from the LORD”—- Arabic, ‘by the permission of God.’” (Sutcliffe) — “troubled him.” “This spirit is, according to the narrative, not the condition itself of gloomy melancholy and torturing anguish, but an objective power which produced it. It is a wicked spiritual power, which came upon him as the opposite of the good Holy Spirit which he once possessed, and goaded him to rage and madness, finding its occasion in the conflict within his soul, and in the passionateness of his nature, which, after the spirit of the Lord left him, was unbridled." (Erdmann)
“Reader! what can equal that distress of soul which ariseth from the Lord's withdrawing his Holy Spirit. Man is then open and exposed to all the fiery darts of the enemy. Lord I would pray both for myself and reader; take not, oh! take not thine Holy Spirit from us” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary), making us, like Saul "jealous, irritable, vindictive, and subject to fits of morbid melancholy.” (Jameison-Faussett-Brown)
“And Saul’s [righteous] servants said to him, “Surely, 'a distressing spirit from God' is troubling you. Let our master now command your servants, who are before you, to seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp. And it shall be that he will play it with his hand when the distressing spirit from God is upon you, and you shall be well.’”
“‘Priests would call
On Heaven for aid: but then his brow would lower
With treble gloom. Peace! Heaven is good to all.
To all, he sighed, but one—God hears no prayers for Saul
At length one spake of music.’—HANKINSON.” (C. J. Ellicott)
So Saul agreed, saying said to his servants,
“Provide me now a man who can play well, and bring him to me.”— “Sin is the harbinger of sorrow. A bad heart makes a troubled life. One sin may blight the fairest prospects and fill a palace with gloom.”(Biblical Illustrator) Let us divert our attention. “Music, diversions, company, or business, have for a time often been employed to quiet the wounded conscience; but nothing can effect a real cure but the blood of Christ, applied in faith, and the sanctifying Spirit sealing the pardon, by his holy comforts. All other plans to dispel religious melancholy are sure to add to distress, either in this world or the next.” (Matthew Henry)
This tells how an entrance was made for David into the royal palace. Unbeknownst to all, the future king was coming to play the sacred hymns for king Saul, thus causing “an intermission of Satan’s work... Without this, music and other such like diversions would work but a palliate cure, and be but as a cup of cold water to him that is in a high fever.” (Trapp)
1 Samuel 16: David Serves in the Royal Court
18 Then one of the servants answered and said, “Look, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a handsome person; and the Lord is with him.” 19 Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse, and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.” 20 And Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine, and a young goat, and sent them by his son David to Saul. 21 So David came to Saul and stood before him. And he loved him greatly, and he became his armorbearer. 22 Then Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Please let David stand before me, for he has found favor in my sight.” 23 And so it was, whenever the spirit from God was upon Saul, that David would take a harp and play it with his hand. Then Saul would become refreshed and well, and the distressing spirit would depart from him.
“This story of how David first met Saul and how he came to the royal court makes two points. The first is that David did not engineer it. David was no ruthlessly ambitious man, determined to rise up the social ladder-any more than Saul himself had been (cp. chapter 9). David’s hands were clean. The second point is that God overruled to bring David to court, through the sheer chance (as it seemed) that one of Saul’s courtiers knew something about him and brought him to Saul’s attention [cf. Joseph]. So it was God, not David, who was responsible for the young man’s first steps towards the throne." (David Payne)
Saul “had rejected the Word of God and was given over into the hands of a demon. Such is also the case in the days of apostasy which are now upon Christendom. They depart from the faith and follow seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.” (Gaebelein) “Then one of the servants answered and said, ‘Look, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of [perhaps spiritual] war, prudent in speech [speaking the Word of God], and a handsome person [perhaps his face shown as Moses- Exodus 34:35]; and Yahweh is with him.’ — David‘s reputation for courage, skill, discretion, and manly beauty, was already great. Since ‘the Spirit of the Lord came upon him,’ his natural qualities and powers had been greatly enhanced. His feat of killing the lion and the bear had been performed, like Samson‘s feats of strength Judges 14:6, 19; 15:14, under the same supernatural influence, and was probably more or less known.” (Barnes)
“Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse, and said, ‘Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.’” “'And Jesse took an ass laden with bread.'— Great men love and look for presents, whereby men testify their respects unto them.” (Trapp) Here was the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, prophetic of the loyalty of his son, David forever to the king forever. "'So David came to Saul and stood before him.’ Providence thus prepared David for his destiny, by placing him in a way to become acquainted with the manners of the court, the business of government, and the general state of the kingdom.” (Jameison-Faussett-Brown)
“The Lord loved David, and caused his fellowmen to love him. 1 Samuel 16:13; 1 Samuel 16:18.” (Lange) “And he"- Saul, also - "loved him"- David- "greatly, and he became his armorbearer” perhaps for spiritual warfare. David served in the king's court and wore the armor of God. His waist was girded with truth, his breastplate with righteousness, and his feet were shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, he had the shield of faith with which he was able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And having taken the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for the king. (Ephesians 6:14-20)
“Then Saul sent to Jesse, saying, ‘Please let David stand before me, for he has found favor in my sight.’” “And it came to pass, when the [evil] spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.’ “to wit, for a season...” (Matthew Poole), allowed of God, "that his condemnation might be even more evident, for his [future] cruel hate toward him.” (Geneva Study Bible)