In our last episode, we saw how God had taught Samuel some lessons in living with wisdom as He directed Samuel to anoint David to become the next king over Israel and Judah. Samuel learned that wise living includes releasing the past, watching our words, seeing people and situations as God sees them, and seizing the day when opportunities are presented to us by God. Now, our focus will turn to David, the young shepherd boy whom Samuel had been told to anoint as king. How would he respond to this opportunity which had been presented to him by God? David became a model of humble service, unlike another young man whom I recently read about:
This young fellow was a new husband, and he and his young bride moved into their first house together. They were learning how to live on their own, without the help of their parents or their siblings, and that included making minor home repairs. One of their light fixtures had developed a fault which caused the bulb to begin blinking, and the young husband decided he would repair it. His equally young wife knew he’d never done such a thing before, and she suggested that they should hire an electrician. Her husband scoffed at that, “We don’t need to spend all that money, I’ll watch a video on-line and take care of it.” Despite her vociferous protests, the young man said, “Quit your fussing! I have this all under control!” He climbed up a ladder that he had borrowed from their neighbor, but it was too short. He then ascended to the very top step, whereupon the ladder tipped over and fell from under him. As he, too, fell, he latched onto the light fixture to save himself. Down came the ladder, down came the young man, down came the light fixture, and down came half of the ceiling of the room. When the dust settled, the young man jumped up, holding the fixture above his head, exclaiming, “I fixed it! It won’t blink anymore!” What his wife said in reply is unprintable.
Proverbs 16:18 tells us that, “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.” Young David could have fallen prey to that temptation, but with God’s grace and power in his life, he didn’t. We will begin by reading 1 Samuel 16:14-23,
Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and an evil spirit sent from the Lord began to torment him, so Saul’s servants said to him, “You see that an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our lord command your servants here in your presence to look for someone who knows how to play the lyre. Whenever the evil spirit from God comes on you, that person can play the lyre, and you will feel better.” Then Saul commanded his servants, “Find me someone who plays well and bring him to me.” One of the young men answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is also a valiant man, a warrior, eloquent, handsome, and the Lord is with him.” Then Saul dispatched messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.” So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a wineskin, and one young goat and sent them by his son David to Saul. When David came to Saul and entered his service, Saul loved him very much, and David became his armor-bearer. Then Saul sent word to Jesse: “Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor with me.” Whenever the spirit from God came on Saul, David would pick up his lyre and play, and Saul would then be relieved, feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.
Service Without Subversion:
Almost from the moment that David was anointed by Samuel, his story became intertwined with Saul’s. The timeline of their relationship is very intricate and convoluted, and the Biblical account of their relationship may not be completely chronological. Like with the Gospel of John, the timeline of these events is not always clear, but the lessons God intends for us to learn however, are crystal clear. 1st Samuel presents to us two facets of how David came to be in service to Saul, and there may have been more which the Holy Spirit did not lead the Biblical authors to record. Both stemmed from a need that only David could fulfill.
The first need was a personal one. Saul had become a tormented soul, and the only therapy that eased his spirit was music. David was a skilled musician, and he did Saul a great personal service by playing the harp for him. This brought David into Saul’s household, which gave David access to all the sordid details of Saul’s disaster of a life. What use did David make of this knowledge? Well, none, actually.
The “holy grail” of a national intelligence agency is to place a source at the seat of power of their enemy. This is called a penetration agent or a mole. This type of spy gives access to the juiciest kind of intelligence, upon which action can be taken that could cause the fall of a king or even a nation. Yet David never used his access to Saul and the inner workings of Saul’s court in that way. Why not?
First, Saul was not David’s enemy, he was David’s king. David had been designated as his successor, but Saul still sat upon the throne. David’s attitude towards Saul will be seen later in their mutual story, when Saul was chasing David to kill him. David had the chance to kill Saul in a cave but didn’t. 1 Samuel 24:6 reveals David’s heart in this matter,
He said to his men, “As the Lord is my witness, I would never do such a thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed. I will never lift my hand against him, since he is the Lord’s anointed.”
In addition to this, through his experiences as a shepherd, David had learned to trust in the Lord. In 1 Samuel 17:37 we read,
Then David said, “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Although he had many opportunities to do so, David never tried to manipulate God’s plan for his life and for Saul’s, either. In contrast to that, I know of a former youth pastor who conspired to push the pastor of his church out of his position so that the youth pastor could take his place. David refused to do that kind of thing, and he is a model of humble service without subversion. Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 17:55-58,
When Saul had seen David going out to confront the Philistine, he asked Abner the commander of the army, “Whose son is this youth, Abner?” “Your Majesty, as surely as you live, I don’t know,” Abner replied. The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is!” When David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the Philistine’s head still in his hand. Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” “The son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem,” David answered.
Service In The Shadows:
The second need to which David responded was a need of God’s people in battle. At least he did so in due course. First, however, he had some more mundane needs to fulfill.
When Samuel anointed David to be king, it changed David’s destiny, but did it change his life? In the short-term, the answer was, no. David was still the youngest of eight sons of Jesse, and he still took care of his father’s sheep. David came to the attention of Saul because of his confrontation with Goliath, but we must remember why David was there on the battlefield in the first place. He only came to the battlefield to bring his brothers their lunch!
God graciously offers His people the opportunity to work alongside Him. Sometimes these opportunities are big, and flashy, and complicated. Sometimes, they involve making lunch.
One of my favorite characters in the Bible rendered their service in the shadows, and they do so even until this day. That person is the one who made the lunch of five loaves and two fishes that Jesus used to feed the five thousand men, plus women and children. We don’t know who made this little boy’s lunch. Chances are that it was a mother or older sister. In any case, some unknown, but diligent parent or sibling thought, “There is no way I am going to let Junior go out without some food!” Then they proceeded to put feet to their thoughts and made a common, every day, but perfectly adequate lunch . . . for one!
They had no way of knowing what Jesus was going to do with their act of diligence. They could never have imagined that Jesus would feed a multitude with such meager rations. They only knew that the right thing, the diligent thing, to do was to send out their son or brother with lunch. Because they were diligent in a small, everyday matter, they got to be a silent partner with Jesus in one of His most famous miracles!
So, what if that unsung mom or sister didn’t do the right thing that morning? What if they had slept late, or what if they didn’t care if Junior went hungry? Would that have kept Jesus from feeding everyone (including Junior)? Of course not; Jesus as Creator could make bread and fish appear from nowhere. Everyone would have still been fed, and there still would have been baskets and baskets of leftovers. The only one to miss out would have been the silent partner, the slothful sluggard who let a little boy leave home without lunch.
David, too, faithfully served in the shadows, that is, until he was thrust into the limelight. Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 18:5-9,
David marched out with the army and was successful in everything Saul sent him to do. Saul put him in command of the fighting men, which pleased all the people and Saul’s servants as well. As the troops were coming back, when David was returning from killing the Philistine, the women came out from all the cities of Israel to meet King Saul, singing and dancing with tambourines, with shouts of joy, and with three-stringed instruments. As they danced, the women sang: Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands. Saul was furious and resented this song. “They credited tens of thousands to David,” he complained, “but they only credited me with thousands. What more can he have but the kingdom?” So Saul watched David jealously from that day forward.
Service In The Limelight:
One fact that Jesus highlighted in His teaching, is that the truth of our lives will, sooner or later, be exposed. As He said, in Mark 4:22,
For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing concealed that will not be brought to light.
This is a fact for both the good aspects of our lives, as well as the bad. As one old saying puts it, “The cream will always rise to the top,” and as my friend from my deployment to Iraq always said, “You can’t hide money!” Despite how humble and unassuming David was, he still had skills, and he also had been given an anointing from God. Sooner or later, he was going to make a splash, and he did. He didn’t try to do anything special, he just could not help himself.
Also, it is clear from the Scriptures that David was not a “one hit wonder.” David was able to consistently and effectively meet the security needs of God’s people. The interesting part about this tale of David’s success was not that it happened; the interesting part is how people reacted to it.
First, God’s people were thrilled. Nothing succeeds like success, and the people of God loved what they saw in David’s life. They loved what they saw so much, that David became a celebrity. The praise of people is intoxicating, but it is a high that does not, and cannot, last. Psalm 103:15-16 reminds us,
As for man, his days are like grass—he blooms like a flower of the field; when the wind passes over it, it vanishes, and its place is no longer known.
The crowds that proclaimed Jesus on Palm Sunday were replaced on Good Friday by the crowds that called for Jesus to be crucified. We will see that as much as anyone might enjoy the fame that David received, David was a model for us, because his focus was on serving God. As Paul reminds us in Galatians 1:10, our true audience is God, saying,
For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
If the people loved David, Saul did not. He became jealous of David’s fame, and he became jealous of David’s success. Maybe Saul saw in David what might have been in his life, but regardless, David’s fame turned Saul’s love for him into something sour and bitter.
Like fame, we must also not take the jealousy of other people to heart. When another becomes jealous of us, it can hurt our feelings, and we can feel threatened by them. However, it is imperative we must remember whom it is we actually serve. Paul reminded the church at Corinth of this in 1 Corinthians 3:5-9,
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So, then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
So, what did David think about all of this? We can see that in 1 Samuel 18:20-23,
Now Saul’s daughter Michal loved David, and when it was reported to Saul, it pleased him. “I’ll give her to him,” Saul thought. “She’ll be a trap for him, and the hand of the Philistines will be against him.” So Saul said to David a second time, “You can now be my son-in-law.” Saul then ordered his servants, “Speak to David in private and tell him, ‘Look, the king is pleased with you, and all his servants love you. Therefore, you should become the king’s son-in-law.’” Saul’s servants reported these words directly to David, but he replied, “Is it trivial in your sight to become the king’s son-in-law? I am a poor commoner.”
Despite the intoxicating applause of the people, and despite the fearsome jealousy of King Saul, David remembered whom he served and he didn’t allow the limelight to overshadow his call from God. Finally, let’s read I Samuel 18:28-19:2
Saul realized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved him, and he became even more afraid of David. As a result, Saul was David’s enemy from then on. Every time the Philistine commanders came out to fight, David was more successful than all of Saul’s officers. So, his name became well known. Saul ordered his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Saul’s son Jonathan liked David very much, so he told him, “My father, Saul, intends to kill you. Be on your guard in the morning and hide in a secret place and stay there.”
Service In The Wilderness:
Saul had now reached what I call his Popeye Moment. Like Popeye, his attitude towards this upstart David was, “I’ve stood all I can stand, and I can’t stand no more!” In his madness and jealousy, Saul decided he had to kill David. To be clear, no universe exists in God’s Creation in which murder for jealousy is a righteous act. By this mindset, Saul demonstrated to all how low he had sunk in his spiritual condition. This was bad news for David, but in the event, however, he had more hope than Saul did.
Despite Saul’s anger at him, David still had friends who were righteous people, and one of those was Jonathan, Saul’s son and David’s best friend. Jonathan warned David, and that would allow David to escape into the wilderness to fight another day.
Many of God’s servants in the Bible have experienced a wilderness experience, so many that it almost seems like a rite of passage: Abraham, Moses, and David, each journeyed through a literal wilderness, while Joseph, Daniel, and Nehemiah, had figurative wilderness experiences. Peter was in a spiritual wilderness from the moment he denied Christ on the night He had been betrayed until dawn on the first Easter Sunday. Paul spent three years in solitude, being taught a renewed and redeemed understanding of Scripture, and Jesus, Himself, fasted in the desert forty days before His triumph over the temptations of Satan. I believe we can take three practical lessons from these experiences that we can apply to our lives today.
First, wilderness experiences sometimes occur because of our own sin. Despite that, God will not abandon us, but when we repent, He will lead us through to the other side.
Second, wilderness experiences sometimes occur because God wants to teach us lessons that can only be taught in that way. The school of hard knocks is a thing, and sometimes, that is the only school with the curriculum that we need so that we can grow and mature and serve God effectively.
Finally, wilderness experiences always give us the opportunity to trust God, and when we do, He always proves Himself to us, and He always receives the glory that He is due. As the old hymn paraphrases Malachi 3,
Trust Me, try Me, prove Me, saith the Lord of hosts, and see if a blessing, unmeasured blessing, I will not pour out on thee.
Conclusion:
For the servants of God, for those who are His co-workers, humility is always the best course of action. This is not the way of the world, but God’s Kingdom is not of it, but it is above it. In these Scriptures above, David a model of humble service, and one we should emulate. Our humble service to God brings Him the glory He deserves, and the blessings that we need.
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