Bend Our Ears – 1 Samuel 16:1-13

A text – 1 Samuel 16:1-13

16 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” ² Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ ³ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do, and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.” ⁴ Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, “Do you come peaceably?” ⁵ He said, “Peaceably. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

⁶ When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely his anointed is now before the Lord.” ⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him, for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” ⁸ Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. 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 Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.” ¹¹ Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him, for we will not sit down until he comes here.” ¹² He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. The Lord said, “Rise and anoint him, for this is the one.” ¹³ Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.

A reflection:

My former colleague at Luther Seminary Dr Rolf Jacobson says that this favorite story from 1 Samuel is a story about seeing and hearing. It turns out Samuel’s ears were more reliable than his eyes. Samuel was the prophet whom God sent to anoint Saul as Israel’s first king – the people had been clamoring for a king and loved Saul who was tall and mighty and a great warrior. But the Lord knew Saul’s heart and mind were troubled. So before Saul had even died, God told Samuel that he (God) had “provided himself a king among [Jesse the Bethlehemite’s] sons.” Rolf says the Hebrew term in this sentence is not actually “provided himself” but rather “seen to the choosing of” a king – literally seeing and knowing the one who will be great. God has seen, so he sends Samuel out.

When Samuel comes to Jesse’s family and meets the sons one by one, Samuel is reasonably sure each one he sees in turn has the merits God seeks, but one by one God tells Samuel “Nope. You are looking with human eyes at his outward appearance; I look upon the heart.” At last David is called in, the youngest, who tended the sheep and wrote psalms. “That’s the one,” God tells Samuel. And God has years of time to send his spirit upon David to make him into the king God knows Israel will need. This creation of a king by God places David in harm’s way as Saul descends into mental illness, but David learns to trust the Lord. God knew that to outlast Saul and rule well, David would need what God would develop in him.

What a tale. If we depend on our eyesight and a person’s appearance, we might easily be wrong, but if we bend our ears to hear what God is calling us to decide, we will have a much better chance of living into God’s preferred and promised future for us. Trust your ears and listen to the Lord.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for telling us what you want from us. Help us to listen to you and not be fooled by what we see. Your promised future for us is what we most want. Amen.