1 Samuel 16:1-6: a reflection

1The LORD said to Samuel, “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.” 2Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” The LORD said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ 3Call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. You shall anoint to me him whom I name to you.” 4Samuel did that which the LORD spoke, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” 5He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” He sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice. 6When they had come, he looked at Eliab, and said, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him.”

God comes to Samuel with a question that gently rebukes his prolonged grief: how long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from being king? God does not scold Samuel for grieving, but he calls him forward: fill your horn with oil and go, for I have provided myself a king among the sons of Jesse of Bethlehem. There is a time to grieve what has been lost, but there is also a time to move forward into what God is doing next. God had already provided a new king; it was time for Samuel to go and anoint him.

The passage also plants a lesson that unfolds in the following verses. When Samuel arrives and sees Jesse's oldest son, Eliab, tall and impressive, he thinks, surely this is the Lord's anointed. But he is mistaken; God will choose the youngest, David, whom no one else considered. Samuel judged by outward appearance, as we all tend to do, but God, as the next verse reveals, looks at the heart. What impresses us is not what God is looking for.

Two things to carry from this. First, there is a time to grieve, but also a time to move forward into what God is doing next; do not let mourning over what is lost keep you from the new thing God has provided. Second, remember that God sees differently than we do. We are impressed by outward appearance, height, looks, obvious talent, but God looks at the heart. Do not judge people, or yourself, by the surface. And when God calls you forward from a season of loss, go, trusting that he has already provided what comes next.

Lord, you gently called Samuel forward from his mourning, for you had already provided a new king, and you chose not the impressive eldest but the one after your own heart. When grief over what is lost holds me back, call me forward into what you are doing next. And teach me to see as you see, not by outward appearance but by the heart. Move me forward, and give me your eyes. Amen.