Taking a Closer Look at David in 1 & 2 Samuel

    Saul wasn't the king everyone thought he was.  I learned in 1 Samuel 15 that Saul's outright disobedience of Samuel's orders disqualified him from continuing as Israel's king.  Right away in the very next chapter, God tells Samuel to go to Bethlehem because He's going to show him Saul's replacement.  

Fill your horn with oil, and go, I will send you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I have selected for Myself a king from among his sons.  1 Samuel 16:1

     When Samuel arrives, he tells Jesse that he'd like to meet his sons.  Jesse had eight sons, and he didn't even think of calling David in from the fields because he was probably just a teenager.  As each of Jesse's sons came up to Samuel, it's like God was saying, nope, not this one.  Finally Samuel asked Jesse if had any more sons. As soon as Samuel saw David, God told him that he was going to be Israel's next king. 

    After David's anointing, however, there wasn't a triumphal procession the next day or anything spectacular. Instead of that there was about 15 years of David's being persecuted and even hunted down by Saul.  Does that surprise you?  It did me. I mean take a look at David--He was a brave shepherd boy who even fought a bear to protect his father's sheep!  That takes both guts and courage.  In his battle with Goliath we also see that courage.

    David must also have played his harp to calm the sheep down at night and got pretty good at it, because later David is recommended to play for Saul whenever his nerves got jangled.  This turn of events brought David into close proximity with Saul. When Saul saw  that his daughter Michal loved David, he gave him a seemingly impossible battle wager.  He thought he had come up with an easy way to get rid of David.   But David met it, and Saul had to let David become his son-in-law. . So why all the turmoil between Saul and David?  I learned that God had a purpose behind it all as Witness Lee points out on page 80 in chapter 12 of the Life-Study of 1 & 2 Samuel:

"David was prepared by God to be a man according to the heart of God....2 Samuel 5:4 tells us that David was 30 years old when he began to reign.  After David, a boy of about 15, was anointed by Samuel, he was tested for about 15 years.  In particular, he was bothered and troubled by Saul.  Eventually David passed the test and was approved by God" (:Lee. Witness. Life-Study of 1 & 2 Samuel. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1994, Print).  

      After David's battle with Goliath, the people praised David more highly than Saul.  This made Saul very jealous, and from then on Saul's anger increased to the point that he plotted to even kill his son-in-law David! Yikes, but in everything Saul did against him, David never sinned.  Over and over we can see God perfecting this young man to become a king who could one day rule God's people.  What I see here is we shouldn't be surprised at what happens to us because like David God is working all the things out in our lives to prepare us to rule in His kingdom. 

Other Posts on 1 & 2 Samuel:

 You can listen to excerpts of Witness Lee's speaking on the books of Samuel on the  Life Study of the Bible  with Witness Lee.   You can also read the online Life-Study of 1 & 2 Samuel and check out other resources available to enhance your study of the Bible on Living Stream Ministry's website.

What We Can Learn From Hannah in Her Prayer in 1 Samuel 1
How God Used Samuel at a Degraded Time in Israel's History
Taking a Closer Look at David in 1 & 2 Samuel

What is God's Building in 2 Samuel 7:5?