Outward Inward and Oil

Alternate heading - If There's Something Strange In Your Neighbourhood. Who Ya Gonna Call? David Buster! :)

1 Samuel 16

- GOD tells Samuel to stop grieving over Saul being rejected, fill his horn with anointing oil and go to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for GOD has provided for himself a King among his sons. Notice GOD could have just told Samuel who it was, but GOD is also providing a lesson for Samuel and us.

- We are never to old learn and like Samuel in our walk with GOD, he has things to teach us along the way. Keep listening and keep learning from him.

- There also seams to be a good amount of fear floating around, Samuel is afraid Saul will hear about his trip and try to kill him and the elders are fearful of Samuel’s visit to Bethlehem.

- Under the pretence of a sacrifice to the LORD Samuel invites Jesse and his family to the feast.

- When Jesse’s first son is brought to Samuel he saw his height, his appearance and concluded that this was the LORD’s anointed. Wrong, let the lesson begin, the LORD looks at the heart not the outward appearance.

- Saul was the people choice because of his height and appearance, they judged by what they could see, GOD concentrates on the heart.

- Samuel learns that what appears to be good and beautiful to the eyes, could very well be an anointed rebel who refuses to follow the word of GOD, like Saul. This has makings of another ‘poke in the eye’ to a certain anointed Cherub we have heard about before.

- Jesse sends for David who is out tending the sheep. When David comes in the LORD says to Samuel this is he, anoint him, then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him. Samuel rose up, job done and he went to Ramah.

- David gets his first job in King Saul’s court as a someone who is skilled in playing music. He gets a referral from an unnamed young man in Saul’s court who recommends a son of Jesse a Bethlehemite, calling him skilful in playing, a man of valour, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the LORD is with him. It is interesting when you think about this recommendation, it is because the LORD is with David, that the rest of that is possible.

- This job opening was available for David because when the LORD had departed from Saul and the space was filled by an evil spirit who tormented King Saul. I’m sure your familiar with the idiom ‘Nature abhors a vacuum’,  it is definitely true in Saul’s case.

- Exorcism, the casting out of evil spirits, this is found extensively in the New Testament,  but rare or seemingly non-existent in the old testament, or so we think.

- Consider for a moment what the people of King Saul’s court said, they recognised it was a harmful spirit from GOD tormenting him.

(GOD is the father of all spirits so technically they are all from GOD, but what some of them choose to do is a another matter)

- What they have to say in verse 16 is even more interesting - “Let our lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skilful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well.” This was not a random suggestion, they or someone they knew had experienced this before, they recognised it and also knew that this remedy had worked before. This was not a new event or had never happened before and it certainly was not new to the intended audience of the writer of 1 Samuel because he didn’t need to explain it.

- The fact that David could get rid of the evil spirit by his music and words, shows that he could cast out evil spirits. The evil spirits returned, but this was not a slight to David’s authority over them or that GOD was not with him. It was because Saul choose not change his ways and continued to operate apart from GOD’s will. David provided the cleaning for Saul’s “house”, but Saul continued renting out to bad tenants.

- At first Saul loved David, even making him his armour-bearer, he had permanent employment in the courts of Saul.

Points to ponder – Jesus came casting out evil spirits and the people of that time period didn’t think it strange because they knew of a son of Jesse, a King of Israel that had already demonstrated the same GOD given authority.

If GOD’s spirit is not occupying someone’s house (life), who or what is squatting there because they can.

Next – Dude, I Think He’s Stoned!