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1 Samuel 16-17

Man looks at the outward appearance but...

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Reading

1 Samuel 16:1-13

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David’s Ancestry

Judah & Tamar
Perez
Hezron (Genesis 46, Numbers 26)
Ram
Amminadab (Exodus 6 - father of Aaron’s wife)
Nahshon (Exodus 6, Numbers - a head/chief)
Salmon & Rahab (Matthew 1)
Boaz & Ruth
Obed
Jesse
David

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1 Samuel 16:1-13

1 - God providing a king for Himself
2 - Heifer sacrifices - Genesis 15:9, Numbers 19, Deuteronomy 21
2-3 - God providing a way for Samuel to more safely do this
4 - Trembling could be due to general fearful reverence or perhaps something more specific in recent history of Saul/Samuel
6-7 - Even Samuel misses some of God’s intent here and needs some correction (also see verses 1-2)

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1 Samuel 16:1-13

10-11 - Note how Samuel is willing to wait and double-check to make sure he’s doing what God tells him, rather than getting frustrated and giving into potential alternative, man-made decisions
12 - David still has a good appearance, even if that’s not what God is looking at
13 - It’s not entirely clear if the meaning of this anointing was made clear to Jesse and his family at this time

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Discussion Question

What is God looking for in the heart?

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We saw back in 1 Samuel 13:14 that God had selected a new ruler for his people, someone “after His own heart”. And here again in 1 Samuel 16:7, we see that God is looking at the heart in His selection of a new person to be king.

This is in contrast to how man typically seems to look at things - by outward appearances. If God is instead looking at something different, that’s something we should take note of and seek to learn from.

(Though note that a lot of people do recognize certain “inner” qualities that may not have to do with outward appearances - that is important for the practical fact that the best things needed for a given situation may be an inner, rather than external quality. But God’s probably going even deeper/further than that here…)

It’s not really explicitly stated what this means in this opening section of 1 Samuel 16, but we can look to other Scripture to get a more concrete idea of some of the things God may be looking for when He looks at the heart:

If we go back to 1 Samuel 13:14, we see that Saul was rejected for not keeping what God commanded him to do. We see this brought up to Saul again in 1 Samuel 15:22-23. This suggests that willing obedience - someone seeking out the heart of God in order to obey what God wants - is an important characteristic.
Also see example in 1 Samuel 7:3.
And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. - Deuteronomy 8:2 (ESV)
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? - Deuteronomy 10:12-13 (ESV)
...he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you... - 1 Kings 3:6 (ESV)
I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness… - 1 Chronicles 29:17 (ESV)
O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; - Psalm 15:1-2 (ESV)
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. - Psalm 24:3-4 (ESV)
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. - Ecclesiastes 12:13 (ESV)
For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. - Isaiah 57:15 (ESV)
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. - Jeremiah 31:33 (ESV)
...And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. - Jeremiah 32:40 (ESV)
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. - Ezekiel 36:26-27 (ESV)
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? - Micah 6:8 (ESV)
Matthew 5:8
Matthew 6:19-21
Matthew 15:8
Luke 6:45
John 6:29
Acts 13:22
Acts 15:9
Romans 2:15
Romans 6:17
Romans 8:5-8
Romans 10:9-10
Ephesians 3:17
Ephesians 5:18-21
Colossians 3:12-17
1 Thessalonians 3:13
2 Thessalonians 2:17
2 Thessalonians 3:5
1 Timothy 1:5
2 Timothy 2:22
Hebrews 11:6
James 4:8
1 Peter 1:22
1 Peter 3:4
1 Peter 3:8
1 Peter 3:15

Why is all of this important? Someone who loves God will seek out the heart of God to find what God wants, will be willing to obey the direction God gives him, and will be willing to do this in a spirit of humility. All of this keeps God and His anointed earthly king in their proper roles. An earthly king with the proper heart will not reject God as King (1 Samuel 8:7) but instead make it his aim to keep God as the true King (Deuteronomy 17:18-20).

I find some of this interesting when looking at the Hebrew word used for “heart” here - https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3824.htm. One aspect of the meaning behind that word includes “will”, which suggests what someone desires to do and is willing to do.

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Reading

1 Samuel 16:14-23

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In verse 14, we see that there’s an “evil spirit from the LORD” came to torment him. This is sometimes seen as a controversial passage, and we don’t really know at a super-specific level of detail what’s going on. But below are a few thoughts:

The Hebrew word (https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7451.htm) translated as “evil” (in some translations) has a broader range of meaning than what we may associate with “evil” in English. You can see this some in the variety of ways this is translated in English (https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Samuel%2016:14).
The phrase “from God” could be seen as a statement of God’s authority - no evil could come unless God allowed it to (since He has ultimate power and sovereignty to stop it). We see the somewhat “extreme” (or at least more detailed) side of this in Job 1.
This kind of event of an “evil” spirit from God isn’t unique - see Judges 9, 1 Kings 22:19-23.
Also see 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.
God uses things that may be considered “evil” as a way of judgment in numerous instances recorded throughout the Bible.

Regardless, we see from this event that (1) Saul is not left without a form of relief (through David) and (2) through this opportunity, David ends up with exposure to the “inner court” of King Saul. We can speculate on exactly how God may have planned and used these opportunities for good (certainly would be in keeping with how He acts), but we don’t know exactly why from this text.

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Reading

1 Samuel 17:1-11
1 Samuel 17:12-30
1 Samuel 17:31-39
1 Samuel 17:40-58

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For maps regarding this battle, see:

Goliah’s size:

6 cubits would be about 9 feet (1 cubit is about 1.5 feet)
Some manuscripts have 4 cubits instead of 6.
The armor/weapons he had were not light.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubit#Biblical_cubit, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_and_Talmudic_units_of_measurement, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath#Goliath's_height
1 and 2 Samuel: An Introduction and Commentary, Faithlife Study Bible, The NET Bible First Edition Notes

How old was David?

Numbers 1:3 suggests only men over 20 years old could be in the army, and given the fact that only David’s 3 oldest brothers were in the army, that suggests David may not have been old enough.
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5288.htm is the word used for “youth” in 1 Samuel 17:33, the same word used to describe Samuel in 1 Samuel 3:1. It does have a broader range of meaning than just “boy”, so it could still technically include “young men” who could potentially in the army.
https://www.gotquestions.org/how-old-was-David.html

Note David double-checking what’s supposedly been offered by King saul to the man who kills Goliath (1 Samuel 17:25-30). And note David’s brother Eliab’s response to David coming here (1 Samuel 17:28).

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Discussion Questions (1 Samuel 17)

What were Saul and the rest of his men focused on?

What was David focused on?

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What were Saul and the rest of his men focused on?

A lot of time at the beginning of 1 Samuel 17 is spent describing physical characteristics of Goliath - descriptions that seem to indicate his large size and strength compared to any other men in the Israelite army (likely including Saul who was “a head taller” - 1 Samuel 9:2). Goliath presents a challenge - one-on-one combat (1 Samuel 17:8-10) - and the Israelites are afraid (1 Samuel 17:11). Why are they afraid? We don’t get a explicit answer at this point in the story, but the implication is that they’re afraid they’d lose. Why would they think they’d lose? Well, in the one-on-one combat proposal by Goliath, looking at physical characteristics, the larger warrior Goliath would be more likely to win. If we read on to look at 1 Samuel 17:24, we see some further hints that this is likely why the Israelites were afraid - “when they saw the man” likely means be afraid of what they saw (likely the physical strength described at the beginning of the chapter).

So Saul and the rest of the men in his army seem to be focused on the apparent physical strength of Goliath in contrast to their own - they see a bigger opposing warrior and don’t see a way out of this conundrum. This is further emphasized when Saul sees David and says David isn’t able to fight against Goliath because of David’s youth in contrast to Goliath many-years of battle experience (1 Samuel 17:33).

What was David focused on?

When David first comes onto the scene, one of the first things he notices is that Goliah is defying the armies appointed and sent out by the living God (1 Samuel 17:26). He’s first recognizing the identity of his people who have been chosen by God, and he sees something wrong with someone trying to defy God.

When David is brought to Saul, he describes his experience killing lions and bears in his shepherding work (1 Samuel 17:34-37). He further re-emphasizes why Goliath shall be killed as part of this description - for defying the armies of the living God (1 Samuel 17:36). But also notice how David sees the path to victory in both his shepherding experiences and this battle - God will deliver him (1 Samuel 17:37).

Here we see the key difference in what David sees and what he is focused on - David’s focused more on God than Goliath or whatever challenges might come his way. When Saul and his armies see Goliath, they appear to just be seeing Goliath and themselves. But David sees God, and he knows what God is capable of (and the differences between that and what Goliath has - 1 Samuel 17:45-46) and presumably the promises God has made to the Israelites to fight for them (1 Samuel 17:47). And with God, Goliath doesn’t really stand a chance. And Goliath falls into basically the same trap as the Israelite army by looking at physical appearances - specifically David’s youth/small size (1 Samuel 17:42-43). But we see a key to David’s success is his faith in God (Hebrews 11:32-34)

How did David seem to have or cultivate this worldview that differed from the rest of the Israelites? We don’t really know for sure, but there’s one interesting observation to make from this section...When David’s speaking to Saul (1 Samuel 17:34-37), his explanation for why Goliath will be defeated is tied back to his experiences as part of his regular shepherding duties. So in addition to what David may have been taught about God from the words spoken by others, he had some personal experiences to point back to. And these experiences were in the midst of his everyday work. Therefore, it would appear that David wasn’t being “idle” regarding God and his spiritual life during this time - he was making sure that God was integrated into his daily life and seeking to make the most of the opportunities given in the context of those days and his work to cultivate that faith.

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Summary

Look at and cultivate more than just outward appearances:

The heart, the inner being of a person from which all other things flow.
Faith and relationship with God - you are not alone, and God is mightier than anything else.

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Summary of key points

So now, tying back to the premise on the title slide of this presentation...Man typically looks at outward appearances for making judgments and decisions while going through life. But we’ve seen at least two things through 1 Samuel 16-17 that we need to keep in mind:

The heart, the inner being of a person from which all other things flow (Proverbs 4:23, Matthew 12:33-35, Luke 6:45). Part of the idea of the “spiritual” heart may actually be closely related to the physical heart - a central, physical organ that pumps blood (life) throughout the rest of the body.
God exists, and He is loving, all-powerful (John 16:33, Romans 8:38-39, Hebrews 13:5-6), and so much more (even if things are sometimes unseen - 2 Kings 6:15-17, 2 Corinthians 4:18). He wants you so much that He sent His Son Jesus to die for you (John 3:16). He has promised us many things through His Scripture that has been passed down to us. Cultivate your relationship with Him and place your faith (2 Corinthians 5:7, Hebrews 11:1) in Him.

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Upcoming Schedule

March 1 - Psalm 78 in class
March 8 - No class; 1 service in current building @ 10am (DST time change)
March 15 - No class; 1 service in current building @ 10am

Lunch, etc. @ 12:30pm at LeGrand’s home

March 22 - No class; Regular 9:30 and 11:00am services in new building
March 29 - Psalm 16 in class; back to normal schedule in new building
April 5 - Psalm 22 in class
April 12 - No class; Lots of Easter services
April 19 - Start of Colossians in class

https://www.cfcwired.org/uploads/singletimelinewithauction.pdf

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