Lent Four

Preparation

Please begin by reading 1 Samuel 16:1-13 in your Bible. If you do not have one at hand, we have provided the text for you at the end of this reflection.

Reflection--Choices

A sentence from a commentary stood out as I did my background reading about this week’s lesson:  “One of the most basic themes of the entire biblical message is that God finds possibilities for grace in the most unexpected places and through the most unlikely persons.”*

That sentence was something of a rebuke.  Not infrequently I loose sight of God’s possibilities and get wrapped up in the negatives of the present situation.  I get discouraged about the setbacks of the moment or the outward appearance of things.  Perhaps like you, I can forget that faithfully seeking God’s choices and acting on them, as Samuel did, always works out for the best.  I grow impatient and discouraged because I do not have the vision to see where God’s choices for me and for others can ultimately lead.

If we were looking for a great leader for God’s people, it is not likely that we would have gone looking for David.  We know from the Bible that his great grandmother was an immigrant woman, Ruth.  We know from the book of Joshua that another of David’s ancestors was a foreign prostitute named Rahab.  He was one of many children of a family from a small, backwater village called Bethlehem.  Even in that family, he was apparently not the tallest or most physically impressive; a not insignificant factor in an age when a king was expected to be a powerful warrior.

But none of that mattered to God.  “God finds possibilities for grace in the most unexpected places and through the most unlikely persons.”  For God saw right to the heart of things.  Even though it would take years for it all to work out, God saw that this shepherd boy would ultimately become the greatest leader the nation of Israel would ever have.

And there is an even more powerful example of how God uses the unlikely.  There would another child born in that same obscure village.  One born to an unmarried woman.  One who would be executed as a criminal while still a young adult.  And yet as someone once wrote, “Centuries have come and gone and today He is the central figure of the human race and the leader of the column of progress.  I am within the mark when I say that all the armies that have marched and all the navies that have sailed, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned put together, have not affected the life of people upon the earth as that one solitary life."

So appearances and the surface of things and bleak setbacks along the way need not discourage us.  Even for such as you and I, being faithful to God’s choices is full of magnificent possibilities.

revclay

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1 Samuel 16:1-13

God 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." 

Samuel said, "How can I go?  If Saul hears of it, he will kill me."

And God said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to God.'  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." 

Samuel did what God commanded, and came to Bethlehem.  The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, "Do you come peaceably?"  He said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to God; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. 

When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely God's anointed is now before God."  But God said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart." 

Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel.  He said, "Neither has God chosen this one."  Then Jesse made Shammah pass by.  And he said, "Neither has God chosen this one."  Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, "God has not chosen any of these." 

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." 

He sent and brought him in.  Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome.  God said, "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one." 

Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of God came mightily upon David from that day forward.  Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.