God Chooses a King
October 19th, 2025 “God Chooses a King” Rev. Heather Jepsen
1 Samuel 16:1-13
This morning, we continue our journey through the larger narrative of the Bible as a whole. Last week we read about the call of Samuel to be the new prophet. The Israelites were living as a group of tribes within the Promised Land but had lacked strong leadership for generations. The priest Eli had allowed his sons to soil the temple with their bad behavior so even the religious system was corrupt.
When we last heard from Samuel, he was a boy in the night, responding to God’s call to preach truth to power and let his boss Eli know that his reign in the temple was over. Since that time, Eli has died, and Samuel has grown old. The nation of Israel is under pressure from the Philistines, and the two groups are constantly at war. Please note here that Philistine could be read Palestinian. Israel and Palestine have been fighting over the same plot of land for centuries.
The Philistines are a more powerful nation that Israel. They have repeatedly beaten the nation of Israel in battle, including stealing the ark of the covenant and taking it back to Palestine. Sensing the leadership void, Samuel tries to make his own sons leaders over the nation. But the boys have the same problems Eli’s sons had and they are corrupted by greed.
The tribal leaders come together to beg God to give the nation of Israel a king. The Philistines have a king and the other nations around them do too. They feel like if they only had a king, then they could be united in their fight for the land. God argues against a king, warning the Israelites of all the corruption a kingdom can bring, but the people are adamant.
Finally, God relents, and Saul is chosen. Saul comes from a wealthy family, and he is a handsome young man. The writer tells us that “There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he; he stood head and shoulders above everyone else.”
Saul begins with success but before long things go south. He is a good leader and a fine king; he just doesn’t do a very good job of following directions. Remember that obedience to God is an important theme of this author, so when Saul fails repeatedly to be obedient God objects. As the author says, “The Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel.”
So, we come to our reading for today. God has decided that it is time to anoint a new king, and this time God is going to be in charge of who is chosen. As God says, “I have provided a king for myself.” Samuel is told to visit Bethlehem and perform a sacrifice with the sons of Jesse. Once there, God will make clear who the new king is.
Samuel is hesitant because this is an act of treason. You can’t anoint a new king while there is another king on the throne. And yet that is the word of God. Jesse gathers his sons and upon seeing the eldest Samuel is sure that he is the one. God tells him otherwise. Just because Eliab is strong or handsome, doesn’t mean that he is the king.
Samuel moves through all the children in succession but there is no king to be found among the sons of Jesse. Finally, Samuel asks Jesse if there might be another son not represented at the sacrifice. And Jesse admits that there is still a son out in the fields. Word is sent to bring the last son to the event.
When the son arrives God is clear, this is the chosen one, “Rise and anoint him: for this is the one.” Only now do we get the name of this youngest son, David. “And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him from that day forward.”
As we have been moving through these Old Testament stories, we have been discussing their authorship. Last week we talked about the Deuteronomistic Historian, and they are our author again today since we are continuing in the story of the monarchy in Israel. You might remember from last week that the majority of this material was written during the reform of Josiah in 622 BCE. King David reigned around 1000 BCE, so this was written over 400 years after that time.
The Deuteronomistic Historian is a strongly biased author. Remember that they are not writing a factual history of Israel. Rather they are writing a story of Israel’s history that is propaganda for Josaih’s reform. If Josiah is looking to restore the empire of David and align the monarchy with the mosaic law, then they are going to want to present David in the best light possible.
Historically, David is a usurper to the throne of Saul. Technically, if Saul is king and then David declares that he is king and eventually takes over the throne, that’s not ok. In fact, David’s use of the Israelite army against Saul could be understood as a military coop. That’s why we need to have a story written about how and why God chose David to be king instead of Saul. This is part of that story. So, you have your actual history of King Saul and King David, and then you go back and write the storied history which includes things that make David look better than Saul. This is also why you have David out in the field with the sheep. Shepherding imagery always equals king imagery in the Old Testament.
The beauty of this story is that even if it is written as propaganda for David, it contains wonderful theology about who God is and who God calls us to be. We talked last week about our themes of God’s changing relationship with God’s people, and the cycle of endings and beginnings as a huge part of that. This story, too, follows along that theme with the ending of Saul’s reign and the beginning of David’s. Also, it highlights the pivot between God letting the people help choose a leader and God deciding to choose for Godself.
Our story contains the wonderful message that God judges not by our appearance but by what is within our hearts. When Samuel is sure that the eldest son is the new king God says, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” God judges us based on the core of who we are, not on how the people around us see us.
The beauty of the David story is that God chooses those that we do not expect. David is the afterthought son, the extra kid, the oopsie baby. David is the last son of 8 and so he has no prospects for his future. He has no inheritance or promised success. David’s life will always and ever be working for someone else, never owning his own land. David is so much of nothing that even his own father forgets him. Why bother bringing that boy to the sacrifice, he is little more than a hired hand.
In David we find that God sees possibilities and futures for us that we can’t see. Jesse didn’t consider David to have any future beyond caring for someone else’s sheep. Samuel could barely see a new king after Saul. And yet God sees something in David that no one else does. A pure heart, a love for the Lord, and a real talent for leadership. David will become the greatest king in all of Israel, which will come as a surprise to everyone.
This past weekend was homecoming at Warrensburg high school and as you know, there can be no high school homecoming without a king and queen. While my mother and I sat in the stands watching the homecoming court get announced at the football game my mother leaned over and asked, “how did these kids get picked?” Like all parents and grandparents there I am sure the underlying question was “why isn’t my kid up there?” I told her that I was pretty sure that homecoming court is straight nominations and votes from the student body. It’s a popularity contest, pure and simple, and definitely something someone like Saul or David’s older brother Eliab would win.
The good news for us is that God doesn’t choose us based on a popularity contest. It doesn’t matter how beautiful or funny or popular we are. What matters is what’s in our hearts. God sees possibilities and futures that we can’t see. You won’t be surprised to find out that I was never a homecoming princess, in fact I never even went to a homecoming dance. But God saw possibilities in me that I didn’t. And that strange high school kid from 30 years ago has done some pretty amazing things with her life.
My friends, the good news for us today is that God chose David and God chooses us. It doesn’t matter what family we are born into or how handsome we are. It doesn’t matter how much money we have or how many followers we have on Instagram. God sees things people don’t see, the purity and goodness of our hearts. And further, God sees possibilities that we don’t see. God sees futures for us that we can’t even imagine today.
One day David was hanging out in a field, watching sheep graze, trying not to fall asleep in a sunbeam. And the next thing he knew his head was covered with oil and Samuel was declaring that God had chosen him to be king. His journey will be long and convoluted but his reign will be great. To think that he could go from being the throwaway son to the most famous king in all of Israel is almost impossible to imagine. Luckily, nothing is impossible with God. Amen.
