Nobodies into Somebodies
1 Samuel 16:1–11
Samuel Anoints David as King
Now the Lord said to Samuel, “You have mourned long enough for Saul. I have rejected him as king of Israel, so fill your flask with olive oil and go to Bethlehem. Find a man named Jesse who lives there, for I have selected one of his sons to be my king.”
2 But Samuel asked, “How can I do that? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.”
“Take a heifer with you,” the Lord replied, “and say that you have come to make a sacrifice to the Lord. 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you which of his sons to anoint for me.”
4 So Samuel did as the Lord instructed. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town came trembling to meet him. “What’s wrong?” they asked. “Do you come in peace?”
5 “Yes,” Samuel replied. “I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Purify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then Samuel performed the purification rite for Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice, too.
6 When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!”
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
8 Then Jesse told his son Abinadab to step forward and walk in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “This is not the one the Lord has chosen.” 9 Next Jesse summoned Shimea,* but Samuel said, “Neither is this the one the Lord has chosen.” 10 In the same way all seven of Jesse’s sons were presented to Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.” 11 Then Samuel asked, “Are these all the sons you have?”
“There is still the youngest,” Jesse replied. “But he’s out in the fields watching the sheep and goats.”
“Send for him at once,” Samuel said. “We will not sit down to eat until he arrives.”
Paul’s whole thrust in his first letter to the believers at Corinth was, “I’m not coming to you with brilliance or human wisdom, and I’m certainly not coming to you with any kind of impressive physique or profound philosophy. Instead, I come in the power of God. And there’s a good reason for that.” Note carefully how Paul put it:
For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. (1 Corinthians 1:26–29)
Paul says, “Look around, Corinthians. You won’t find many impressive people here.” Why? So that no one can boast before God. That’s a principle we tend to forget, because many of us are still a lot like the Greeks. When we look for people to admire as we choose our role models, our heroes, we are often swayed or impressed by things that are cause for boasting. We want the beautiful people, the brilliant people, the “successful” people. We want the best and the brightest. We are terribly enamored of the surface. The superficial still impresses us—much more than we’d like to admit. We even elect a president because he looks good on television! But God says, “That’s not the way I make my choices. I choose the nobodies and turn them into somebodies.”
And that, in a nutshell, is the story of how David was chosen to become a king.
Why was David chosen? God chooses nobodies and turns them into somebodies.
— Charles R. Swindoll
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