In one battle, which had taken place during the time that Eli the High Priest was Judge of Israel, the Philistine had captured the Ark of the Covenant, a chest which Moses had made at the command of God, to hold the “tables of stone” upon which the Ten Commandments had been graven by the hand of God Himself. There was almost perpetual warfare between the two nations first one would be victorious, and then the other. He made him his “armor-bearer,” in order to have him near his person and when he was in his gloomy moods, David would play upon his harp, and drive away Saul’s despairing thoughts.Ībout this time Saul prepared to resist an attack from the Philistine, one of the Israelites’ most inveterate enemies. When the boy arrived, Saul was very much pleased with him, and soon came to love him greatly. This plan of having a skilled musician in his family pleased Saul, and he sent messengers to Bethlehem, commanding Jesse to send David to him. Knowing the power of music to soothe a distressed mind, the servants of Saul proposed that a skillful musician should be found one who could quiet the unhappy king in his melancholy moods and one of them added that David, the son of Jesse, could play sweetly upon the harp. Saul was unhappy and full of gloomy thoughts. We next hear of David in the house of Saul, King of Israel, and this is the way it came about. How much he was affected by the ceremony through which he had passed, we do not know, but we are told this: “The Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.” The records of what happened to David immediately after than memorable day in his life say little about him, but we can imagine the boy going back to the fields and flocks, and taking care of the sheep as he had been doing. Many years before, God had prepared Joseph, a shepherd boy, for a special work in connection with His chosen people, and now He had selected David, another shepherd boy, to rule over them. Samuel ordered David to be brought, and when he came, “ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to,” the Lord told Samuel to anoint him, for this was the one He had chosen. Then Samuel asked Jesse if he had any more sons and Jesse replied that he had seen all except David the youngest, who was in the fields, tending the sheep. But God told him that “man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” Then one by one the sons of Jesse were brought forward, but Samuel said, “The Lord hath not chosen these.” So he did this, and after quieting the fears of the elders of that place, who feared at first that his errand was not a peaceful one, he told Jesse to have his sons pass in front of him, that he might see them.Įliab, the first son, was a tall, handsome man, and Samuel thought he must be the one who was to rule over Israel. In addition to this he loved Saul, and still further, he was afraid Saul would hear of it and kill him.īut God told him to go to Bethlehem and offer a sacrifice, and invite Jesse to be present. The one chosen had proved ungrateful and disobedient, and now he must go and set apart another for the kingly office. He had rebuked the presumption of the Israelites when they asked him for a king, but he had also carried out the commands of God and granted their request. Jesse had eight sons, and God told Samuel that He would choose a successor to Saul from among them. Twice in the fitful career of Saul, he disobeyed the direct commands of God, and because he did not restrain his impatience in the first instance, and preferred his own inclination and prospective glory in the second, he was compelled to hear from the lips of God’s messenger, the decree that his kingdom would not be inherited by any of his family, but would be given to “a neighbor of thine, that is better than thou.” It was with the after life of this man, chafing under the knowledge that in the sight of God he was but a nominal king, that the life of David the shepherd boy was to be strangely intermingled.Īt Bethlehem, the little town where Jesus the Christ was born more than one thousand years afterwards, lived a man named Jesse, who was the grandson of Ruth, the beautiful Moabitess. He was a man swayed by moods and impulses at one time carried away by passion, at another, plunged in remorse and despair. When the fickle Israelites clamored for a king, in the days of the Prophet Samuel, Saul the Benjamite, towering in stature over all the nation, was the one selected by God in accordance with the qualities desired by his subjects.
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