God's Choice and Preparation of Men
J. Clifford, D. D. 1 Samuel 16:11 And Samuel said to Jesse, Are here all your children? And he said, There remains yet the youngest, and, behold, he keeps the sheep… Samuel is the light by which young David reads the handwriting of Jehovah upon the walls of his spirit, learns his destiny, and prepares for his high calling. So the living God in His marvellous mercy hides Himself behind man. that not being overpowered by His splendours, we may be won to open our hearts to receive of His fulness and grace for grace. Who of you will be His anointing prophets this day, and go ca this blessed ministry! Care you not for the future of His kingdom? Is there no David whose spirit you can fire by the outshining of your conviction and the best of your enthusiasm for the salvation of men? Seize your privilege, and hand on to unborn generations the gifts of vision and power the Eternal has bestowed upon you! 1. We now ask, why is it that David of all the sons of Jesse, and of all the children of Israel, is elected by the prophet for this special consecration of kingly place and power? The answer, fortunately for us, is as near as it is definite, and as simple and authoritative as it is decisive and Divine. Speaking of Eliab, God says to Samuel, "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him; for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." There is at once the principle of the Divine choice, and the condition of the prophetic inspiration. David has that inner consecration without which the outward anchoring is an utterly unmeaning and damaging ceremony. "The unction of the Holy One" has preceded the symbolical oil of the prophet. For though God accepts and adopts human meditation as the principal avenue along which He meets the souls of men, He has many other ways of finding us besides that of a faith-begetting human presence. The Idea of God grows unawares upon our inward sight, and we are learning more and more about Him when no visible teacher is near and no human voice is heard. 2. It were, indeed, the gravest of mistakes to regard this day of consecration as the first descent of the Spirit of the Lord on young David's heart — "Let no man think that sudden in a minute All is accomplished, and the work is done."God does not anoint unprepared men for kingship. "The boy is father to the man." Not as a vaunting soldier, not even as a brave patriot, does David go forth against Goliath of Gath; "but that all the earth may know" — for the fight is a missionary's evangel, and a soldier shepherd's "apology" for God — that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, who does not give victory to mere bulk, or even to military prowess, but to sincerity of heart; to humility, purity, and largeness of soul. Evermore God's unseen educating ministry goes forward. He is always preparing the world's kings. True rulers are never absent. We indeed see not their crowns. No sceptre is in their hands. They neither wear king's clothing, nor sit in king's houses. They are with us in our families, despised by their elder brothers, and unrecognised by all; but when the clock of time strikes, and their hour is come, they take their place and do their work, and we are debtors all. The earliest stages of regeneration are unconscious. Visibility is not the measure of reality. "The kingdom of God comes without observation." We live months and years before we talk in fluent English. We know not the day of our birth, and we cannot tell what we shall be. The issues of our acts are hidden from us. Alertness of vision, openness to receive the Spirit, will be surprised after a while by a God-sent Samuel anointing you for a higher vocation. But we are not right within. We know it. There is an aching inside us. Our sins look us full in the face. We want place rather than preparation, thrones rather than disciplined ability, glittering crowns rather than true and unfaltering obedience. We crave and pant to be thought somebody, instead of bending our whole will on being as God wills. 3. But David, we may be certain, were he guiding us, would take us another step backward in order to see the building work of God in its earlier stages; for nothing more ineradicably rooted itself in his mind, or found more pathetic expression in his songs, than the immense educational influence of his family and shepherd life. As a boy he was a keeper of sheep, and he never forgot it. The influence of that shepherd life was never exhausted. It was the salt of his career. It fed his humility and inspired his praise; purified his thinking, and sobered and deepened his emotion. It brought him face to face with reality; shut out the crowding and gossiping life of the city, threw him back on his own thoughts, gave him leisure and facility to strip off the shows of things, and get at their heart, developed an inwardness of being that brought peace and power for evermore. Thus David got his education, in the plain everyday uses of life, and was fitted for his consecration to kingship by patient, plodding, and loving service. As Moses led the sheep in the desert before he led Israel out of Egypt, as Gideon received his call to take charge of the hosts of God whilst be was threshing wheat, as the mantle of Elijah fell on Elisha at the plough, as Matthew heard the summons to the apostolate at the tollbooth, so David got his first training for his high place amid the lowly duties of his shepherd life. I suppose we shall learn some day, that the faithful doing of our actual work, the doing it for use, and not merely for gain, from love of God and love of men, is recognised by Heaven as the surest preparation for future promotion and enlarged service. Then we shall have no need to seek change of place, in order to be ready for God's prophet with his horn of anointing oil, but only "to keep our heart right." (J. Clifford, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither. WEB: Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your children here?" He said, "There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is keeping the sheep." Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and get him; for we will not sit down until he comes here."