Will you please turn to 1 Samuel 16?
First Samuel, chapter 16. We begin with verse 6.
And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.
But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this one.
Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. And he said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this one.
And Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, The Lord hath not chosen these.
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.
And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look upon. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him; for this is he.
Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.
Chapter 17, verse 31.
And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul; and he sent for him.
And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.
And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.
And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep; and when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant smote both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.
And David said, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord shall be with thee.
And Saul clothed David with his apparel, and he put a helmet of brass upon his head, and he clothed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his sword upon his apparel, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.
And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the shepherd’s bag which he had, even in his scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.
Verse 45.
Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a javelin: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thy head from thee; and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day unto the birds of the heavens, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel:
And that all this assembly may know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hand.
We have been fellowshipping lately on God’s work of recovery among His people, and we have used the history of the children of Israel as our background.
The children of Israel had been in the promised land for hundreds of years. The history found in the book of Judges covers over three hundred years. For all these years, God’s people were in God’s land; and yet, when you read the book of Judges, you find that their condition was most pitiful.
Because of their unfaithfulness unto the Lord, they were not able to subdue all their enemies. They were not able to fully possess all their possessions. On the contrary, from time to time their enemies overcame them. They were under the rule and oppression of their enemies.
When such things happened, they cried unto the Lord in their affliction. And the Lord, out of His merciful heart—not because the children of Israel had repented, not because they had changed, but because of the mercy of the Lord—raised among them judges to deliver them out of their enemies and to give them times of refreshing.
But this happened again and again and again. It was just a cycle: unfaithfulness, oppression, a judge raised up, deliverance, revival, and then again falling away from God. This continued for over three hundred years.
The verdict of the Holy Spirit over the whole situation was simply this:
There was no king in Israel: and every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
They were a scattered people. They were weak. They were not united, and they were not able to enter into the full purpose of God.
But after this had happened for hundreds of years, God began to act—not just to temporarily deliver them from their oppression, but on a more permanent basis. That is to say, God began to bring in His king to the children of Israel.
God’s purpose for His children was to give them a king. God Himself was their King, and He wanted to have a man represent Him as king over His own people. Under that king, the whole nation would be united into one. They would overcome their enemies and fully possess their possessions.
Of course, we know this happened in the time of David. It was God’s work of recovery. God began to recover them to His original purpose—not merely giving them a short time of revival, but bringing them into recovery to the full purpose of God.
As God began this work of recovery, you find that He did it step by step. In every step, a person was used; and in that person, a spiritual principle of recovery was demonstrated.
God’s principles are living principles. They are not dead theories. Therefore, all these living principles of God must be demonstrated in living people. Through these persons, God was able to demonstrate the divine principles of recovery and to do the work of recovery.
The first person He chose in the line of recovery was someone utterly beyond anybody’s expectation, because she was a Moabitess. A Moabite was not allowed to enter into the congregation of God, even to the tenth generation.
The Moabites were completely outcast from the commonwealth of God. They had no part with God. Yet when God began His work of recovery, He chose a Moabitish woman to begin with, and her name was Ruth.
In the life of Ruth, we find a demonstration of the divine principle of grace. Grace is something we have never seen, never thought of, and never even dreamed of.
God, out of His mercy, chose a Moabitish woman. He brought that woman into contact with Israel through Naomi. Ruth was so attracted by Naomi that she was attracted to the God of Naomi. She gave up her own gods, her own people, and her own country. She followed Naomi into the land of Israel, taking Naomi’s people as her own people and Naomi’s God as her God.
Then we find how she gleaned in the field of Boaz. Then she met Boaz on the threshing floor and claimed the right of redemption. Boaz redeemed her, and out of that union came forth David the king.
So the first movement in the recovery work of God is found in Ruth: the principle of grace.
Then you find God began to move a step further. Again, God chose another woman, in the person of Hannah.
God shut up Hannah’s womb. She was a godly woman, and she should have been blessed with many sons and daughters; but God shut up her womb. God put her in a very embarrassing position, and for this reason she was provoked by Peninnah.
Every time the family went to worship God at Shiloh, she was not able to eat or drink. She wept all the time. She was so shut up by God until she discovered one thing: God also had a need.
So she offered that God’s need should be met in her need. When she realized that, she gave herself to prevailing prayer. God answered her prayer and gave her a son, Samuel, that vessel of God.
Brothers and sisters, the second principle in the work of God’s recovery is prevailing prayer. First, grace; and grace is unto travailing prayer. Without grace, we can never travail in prayer. That is the hardest work.
You can try to do other work without grace. But if you want to do the work of prevailing prayer, unless there is grace, it is impossible. It was out of the travailing prayer of Hannah that God raised up Samuel.
Samuel demonstrates the third principle of recovery. Samuel was an epoch-making person. He was not just a prophet; he was a prophet, a priest, and a judge. God used him to change the time from the dispensation of the judges into the dispensation of the kings.
Samuel demonstrates the divine principle of revelation. He lived at a time when the word of God was rare and a vision of God was infrequent. Even Eli, the high priest and judge, had dim eyes. He was weak, and the lamp of God was yet burning in the house, though it was going out.
In other words, Samuel lived at a time when there was no vision, no seeing, and no word of God. But Samuel was a seer. He was one who saw. He heard the word of God, saw God appearing to him, and knew the mind of God.
It was through revelation that he began to bring God’s people back to God. So, dear brothers and sisters, the third movement in God’s work of recovery is along the principle of revelation.
After revelation came the fourth principle: kingship. David was a king of God’s appointment, and in the life of David another principle is demonstrated—the principle of divine authority.
But we have to go back a little. The children of Israel became impatient because Samuel’s sons did not walk in his ways. So they came to Samuel and said, “Give us a king after the manner of the nations.”
God was going to give them a king, but He was going to give them a king after His own heart. The children of Israel could not wait for that king. They asked for a king after the fashion of the nations, and because of that they got Saul. What a disappointment!
The people became so attached to Saul. Even though Saul failed again and again, God gave Saul every opportunity to be the king of God. But a man of the flesh cannot be subject to the law of God. The carnal mind cannot see the wisdom of God; it is foolishness to him.
Saul was tested again and again, and he failed every test. Finally, God rejected him. Yet even though God rejected him, Samuel still mourned over him, because somehow Saul had become Samuel’s first love.
God had to say to Samuel, “Why do you mourn for one whom I have rejected? You should be one with Me. Whom I reject, you reject; whom I receive, you receive. But now I have rejected Saul, and you are still clinging to him. Why do you do that?”
God said, “Rise up. Go to Bethlehem, and there anoint one of the sons of Jesse to be king—My king.”
Samuel said, “I cannot do that. If Saul hears that I am going to anoint another one, he will kill me.” But God told him to go to Bethlehem to offer sacrifice, call the sons of Jesse, and anoint one of them.
Jesse gathered seven of his sons, but he left out one: the youngest one in the field. One after another, they passed by Samuel.
When the eldest son, Eliab, passed by, Samuel thought, “Surely this must be the Lord’s anointed.” He looked so much like Saul. Saul was head and shoulders above others, and Eliab was tall, handsome, and impressive.
But God said, “I have rejected him.” God does not look at appearance. Men look at appearance. When men choose, men choose according to appearance; but God looks upon the heart.
The second one passed by, and God said, “No.” The third one passed by, and God said, “No.” The seventh one passed by, and God said, “No.”
Samuel began to wonder. He said, “Are these all your sons?” Jesse answered, “There is yet the youngest one.” According to the tone in Hebrew, it was a tone of despising: “Yes, I have another young son, but what is he? He is nobody. He is only fit to tend a few sheep.”
For such an important occasion, one of the sons was to be anointed king, and yet Jesse could leave David out. He had no faith in his youngest son. He completely neglected him. He did not understand him.
Here was a young man, the youngest of eight boys. Ordinarily, if you are the youngest boy, you are the darling of the family. But it was really unusual: David was the youngest boy, and his father completely ignored him.
Perhaps David was so spiritual that his father could not understand him. So he was regarded as good for nothing, sent away to the field, and not even called back. Most unusual. He was despised by his father.
He was also despised by his brothers. Later, when his three older brothers went to war and David’s father sent him to inquire concerning their welfare, David obediently went. How his eldest brother scolded him!
“I know you,” Eliab said. “You are proud, proud and haughty. You just want to come and see the war.” He misunderstood David completely.
David was a teenager at that time, a young man neglected by his father and despised by his brothers. Nobody understood him. He was altogether unknown.
Isn’t that wonderful? He was unknown by men, but known by God. Out of all the sons of Jesse, God had His heart upon this one, David.
When David came, God said, “Rise up and anoint him. This is he. This is he.”
Here you find God commanding Samuel to anoint David. In recent days people have been asking questions about anointing, so perhaps we can use this opportunity to share a little on anointing.
In Old Testament times, God anointed certain people. He anointed things with oil. He sent His prophet to anoint some people to be kings, just as He sent Samuel to anoint Saul and then David. Kings were anointed.
The priests were also anointed. When the high priest was consecrated, he was anointed with oil. The oil was poured upon his head profusely, and it ran down upon his whole garment.
Then prophets were anointed. God sent Elijah to anoint Elisha to be prophet in his place. Thus, in Old Testament times, certain people were anointed. When they were anointed, they were set apart and given a specific work to do for God.
A king is to rule for God, not to rule for himself. A priest is to serve God and serve God’s people. A prophet is to proclaim the mind of God to His people. These people were chosen and set apart to fulfill a particular work.
Not only people were anointed in Old Testament times; even things were anointed. After the tabernacle was built and all its furniture was put in order, God commanded Moses to anoint the tent and all the furniture before the priests came in to serve.
These things were already made according to order, and yet they were not to be used until they were anointed.
There was another peculiar case of anointing: when a leper was cleansed. After his purification, the blood of the ram was put upon his ear, thumb, and toe, and upon that oil was applied. Thus the leper, who had been an outcast, was received back into the congregation of God.
When you gather these things together, you come to an understanding of what anointing really is.
When David was anointed, the Spirit of God came upon him. In other words, the anointing brought in the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, the anointing was symbolic. By it, the person or thing was quickened by the Holy Spirit into life, and only then could it begin to function.
A king could not function as a king for God until he was anointed. He had to be empowered by the Holy Spirit so that he could serve God’s purpose. The same was true with the priest and the prophet. They were not to do anything on their own, but under the power of the anointing—that is, under the power of the Holy Spirit.
In the case of the leper, he was received back into fellowship through the anointing. He was brought back into life, fellowship, and function as a member of the body of Christ.
When you come to the New Testament, you find that our Lord Jesus is the Anointed One. His very title, Christ, means “the Anointed One.”
When He came out of the river Jordan, the Holy Spirit came upon Him as a dove and abode in Him. Then He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. After He overcame the tempter, He came back in the power of the Holy Spirit.
He went into the synagogue, opened Isaiah, and read:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor.
Our Lord Jesus is the Anointed One. He was under the anointing of God in doing the work that God sent Him to do. After He accomplished His work and ascended on high, He was again anointed by the Father.
Our Lord Jesus was anointed to be Prophet. While He was on earth, He declared the Father to us. He was anointed to be Priest at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. He was anointed to be King. One day He will come back and rule and reign for His Father.
God anointed Him above all His companions. He was the Anointed One.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, how about us? Have we been anointed?
Who are we? We are Christians. What do you mean by a Christian? Christ is the Anointed One. Christians are the anointed ones. By our very name, we have been anointed. Do you believe that, or are you still waiting to be anointed?
Let us read one Scripture: 2 Corinthians 1:21-22.
Now He that establisheth us with you in Christ, and anointed us, is God;
Who also sealed us, and gave us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Have you been anointed? If you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you are not Christ’s, says Paul.
According to this word, God is the One who establishes us with the apostles in Christ. We who have been redeemed are being established by God. It is a present work. God is still doing that work.
What is being established? The body of Christ—the church. He establishes all of us together in Christ that we may be the body of Christ. That is the work of God.
Then He says, “and anointed us.” In order for this establishing work to be done, we have to be anointed, sealed, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. Otherwise, the establishing work cannot be done.
These are different terms, but not because they are different terms must they happen at different times. They are different aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit in us.
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit begets us. He that is born of the Spirit is spirit. Not only does He beget us, but He seals us. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit; that is to say, we belong to God.
If you see a person’s seal upon anything, it means that thing belongs to that person. So we who are begotten of the Spirit have, at the same time, been sealed by the Spirit.
Can it be that we belong to the Lord, and yet have not been chosen and set apart for a particular function? Certainly not. We have been chosen. We have been set apart. God has set us apart by the Holy Spirit for a particular function, a particular work to be done in the body and in the work of God.
Everyone who belongs to the Lord has been anointed. The Holy Spirit has anointed us. Because of that, we are a part of God’s work and are able to fulfill our function. He has also given us the earnest of the Spirit, the pledge that one day He will bring us into our full inheritance in Christ.
All these things have happened. Do we have the Holy Spirit in us? If you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you are not Christ’s. You have the Holy Spirit. Therefore, so far as the work of God is concerned, we all have been anointed.
If you have not been anointed, you cannot call yourself a Christian. Christian means a little anointed one.
Do you believe that? I can see in your faces that some do not. It is too good to believe, right? We are still looking for some future day when we may receive the anointing from the Lord and then be chosen, set apart, and given gifts to fulfill our function in the building of the body of Christ.
Are you waiting for that? Do you not hear what the Lord said on the cross?
It is finished.
It is done. It is done.
If you go on to 1 John 2, you find what John says: “You have an anointing from Him.” You do not need anyone to teach you, because the anointing within you will teach you concerning all things. Whatever it teaches is true and is not a lie. If you obey the teaching of the anointing, you abide in Christ.
In Old Testament times, anointing was something that came upon a person physically, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come. But in the New Testament, the anointing is the Holy Spirit Himself, coming to dwell within us and giving us power for service. It is within and without.
Some people say, “If this is true, why am I so dead? Why can I not function? Why do I not feel called to a specific work? Am I really set apart? Is it true that God wants to use me, even me—the little, the least? Certainly I am good for nothing. Will He anoint me? Will He use me?”
Ah, brothers and sisters, God anointed David—the least, despised, neglected, and good-for-nothing as people saw him. Yet God anointed him as king.
If we only see what anointing really means: we have been anointed, set apart, given a specific function to fulfill, and given the Holy Spirit so that by Him we can fulfill that function.
Why is it that we do not experience anointing? Why is it that when we try to function, we find it hard going? Because we are doing it on our own, with our own strength, striving for it, instead of allowing the power of the Holy Spirit to flow through us.
Anointing is sovereign. I cannot say, “I want to be anointed,” and God must choose me. David did not choose it, but God anointed David.
God is sovereign. Whom He wants to choose, He chooses. Whom He wants to use, He uses. It is not of man; it is completely in God. That is why so many people are surprised.
But why did God reject the other sons and choose David? There was a reason. When Samuel thought the wrong thought, God corrected him and said, “God looks upon the heart, not as men who look upon outward appearance.”
The reason why, out of all the young people of that day, God chose David was that God saw his heart. God’s anointing of David was based upon David’s heart.
It is true that God is sovereign. He can anoint anyone He wants. Yet God, being the all-wise God, has a reason when He anoints. The reason in David’s case was David’s heart.
This young man, unknown by everyone, had such a heart before God—a beautiful heart. His heart was complete toward his God. His heart sought after God. His heart was pure toward God. Because God saw such a heart, He said, “This is the man after Mine own heart.”
Our God is a God of heart. He is full of heart, and therefore He looks upon the heart. Dear brothers and sisters, nothing is more important than our heart.
We are told in Proverbs:
Keep thy heart with all diligence;
For out of it are the issues of life.
Life comes out of the heart, and life increases through the heart. It is not our appearance; it is our heart that God really looks into.
We do not know our heart, but God knows. If He can find anyone in this world whose heart is perfect toward Him, He will show Himself mighty on behalf of that one. That is why God chose David.
Oftentimes I find people are more occupied with how they look. “Do I look spiritual? Do I look all right?” Oftentimes we neglect our heart before God.
It is true: no one knows his own heart. The heart is deceitful above all things; who can know it? But it is God who tries and knows our heart.
It should be our prayer, day after day, as the psalmist prayed:
Search me, O God, and know my heart:
Try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
That should be our prayer. How we need always to turn our hearts toward the Lord and let Him examine us. In 2 Corinthians 3, we find that whenever our heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Then we behold the glory of the Lord and are transformed from glory to glory into the same image by the Lord the Spirit.
Everything is based upon the heart. Brothers and sisters, the reason why many people do not experience anointing is that their heart is not right with God. If their heart is right with God, they will no doubt experience the anointing of the Lord upon them.
How can our heart be right with God? This again is connected with consecration.
My son, give me thy heart,
And let thine eyes delight in my ways.
Double-minded persons, purify your hearts. Oftentimes we are double-minded. We want God, and yet we want something else.
To cure double-mindedness is not to deal with the mind directly. You will never be able to do the work that way. To deal with a double mind is to deal with the heart. When the heart is purified, the mind becomes single.
How we need to give our hearts to the Lord. Let Him examine us. Let Him fill our hearts with His love, that we may love Him with all our hearts. If you love Him with all your heart, you will experience anointing upon you.
You have been anointed, but to experience the anointing requires a heart that is turned to God, a heart that loves Him with all its heart.
When you are brought to that point, you do not need to worry about anointing. When Moses came down from the mountain, his face shone, but he did not know it.
How often we ask, “Do I have the anointing? Is the anointing with me?” You do not need to bother about it. If your heart is right with the Lord, if your heart is toward the Lord and perfect toward the Lord, the Lord will show Himself mighty.
David was anointed because God saw a heart there. With such a heart, God could commit Himself to that person. God could commit His people, Israel, to that person. God could commit His purpose to that person. God could anoint that person as king to rule for Him because He knew there would be no problem.
When you have the anointing of the Lord upon you, it means God has committed Himself to you. How we need God to commit Himself to us! But He will not commit Himself to us until we first commit ourselves to Him.
Are we fully committed to Him? Is our heart perfect toward Him? This does not mean that we are sinlessly perfect. David was perfect in heart toward God, but he was not perfect in every way.
The Bible does not teach sinless perfection, but it does teach Christian perfection: a perfect heart toward God. Then God will show Himself mighty on your behalf—mightily.
As David was anointed, the Spirit of God came upon him, because that was the meaning of being anointed. Without the Spirit of God, he could not do the work God had appointed him to do. It had to be done in the power of the Holy Spirit.
If this was true in Old Testament times, how much more is it true today with us in New Testament times? We can do nothing but by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
After David was anointed, he was not enthroned right away. We do not know how many years passed—probably a few years. During those years, though he was anointed and the Spirit of God was upon him, he was still in the field tending a few sheep.
Could you believe it? “Oh, if God shall anoint me today, surely this evening I should be on the throne!” That is how impatient we are. But David was anointed among his brethren. His brothers knew; his father knew; and yet they could not believe it.
They treated David as though he had not been anointed. He was still sent to the field to tend a few sheep, known by nobody—unknown.
If David had been a little carnal, while he was watching those sheep he might have wept: “Think of that! I am anointed to be king, and here I am watching a few sheep. Nobody notices me.” Wouldn’t you try to thrust yourself out and say, “Look, look, I am anointed”?
Probably we would do that. I am not joking. It is true. But what a perfect heart David had! He was chosen by God and anointed, yet he was as happy as he could be tending a few sheep.
Most likely during those hidden years something happened. Nobody knew, and David did not care. It must have happened after he was anointed, because God wanted him to experience the anointing.
A lion came and snatched a sheep. David, under the anointing of the Lord, went and delivered the sheep out of the lion’s mouth. When the lion rose up to attack him, David caught the lion by the beard and slew him. Then a bear came, and he did the same thing.
But nobody knew. His father never inquired. His brothers never asked. David never talked about it. If you killed a lion, all Richmond would know by the next day. You would be on the front page of the newspaper!
But David, under the anointing, killed a lion, killed a bear, and delivered a sheep; yet he never told a soul. It was between him and the Lord.
During those years under the anointing, David was in communion with God. He experienced the mighty power of God personally, preparing for the day when he would meet the Philistine.
The time was not lost. God was there training His king. Those hidden years were hidden secrets with God.
I believe Psalm 23 was probably written at that time:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
It was in hidden life that he learned to know God—the deliverance of God, the power of God, and the holiness of God—in a personal way. This was the basis in the future for authority.
Authority is based on life. Authority is never based on position. Worldly authority is based on position: once you get the position, you have authority. But spiritual authority is not a matter of position; it is a matter of life.
God is the authority. It is God in you. It is the God whom you know and experience personally, the life of Christ in you—that is the authority you have from God.
These hidden years of David, under the anointing and yet hidden, were precious years. It was life that God was deepening and deepening and deepening.
He did not try to step out prematurely. I am afraid many of God’s people, out of zeal, step out too early. They think they have the anointing and power; therefore, they must do something right away. Such impatience has ruined many lives.
If only we knew that being called and set apart by God does not mean that we must start right away. There will be hidden years before God—hidden history.
It is of utmost importance. I cannot emphasize it as it should be emphasized: how we need to have that hidden history with the Lord.
Things happen, but nobody knows. Yet they have happened, and these things constitute the basis of authority and administration in the future.
Then the day came for the anointed of the Lord to be manifested. David was probably around twenty years old. He came to the throne when he was thirty, and he was persecuted by Saul and fled for ten years. So at this time he was probably about twenty.
Though anointed by God, he was still tending a few sheep. But God raised up the environment and circumstances for David to be manifested.
Here was Goliath, the Philistine. Goliath represented the whole nation of the Philistines, and he challenged God’s nation. Saul and his people were terrified. Nobody dared to go out and fight against Goliath.
David was sovereignly and providentially sent by his father to look after the welfare of his three brothers in the army. When he arrived, Goliath came out to challenge them, and everybody began to flee.
David said, “What is it? What is it?” They told him of Goliath and of the king’s promise to anyone able to kill him. David said, “Is that so? Is that so?” His brother got angry because David reflected on him.
David kept asking because he was seeking an audience with Saul. He wanted the news to get to Saul because he felt God wanted him to go and fight the Philistine.
Finally, he was brought before Saul. David said, “Let no one be concerned. I am going to fight the Philistine.” Saul looked at him and said, “Goliath has been a warrior from his youth, and you are but a youth. How can you fight against Goliath?”
For the first time, David began to tell his secret. You do not tell your secret prematurely. You tell your secret only when you are forced to do so.
Paul did the same thing. After fourteen years, he was forced by the Corinthians to tell of his great revelation—how he was caught up to the third heaven and into paradise, where he heard unspeakable words. He did not mention these things until fourteen years later, because he was not telling the story to exalt himself. He only wanted to glorify God and have His work done.
So David was forced to tell his secret. “You do not know,” he said, “but let me tell you. When I was tending my father’s sheep, a lion came, and I killed the lion and killed the bear and delivered the sheep. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? How dare he defy the army of the living God?”
“The Lord delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear. Certainly He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.”
What faith was here! It was not presumptuous. It was based upon personal experience. David knew it would happen because it had happened before. He looked at this uncircumcised Philistine as a lion and a bear.
He would do it for God because the battle is the Lord’s. It is not by spear or sword, but by God, by the power of God.
Saul was happy that at last he had found a champion. He clothed David with his coat of mail and gave him his sword. This was a great honor, but David could not even walk in them.
David was wise enough to take them off. You cannot fight a battle with other people’s armor. You just cannot do that. Not because certain people do things in a particular way and are able to do the work does it mean that you can copy them.
In spiritual things, you cannot copy. If you try to follow another person’s life, you cannot even walk. It will not work.
David took them off and went as a shepherd. He took five smooth stones from the brook and his sling. With the first stone, he killed the Philistine.
Of course, there is spiritual meaning in this. Our Lord Jesus is typified by David. David is a type of Christ. The five stones represent the church. We are the stones in His hand, and He will use us to overcome the Philistines.
But rough stones will not do; smooth stones will. A great deal of work needs to be done. We need to be smooth in order that God may use us.
For the first time, David was manifested to the nation of Israel. Everybody knew David.
In other words, do not try to manifest yourself. Let God manifest you. When God’s time comes, if you are His anointed one for that work, He will manifest you.
Here we find the first stage in the life of David. From the time he was anointed to the time he was manifested, David was a shepherd.
The king after God’s own heart must be a shepherd king—not a king who chases after the things of the world, as Saul did, but a king who is a shepherd, having a shepherd’s heart.
That is the king after God’s own heart. May the Lord impress upon our hearts that it is the heart God is looking at.
If our heart is perfect toward Him, do not worry about His anointing. But do not hurry to be manifested. Wait. Let your life be deepened with the Lord, and at the right moment God will raise up the environment for you to be manifested to do His work.
Our heavenly Father, we do ask Thee to bless Thy word to our hearts and really lead us behind Thy letters into the Spirit, that we may see Thou art looking for the heart.
Lord, examine our hearts, that our hearts may be perfect toward Thee. Oh, that we may experience Thy anointing, even in secret, and in Thy time be manifested in public for Thy work to be done.
We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.