Have you recently complained about the drudgery of your job? Have you ever said to yourself what I do is just too exhausting, You’re in good company with the documentary series The Worst Jobs In History
@Tamworth Community Presbyterian Church 7/2/16
Tony Robinson of Black Adder Fame & Time Team fame hosts the show. He examines the worst jobs in British history. A myriad of ghastly jobs from bygone eras, and not only were most of these jobs highly labour intensive, the tedious, low paid and disgusting, many were downright dangerous.
In one of the episodes Tony Robinson explored some of the most terrible employment opportunities available to those living in rural areas in the past. He tried his hand at being a shepherd boy, nettle harvester, chaff-box boy, sedge cutter and sin eater, and comes across one of his most terrifying jobs - steeplejack - as he tackles the highest spire in Oxford of the worst jobs being a shepherd stood out here’s how Tony puts it…
“In Medieval Britain sheep outnumbered the population ten to one, and were a vital source of meat and clothing. Shepherds who were as common then as checkout girls are today. Shepherds twenty four hours a day seven days a week job was the toughest. They had to follow the flock lugging all the gear. They were alone…, roughing it in all weathers. Shepherds had to do everything for their charges even dagging, the equivalent of wiping a sheep’s bottom “[1]
This was much the same in the time of 1 Samuel. A shepherd was where Israel’s future king came from. Somehow we find ourselves setting out in 1 & 2 Samuel facing something very ordinary in the extraordinary account of the rise of King David. The David we meet in our passage today was simply omitted in the presentation of the sons of Jesse to the Prophet Samuel. It didn’t even occur to his Father, or even to his brothers. It felt like David was a non-entity. So looking back in where David’s family line came from there was a skeleton in the closet of his family tree. One part of David’s family branch came from the hated and despised Moabites – Ruth the Moabitess who married Boaz. In David we start getting a lesson in God’s purposes, how God seeks for grace and humility to grow is us in ordinary everyday life. As far as God sees it the life of discipleship isn’t based on your proven ability or potential promise or even on the basis of popular vote. God’s gracious care and call is to those who acknowledge their need for grace and humility before God. In a man like David we see God on the move that he never bypasses the ordinary or the everyday things of life, from David we are introduced to Jesus as the Son of David, and how David’s story anticipates the Jesus story.
David’s name comes into our Bible where in the Old Testament. It will be repeated more than 600 times and in the New Testament some 60 times, so we come seeing in this series in 1 & 2 Samuel on King David this is no ordinary crown.
As we read in 1 Samuel 16 verses 1-3
1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” 2 But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.” The Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.”
Israel’s King, Saul ,stood head and shoulders above every other man. He turned out as someone who turned his back on God; and Samuel, God’s prophet, is told its time for the anointing of a new king. Israel still has a king in Saul, but we’ll get back to him next week, as Saul drops out to the picture for the moment. God speaks and Samuel is told “go to Bethlehem” (this is the breadbasket of Palestine) This is a hazardous mission, anointing a new king when there is already a king still about living and breathing. Samuel was for many people a trouble and a risk. Samuel was seen as someone who God used to speak about the failure of God’s people to be the kingdom of priests they’d been set apart to be; not withstanding the problem now to be known as the town where Samuel anointed a rival king. So Samuel coming to town wasn’t know as a good thing, as he sat as a judge in Israel, so where ever he went and people thought he’d come bringing trouble. Notice then how everyone breathes a sigh of relief, when they hear Samuel is there to host a feast instead. Verses 4-5
4 Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, “Do you come in peace?” 5 Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
A local farmer named Jesse and his 8 sons are singled out for attention. The villagers of the town didn't know it, we know why. God has chosen a replacement for the now finished King Saul, and we get the drama of what now unfolds while everyone in the village is still in the dark. The first son of Jesse's was presented, the eldest, Eliab. Eliab stands out for his height and his looks God sees his heart and finds him a man of too much pride. We are reminded of Saul when he was chosen as King he also stood head and shoulders above the other people as well, and God rejected Eliab. In the narrative we are brought the line of succession of Jesse’s son’s: Abinadab is rejected, Shammah is rejected, all seven sons present at the feast are rejected by God. Samuel asks one more question, an obvious one, and I think he might have just started thinking he was loosing his prophetic edge Verse 11 So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.” Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.” David is known of to us, but we’re not to miss the tension here, Jesse introduces him as the baby brother to the sons.
As the youngest son of eight brothers, David would have forever been thought of as their baby brother, the one you give the job to where he can do the least damage. The job of least significance for the family runt. We see it clear, nobody thought to invite David along to the important feast, he was out tended the sheep, and no one thought to invite him into Bethlehem that day.
What God gives is no ordinary crown, Verse 12-13 12 So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.” 13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah.
It all ends in us saying “who’d ever would have thought?” huh! It’s not until he is brought in from out on the fields minding the sheep, is presented before Samuel we finally see the crown will rest on David’s head. There is a costliness to God’s choice, as even though Saul is still king David is anointed by Samuel to be God’s rightful new king, under David nothing will be the same again. God searches the heart and David has a right heart for God. No sooner is David anointed and filled with the spirit of God he encounters being hunted down by Saul. David will be hunted and betrayed, trapped and escaping, hiding in caves, living in exile, driven to the edge right to the end of 1 Samuel. Just as when we see through all that’s going on points us forward to how David will point us to Jesus in John 1:9-12 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
Or in Matthew 2 at the birth of Jesus Bethlehem is the place where …”out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd Israel.” Jesus is the shepherd king, the good shepherd of the sheep who wasn’t someone we would have been attracted to listen to by his appearance, and yet Jesus is the one we need. He is the king who will rule humbly. Jesus is someone who will care for wandering sheep, who is willing to die to protect us - a king who will rule our hearts.
Just as Jesus will wear no ordinary crown, Jesse David’s dad didn’t think a shepherd boy could be chosen as king. When being a shepherd is what he would call his king to do. So we see Jesus foreshadowed like Mark when he is about to feed the 5, 000. Listen in”When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus is the shepherd King!
As Jesus proves he is the ultimate Good Shepherd because he gives his life for the sheep or as David was the last person anyone expected to be Israel’s king in some ways can you see how you might have the last person someone might have thought Jesus would call to be one of his sheep. How are we seeing Jesus grow bigger as the shepherd of our soul?
Let’s pray…
VVV