The Story of David

So here's the thing; I thought I kind of knew about David. You know, King David. The boy who would be king. He knocks off the Phillistine Goliath, remember with only a slingshot. He was one of God's favorites. I mean until he saw Uriah's wife bathing. Then things kind of went bad after that. But  that was really pretty much what I knew about him. Oh! And he was a shepherd.  Tended sheep for his father.

So this past Sunday rolls around and we hear the interesting story of the prophet who is to go to the father Jesse and anoint the next King of Israel. The name Jesse caught my attention. Some Christmas songs speak of the root of Jesse. And sure enough there he is! This prophet, Samuel, brings a horn of oil for anointing to Jesse. Now Samuel was a little scared because if crazy King Saul hears what he is about to do, he won't be prophesying any more. He won't be doing anything anymore. God tells Samuel to take a heifer with him to Jesse and say he's going to sacrifice to God, so Saul won't get suspicious. Now when Samuel gets to Jesse's place with his heifer and his horn of oil, first of all he calms everybody down. He comes in peace he says. And while I'm here he says to Jesse, let me take a look at your sons. The first son comes to Samuel and the prophet likes the look of him. But God says nope. Then the second son comes up. Nope, God says again. You can almost see Samuel roll his eyes. "Are you kidding?" We can almost hear him say. C'mon, make up your mind! But God reminds the prophet (and us as we read this) that we see the outside and God sees the in. So seven sons are paraded past Samuel and none of them are right. So Samuel takes a shot in the dark and says, "ya got anybody else around?" And Jesse says, "yeah the youngest but he's watching the sheep."

I have to say at this point I was reminded of Cinderella. Remember how the evil step sisters tried on the glass slipper and it didn't fit them and the Prince asks, "ya got anybody else around?" Of course there's no evil step mother or sisters in this story, just a sort of sadly going crazy king, but you know it's kind of the same. The last resort. The one no one thought would amount to anything is the one chosen. The Bible verses in the reading cagily don't mention David's name until the last couple of verses. But there it is! David is anointed and Jesus is the descendent.

And that's David's story. Or at least the beginning. Pretty cool. Good story. You should look it up. It's 1 Samuel 16: 1-13. There are lots of hidden stories like that. I'll try to share them from time to time. Or maybe you could share with me, your favorites. I'd be interested to hear them. Who knows, maybe we can split a heifer!