I Samuel 16:1-13 Commentary

A Moment of Clarity

Up until this point in the narrative, the narrator has most often relied on Samuel’s reports of God’s messages instead of, as we saw in his call story (I Samuel 3) God’s direct speech.  A snippet of direct speech breaks through when Samuel first sees Saul and understands God’s intention to make him king. But, most regularly, the narrator relies on Samuel’s recounting of God’s messages despite the fact that, according to Alter, “These reports open up a certain margin of doubt as to whether the purported divine injunctions are really God’s or Samuel’s.” Here, the narrator wants to avoid all uncertainty.  “The present episode unfolds systematically through repeated dialogue between God and Samuel, and so God’s judgments are rendered with perfect, authoritative transparency.” Perhaps it is the importance of David’s line throughout Israel’s story and, especially, in the birth of Jesus in David’s lineage that makes this clarity necessary.  Or perhaps it is simply the unlikeliness of God’s plan that makes clarity all the more important. In either case, the narrator “felt that the initial election of David had to be entirely unambiguous. As the story continues, God will no longer play this role of direct intervention.”

Treason

I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about Samuel’s precarious political predicament in this episode.  Of course, there’s so much more going on that we will get to but, before we do, let’s acknowledge that Samuel’s fear, expressed in verse 2, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me?” Is not unfounded or overblown.  Saul knows that Israel’s Kings are anointed by God’s authority, which is to say through the anointing oil of the priest.  If he finds out Samuel is shopping the countryside with a horn of anointing oil in tow, even a steady-tempered confident king would be curious, tinged with suspicious.  But Saul has already demonstrated something other than a steady temper.  He and Samuel have gone back and forth several times so it wouldn’t take much to tip Saul from suspicious to obsessive and from obsessive to murderous.

According to Alter, “a whole new political perspective is thrown on the estrangement between Samuel and Saul. The prophet may claim the higher ground of divine authority, but it is the king who has the armed divisions, and who might be ready to use them if Samuel should take any active steps to replace him.” Samuel has every reason to be watching his back right now.

As further evidence of this theory, when Samuel appears in Bethlehem, the townspeople are visibly shook. “The elders of the town trembled when they met him.” So, again according to Alter, “the estrangement between Samuel and Saul appears to be generally known, and the elders are terrified at the idea that Samuel may have come to designate a new king, or otherwise subvert the reigning monarch, which could bring royal retribution down on Bethlehem.” For this reason, God graciously grants Samuel a cover story and one imagines the town elders are happy to hide behind it too.

But the thing about treason, in the context of ancient Israel, is that the human king is always accountable to a Greater Sovereign.  A priest would only be committing treason if he denied the Greater Sovereign but, in this case, he was following direct orders from the Greater Sovereign, even if those actions appear treasonous against the human king. Yet another reason for the narrator’s clarity regarding the source of Samuel’s intel.  When David arrives, God speaks directly, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.” Even though it is in direct obedience to God, “it is a clandestine act.” It has political implications.

Thank Goodness It’s Not Up to Us

At first, Samuel was deeply impressed by Saul, who stood “head and shoulders taller than all people.” That, as we addressed in the preceding section, did not end up well.  And yet, here comes Samuel, ready to run the same play.  Jesse’s oldest son greets him and Samuel is impressed. Alter argues “Samuel is poised to repeat his error in being impressed with the ‘appearance’ and ‘lofty stature’ of Jess’s firstborn.” In fact, “nothing could illustrate more vividly Samuel’s persistent unreliability as a seer.” Yet another reason the narrator puts God’s words into direct speech, rather than relayed through Samuel!

While David foreshadows his descendant Jesus Christ in myriad ways, perhaps this one is often overlooked.  Christ preached a kingdom in which the first would be last and the last would be first.  The choice of David for king is “a heightened and stylized playing out of the theme of the reveals of primogeniture that dominates Genesis.” It isn’t just a choice between the oldest and youngest sons, as with Esau and Jacob. In this case, Jesse has seven sons, the number of perfection.  But David isn’t even in that line up.  He is number 8, “a kind of male Cinderella left to his domestic chores instead of being invited to the party.”

But, even those “domestic chores” are what prepare him for the work ahead. “Tending the flocks will have a symbolic implication for the future leader of Israel, and, in the Goliath story, it will also prove to have provided him with skills useful in combat.” When he is anointed, God’s spirit rushes to David.  The result, according to ancient near-eastern conceptions of the spirit world, is a vacuum where the Spirit used to reside in Saul.  And into that hold, an evil spirit takes up residence. “The charisma of leadership, now passed to David, was a descent of the spirit. Saul’s psychosis—-evidently, fits of depression later manifested as paranoia—is possession by another kind of spirit from the Lord.”

Illustration

Finding a story to match today’s Hebrew Scripture lectionary text is like shooting a proverbial fish in a barrel.  What is your favorite superhero story?  Are you a Captain America fan? The weakling comes to life, strength and power.  What’s your favorite princess story? Cinderella left out of the ball or Mulan, an unlikely warrior?  In fact, it’s hard to find a popular children’s story that doesn’t mimic some of the key moves set out by this Biblical text.

[Note: For the Year A Season of Lent and leading up to Easter, CEP has, in addition to these weekly sermon commentaries, a special Lent and Easter Resource Page with links to whole sermons, commentary on Lenten texts, and more.]