Глава 16

The secret anointing of David for the Jewish kingdom. David's approach to Saul's court. 1 Samuel 16:1. And the Lord said to Samuel, How long will you grieve for Saul, whom I have rejected, lest he should be king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided a king for Myself among his sons. Jesse from Bethlehem of Judea is the grandson of Boaz, who married a Moabite woman (Ruth, see the book “Ruth”), a direct descendant of Naason, prince of the tribe of Judah under Moses (Num. 1:7; 1 Chron. 2:10). 1 Samuel 16:2. And Samuel said, How shall I go? Saul will hear and kill me. The Lord said: Take in your hand a heifer from the herd and say: “I have come to sacrifice to the Lord”; Samuel’s fear is understandable: on the one hand, he was afraid of a premature, violent end not only to his personal life, but also to his social and prophetic activities; on the other hand, those sad consequences that could have taken place after Saul’s insane act. The violent death of the prophet Samuel could cause an explosion of popular indignation as to who was the immediate cause of this death, and produce disastrous anarchy in the Jewish state. The words of the Lord: “Take the heifer in your hand” and so on. - not teaching untruth, but an indication of a truly necessary action: the great event of the sacred anointing of God’s chosen one to the kingdom could not but be marked by a religious rite (cf. 1 Samuel 9:15-27,10:1,8). “And the prophet actually performed the sacrifice (1 Samuel 16:5). Therefore, he was told that, having hidden the main matter for the time being, he should indicate (to those who have to ask him about coming to the city) a subordinate matter” (Blessed Theodoret commentary on 1 Kings, question 36). 1 Samuel 16:4. And Samuel did as the Lord told him. When he came to Bethlehem, the elders of the city came out to meet him with trepidation and said: Is your coming peaceful? “Is your coming peaceful?” “Is it because the unexpected visits of the prophet were mostly due to extraordinary events, and, moreover, of an alarming nature, or because the tense state, the fatal struggle between prophetic and royal power was felt by everyone who followed the state of affairs and feared heavy tensions and unrest, the elders of the city hastened to meet the prophet and asked with trepidation: “Are you coming to us in peace?” (Ya. Bogorodsky, “Jewish Kings”, p. 64). 1 Samuel 16:6. And when they came, he saw Eliab and said, “Surely this is His anointed before the Lord!” “The prophet did not know who was chosen by God, because he was not God, but a man. It is God's nature to know everything; it is enough for a prophet to know what God reveals (and as he reveals). On the other hand, the prophet’s ignorance revealed God’s determination. If the prophet had addressed David directly, they might have suspected that he did this out of some prejudice. Since he proceeded to the first, and the second, and the third - until the seventh, they knew that He who rejected the first and chose the last is God. If even after such an election the brothers gave way to hatred when they saw David in the army (1 Samuel 17:28), then what would they not have done if the election had been accomplished in a different way? (Blessed Theodoret, commentary on 1 Kings, question 37.) 1 Samuel 16:13. And Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him among his brethren, and the Spirit of the Lord rested upon David from that day forward; Samuel stood up and went to Ramah. “The secret anointing did not confer any external privileges on David that were impossible under the existing king; but it gave him inner conviction of his right to the throne after Saul, elevated his spirit, helped him calmly and meekly endure the undeserved persecution of his enemies, and encouraged him to do deeds worthy of the future king of the Jews. “The Spirit of the Lord rested on David from that day and after”: in the eyes of the crowd he remained an ordinary mortal, but he himself felt with all his moral being how high and intense his spiritual strings sounded, what revival and soaring his thoughts and feelings received, excited by the new great task of his life” set to him by God himself (Ya. Bogorodsky, “Jewish Kings”, pp. 65–66). The Spirit of the Lord's favor, gracious gifts and help rested on David. Saul, who consciously and stubbornly resisted the beneficial influence of the Spirit of God on him, was allowed to experience the attack of dark and evil forces. 1 Samuel 16:14. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. “And the evil spirit troubled him” (with permission) “from the Lord.” “Despite the apparent well-being, Saul’s spirit (under the influence of dark forces) was not calm: the thirst for power, like many other passions, could not be saturated by anything; as she was satisfied it grew; the need was felt to discover power where it had not yet been discovered, and to a greater extent than before it was discovered. Added to this was the memory of the menacing words of the prophet (1 Samuel 15:23–26,28–29), which could not be drowned out by anything and which hung like a sword over the crowned head of Saul. And so, little by little, he began to experience a general feeling of dissatisfaction and restlessness. Then this feeling began to turn into irritation, and the balance of his poor mental strength was disrupted. He began to suffer from attacks of real mental illness, during which he was not only incapable of serious matters, but also positively dangerous to those around him” (Ya. Bogorodsky, “Jewish Tsars”, pp. 72–73). 1 Samuel 16:16. let our master command his servants who are before you to look for a person skilled in playing the harp, and when an evil spirit from God comes upon you, he will calm you, playing with his hand. Being an expression of mood, music can sometimes also be a stimulant of the desired mood. The beneficial influence of the calming melodies of music on the anxious and sick spirit of a person has been known since ancient times. 1 Samuel 16:18. Then one of his servants said: Behold, I saw Jesse the Bethlehemite’s son, who knew how to play, a brave and warlike man, and wise in speech and distinguished in appearance, and the Lord was with him. “And the Lord is with him,” i.e. successful in everything. 1 Samuel 16:20. And Jesse took a donkey with bread and a bottle of wine and one kid, and sent it with David his son to Saul. The bread and wine were meant to express the respectful greeting to Saul from the house of Jesse. 1 Samuel 16:23. And when the spirit from God came upon Saul, David took the harp and played, and Saul felt more joyful and better, and the evil spirit departed from him. “The spirit (evil by permission) is from God” (cf. 1 Samuel 16:14,15,16). See note. by the end of 1 Samuel 16:13 and by 1 Samuel 16:14 v. You might be interested in: