1 Samuel 16:1-13, “And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons. And Samuel said, How can I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me. And the LORD said, Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the LORD. And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will shew thee what thou shalt do: and thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee.”
God tells Samuel to stop mourning over Saul because God has a new king. “Fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons” (1 Samuel 16:1).
Notice the horn of oil. When Samuel anointed Saul, he used a small vial. But for David, God says bring a horn, a picture of a larger blessing. Saul was anointed with a glass vial of oil which is very brittle, David with a horn of oil, which was more abundant and lasting; and that’s why we read of a horn of salvation in the house of his servant David (Luke 1:69).
Samuel gets to Bethlehem. The elders of the city tremble. “Comest thou peaceably?” He tells them to sanctify themselves and come to the sacrifice, and he calls Jesse and his sons.
Jesse lines his boys up. Eliab walks in first. Tall, good looking, and the oldest. Samuel sees him and thinks, “This has to be the one.” But God stops him: “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
God looks past a man’s appearance and He sees what is in the heart.
One by one, seven sons pass by and they are all rejected. Samuel says to Jesse, “Are here all thy children?” And Jesse answers that the youngest is out keeping sheep. Nobody thought to bring him in.
Samuel says, “Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither.” David comes in with bright eyes and good looks. God says, “Arise, anoint him: for this is he.” Samuel pours the horn of oil over David’s head and the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him from that day forward.
And then nothing happens. David goes right back to the sheep.
There are five lessons that we can see in the anointing of David, which tie directly into the first stage of the Christian’s journey
1. Anointed as a King, but Nothing Changes
The second that oil hit David’s head, he was the king of Israel. It was settled! His destination and identity changed forever. But the next morning, he was still in the same field with the same sheep. No crown, throne, army, or anyone treating him any differently.
That is exactly what happens at salvation. The moment you trust Christ, you are made a king and a priest before God. “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father” (Revelation 1:6). Your eternal destination changes and your identity is made new. Even heaven’s record changes. But you wake up the next day in the same house, with the same job, the same bills, the same family, and the same problems. Nothing around you moved. But everything inside you did.
David was the king when Samuel poured the oil. You are a child of God the second you believe. And both of you have to walk through a process before anyone else sees it.
2. God Calls, but He Might Not Keep Calling
Nobody asked God to choose David and David didn’t apply. God told Samuel, “I have provided me a king.”
Same thing with salvation. Jesus said it plainly: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44). You don’t come to God because you figured it out on your own. The Father draws you. He opens the door and He moves on your heart. And Peter wrote that the Lord is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God’s desire is for every person to be saved. The invitation is open and it goes out to all.
Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). That is God standing at the door of your life, knocking. He won’t kick it down. He’s patiently knocking and waiting for you to open it.
And there is a warning in this that most do not want to hear. God said in Genesis 6:3, “My spirit shall not always strive with man.” God calls, draws, convicts and even knocks. But He doesn’t promise to keep knocking forever. The God of heaven pulling on your heart, pressing on your conscience, putting people and circumstances in your path, and you keep putting Him off. You keep saying “not yet.” You treat the Creator like a phone call you’ll get back to later. There may come a day when the phone stops ringing. Not because God stopped loving you, but because you hardened yourself past the point of hearing.
Paul wrote, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Not tomorrow or next time.
And David? When the oil came, he didn’t run from it. He could have ran away. He was a boy in a field. He could have said no thank you. He could have decided the cost was too high or the timing was wrong. But he received what God gave him.
3. It Doesn’t Matter Who Your Father Is
Samuel came to the house of Jesse expecting a king. He looked at the oldest, the tallest, and the most impressive. God passed over every one of them and chose the boy nobody brought inside. God didn’t select him because of his father’s name or because of his brothers’ reputation. God looked at his heart.
That’s how salvation works. It doesn’t matter who your father is. Doesn’t matter who your brothers are or what family name you carry in this world. You can come to Christ exactly as you are. Your family might be filled with preachers or they might want nothing to do with God. It makes no difference at the foot of the cross.
And here is the other side of it. Your earthly family might reject you for it. David’s own father left him in the field while a prophet was sitting at the table. His brother Eliab later mocked him in front of the army (1 Samuel 17:28). Your family might not understand what God did in you and they might resent it. They might even pull away from you.
But the moment you come to Christ, you gain a heavenly Father that will never leave you. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God” (John 1:12). God gives us the gift of eternal life when He saves us! We are secured and our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life forever. God does not take back the gift heaven and He does not offer temporary life. I am thankful God promises that we can know we have a home in heaven.
4. God Changes the Inside Before He Changes the Outside
David was anointed and the Spirit of God came on him. The oil was not an empty ceremony, but a sign of God’s power and plan. David was inwardly changed in wisdom and courage from that moment. But outwardly, nothing really changed.
On the road to Damascus, God knocked Paul to the ground, blinded him, and saved him (Acts 9:3-6). In that moment, Paul went from the chief persecutor of the church to a chosen vessel. God told Ananias, “He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). That was settled in heaven the moment it happened.
But what happened next? Paul sat blind in a house for three days. Then Ananias came, his sight returned, and he was baptized. And then he went to Arabia and spent years in obscurity while God worked on him to strip the old Pharisee out. God was building an apostle. Paul himself said God “separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace” but then added, “I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus” (Galatians 1:15-17). The calling was instant, but the rebuilding took years.
This is how God works in us. He changes the inside first. The Spirit of God enters you the moment you believe and starts doing work that nobody around you can see yet. He is breaking old patterns, reshaping how you think, building something in you that didn’t exist before. And for a while, nothing on the outside looks any different. But inside, God is transforming the person He called you to be. Keep trusting God and He will continue to work on it.
5. Give God Time to Reveal Your Purpose
David was anointed as a teenager. He didn’t sit on the throne over Judah until age 30, and over all Israel until 37. That is years of wilderness, warfare, running, hiding, and waiting between the promise and the purpose. I am sure every one of those years felt like a delay. However, no one day was wasted in God’s plan.
For the believer, salvation is the starting line, not the finish. Sanctification and spiritual growth takes time. God doesn’t save you and hand you the full assignment the next day. He builds as you are out with the sheep, first. And the hidden place is where most people quit, because nothing looks like it’s happening.
Don’t rush God. Don’t try to force what He hasn’t opened yet. Give Him the time to reveal what He put in you. The horn of oil was poured and the Spirit came. And David went back to the sheep. But he was already the king.
