Episode 108: God chooses David and sends an evil spirit on Saul

1 Samuel 16

God chooses David as king

16 ¹ God said to Samuel,

How long will you mourn for Saul now that I have rejected him as king?

Fill your horn with oil and go visit Jesse. I've chosen one of his sons to be king.

² Samuel answered God, "If I do that Saul will kill me."

God said,

Take a heifer and say you're going to sacrifice to the Lord.

³ Call Jesse to the sacrifice. After that I'll show you what to do.

I'll pick one of Jesse's sons to be king.

⁴ So Samuel went to Bethlehem and invited Jesse and his sons to the sacrifice.

⁶ Samuel examined Jesse's sons to see which one God had selected as king. First up was Eliab. Samuel said, "This must be the one."

⁷ But God said,

Don't look at his looks or height.

He's tall and good looking, but I reject him

^8-10 Then Jesse showed Samuel seven of his sons. Samuel said,

God hasn't chosen any of these.

¹¹ Samuel asked Jesse, "Are these your only sons?"

Jesse said,

No, there's one more, the youngest. He's taking care of the sheep.

¹² Jesse brought him (David) in. He was amazingly good looking.

God said, "Anoint him. He's the one."

¹³ Samuel took his horn of oil and anointed David.

And the Spirit of God came upon David from that day forward.

An evil spirit from God plagues Saul (and David makes it go away)

¹⁴ Meanwhile, God's spirit departed from Saul and an evil spirit from God troubled him.

^15-20 Saul's servants said,

Let’s find someone who can play a harp to make God's evil spirit go away.

One of Jesse's sons plays well, is very good looking, and is a mighty man of war.

²¹ So they sent for David, who came and stood in front of Saul.

Saul loved David, and he became his armor bearer.

²² Saul sent a messenger to Jesse, saying,

Let David stand in front of me, because I like him a lot.

²³ Whenever God's evil spirit was upon Saul, David played a harp with his hand, and the evil spirit went away.