Hello, this is Jeff Walker. I was an original member of the Riverside church planting team in 2008. Some life situations took me away from Riverside, but I returned in October 2015 as an active covenant partner. Although I have served the church in a variety of functions, I just recently stepped into the leadership role as Executive Director of The Beacon, this amazing space that God has so richly blessed us with.
The passages you are going to read today are 1 Samuel 16: 1-13, 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 1 Kings 9:1-9, and John 7:42. These passages give us a snapshot into the life and journey of King David. 1 Samuel 15 ends with The Lord rejecting King Saul and regretting that He had made Saul King.
In the 1 Samuel 16 passage is where The Lord commissions Samuel to go providentially find the new King of Israel. When Samuel arrived in Bethlehem, he looked upon the first seven of Jesse’s sons, but The Lord rejected them all. Then there was the least likely of them all, the youngest son David. The scripture says that he was ruddy, had beautiful eyes and was handsome. The Lord commanded Samuel to Arise and anoint him, for this is he who was chosen.
It would be nearly 15 years before David would be anointed at Hebron and begin his reign as King over Israel. David was not a perfect man by any stretch as we know from his encounter with Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite. However, we see in 1 Kings 9 God appeared to Solomon, David’s son and God tells Solomon to “walk before Me as your father David walked, with integrity and uprightness….” There was more instruction but if Solomon were obedient and faithful like his father, the dynasty of David would endure forever, just as the Lord had promised King David. And we see this come to pass as John 7:42 tells us Christ comes from the offspring or seed of David.
Now, do the Know, Be, Do method of study through these passages.
- KNOW (What does the text say about God?)
- BE (What does the text say about us?)
- DO (What is the text calling me/us to do?)