Fourth Sunday in Lent

The example of the prophet is a caution and an invitation

Commentary on 1 Samuel 16:1-13

Collin Cornell

The text of 1 Samuel 16 begins with a question posed by the Lord to the prophet Samuel: “How long will you grieve over Saul?” (verse 16a, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, here and elsewhere).

It is an interesting moment—in some ways, a surprising moment. The prophet Samuel had vehemently opposed kingship. Only eight chapters back, in 1 Samuel 8, all the elders of Israel had gathered and come to Samuel to make a request of him: “Appoint for us a king to govern us” (verse 5b). Their request displeased Samuel; the Hebrew of verse 6 says literally, “The thing was evil in his eyes.” But Samuel, after consulting the Lord, acquiesces. The following chapters then narrate the story of Samuel finding Saul and anointing him as king. Saul is introduced as a handsome young man who stood head and shoulders taller than anyone else (9:2; repeated in 10:23).

In spite of this detail, the text of 1 Samuel gives no indication of the prophet’s personal disposition toward Saul. Is Samuel impressed by Saul’s appearance or awed by his military prowess? Does he experience any fondness for this man whom he anointed as the first king over Israel? The closest the narrative comes to an answer is Samuel’s introduction of Saul to the whole people of Israel. He says: “Do you see the one whom the Lord has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people” (10:24). Notably, his words pinpoint sight (“Do you see?”), the same visual register that first distinguished Saul as tall and handsome.

Saul afterward wins a military victory by the power of God’s Spirit (11:6), and Samuel, believing that the nation is now in good hands, makes a long farewell speech (chapter 12). But his retirement must be postponed. Saul quickly shows that he is out of sync with the Lord: He does not wait for Samuel to arrive but rushes into making offerings himself (13:8). Samuel has the bitter job of telling him that because of this disobedience, Saul’s kingdom will not endure (13:14). Still, even though Saul has forfeited the dynasty, the Lord is apparently willing to let him finish out his own personal reign.

Or such is the case until 1 Samuel 15. Another grave instance of disobedience ensues, and the word of the Lord comes to Samuel: “I regret that I made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not carried out my commands” (verse 11a). The next line discloses Samuel’s personal reaction. “Samuel was angry”—at whom, the text does not say—“and he cried out to the Lord all night” (verse 11b).

This is a significant degree of upset, maybe even resistance. Was the prophet “crying out” in petition, asking the Lord to reverse course or forestall judgment? Later, after further drama, Samuel and Saul go their separate ways, each to their own home. The narrator lets us know: “Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul” (verse 35).

Chapter 16 thus begins with the Lord’s challenge to Samuel: “How long will you grieve over Saul?” (verse 16a). The Lord has made a decision. Now it is Samuel himself who is out of step, suffering from a lag between God’s word and his own attachment. The scene that follows gauges just how far these two have diverged. Stephen Chapman writes in his 1 Samuel commentary: “God has already decided (“foreseen,” √rʾh) who will be the next king but will only tell Samuel that it is one of the sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite (16:1). God could have been more specific. Instead the situation is constructed as another test, and this time the test is for Samuel rather than Saul.”¹

It seems that Samuel initially fails the test. When the sons of Jesse first come into Samuel’s presence, the text says that “he looked on Eliab”—the eldest son—“and thought, ‘Surely his anointed is now before the Lord’” (16:6b). Why was Samuel so sure? Was it not because Saul had set his expectations, because he was still grieving? It is in this context that the Lord issues the famous admonition: “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him, for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (16:7).

These divine words were necessary because the prophet’s investment in Saul, or a king who resembled Saul, was still lingering. Samuel had become overinvested in a kingly person or a kingly profile that God had moved on from, and the prophet’s nostalgic attachment obstructed his perception. Indeed, within 1 Samuel, this episode of finding and anointing David is, in most respects, Samuel’s last act. Samuel appears in chapter 19 but as more of a set piece than a main actor. At the very end of the book, Saul employs a medium to summon the spirit or shade of Samuel out of the earth. The ghost-prophet delivers a final prophecy of Saul’s downfall. It is a tragic scene, but also one that recuperates the special reciprocity of these two, Saul and Samuel.

For Lenten preaching, what is important about this 1 Samuel text is the challenge it offers. Even when, like Samuel, we might first have opposed some arrangement, it is possible to become attached, to suffer grief when God works change, and to let our spiritual vision become clouded such that we are unable to recognize the new thing God is doing. The example of the prophet is a caution and an invitation. May we, like the Lord, look on the heart; may we walk by faith, keeping abreast of God’s word that comes freshly, and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).