Week 24: 1 Samuel 8-10; 13: 15-16

To Obey is better than to Sacrifice 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Hi guys, and welcome back to another episode of the Receivers Podcast. Um, very excited to be with you today, and we're gonna talk this week about the book of Samuel. Well, we talked about it last week, but this one is gonna be about establishing a king over Israel. So this is when we're gonna transition from having judges, right, to these military leaders coming from each tribe, and then for sure a prophet who was more of the spiritual leader, or rather a seer, and we'll talk about that difference today. And then we transition into um a time of the monarchy where there would be a king and then there would be a priest, um, kind of working together, or priests rather to establish um Israel. And leading to kind of a more centralized um Israel, because at the beginning, like we said, yes, there were they were tribes and they were all of Israel, but they were not always um established or united, right? So they would they would come from a tribe or they would be protecting several tribes, the judges would, but they weren't necessarily doing all of Israel. The thing that united Israel was God, not the king. And yet, this is what happens now is that they ask for a king. So let's get into it. So what happens is in the story, um, you know, they're still fighting with the Philistines, they have all of these things, and in chapter 8, Israel asks for a king. They say to Samuel, he's, you know, become a little bit old, and his sons aren't necessarily as righteous as Samuel. In fact, they are, um, if you remember in the story of Hannah that we talked about last week with Eli's sons, they are not um, they're corrupt, right? And so that's another thing, and and that's part of what the warning here is, is that they see this corruption in the priests, and right? They see this corruption that's happened with the judges, and they're like, hey, we need a king. Because a king will be better than these guys, it will unite us. Um, and they ask for it in in verse 19, they say, Um, you know, Samuel kind of refutes back their their opposition to have a king, um, because the Lord, as he as he goes and asks the Lord, he says, Um, they want a king. And the Lord says, Um, in uh in verse 7, he says, Listen to the voice of the people, and all they say to you, for they have not rejected you. This is not about you, Samuel, but they are actually rejecting me because I said that I was going to be a king over them. They're rejecting me. Um, they've rejected me from being king over them, just as they have done to me from the day I brought them out of Egypt. Right? This is this is a classic thing. They they are rejecting what I want to be for them. I want to be their king, I want to be the only ruler over them, I want to be everything to them, but they keep rejecting me. So it's not about you, it's about me. And he says, give them what they want, right? But give them the warning of what will happen. And I think this is interesting because I think a lot of times in life, our Lord and and God is so merciful that he will give us what we want, but he can't take away the consequences from that, right? And so, and but he will give us a warning. He loves us so much that he's going to warn them. He's like, Yeah, if you guys want a king, that's great. But let me tell you what he's gonna do. He's going to oppress you, just as these judges have done, but on a more grand scale, because it will be centralized, right? Power. Um, he will make war in in a greater number. Um, he will take your daughters, right, to be his workers, right? You're not gonna be as free as you think. He will take the best of your fields, because now he has power over you and vineyards and olive wortures and give them to his courtiers. He's gonna be selfish. Um, because, you know, as we learn in life and as we learn in the scriptures, when you give somebody a little bit of power, they may use it for their own advantage, right? He will take one tenth of your grain, he won't take your male and female slaves and the best of your cattle. He's gonna take a lot from you. It's not, it's not gonna maybe be as great as you think it's gonna be. In fact, it might lead to um oppression, it might lead to tyrant, right? It might lead to them being a tyrant over you, and they say, No. In verse 19, no, we are determined to have a king over us. Verse 20, so that we may also be like the other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles. And in that, I think we see these twofolds here, which is they're responding to this oppression that they see, this imperfection in their leaders, which we all have seen in both political ways and in, you know, sometimes in church callings, you know, we're like, okay, these guys are not as perfect, God, like we need another one, you know, and maybe we see other people and we're like, you know, we want a guy like that, you know, but it might be different than the way that the Lord has asked. Um, and we we already see other people living in situations we're like, we want that, we want that, but it's not the way that the Lord, you know, has commanded us to do. It's not in his system. And he's like, you know what, you can have that, but it actually might lead to more corruption. And so there's the the way of they want to go away from corruption, but they're looking to other nations. They're not looking to God, they're looking to other nations. Um, they're not looking to God to be their king and to rule over them and to provide them peace and to fight their battles for them. They want a king, they want a person to fight their battles for them. They don't want God, they don't want God because God makes them act a little bit more, right? Um, God puts a lot of responsibility on us. So sometimes it's easier to have a scapegoat, right? To have a person that we can put it on rather than our own selves. Um, and I get that, right? We want we want a leader, we want somebody to do it for us. Um we want, you know, sometimes to not have to work as hard. You know, I think that some of my prayers a lot of times too are like, hey, change this person's heart or, you know, make this situation happen, and not unless it's how can I do that? How can I either have my heart changed or those types of things? That's not what I'm praying for a lot of times. And I think we see that here. So again, the humanness of the Israelites. They're looking to other people and they see that they have kings and they say that they're they're beating them in battle, and they're like, we want that. And the Lord says, Okay, but I could have fought your battles for you. And the Lord can fight our battles with us. I think that's a lot of the things, too, is that the Lord will fight our battles. But because um, in order to bring to pass his work and his glory, it's about making us new people, a lot of times he has us join the fight, and that's a little bit harder. But you know what? The Lord says, I'll give you what you want, I'm gonna find a person for you. So he chooses Saul. So Samuel goes, and Saul is a farmer, he's a he's a ranch hand, basically, right? So he needs to look for his donkeys and he loses them. So he goes on all of this journey. It just so happens that Samuel's there, and Samuel sees him. And Saul is from, you know, a pretty non-consequent consequential tribe in Benjamin. And if you remember from our conversation last week, Benjamin was the tribe that did these horrific things to this woman at the end of the book of Judges. And so Benjamin is not seen. I mean, this is a this uh this is my idea, but I would suggest that Benjamin is not seen as a very good tribe right now, right? They just did this a horrible thing to this woman, and it was reproved by all of Israel. And yet, God is gonna pick somebody from Benjamin to be the king, to be the first king of Israel. And he's tall, right? He's handsome, he looks like a king. Um, his name is Saul, uh son of Kish. And the name Saul actually means answered or um asked for. Sorry, it means asked for. Um, and so they asked for Saul, and he came, and he's there. And so the seer, Samuel, comes, and we get in here the two different words. We get a seer and we get a prophet. And the difference is still being debated among biblical scholars today, but it seems to be that a seer is one who, you know, kind of sees visions or um can look ahead to the future, where a prophet, we learn in um, right, we learn in the Doctrine and Covenants, is somebody who has a testimony of Christ. And the come follow me suggests that this group of prophets that Samuel will later meet is going to be a group of maybe righteous people who have been banded together to stay away from kind of the corruptedness that was happening in Israel. I like that. It could be that they had some sort of religious um standing, but they weren't the same as a seer, right? Like a seer was like the head revelator, I guess. Whereas prophets had a testimony and could confirm that, right? So the the prophets confirmed. So both of these religious leaders, whatever their roles exactly were, you know, uh seer comes obviously from the words to see, prophet from the word, also to see, uh, no, sorry, to just prophet, right? To be a prophet. So what does that mean? To prophesy, to lead, um, to be a leader, and to confirm, right? Um, as we see with Deborah. And so we have these two different groups, and both of them um agree that Saul is the one, right? He is uh he's a man of God, um, and he's the one that the Lord has chosen. And so uh that is what happens, is Saul is chosen by the seer and by the prophets to be king over Israel. And nowadays, that's why I think it's interesting that we have prophets who are prophetseers and revelators. So they hold all of those roles, right? They both have a testimony of Christ and are ecclesiastical leaders, while they also can see into the future and call who the Lord um has wanted to lead his people, and they can speak for the Lord, and they can do all these things, and they can reveal things that have never been revealed. And so that's what we have is the prophet today. Um the general authorities um and general officers, but we also have it within you know, the and and the prophet, the head prophet seer and revelator today, is um Dylan A. Jokes, and he's just as Samuel. They choose the people, um, they choose the people that the Lord wants to lead us, and they tell us what they speak for the Lord, just as Samuel is doing here. He speaks for the Lord. And so Samuel decides to anoint Saul. And this anointing, it's interesting because I've been thinking about the process of anointed, because the term Messiah literally just means anointed one. Somebody set apart for a special religious purpose, is what it has here, right? Um a rite sanctified a person in some sort of sacral office, according to the SBL Study Bible, right? Um, and if uh or it could be a a ruler, right? To become king, the reigning king, right? So they pour oil on it and it shows that you've been selected. Why? And I like this because um I I like this in the Come Follow Me. It kind of describes what that exactly, what does it mean to be anointed? And so it describes here in the in the questions, um, which is sorry, I'm just looking for it really fast. The anointing. The anointing is it symbolized a change in status or setting apart for a divinely inspired calling and it for the sacred offices of prophet, priest, and king. Olive oil was associated with purity, healing, and oftentimes also with the Holy Ghost. So the Spirit of the Lord was coming upon them, right? It's it also means a smearing, a smearing, smearing, smearing. So it wasn't like they just um put a little dot on it. Like it was fully engulfed over their head. It was it was smeared over them. Um that's what anoint literally means. And it often was carried in a horn, which represented strength or power. So the power of the Lord is whole and it goes over this person, and they are set apart. But I think it's interesting because we get here that being set apart doesn't necessarily mean being a Messiah doesn't necessarily mean that you will become a savior or that you will be a righteous king, right? Saul was set apart and he was chosen by the Lord, but he turned away from the Lord, as we will see many times. That's the word that's used. Saul turned away from the Lord. And that's so just being chosen, you know, many are many are uh what is it, many are called, but few are chosen. And I think that's what we have here, right? Saul was called, he was chosen, but ultimately he didn't live up to what he was supposed to do. And that's the beauty, I think, of Jesus Christ, who is the true Messiah. And I just was thinking about this week, which is he was the anointed one, he was the one set apart and called to come. But he chose every single day, because of who he was, um, and because of his love for us to be our savior, to be the anointed one, to be the one, to be our king, right? He was the one who chose every day to do that. It wasn't just because he was set apart, but because of his choices and who he was, that he became our savior and our king. And it's because of our choices. And as we don't look to other people to be our king, to be our leaders, to fight our battles for us, to be the strongest voice in our lives, but as we look to Jesus Christ and the Spirit to be the strongest voice in our lives, which is really hard, right? But we can turn back to the Lord, we can return to the Lord, as we'll learn later in this chapter, and have him be our king and have him be our Messiah, our anointed one, our savior, our Yeshua, right? Our salvation, as we turn to the Lord. And it's all about our choices, and and and Jesus Christ has already made the choice, and so that we can follow him and know that he will always make the choice to be our savior, again and again, no matter how many times we turn back. And so Saul is anointed and he becomes the king, and you know, and so and he's chosen by the prophets in um nine, he himself also prophesies, right? So he has this own vision of what's going to happen, right? Um, and he says, I he sees the Lord and he's chosen by these prophets. And so Saul is anointed, he's been uh confirmed by not just one witness, but two or three witnesses, right, to be the king. So he's made king, even when he's made king and he's had this experience of the prophet and of the prophets and the seer telling him that he's gonna be king when they're in the group big assembly, and Samuel's gonna tell them who's gonna be king. He hides, he's scared. And how human is that, right? Saul is is human, even as he's been chosen, and the Lord has said, I will be with you. He's still scared and he runs away. But he's found, right? Just as we all are when we run away and we're scared, the Lord looks for us, right? Samuel looks for him, finds him, and says, Hey. And everyone's like, Yeah, Saul's looking great. He's tall, he's handsome. Sure, I'd like him to be my king. He looks like he can fight our battles for us. And so even though he runs away, the Lord finds him via Samuel, and he's chosen to be king. And as he goes through in these um verses that we don't have this week assigned, he fights and he's winning these battles, right? He's doing a great job. He's consulting with Samuel on what he should do, where he should fight, and Samuel tells him and what he should do, and he fights. He's a great military leader, him and Jonathan, his son. Uh, they they fight. And Samuel dies. Or sorry, he just does he work, does he die? No, he just gives a farewell address um to being, you know, he kind of gives them again this warning of what it's gonna be, uh, when it's gonna be to to have a king rule over you. He says, reminder, um, you guys asked for this and it might lead to some really hard times. Um, but you're the ones who who asked for it in the but remember, have the Lord be your king. Have the Lord be your king, fear the Lord. And uh he says this in uh verse 22. He says, For the Lord will not cast away his people for his great name's sake, because they've taken upon themselves his name, he will not cast them away. And I love that because I think it comes into our baptism a lot of times. We're like, well, we took upon ourselves the name of Christ, and that means that we have certain obligations too, and that is so true. But it also means because we have his name on us, he will not let us go. He will not forget us, he will do everything in his power to make sure, for his own sake, because we're like him now, and for our own because he loves us so much. So, because for his great name's sake, for it please the Lord to make you a people for himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will struct you in the good and the right way. Verse 24, only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart, for consider what great things he has done for you. But if you do still dick still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king. He's saying, You know what? I'm not gonna let you go. Even though you asked for a king, I'm still gonna be here, I'm still gonna do my duty in helping and lead you. But you still need to be righteous, even though you've asked for a king, right? Um, and the Lord is still the one who's over all of this. And so then we get into chapter 13. And what's happening is that they're fighting the Philistines, and it's um it's been bad sometimes. Um and so Saul is like, okay, we need to perform these sacrifices in order to get the Lord to help us, right? We've before we go into battle, we need to do sacrifices to make sure that we're on the Lord's side. Kind of a common practice. And uh a quick note here, 13.1, it says Saul ruled two years, I believe, in the KJV. In the actual Hebrew, it just says that he it's corrupted. So it was blank, blank, blank, blank, and two years. So he served for a long time. He was the king. And the Philistines are coming there, or is it the Ammonites? No, it's the Philistines. The Philistines are coming, and okay, they're getting Benjamin, you know, the Philistines are coming. And Samuel's like, wait for me seven days, and I'm gonna be there and I'm gonna help you sacrifice before you come. The Lord will be with you if you come. And he waits seven days for me. And okay, Saul waits the seven days, but as he's waiting the seven days, oh no, the Philistines are getting closer. And so what does he do? He kind of panics and he's like, Okay, we can't wait for this old man anymore, right? I mean, I'm putting words in Saul's mouth, but you get it, right? He's saying, like, okay, this guy said he was gonna come, he's not here. I'm just gonna sacrifice because we need these sacrifices, right? We need to sacrifice to be close to the Lord before we can go. And so it makes rational sense, right? Because he's like, Okay, we need these sacrifices. The sacrifices to the Lord, we need the Lord to be with us. And we can't, we can't wait any longer. But then, kind of, you know, the story makes it seem like right as he had done it. Basically, like as he was in the act of doing it, so um Samuel comes, and Samuel goes, What are you doing, dude? Couldn't have just waited for me? And he's like, Well, they were coming and I needed to make a sacrifice. And and Samuel um makes an interesting, you know, uh uh thing here where he's like, Okay, right, well, that's not good. And then we'll learn later as he's coming in that Saul continues to have this idea of um, well, sacrifices to the Lord is what he needs. The Lord wants to be wants to gain these sacrifices. It's through these sacrifices that we come close to God. And so Saul's really concerned about this. And Samuel here's like, you needed to wait for me. It's about how the Lord has commanded us to do it, and you needed to wait for me, so you're not gonna be blessed in this battle. And it's true, and they're not, and the people end up going to you know uh sorry, uh the the battle's fine, actually, I lied. But um now it's that uh Saul's inheritance is going away. Uh the Lord says, you know what? Um you're not gonna be it's not you're not gonna be the king forever. You've basically lost your anointing, essentially, because you did not follow um the prophet. And so you, you know, you'll you'll still continue to have my blessing as your king, but you will not be king forever. I will not protect your legacy, basically, anymore. So the battle goes okay, um, but they still actually go down to the Philistines and now they lose their land to the Philistines, and um they're a little bit under bondage to the Philistines because of um Saul did not fully have the Lord with him in that. And then um we'll skip some other stories, as then Saul um defeats the Amulite, the sorry the Amalites. Malachites, but spares their king. So we're back into a new battle. And Saul is there, and uh Samuel gives him strict instructions to just to destroy everything, destroy their cattle, destroy their king, no trace of them left, right? A classic thing that we saw earlier. Again, why? We don't know exactly all the reasons why we can put maybe some logical reasons, such as, again, you don't want any foreign influence, you don't want disease, you don't want, you know, them there to be any sort of people that are surviving, especially the leaders, so that then there's insurrection and then they come up and try to fight you again. So there may be a lot of logical reasons, but we don't know all the reasons that the Lord commanded them to destroy. And the the honest answer is it's because the Lord commanded them. Um and he has his reasons, and we can ask him, and maybe they are the logical reasons, right? But we don't know all the reasons why. We just have to have faith in the Lord that he knows what he's doing, right? And so in 15, he says, destroy all of them. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. So destroy all of them. And he fights them, but he does not destroy all of them. He keeps the king. Um, his name is Agog, and he keeps him as kind of like a pet. Right? He's like, I'm gonna show everybody that I've destroyed this king, and so he he keeps agog. He actually doesn't kill them, and he keeps the best of the of the spoil, basically, of the war. And Samuel gets angry in verse 11, and he says, What are you doing? I why am I smelling? And I think it's funny. He says, Why have I heard why do I hear the bleeding of sheep and the lowing of cattle? Why do I hear these things? You should you're supposed to destroy everything, and why is Agog here? You're supposed to destroy everything. And Saul goes, you know, well, I just thought, like they have brought them for the Amalekites, so that the best of the sheep and the cattle can be sacrificed to the Lord. I think this is interesting, to the Lord your God. And I don't know if this is an appeal to Samuel as like the seer, the person closest to the Lord, or if Saul has kind of removed himself from the Lord a little bit, right? And he thinks of it as more of a transactional relationship. And I think it might be a little bit here, right, where he's like, Well, I need to save the best for the Lord because if I sacrifice for the Lord all the best things, that's what the Lord wants, then I can get blessings from the Lord. And uh then Samuel responds in verse um twenty two and he says, Has the Lord delight in great burnt offerings? Sorry, great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in the obedience to the voice of the Lord? Does the Lord actually care about sacrifices, or does he care that you obey him and that you follow him? Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. And this is such a good thing because I think in our lives we can think of God in this way, in a transactional way, but especially the commandments that he has given us in this way, which is like, okay, the Lord really must care then about you know specific rules that he's given, right? He cares about me looking my best on Sunday, you know, because he wants me to look good. And he said, you know, prepare yourselves. Or I'm trying to think of a good example here. He really cares about us, you know, giving. You know, well, if the Lord cares so much about tithing, then maybe I need to give, you know, 15%, because then I can get more good blessings from the Lord. And doesn't the Lord want my money? You know, but maybe that's not a good example because but you know, but it's like the Lord has asked for 10%, that's it. But he's also asked us for 10%. He also wants us more than he wants our money, right? He wanted um Saul's heart way more than he wanted his money. In fact, in verse uh nine of chapter 10, when it's talking about Saul, and he kind of is scared at the beginning, he rejects and he turns away to leave Samuel because he's scared. But then the Lord gives him a new heart as he turns away. So as he runs away and he hears the verse of the Lord, he's given a new heart and he he realized that he is called to the Lord. And I think here he's kind of rejected that new heart. He hasn't given his full heart to the Lord. He thinks that to give your heart to the Lord means to obey in every way for the sacrifices or the rituals. But the Lord is trying to teach him it's never been about that. It's been about obeying me, and it's about your relationship with me. And if I ask you to do something, I want you to do it. I don't care if you think, you know, I don't want you to be like, well, I think this is the best way to worship the Lord. That's great. But actually, I've given you, I want you to obey me. That's the best way to worship me, is to to give me yourself. And so that's what that's what happens. And he says, you know what, you I'm trying to teach you something about the Lord, but you've already been rejected, you know, basically. And Saul kind of gets worried about this, and maybe he realizes the error of his ways in some ways, and he says, Um, now therefore I pray pardon my sin and return with me so that I may worship the Lord. He's like, return with me, like let's let's write this, you know. Come with me so that I can worship the Lord. And again, is this in a selfish way, or is this in a genuine, you know, oh, I'm sorry, come back with me, you know, so that I can worship the Lord again. I don't really know. Don't really know Saul. I hope that he's doing that in that way, right? But almost the damage has been done a little bit, right? Especially because he's in a leadership position. And we need to remember that, that he's in a leadership position and he's doing these things for his own gain, right? Because worshiping the best of the Lord also and having Agog also shows how good of a leader Saul is to the people that he needs to maintain loyalty to, right? Because he's the first king, and there's all these laders of other tribes that he has to appease. So maybe there's also a little bit of selfishness there, which is, I mean, we've all done it, right? Um, but maybe he also is genuinely feeling sorrow, sorry here. But, you know, uh, and and Samuel kind of walks away, he's like, I don't, I don't know, I can't I can't help you. And as he's walking away, Saul reaches for his the hem of his garment and it rips. And Samuel says, Just as the clo has clo clothes have been torn, so the kingdom will be torn for you and given to another. Basically, Saul, I know that you, you know, you've made a mistake here, and it's it's a pretty big one. The Lord needs, and he's you've made multiple mistakes enough that the Lord needs you to, he's gonna, he's gonna need another in your place. Again, he's not rejecting his eternal salvation, he's rejecting his calling as a king and being like, you know what, you're we need another one who's gonna who's gonna follow my voice a little bit more. Um, because the work of the Lord will not be stopped. No matter if the person disobeys the Lord, right? The person of leadership disobeys the Lord, the Lord always has another one ready to call and to serve. Because it's not necessarily about the person, it's always about the Lord, right? Even the Lord, I was listening to a podcast and reminded the Lord said to Joseph Smith, like, hey, if you don't follow me, that's fine, I have another. Right? And it's like, okay, the Lord, we don't know who that other was, right? But the reality is like the work of the Lord will not be stopped, no matter what happens. And that can be a really, I think, a good blessing. On my mission, me and my companions had this saying when we would repeat it every day, um, as part of our mission kind of uh scriptures that we would read, which is no unhollowed hand can stop the work from progressing. And I remember reading that, I'm like, yeah, our enemies can't stop us. And then at one point I was like, Yeah, you're right. No unhollowed hand also means mine. It also means that my unhollowed hand cannot stop the work from progressing, no matter how hard I try, no matter if I feel like I messed up. If I'm trying to follow the Lord, I cannot stop the work of the Lord. And so I'd always look at, especially um one of yeah, one of my companions, sisters in OT, I would look at her, and I'd whenever we would be feeling bad or being like, Ugh, did we mess up? I would just hold up my hand and I'd say, What is this, sister? And she'd say, It's an unhollowed hand. Sometimes she would get annoyed because I would put it in her face, you know. She'd say, That's an unhollowed hand. And I said, Exactly. We cannot stop this work from progressing. And what a what a relief that is. Thank goodness. Um, but it also it's a reminder that if we don't join in the work, we might get left behind because it's gonna continue forward no matter what we do. So let's let's join the throng. We don't have to be perfect, but let's join. And so then at the end, he says, I have sinned and yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel. So that makes me think that's why he's he's pointing to these, and he says, And return with me so that I may worship the Lord your God. Again, the Lord your God. Interesting. Why your? I don't know. But so he asks to return, and a return is what a repentance is, is to return again to the Lord. So can we return? Was Saul's repentance genuine? I don't know, but we can return to the Lord when we've made mistakes. We can worship him again and we can return to him. That's what repentance means in Hebrew. It's a turning to. And so Saul, but rather than returning from the Lord, he has turned from the Lord, right? Kind of two different words. As we turn away from the Lord, let's return again to him, right? Because we've turned away in our sins, but let's return back and come back to him. So, and then so Saul's rejected, and then David is called as king. And so what happens is Samuel's sad. He's like, Oh my gosh, Saul's gone. What's gonna happen to Israel? And the Lord says, How long will you grieve over Saul? I've rejected him. You know what? We can't worry about Saul. I have another one, so let's have another one appointed in his stead. So let's go to David. So he goes, he says, Go sacrifice um in the land of Bethlehem. Again, a very poetic place for an anointed one to be, right? In Bethlehem, right where Christ was born. And so he goes to Bethlehem, five minutes from Jerusalem, and he goes there, the land of bread. And as he's there, or the house of bread, um, he sees the family of Jesse and he says, You know what? Surely this is where out of all these sons, there's gotta be one. I know that they're at least here, right? So he goes through and he's looking through all he's he's the oldest guy, and he's like, This guy's he looks great, he looks like a leader. Nope, not him. Okay, because then the Lord says, That the Lord do not look upon 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 looketh upon the heart. And so he goes through all of these sons, and the Lord says, You know what? Not him. Not him, not their hearts are not in the right place. And then finally, he's like, Well, we've gone through all the sons. And then he's like, Well, I actually have one more, he's in the field. And so he says, Bring him to me. And then as soon as he sees David, he says, Ah, this is him. He was ruddy, meaning he probably had like reddish, maybe like a reddish skin tone, maybe red hair, it's hard to know. And had beautiful eyes and was handsome. So, you know, he it's funny that it says outward appearance, and then it's like, but he still had an outward appearance. So I think, you know, like in our day and age, we'd be like, oh, so he's handsome, so he had a good outward appearance. But in those days, he probably didn't necessarily look exactly like like a Saul was, right? Like tall or muscular, or look maybe like he could save them from maybe he didn't look like a military leader, right? But he still was handsome. So there's kind of some irony there, but I think the message is the same, especially for us in our day, which is that the Lord doesn't look on who is, you know, the most popular in the world's eyes. He doesn't look to who is the most, you know, classically handsome or not that those are bad things, but he doesn't always look at those things. It doesn't matter to him if someone is, you know, what their physical appearance might be, but he looks upon the heart. And um, this is a lesson that I I needed this week as I was just going through, because you know, sometimes it's hard as we compare ourselves to other people, to the world, to feel like we're not enough in those different ways. We're not enough physically or mentally, or we're not intelligent enough, or we'll never add up to what the world would like us to be, or even what we ourselves would want us to be. But the answer is that the Lord doesn't care as much about he doesn't care about that. He cares about what's the state of our hearts. And if we don't measure up right now, that's okay. He'll help us become who we can become as we turn to him. That's what he wants. He wants our hearts. He doesn't want us, you know, necessarily. It's okay, it's great if we look our best and we try our best. But the reality is he wants our hearts. If we're too focused on those things, does that become our idol in a way, right? No, he wants us to be focused on our hearts. And so then David himself is anointed. He becomes the new anointed one. And ironically, or coincidentally, but I guess ironically, you know, his political enemy of Saul, who we know is going to come and take over the kingdom, at least according to Samuel. This is also done unbeknownst to Saul. But um David comes and Saul kind of has, you know, some biblical scholars have said maybe depression. I think perhaps it's anxiety from hearing the fact that the Lord has rejected him, and he's also been through war and all those things, but sometimes he gets an evil spirit. The Lord sends an evil spirit over him, right? So he gets stressed or he gets anxiety or he gets depression, right? Those are the words that we would use. You know, in their culture, they're saying an evil spirit came upon him. In our culture, we would say anxiety, depression, those types of things. And so, but David is really skilled at the lyre, he's a really good musician, and so Saul's like, great, have him come. And he plays the music and it sools Saul's heart. And so it's interesting because now he's kind of in it with Saul. He now has a way to make his way up into the kingdom a little bit, but he helps Saul. And the Lord helps Saul, even as he's in these depressed states through his anointed one, through David. And so we need to, you know, we need to bless even those who may become our enemies. The Lord loved him and Saul loved him, and David loved Saul. And so, even though they were, you know, Saul was imperfect and David was imperfect, they loved each other and they had this connection through the Lord, um, and then through this service, and service is the way that we can become closer. And so, in all of these things, um, I think just a reminder, which is that the Lord wants us. He doesn't want sacrifices, he doesn't he doesn't need sacrifices, he doesn't need us to be great in the world's eyes. He doesn't need us to look our, you know, he doesn't need us to be super beautiful or attractive according to the world's eyes. He doesn't care what we look like physically, he needs our hearts. He wants to be our king. Jesus Christ wants to be our king. Heavenly Father wants to be the one that we turn to. And as we turn to both of them with our full hearts, then we can be blessed, and we can receive the blessings that the Lord wants to give us, is anxious to give us. Um, and as we listen to the Lord's prophet, we can be blessed, and we can know that that is how we are on the right path back to our Heavenly Father, and that we can be we can be filled with the Spirit of the Lord. We each have our own things that we have been called and set apart to do. And as we join the Lord, Lord on his work, even with our imperfect and hollowed, unhollowed hands, we can help him accomplish the things that he needs to, which is to spread love and joy to everybody on earth as we as we can serve them, like David did. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. We will talk to you next week. Bye, guys.