2 Samuel 1:14 David asked him, “Why weren’t you afraid to lift your hand to destroy the LORD’s anointed?”
Do you remember looking at the Highlights magazines in the waiting room of a doctor or dentist? I do! It was the highlight of the visits. I loved the pages that had the picture with the hidden elements in it. I would spend all my time trying to find those hidden gems. I was always sad to leave. I guess that is the point of the magazine. I made an unpleasant visit fun.
I don’t think there are enough fun things to do in doctor’s offices these days, especially after the virus scare. Everything is scrubbed and masked. I’m not even sure I would recognize my new doctors now, since I have only seen them briefly without their masks.
But the hidden elements in life can be some of the most important. Love is hard to see, except in the face of the one loving and the one loved. Love doesn’t have a color or a smell. It can be hard to spot in an Instagram post. But it can be there.
One of the hidden elements in this text is the word anointed. What we miss is that this word translated anointed is the word we might recognize, Messiah. It is used in Isaiah as the title for the One who would come and rescue His people. This is the title used for Jesus in the New Testament.
But what is most interesting is that this word translated anointed is found more times here in the book of Samuel than anywhere else in the Scriptures. Almost half of the thirty nine times this word is used in the Hebrew Bible occur in Samuel.This tells us something important that is hidden in plain sight.
The book of Samuel is about who is the anointed one? Is it Saul or David? David’s answer would be both. And that is the remarkable thing. David was anointed to be king long before he became king. He was anointed when Saul still held that position.
Each time the LORD tries to restart His relationship with His people, he choses to use an individual. And in Samuel, this individual is called the anointed of the LORD. He is the messiah, the chosen one, the hope of Israel.
And as we know, every leader in Israel failed to live up to their calling as a follower of the LORD. They all failed, some spectacularly and some in more subtle ways. And some led very well, remaining humble. And some like David did a bit of both.
Our text tells us of the moment when a man tried to gain favor with David by lying about his role in the death of Saul, the man who had been trying to kill him for years. This man thought he would be rewarded for bringing and end to Saul’s life. He was wrong.
David recognized that Saul had a place, a sacred place, in Israel’s history. He was the first king, a fallen king, a weak king, a proud king. David had been willing to wait for the LORD’s timing to ascend to the throne. He had refused to take the timing into his own hands. He had refused to kill Saul himself when he had the chance.
And now this man was coming and claiming to have done what David refused to do: rush things along. You see, it wasn’t that David really liked Saul, the man who repeatedly tried to kill him, but that Saul occupied a sacred office of “the anointed of the LORD”, and David refused to kill anyone occupying that office.
So when someone came claiming to have done that very thing, justice had to prevail. Murder was murder, even in a time of war. How much more so for the person who occupied the office of the anointed of the LORD!
You see, Jesus, as the LORD’s anointed, freely gave up His life for us. It was not taken from Him. His life for our life, the royal exchange.
The Arnold Journey 