He had something that God liked, because Jesus was called ‘the Son of David’. Jesus was identified with King David, and they kept calling Him the ‘Son of David’ because David was the greatest king that Israel had ever known - he had a heart after God, and he was a history maker, determined to change the generation he lived in.
You may not change a whole generation, but there are some people you can change, and there are some differences that you can make. The question is: will you be a person who pursues the heart of God? Will you be a person who desires to do what God wants done through you, where you are? It's not about whether you've got great opportunities, or great positions, or great things like that. Will you do what God wants you to do?
We're going to have a look at David - this man who became such a great king. There are different seasons in David's life. Every one of the seasons that was in David's life was a season where God had things to teach him. It's all very well for you to be positioned as a king, but you actually have to grow, and learn how to be a king. You must learn to grow into the role, learn what it is to stand up. How do I serve God, and position myself, that I can make a difference?
David did not start out by making a difference. He started out with some other things. There are five different cities in the Bible, which David was connected with. Each one of these cities represents a season in his life, a distinct period in his life, when he was learning and growing, and he learnt certain things.
In this session, we will examine the first of those cities, and I want to show you what it is that was happening in his life, that nobody saw. There were bad seasons, good seasons - different seasons; but some things were constant.
1 Samuel 16:1 – “Now the Lord said to Samuel: how long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I've rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, go; I'm sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons”.
What was it that David did, that made him so distinctive? The first season in David's life - this event takes place when he's about 17. This season is in a place called Bethlehem, and we know of someone else who also was born in Bethlehem and had a season there - Jesus Christ.
David was living in Bethlehem, and was the youngest in his family, of seven or eight. He had the lowest social stature in the family, so for him, Bethlehem was the place of obscurity, the place where no one sees you, except God. It's a place where there are some things to learn, and if you learn those things, in that place, then you will position yourself for the next place or season in your life. Some people never learn those lessons, that are found in this place called Bethlehem, but there are three things he learned in that season…
Samuel went to the little town of Bethlehem, and he searched out the man called Jesse. He said: Jesse, we're going to have a feast at your house. I want you to bring all your sons here… and he didn't tell him why. So, they had a great big feast, and he brought all the sons together, and then he asked them all to pass by him. Eliab was the first one, and he was a good-looking guy. He got him to go past him; but the Lord said: no, not that one. Man looks on the outside, but God looks on the heart.
He said: “I see not as man sees - I see the heart”. The problem Eliab had was an issue of pride - he felt himself better than everyone else. They brought each of the sons in front of the prophet, and the prophet was thinking: this is the one? No! This is the one? No! Finally, all seven had gone by, and… nothing! He says: what a mystery! Have I missed it? Then he said: there wouldn't be another son in the family, would there? They said: oh yeah, don't worry about him, he's out there in the field looking after the sheep - no good in him. Don't worry about him. He said: no, I want you to bring this young man to me - let's have a look.