Saul < David < Jesus

In Jesus we have a King who is worthy to be followed day by day.   ~~~   God’s word is to be feared and obeyed. He is to be served, and not our own interests. And this is why God says, “The LORD has sought out a man after His own heart.” Now here is where we must be very careful with 1 Samuel, and all of the Bible. This text is not here to show us that we should be the opposite of Saul and to stand tall when others scatter and the enemy gathers. We must fight against that urge to insert ourselves into the position of the hero. Our place in this story are the people hiding out in the caves and cisterns, wondering what the King is going to do to fix this situation. And as we peer out of our hidey holes, we hear Samuel scold Saul and tell him that he will not have a lasting reign. So this must not be the king we need. This may be the king we asked for, but it is not the king we need. And we know this because Samuel says so right here, but also, if you remember your OT history, you will remember that Jacob prophesied about his son Judah, that the scepter would never leave his throne, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. But Saul is of the tribe of Benjamin, not Judah. So we shouldn’t be surprised that Saul is not going to have an everlasting dynasty. So who is the king after God’s own heart? We will find out in the days to come that the short term answer to that question is David. David would be a king after God’s own heart. David loved God and obeyed his word, when the enemy was great, when others backed away from him, it was never a ritualistic thing with David. But we also see in David just a man. A man who needed to repent of sin, and offer sacrifices for his own sin. So we need a greater king than David. And that is what we have in Jesus. Jesus is a king after God’s own heart because Jesus is God’s own Son. And in Him we have a King who is worthy of us to follow him day by day.