# 1 Samuel Chapter 16
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## Summary
Samuel is sent to Jesse the Bethlehemite to anoint a new King following the Lords rejection of Saul. Samuel asks Jesse to present his sons before him to identify which of these will be King and the youngest is chosen by the Lord. Upon being anointed the Spirit of the Lord rushes upon David and Samuel leaves for Ramah.

The spirit of the Lord departs from Saul and a harmful spirit from the Lord torments him. Saul is advised to seek out a musician to sooth him during these times and he does so taking the recommendation of David son of Jesse. David therefore enters into Saul's service and is much beloved by him.

## Meditatio
This passage introduces some really interesting complexities. Firstly that the Lord is willing to reject a person in a position of leadership and remove his spirit from that individual due to actions they take in life. Yet this person may be left to remain in that position but without the aid of the Lord and reliant solely on the natural gifting given to them by the Lord. Almost as though the Lord is permitting individuals to live as they have chosen to live; without the presence of the Lord.

Interestingly I'm yet to come across a sermon on the doctrine of `replacable parts`. Perhaps given the fact most leaders sit atop the social hierarchy this is somewhat unsurprising. When this is your livelihood, the very means of subsistence you are hardly to have an emergency pull chord for pastor release when the Lord has left. Instead it's left to the exposure of moral failure to consume the leader before they are deposed. In any event now we find Israel's king is a `dead duck`[^1] and essentially just waiting to be succeeded.

This will set up a really interesting dynamic for the rest of the book and between Sauls relationship. Where David is presented as a man after the Lords own heart and Saul as a failure King, yet David will not take direct action in opposition to the one that the Lord had established as King. There is a latent respect here for the divine order which is evidently lacking on the part of Saul. We see this most evidently within Chapter 13[^2]

Another really interesting dynamic is how the Lord sends a harmful spirit from God to torment Saul. Much ink has been spilled over how a benevolent God could permit harm (Theodicy) and the reality is that there is no real satisfactory answer. It may be that the spirit is an effect of Sauls actions rather than directly sent by the Lord (e.g. a guilty conscience). It may be that the Lord deliberately sent a `plague` on Saul to motivate him to seek repentance and yet Saul will not repent. The reality is we will not know.

[^1]: See [here](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/dead-duck) for a definition for those less initiated into British idioms.
[^2]: See my exploration of this chapter [here](http://tilde.club/~chortle/log.php?type=faith&year=part3#1-samuel-chapter-13).