1 Samuel 16:11 And Samuel said to Jesse, Are here all your children? And he said, There remains yet the youngest, and, behold, he keeps the sheep… In the boyish days and deeds of distinguished men, biographers delight to illustrate the adage that the boy is father to the man. In sacred story, the younger child of Rebekah taking hold of his brother by the heel, as if with intent to supplant him; in classical mythology, the infant Hercules strangling in his cradle the serpents sent by Juno to destroy him; in modern history, the schoolboy Napoleon Bonaparte, rearing his snow fortifications in the playground, and teaching his school fellows to attack or defend them — are samples of the shadows of the future that are often projected on the childhood of great men. The early years of King David exhibited more than one instance of this foreshadowing of the future. I. It, certainly was not by accident, that, when Samuel went to Bethlehem to anoint one of the sons of Jesse as king, THE SON ON WHOM THE DIVINE CHOICE FELL WAS AT THE VERY MOMENT KEEPING HIS FATHER'S SHEEP. His early employment had a direct and Divine bearing upon his later. In some of his psalms — the beautiful closing verses of the 78th, for example — the Divine connection is transparent. "He chose David also His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the ewes great with young He brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands." 1. As a shepherd, keeping his father's sheep, the sense of responsibility to another was powerfully called into exercise. The flock was not his own. The servant-feeling thus beautifully called into play, was transferred, in full integrity, to the higher sphere of the kingdom. To the people of Israel he felt that he stood in the same relation as he had occupied to his father's sheep, and to God in the same place in which he had stood to his father. 2. Further, the shepherd occupation of David led him, from its very nature, to seek the welfare of the flock. Suitable pasture had to be provided; shelter had to be found from the heat by day and from the cold by night; protection had to be secured from wolves and lions; the diseased had to be nursed, the wounded cared for, wanderers bad to be followed, rescued from danger, and brought back to the fold. These were the ideas of duty with which David became familiar as a shepherd. And when his charge was changed, these ideas of duty remaining in his heart, and influencing his public conduct, made him the eminent ruler be became. The welfare of his people was his constant aim. In the view of duty to the flock, all thoughts of fear and danger fled from David's mind. Self-sacrifice for the welfare of others was the ruling principle at once of the shepherd and of the king. 3. Yet further: — In his office as a shepherd, David had constantly to study the increase and improvement of the flock. It was not enough for the shepherd to keep the flock as he got it. The flock was not properly kept, unless every season brought a great increase to its number, and a large addition to its value. The same thought manifestly influenced David's kingly administration, he constantly consulted for the progressive improvement and elevation of his people. And in all the higher departments of progress, the same spirit of improvement prevailed. Great warrior though he was, the spirit most congenial to him was that of peaceful development and progress. We cannot omit to add, that the shepherd employment of David, by leading him to give special attention to the weak, the helpless, and the distressed of his flock, trained him for one of the most blessed and Christ-like functions of a godly ruler. What a contrast, the spirit of David's pastoral and royal office, and of Christ's blessed rule, to that of most earthly governors l What a contrast to the spirit of the well-known saying of the "most Christian king" — "L'etat, c'est moi" — I am the State! The Christian shepherd is not the flock, the Christian ruler is not the state. He is God's servant, intrusted with the rod of authority for the true good of the flock. The more forgetful be is of self, in his anxiety to discharge his trust, and do good to his flock, the more worthy is he of the title of "a Christian king." While we speak thus strongly of the devotion of King David to his own people, we must add that in its very intensity, that devotion was not unaccompanied by traces of human infirmity. His love was confined to his own people; and for all beyond that circle, he not only had no warm love, but hardly even the ordinary feelings of brotherhood. It would have been more difficult for a Jew to attain the happy medium, the right equipoise of feeling for the uncircumcised nations around, lying somewhere between brotherly love on the one hand, and bitter hatred on the other. But David gave himself no trouble to find this happy medium. It is a mystery how such tenderness, and such relentless severity, should have been found in the same man. Whatever may be urged in extenuation of his severity, rests on his position as a Jew. For our part, we must ever remember that to enlarge the sphere of kindly feeling is one of the great objects of the Christian dispensation. "Let brotherly love continue" for the members of the household, certainly; but "if ye love the brethren only, what do ye more than others?" (W. G. Blaikie, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither. |
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