1 Samuel 16: What is an Anointing?

If you have been reading 1 Samuel faithfully, you may begin to feel the grief that Samuel felt for Saul. The king’s unfaithfulness to God and sheer disinterest in Spiritual things has cost the nation the leadership it needs, his family a dynasty and now this passage brings into full repose his new current reality; he is leading a nation without the power of the Spirit with his replacement emerging before his eyes. The scene is quite painful and will only get worse as time makes clear that David is the anointing by God for leadership in Israel.

The Holy Spirit’s departure from Saul and the anointing of David is the central detail in this transition. So what does it mean for David to be anointed? What did it mean then and what does it mean for us?

The Spirit has always been an agent of creation (Gen 1:2). In the Old Testament there was a special anointing for kings, prophets and priests. They were anointed with oil to represent a Spiritual anointing that God would give them in order to accomplish a task. Kings were called to rule. Priests were called to mediate the blessing and curse of God’s presence among the people. Prophets were called to teach and hold the leaders and people to remain faithful to God’s word.

Part of what is good about the good news is that now the Spirit is given to all believers and that all believers with the Holy Spirit can offer the kind of kingly, priestly and prophetic ministry in the world. The Holy Spirit calls us to God and in that calling (vox) is a vocation (from the root vox). The vocation is a calling for us to use the anointing and accompanying gifts (1 Cor 12, Rom 12, Eph 4:9-16) to move the purposes of God forward in the world, to build his Kingdom.

Have you considered the call of God on your life to build the kingdom with the gifts he has given you? How do your talents and gifts move the Kingdom of God forward in this world? This would probably beg other questions like: What is the Kingdom? Is it the same thing as the church? (no) Beyond that, the anointing of the Spirit is something that must be cultivated and nurtured (Gal 6:8). Are you sowing your life to the Spirit (Eph 4:17ff) to develop the kind of character that can withstand the challenges of Spiritual leadership?

Posted by Marc Lucenius