Yesterday's Man to Tomorrow's Man?

Last Sunday morning I listened to a message, from a Pastor I’d not heard before. The focus was 1 Samuel 16:1, The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”

 

This was presented as an introduction to the importance of transition. In the passage of 1 Samuel, we find the transition from the past to present, from the present to the future. All right there in one verse; Saul being the one with God’s previous anointing, now having been removed, and God sending Samuel to the house of Jesse to anoint God’s new chosen one, David, Son of Jesse.

 What follows are notes I made and my take-away.

“God’s anointing passes from one King to another.” This really struck me as I couldn’t help applying that logic to our political situation today. Full disclosure; I was not a Trump loyalist during the 2016 primaries, but became more so once he won the nomination and I realized just how far the haters were willing to go to destroy the man.

 Ever since the 2020 election and the recent mid-term elections, I’ve been extremely discouraged with the state of our nation. More specifically, the “leaders” of our nation. Sunday's message caused me to reconsider my frustrations.

 Pastor said something to the effect that, when you stop heeding God’s Will and direction, He removes His anointing. This made me think; has the United States of America lost God’s anointing? Were we (as I believe) anointed by God, because of the purity of our founding? And were we now losing God’s anointing?

Sidebar; I know we still allowed slavery at our founding and I’m not claiming our purity was without faults, but it certainly was more pure than previous nations who, by the way HAD NOT abolished slavery.

 Back to the message; Pastor said; “you never drift anywhere worth going.” Have we drifted? Whether or not, I somehow felt that maybe I need to accept what has happened (politically) and move forward. For the point of the message was still to come.

 The “tragedy of Yesterday’s Man” is that you get stuck there. Maybe I’ve been stuck there. Yesterday’s Man was the man previously anointed. Maybe Yesterday’s Man (Trump) had strayed just a hair too far and God was moving on, maybe not (just me considering it). That’s not to say today’s leaders are the best for God’s Will, but maybe they are simply a transition (there’s that word again).

 In 1 Samuel, Saul is seeking to preserve his kingdom, while Samuel was seeking to prepare for the future anointing of God. It sounds like Saul was drifting from God’s Will to retaining his own power. Don’t we all experience that sometimes? We think our life is good, or just or right, and we try to retain that moment in time?

 We can choose to be Saul or Samuel. Will we choose to preserve our power or prepare for the future anointing of God?

 Samuel was listening to God. Here, the Pastor made an excellent point; “if you quit listening, you don’t hear it anymore.” Certainly, he said it more eloquently than I can AND with a story attached. Suffice to say, when you live by a railroad, you eventually don’t hear the passing trains. I.e. you stop listening to them. Ergo, you no longer hear them. Have we stopped listening to God?

 All of this to transition to the “triumph of tomorrow’s man.” Tomorrow’s Man is the man with God’s anointing. God commanded Samuel to anoint David. We know the giant that David brought down.

 1 Samuel is Old Testament. We have the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Isn’t it possible we have been anointed by God? But, A BIG BUT! Could it be we only have the anointing, as long as we LISTEN?

Pastor’s message seemed to be; WORK TODAY TO IMPACT TOMORROW. He offered these three encouragements;

1.    Keep listening to God. If you quit listening, you won’t hear Him anymore.

2.    Keep risking! Regardless of the backlash, keep risking favor from the mere mortals, to move God’s Will forward.

3.    Keep blessing! The future of the church is not dependent on living in the past. The future of God’s Will does not rely on maintaining man-made traditions, but embracing younger people and their commitment to God’s Plan.

 You can choose to be Saul (trying to maintain the past or present) or, you can choose to be Samuel (preparing for the future anointing of God). Which do you choose?