Samuel Dreaded a Second Esau in David's Red Skin

Click for full size

The Horn of Oil and the Farmyard at Bethlehem

Samuel filled his horn with oil and went down to Bethlehem, because a voice had told him, "I have provided Me a king among his sons." He carried the horn past the elders of the town, who trembled when they saw the old prophet coming, and he did not tell them why. He came to the house of Jesse and set the horn down among the sons, and he waited to be shown which of them heaven had chosen.

He was certain he would know the king by looking. He had anointed one king already, tall Saul, a head above every man in Israel, and the height had seemed like proof. So when the sons of Jesse came before him, Samuel searched their faces for the same sign.

Seven Sons Pass and the Prophet's Eye Fails

Eliab came first, the eldest, broad and straight and kingly, and Samuel's heart leapt. "Surely the LORD's anointed is before Him," he thought, and he reached toward the horn.

"Look not on his appearance, nor on the height of his stature," God said, "because I have rejected him." For Eliab was a hard man, strict-tempered, quick to anger, and a king who rules by his own heat scorches the people he governs. Man looks at the eyes. God looks at the heart. Samuel drew his hand back.

Abinadab passed. Not this one. Shammah passed. Not this one. Seven sons of Jesse crossed before the prophet, each one a man a prophet might crown, and heaven refused every one. Samuel stood in the farmyard with a full horn and no king, and the certainty of his own eyes lay in pieces at his feet. "Are these all the lads?" he asked. Jesse answered, "There remains yet the youngest, and he is tending the flock." "Send and fetch him," Samuel said, "for we will not sit down till he come."

The Red Flush That Looked Like Esau

They sent to the pasture, and the boy came in from the sheep. He was ruddy. The blood stood bright in his cheeks, red as a wound, red as fire.

Samuel's own face flushed hot, and he rose to his feet in dread. He had seen that red once before in the memory of Israel. "And the first came out ruddy." Esau, the hunter, the man who lived by the sword and filled the field with blood. "This one too is a shedder of blood," Samuel said. He would not pour holy oil onto another Esau. His hand would not move.

Beautiful Eyes and a Heart Only God Could See

"With beautiful eyes," God said. Look again. Look longer. "Esau kills by his own consent. This one kills only by the consent of the Sanhedrin." The red in Esau was appetite. The red in the boy was a blood that would wait for judgment, that would spill only after the court of the law had spoken. The same color, two different hearts, and only God could tell them apart.

"Arise," God said. "Anoint him, for this is he." And the word Arise carried a second command folded inside it. Rise from before him. Stand up. You are in the presence of a king. Samuel rose. He and Jesse, the two great ones of that generation, had not sat down in the whole hour of waiting, and now they sat only when the boy stood between them, so that the youngest son of the house of bread was set enthroned between a prophet and a father.

Samuel lifted the horn and the oil ran down over the red hair, over the beautiful eyes. "This is he" in this world, God said, and "this is he" in the world to come.

The Antiphon of Psalm One Hundred Eighteen

As the oil ran, the farmyard began to sing, one voice answering another, each mouth given its own line.

David, the anointed boy, spoke first. "I thank You, for You have answered me." Jesse answered, looking at the son he had left in the field, "The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone." The brothers who had all been passed over said, "This is from the LORD." Samuel said, "This is the day the LORD has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it."

The brothers cried, "Please, O LORD, save now." Jesse cried, "Please, O LORD, grant success now." Samuel blessed the boy, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD." And all of them together, prophet and father and rejected brothers, said, "We bless you from the house of the LORD." David lifted his voice over theirs. "You are my God, and I thank You." And the whole house answered as one, "Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His kindness endures forever."

The words for Me had gone out over the boy, and whatever heaven ever calls for Me never moves again. The priests are for Me. The Levites are for Me. The land is for Me. The anointing oil is for Me. And now a king was for Me, and a king called for Me does not budge, not in this world and not in the world to come. The kindness that had chosen the least of eight sons in a Bethlehem farmyard would, like the last line they sang, endure forever.