Thoughts on the Messianic Passages of 1 and 2 Samuel

Rick L. McNally, April 15, 2025

The books of 1 and 2 Samuel are beautiful pieces of art.  They speak of the faithlessness of men and the stubbornness of God to work with and through the broken people he created.

You might not know this, but the books of 1 and 2 Samuel are the story of David before he was a king and during his reign.  David was Israel’s second King, and arguably their greatest human leader.  He was a warrior.  He was a poet.  His was a singular human heart.  He was a selfish adulterer.  He was a jealous murderer.  He was complex.

And this is one of the finest characters in the books.  But what is laudable?  What should we see in David and try to emulate?

On the surface, these two books are about David, for sure.  But under their surface, the story is about Messiah.  The Old Testament is rife with this theme; it is spread throughout, not peppered but systemically — it is through the whole of its pages.

Messiah, as these books teach us, is coming (and has come); and through its narrative, we learn so much about him.  The point is made emphatically, however, that his coming is God-driven, and directly related to the unfaithfulness of man — not his faithfulness.  God may be faithful, but mankind is broken.  Let’s examine this.

In the Story of Hannah

Our story of David and Messiah begins with a forlorn woman who is childless and wants more than anything else to have a child.  Such a human story.  Such a common story.  Leave it to God to make this story begin with someone who seems so lowly and powerless.

We see a couple of themes develop in her story.  The faith of a young woman, the fervent prayer of need and trust.  The faithlessness of the priestly class who lord over her and others; God’s ability to bless the former and curse the latter.  Knowing that God works through not positions and power but humility and heart; God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.

This is seen in Hannah’s prayer [1 Samuel 2:1-10].  Foremost in this song is the idea of a great reversal: the oppressive, mighty, rich will be brought low, and the oppressed, weak, poor will be enhanced.  This is Hannah’s story.  This is David’s story.  This will be Messiah’s story; he will come from relative nowhere, a relative nobody, a carpenter’s son who does not have a place to lay his head.

It is in this context that we first see the word māšîaḥ, messiah, as it refers to a coming messiah [1 Samuel 2:10].  “The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

Within this first narrative is also the story of Eli and his “worthless” sons — not my word, but God’s.  We see in its words and actions people rejecting God, and God rejecting them.  By the end of the story, we see God telling Eli that he “will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind.”  The priests of Israel were not doing what they should, nor could any human priest do so, so God would raise up one that would [1 Samuel 2:35].   This priest would be a forever priest and connected to the anointed.  This would be Messiah.  This would be Jesus.

Jesus, coming despite the faithlessness of men.

In the Story of Saul

Saul became the first King of Israel.  Samuel greatly pushed the idea that they should not desire a human King, but they had to have it.  They got Saul.

Saul had some military successes and spiritual failures.  This book is not about Saul; he is largely just a counterpoint to David.  Like God rejected the human priests earlier, he rejects his first human king as well.  

And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.  But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” 1 Sa 13:13–14

God rejects Saul and hands his kingdom over to “a man after his own heart,” who would be David; and as David is but a human picture of his “son,” the Messiah.  The failure of the first king results in the anointing of a second, the anointing of the second leads to God’s intended “Anointed,” Jesus.

Men have failed as priests.  Men have failed as kings.  God has rejected both priests and kings and wants to set up something better for his people.

In the Story of David

When David’s story is fully told, we see a few themes.  God’s faithfulness to protect him from an evil-acting rival.  David’s attempt to honor or respect Saul, who was also God’s anointed — which was a difficult path to trod.  God himself giving David a covenant that was unprecedented; a forever house, a forever kingdom for one of his offspring, an intimacy with God like father and son, a faithful relationship that God would not dissolve like he did his relationship with Saul.

By the end of his tenure as King, David looked back with honest eyes.  In 2 Samuel 23, we read what is described as “the last words of David.”  Due to some translation issues, 23:1 and 23:5 have become more confusing, not less.  To be brief, parts of 23:1 are not necessarily referring to David, but the coming Messiah that he wrote about in the Psalms (David knew of this coming offspring who would rule faithfully forever too), and 23:5a is not a positive statement of a question, but a negative declarative statement.  After describing the reign of the coming righteous King Messiah in 23:4, David is stating, as the KJV here better words, “Although my house be not so with God.”  [See Rydelnik’s article in the Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy, Moody Publishers, 2019 for more]

David states that God’s kingdom, Messiah’s kingdom, will be righteous UNLIKE his own.  He is stating his failure to obtain the level of righteousness God requires or desires in his Messianic promised future.  

David — the greatest ruler of the Old Testament — does not measure up to Messiah, nor could he. 

To be fair to David in this last passage, he describes the rule of Messiah [verse 3-4], his rule as not measuring up [verse 5a], and God’s work in his covenant on his behalf is despite him [5b] and a third group of people he terms “worthless men” [verse 6-7].  And so, in his own estimation, his rule was above the behavior of the worthless men but far below the future successes of the coming Messiah.

The Ideal / The Messiah

• The coming Messiah and his rule will be spectacular.  Please read it with me again: 
• When one rules justly over men,
• Ruling in the fear of God,
• he dawns on them like the morning light,
• like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning,
• like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.

When we read this bit of poetry, it should affect us deeply.  I’ve never felt this kind of justice.  I’ve never experienced it.  It is revolutionary.  If we think we’re accomplishing this, we are crazy.  It shocks us deeply with emotion because it is not something that we have experienced. 

This is not accomplished by David.  This was not accomplished by any king of Israel.  This is not accomplished in any organization.  This is not accomplished in any church.  This is not accomplished in any family.  This is not accomplished in any human heart.

Messiah alone can perfectly make this occur.  It began with the ministry of Jesus Christ and his life, death, and burial.  It begins when we accept those truths and submit to them.  It begins when Jesus rules in our hearts and in our midst.  It will be fraught with errors and failures in this life — so confession and repentance need to be part.

It will only happen fully when Jesus reigns supreme in our hearts and we live in the fear of God and not men.  When Jesus returns and is our king as promised.

But, until then, we have a choice.  Are we going to be a sensitive David who confesses his weaknesses and sins?  Are we going to be a hard-hearted Saul and do things our own way, and then deny that we did so?  Are we going to be people who are “worthless” and reject David and his Anointed—Jesus—and become like thorns “worthless” and “dangerous” to those around us?