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The Life of David: A 4-Week Course
Week 1 · The Shepherd Boy of Bethlehem
1 Samuel 16:1-13
When Samuel came looking for a king among Jesse's sons, the one who looked most kingly to human eyes was the eldest, Eliab. But God tells Samuel to look not at appearance, but at the heart. David himself wasn't even called in at first — he was out in the field tending sheep. Someone had to be sent to bring him in; he was so far from being considered a candidate for king that he was simply the youngest son. This scene is one of the most striking moments in all of Scripture, showing just how different God's standard of choosing is from ours.
Discuss together
People saw Eliab's appearance, but God saw David's heart. What standard do we use when we evaluate ourselves, or others?
Quiz and explanations
Where did David rank among Jesse's sons?
- The eldest
- The second
- The youngest
- An only son
Check order
3. David was Jesse's youngest son, and he wasn't even called in at first — he was out tending the sheep (1 Samuel 16:11).
What did God tell Samuel to look at when evaluating a person?
- Appearance and stature
- Wealth
- The heart
- Family lineage
Check order
3. God said, "man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).
1. Week 1 · The Shepherd Boy of Bethlehem
1 Samuel 16:1-13
When Samuel came looking for a king among Jesse's sons, the one who looked most kingly to human eyes was the eldest, Eliab. But God tells Samuel to look not at appearance, but at the heart. David himself wasn't even called in at first — he was out in the field tending sheep. Someone had to be sent to bring him in; he was so far from being considered a candidate for king that he was simply the youngest son. This scene is one of the most striking moments in all of Scripture, showing just how different God's standard of choosing is from ours.
People saw Eliab's appearance, but God saw David's heart. What standard do we use when we evaluate ourselves, or others?
Bethlehem
2. Week 2 · Jealousy and Flight
1 Samuel 18-19 · 1 Samuel 22:1-2
David plays the harp to soothe King Saul in the royal court at Gibeah, and after defeating Goliath, he becomes beloved by the people. But when the women sing, "Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands," jealousy takes root in Saul's heart, and from that day he seeks to kill David. David eventually flees the court to the cave of Adullam, where the people who gather to him are "every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented." Israel's future king begins his leadership training not in the power of a palace, but in the wilderness, with four hundred men the rest of society had pushed aside.
David was trained in leadership not in the palace but in the wilderness, not among society's mainstream but among the marginalized. How can we come to accept that the place we think we're being 'prepared' in may not be where God is actually shaping us?
Gibeah → Adullam
3. Week 3 · Ziklag, Courage in Despair
1 Samuel 27:6 · 1 Samuel 30
Given Ziklag as a base by the Philistine king Achish, David returns from a three-day expedition to find the town burned by the Amalekites and his family taken captive (1 Samuel 30). To make things worse, his own men, overcome with grief and anger, speak of stoning him. At the very moment he appears to have lost everything — as a leader, a husband, a father — David does not wait for comfort to come from outside; Scripture records that he "encouraged himself in the LORD his God." This was not a decision made because circumstances improved, but a choice to turn to God while the circumstances remained exactly the same.
David chose to find courage in God before his circumstances changed. Do we tend to only wait for comfort to come from outside ourselves?
Ziklag
4. Week 4 · From Hebron to Jerusalem, Becoming King
2 Samuel 2:1-4 · 2 Samuel 5 · 2 Samuel 6
After Saul's death, David is first anointed king over Judah alone, at Hebron. But it would take more time before his kingship extended over all Israel. Once he finally becomes king over the whole nation, David captures the Jebusite stronghold — a city that had belonged to no tribe — and makes Jerusalem his new capital, a wise choice that favored neither the northern nor the southern tribes. He then brings the ark of the covenant up to Jerusalem, shouting and blowing trumpets together with all Israel. At the end of a long journey from shepherd to fugitive to king, the first thing David sought to establish was not his own palace, but the presence of God.
Once he was king, the first thing David worked to bring in was the ark — the presence of God. When we gain a new position or authority, what priority should we reach for first?
Hebron → Jerusalem
Rebuild the journey
Choose the places in journey order to reconstruct the route.