Bible Reading1 Samuel 16:1-13 The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”
And Samuel did what the LORD commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, “Do you come peaceably?”
And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him.”
[15:19] But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”
[15:57] Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.”
Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.”
And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen these.”
[16:05] Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.”
[16:17] And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome.
And the LORD said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”
[22:53] Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
1 Samuel 17:34-37 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.”
And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you!”
John 4:1-26 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.
And he had to pass through Samaria.
So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
The woman answered him, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”
Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
Observation questions- In 1 Samuel 16, what details made Eliab seem like the obvious choice at first, and what reason did God give for rejecting that first impression? [15:19]
- What do we notice about David’s location when Samuel arrives at Jesse’s house, and what does that show about how his own family viewed him at that moment? [16:17]
- According to 1 Samuel 17:34-37, what specific things happened in David’s time with the sheep before he ever faced Goliath?
- In John 4, what barriers were present between Jesus and the Samaritan woman before their conversation even really began?
Interpretation questions- If “man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart,” what kinds of judgments tend to control human thinking, and how does that shape the way people can miss the person God is choosing? [15:57]
- David was not even invited into the room at first. What does that suggest about the difference between human recognition and God’s calling? [16:31]
- David’s private battles with the lion and the bear became part of his confidence later. How can hidden seasons become preparation instead of punishment? [21:34]
- Jesus saw more than the Samaritan woman’s history, and God saw more than David’s field. What does that reveal about the way God looks at people whose story seems messy, overlooked, or unlikely? [27:21]
Application questions- Where has life lately made it tempting to ask, “Do I really belong here?” In that place, what would it look like to keep showing up in faith instead of shrinking back? [25:05]
- Different does not mean defective. What part of personal difference has felt hardest to accept—personality, background, story, gifting, season, or something else—and how might God want to use that very thing? [17:27]
- Social comparison can quietly drain joy and confidence. What kind of comparisons show up most often right now, and what would it look like to resist becoming a copy of somebody else? [18:06]
- The field is not forever, but it can feel long. What might the present “field” season be teaching right now that would be easy to overlook if the only focus is on getting to the next room? [21:10]
- God knows how to send for the one others forgot. Is there an area where there has been too much striving to force a door open, gain approval, or prove worth to people? What might faithful waiting look like there? [22:30]
- People may see weakness, mistakes, or past failure, but God sees purpose and what his strength can do. Which label from other people—or even from self—needs to lose its power because God sees more? [23:40]
- The oil still has a name on it. What would change this week if that truth was believed in a deeper way: in prayer, in obedience, in serving, or in walking into hard spaces with confidence in Christ? [29:05]
