We're tracing the theme of the anointed.

Anointing is a practice of smearing oil on people in sometimes places.

It's a symbol, marking a person or an area as a place where heaven and earth unite.

Today, we're talking about the anointing of Israel's first kings, Saul and then King

David.

And here's what's surprising.

King Saul, the first anointed king, becomes the first anti-Christ in the Bible.

The Greek word Christ is the Greek word for anointed one.

So the anti-Christ means the anti-anointed one.

What's interesting is the first anointed king in Israel's history actually becomes the

biggest obstacle to the anointed king that God wants to raise up that is David, his replacement.

So Saul becomes the first anti-anointed.

Saul is given an opportunity to lead Israel as the anointed, but he fails to trust in God's

word.

So God picks David instead.

David is anointed privately and he spends years waiting for his public anointing.

And this begins an important idea within the theme of the anointed.

But the anointed one must trust in God's word patiently, even when it leads to suffering.

You have an anointed one who's given everything they need to succeed, but there are moments

that are going to need to trust and trust God's wisdom.

And in Saul's case, he does it first and then he stops.

But now here's David.

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