Christ In 1st & 2nd Samuel
Christ in 1 & 2 Samuel
Bro Micah See | 5 July 2026 | 2 Samuel 7:12-16
2 Samuel 7 : 12 - 16
12 “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the [a]blows of the sons of men. 15 But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before [b]you. Your throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”
Finding Christ Where You Don't Expect Him
We are continuing our journey of finding Christ in all the Scriptures — and we come to two remarkable books, 1 and 2 Samuel. These books cover the transition of Israel from the era of judges into the era of kings — first Saul, and then the great king who would come to define what a godly king should look like: David.
We will look through 1 & 2 Samuel with two lenses.
The first is the prophetic — outright prophecies of the Messiah that leap out of these pages, sometimes from the most unexpected mouths. The second is the example — where we see Christ foreshadowed in the character and conduct of the people we encounter. And the key character we return to again and again is King David — that rare man in Scripture whom God Himself called "a man after My own heart" — the example God gives to us.
Four moments in these books stood out. Each one is a window into Jesus.
1. Hannah's Prayer — The First Whisper of the Messiah
Where does the prophecy of Christ first appear in 1 Samuel? Not from a king. Not from Samuel himself. It appears in a mother's prayer of thanksgiving — Hannah, the mother of Samuel, who had begged God for a son and had promised to give him back.
Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 2 and read her whole prayer. Every line is soaked with a beauty and a boldness that goes far beyond simple thanksgiving:
"My heart rejoices in the LORD… No one is holy like the LORD, for there is none besides You, nor is there any rock like our God… The LORD kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up. The LORD makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap, to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory." (1 Samuel 2:1, 2, 6–8)
You can already feel it — this is more than a mother's song. This is a prophecy about how God defeats evil, lifts the humble, and shakes the mighty from their thrones. But the last line is the key that unlocks everything:
"He will give strength to His king, and exalt the horn of His anointed." (1 Samuel 2:10)
Wait — what king? In Hannah's day there was no king in Israel yet. Saul had not been raised up. David had not been born. Samuel himself, the one who would anoint the first king, was still a young child in Hannah's arms. So who exactly is Hannah talking about?
In the Hebrew, the word used is Messiah — the Anointed One. Hannah, whether she fully understood it or not, was prophesying about the coming Christ — the true King, the true Anointed, whom God Himself would exalt.
Now open the New Testament to Luke chapter 1, and hear another mother sing:
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior… He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty." (Luke 1:46–47, 51–53)
This is Mary — the mother of Jesus — echoing Hannah almost line for line. A thousand years of history stretches between these two women, and yet their thanksgivings sound like sisters. Hannah prophesied of the King who was to come. Mary carried Him in her womb. What Hannah prayed for was fulfilled in what Mary bore.
From the very first pages of Samuel, before Israel even had a throne, God was already whispering the name of Jesus into the song of an ordinary mother.
2. The Covenant with David — The Eternal Kingdom
The second unmistakable prophecy comes in 2 Samuel chapter 7, when God speaks through the prophet Nathan to King David. David has grown from shepherd boy to king. He wants to build a house for God. But God turns it around — He is the one who will build a house for David:
"When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son… And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever." (2 Samuel 7:12–14, 16)
Now, at first reading, this could sound like it is only about Solomon, David's direct son. And it is partly about Solomon — he did build the physical temple. But there are things in this prophecy that never came to pass in a physical way. Solomon's throne did not last forever. The nation of Israel fell. The Babylonian exile came. The physical kingdom of David was scattered.
So what did God actually mean when He said "forever"?
Turn to the New Testament, to the very first chapter of Matthew — and read the genealogy of Jesus. Jesus is a direct descendant of the line of David. The kingdom God promised David was never merely political. It was spiritual. It is the church of Christ. It is the kingdom that stands here today — still enduring, still growing, still gathering its citizens two thousand years later — and it will endure forever.
Every time we bow before Jesus as King, we are living inside a prophecy God whispered to David three thousand years ago.
3. David and Goliath — Seen from a Different Angle
Now we move from prophecy to the example. And the most famous story in all of these books is 1 Samuel 17 — David and Goliath. We all know it. Sunday school children can tell it. Every one of us has heard it a hundred times, and every time we hear it, we are told to "be like David" — to face our giants, to trust God against the enemies of our lives.
But lets come at it from a fresh angle this time. What if we are not David in the story? What if we are the Israelite army — David's brothers, the soldiers, the crowd standing terrified on the hillside, watching a giant hurl insults at the living God and knowing that nobody is capable of stepping forward? What if we are the ones who need to be delivered?
And what if David is a shadow of the Messiah — a picture of the One who was going to come and do for us what we could never do for ourselves?
Look at the parallels — they are stunning.
Both are shepherds. Jesus is "the good shepherd" — called that from the very beginning. He was born in a manger surrounded by animals. The first people to visit Him were shepherds. His parables are was about the lost sheep and prodigal sons and the Shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to find the one. Even at the very end, His last conversation with Peter was: "Feed My sheep." And David? He was literally a shepherd — that is what he was doing when Samuel came to anoint him. He was out on the hills, taking care of his father's flock.
Both faced the greatest adversary. Goliath was too big, too strong, too armed. No one in Israel's army was equipped to fight him. In the same way, the greatest adversary of all humanity is death and sin itself — an adversary that no man is able to defeat. Jesus alone was able to face it.
Both refused the world's weapons. When David stepped forward, King Saul's first reaction was to put his royal armour on the boy — equip yourself with the strength of man. But David could not walk in it. He put it off. He took his sling and five smooth stones, and he said — this is the line that shakes me every time — "The LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." (1 Samuel 17:3)
Imagine facing a lion — three times the size of you, jaws and claws and hunger. But this young boy had already stood in front of lions and bears, and God had delivered him. His confidence was not in his own strength. It was in the God who had already carried him through.
Look at Jesus at the moment of His arrest. Peter draws a sword and cuts off the ear of the servant : use physical strength; fight this the world's way. And Jesus says: "Put your sword in its place… Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26:52–53). Jesus knew — as David knew — that this battle was not going to be won by military strength. It was going to be won by the power of God.
Sin was never going to be defeated by human effort. The great adversary was never going to fall to a sword. It was going to fall to the One who put Himself out in front of us, when nobody else could, and defeated the enemy on our behalf — the very same way David walked out onto that valley floor for the sake of an army that could not fight for itself.
That is why David was called a man after God's own heart. And that is why Jesus is the true and greater David.
4. David and Mephibosheth — A Seat at the King's Table
The last example is one we hear talked about far less often — It comes in 2 Samuel chapter 9.
David is now the king. Saul, his long-time enemy, is dead. Jonathan, Saul's son and David's dearest friend, is also dead. David could easily have moved on. He could have wiped the memory of Saul's household from Israel altogether — that is what conquering kings did in those days. But listen to what David says:
"Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?" (2 Samuel 9:1)
And a servant tells him: yes — there is still a son of Jonathan, but he is lame in his feet. His name is Mephibosheth, hidden away in a distant place called Lo Debar — which means "no pasture." He is a forgotten cripple in a forgotten town. He has no lineage of merit. He has no political standing. He has no claim on David whatsoever. If anything, as the grandson of Saul, he would have been afraid David would kill him on sight.
David sends for him. And when Mephibosheth arrives, he falls on his face — trembling. And David speaks the words that ought to break every one of our hearts:
"Do not fear, for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father's sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather; and you shall eat bread at my table continually." (2 Samuel 9:7)
You shall eat bread at my table continually. Not "you may visit." Not "I will send you food." You will sit down at the king's table — every day, for the rest of your life — as though you were my own son.
Do you see it? Do you see us in this?
We are Mephibosheth. We are the crippled children of God. We have no rightful claim to His kindness — no bloodline of righteousness, no résumé of good works, no lineage that entitles us to a seat at any table of His. By our own standards we should have been hidden away in Lo Debar — forgotten, unable to walk on our own two feet before God — and instead the King has sent for us. And He has said: "Do not fear. You will eat bread at My table continually."
David did not have to do this. There was no political benefit. There was no earthly reason. He did it because the love of God was flowing through him — the same love that would one day flow through Jesus in perfect fullness, to us who had no right to it either.
And this is why every Sunday, at the Lord's Table, we do what we do. We break bread. We drink the cup. We remember. We are not merely observers of what Jesus did. We have a seat. Every one of us. Every Sunday. That bread on the table is for us — not because we earned it, but because the King sent for us and lifted us out and adopted us as His own.
Take This Home
Four snapshots of Christ, drawn out of 1 and 2 Samuel:
Hannah's prayer — the Messiah whispered in a mother's song
The eternal kingdom — promised to David, fulfilled spiritually in Jesus, standing today
The good Shepherd — David stepping out for the army that could not fight for itself, foreshadowing the true Shepherd who stepped out for us
A seat at the King's table — mercy shown to a forgotten cripple, mirroring the mercy Christ shows to every one of us
If we look this closely at just these four moments, imagine how many more there are hidden in these two books — waiting for us to see. Christ is on every page.
So when you sit at the Lord's Table this Sunday, remember Mephibosheth. When you face something you cannot defeat, remember the shepherd boy who trusted the God who had already carried him. When you hear a mother sing, remember Hannah and Mary and the King they both saw coming. And when you doubt whether the promises of God will last, remember David's covenant — because the throne of Jesus is established forever.
God has never once forsaken His people. He has been faithful from Hannah to Mary, from Bethlehem to Bethlehem, and He is faithful still — to you.
