The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”
1 Samuel 16:1-3
But Samuel said, “How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me.”
The LORD said, “Take a heifer with you and say, `I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.”
It’s commonly known that David (and his promised descendant, Jesus) came from the tribe of Judah. Naturally, the tribe of Judah would be the leader of the tribes of Israel, right? Actually, that was not so obvious at the time. Until the Lord sent Samuel to anoint David as the next king in the passage above, no major leader had emerged from that tribe. The following are the leaders/judges of Israel before David:
| Name | Tribe | Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| Moses | Levi | Exodus 2:1-2 |
| Joshua | Ephraim | Numbers 13:8, 16 |
| Othniel | Judah | Judges 3:9 |
| Ehud | Benjamin | Judges 3:15 |
| Deborah | Ephraim? | Judges 4:4-5 |
| Barak | Naphtali | Judges 4:6 |
| Gideon | Manasseh | Judges 6:11, 15 |
| Tola | Ephraim | Judges 10:1-2 |
| Jair | Manasseh | Judges 10:3 |
| Jephtah | Manasseh | Judges 11:1 |
| Ibzan | Judah | Judges 12:8-10 |
| Elon | Zebulun | Judges 12:11-12 |
| Abdon | Ephraim | Judges 12:13-15 |
| Samson | Dan | Judges 13:2, 24-25 |
| Samuel | Ephraim | 1 Samuel 1:1-2 |
| Saul | Benjamin | 1 Samuel 9:1-2 |
While Judah is represented by some minor judges, Ephraim and Manasseh are certainly the dominant tribes. They are the sons of Joseph, Jacob’s favored son. When the kingdom split after Solomon’s time, Jeroboam from the tribe of Ephraim became king in the north, following the leadership pattern that had been established long before.
What was Samuel thinking that fateful day he walked to Bethlehem? Did he have reservations of the leadership shifting south away from his home territory? We will never know. But by that act of obedience, Jacob’s prophecy of Judah began to come to fruition:
The scepter will not depart from Judah,
Genesis 49:10a
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,