In preparing a Bible study on 1 Samuel 26 I came across David’s description of King Saul as the “Lord’s anointed.” David realised that God had anointed Saul to be the king of Israel and so he was not willing to kill the king, knowing this fact. King Saul had unjustly pursued David and had already attempted to kill him. However, David had been able to creep unawares into the camp of Saul’s army and had the opportunity to kill him as he slept. When his companion Abishai said to David, “God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice” David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless? As the LORD lives, the LORD will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish. 11 The LORD forbid that I should put out my hand against the LORD’s anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go.” 1 Samuel 26:8-11. That is what they did and King Saul survived.
Saul had indeed been anointed by God to be king and David respected the fact that God had chosen Saul for this role. It was up to God to remove him when he ceased being obedient to God, not David. Of course, God later withdrew His Spirit from Saul and then David became the Lord’s anointed king over Israel. But it shows that God anointed some people for certain tasks by giving them His Spirit to fulfil the roles he had given them. So in the Old Testament times, it was mainly prophets, priests and Kings who received the Holy Spirit to equip them for their ministries. If they were disobedient to God, He could remove the Holy Spirit [their equipping] from them. That is what happened to King Saul and what David prayed would not happen to him after he had sinned with Bathsheba, “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.” Psalm 51:11.
What does that mean for us in today’s world? God foretold through the prophet Joel that there would be a change in His anointing of people, “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. 29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” Joel 2:28-29. Here was a massive change. Instead of a few special people being anointed by God for certain tasks, He was going to pour out the same Holy Spirit on all His people, both young and old and even on lowly servants. The only qualification they needed was the desire to belong to Him.
Because there is a lot of misunderstanding around the topic of God’s anointing I may write a couple of blog articles in the future to try to bring some balance on the topic. However, if you hear some individual urging you to follow them because they say they are the Lord’s anointed, take care! We all, as believers, have an anointing from the Lord. He wants us, by His equipping by His Holy Spirit, to fulfil the roles He has for us to accomplish in His eternal purposes. It may be that some believers are anointed by God for certain leadership roles such as a pastor or a teacher and for that they bear a greater responsibility before God. But it is not that they are God’s anointed ones who have to be followed no matter what, whilst the rest of us have no anointing.
Every believer has been anointed by the Holy Spirit of God to fulfil a role He has planned from eternity for us to follow and every role has significance when it is God Himself who is working through His people by His Spirit. Paul referred to that in Philippians 2:12-13 when he wrote, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
Praise God that every believer throughout the world has received an anointing, the gift of the Holy Spirit to make them willing and able to do the Master’s will to His glory!
You are anointed! By God himself! By giving you His Holy Spirit! To do His will!
Blog No.472 posted on Wednesday 29 March 2023.
473. The Blessing Of Being Anointed By God. But Who Are The Anointed? (Part 1 of 4).
Over 50 years ago I began to notice a great increase in Christian circles of the words, “anointed” and “anointing.” I was cautious back then about using the words in the way many people were using them. It seemed to me at that time, that some of those folk were giving far more meaning to the terms than I saw in the New Testament. However there has been another great increase of the use of those words in more recent times. Should I still be cautious?
Recently I found among my own ancient jottings, a summary of a study on the topic I had done many years ago. This is what I wrote way back then.
That summary seems to be somewhat removed from what we hear or read from many teachers and authors in some Christian circles today. So it is worthwhile looking at the scriptures to see whether my conclusions, back then, are still true.
As we begin, we need to note that it is important to use biblical terms and concepts in the way the Bible uses them and not to use them in a way contrary to Biblical use. This applies especially to the term “anointed.” In this article I look at the few references there are to the word “anoint” and the cognates of that term. So for convenience, I will list here ALL the references in the New Testament to “anoint” and “anointed” and “anointing.”
All The New Testament References To “Anoint” And “Anointed” And “Anointing.”
First of all we need to put to one side those verses in which “anointing” is simply associated with smearing or rubbing with oil.
Next we set aside for our particular purpose, the references to Jesus being anointed. [See NOTE 4].
Now we are in a position to list all the vast references that apply to believers being anointed. Stand by! Don’t be overwhelmed by the following avalanche of verses! Here is the l..o..n..g, l..o..n..g list. It actually consists of only one verb reference and 3 noun references [but with 2 in one verse.]
The one verb reference
Thus the verse could be translated as, “And it is God who is establishing us with you in Christ, having anointed us, and having sealed us and having given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”
Then come the 3 noun references in 2 verses.
THAT’S IT! That is the sum total of verses on ‘anointing’ as it is used in the New Testament in relation to believers, apart from being anointed with oil. There are dozens of other terms that are bandied around which are used in conjunction with the term “anointing” for the believer. But if they can’t be proved to fit in with biblical concepts then they can’t be accepted as biblical truth. Even when such concepts come from highly regarded teachers and writers!
In the next article I hope to look at why the dispensation or distribution of the Holy Spirit [or the anointing] in the New Testament may differ from that in the Old Testament. Following that I hope to examine in closer detail, the meanings behind the New Testament words anoint, anointing and anointed.
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NOTES. (Other New Testament words translated as “anoint” or “anointed.”)
[NOTE 1.] The word [aleiphō; ἀλείφω] 8 references. Mt 6:17, Mark 6:13, Mark 16:1, Luke 7:38, Luke 7:46, John 11:2, John 12:3, James 5:14.
[NOTE 2.] The words [egchriō; ἐγχρίω] in Rev 3:18, and [epichriō; ἐπιχρίω] in John 9:6, 11.
[NOTE 3.] The word [murizo; μυρίζω] To anoint with aromatics. Mk 14:8.
[NOTE 4.] The references to Jesus being anointed. The word [chrio; χρίω]. Luke 4:18, Acts 4:27, Acts 10:38, Heb 1:9.
Blog No.473 Posted on jimholbeck.blog on Friday 31 March 2023