And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering:
-Genesis 22:8Now the LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.”
-1 Samuel 16:1
This just doesn’t quite come across the same way in most modern translations. The NIV says, “I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” NLT: “for I have selected one of his sons to be my new king.” Even the ESV adds the for: “I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” These are certainly all true in the immediate context of God sending Samuel to anoint David as the king in place of Saul. Fine.
But there is a subtlety that gets lost with these renderings. The KJV and the NKJV keep the local context, but also allow the text to push beyond Samuel and David, or Abraham and Isaac, to the coming of the God Man who fulfills the role of the sacrificial lamb and the king, the branch of Jesse. God will provide himself.
