I Samuel 16:4-13 - He Sees the Heart

Let me ask you, what is it like when you go shopping for clothes. Let me tell you that Lisa and I have totally different approaches. I want to get in the store and find something and get out. The key for me is to spend the least amount of time possible on the task and then run from the store with all my might. I’ll try something on that I might like, and if it fits I’ll purchase it and be done. Lisa, on the other hand wants to make sure that she has gotten the best deal and the best item. She will try something on. If she likes it she will reserve it and then go around to other stores and find their versions of the same thing and make sure that she gets the best one for the least amount of money. Her way guarantees that when she comes home with the item, she will be happy with it and it will serve her well, whereas my way leaves an opening for me to discover that I didn’t get everything I was hoping to get with my purchase.

We have distinctly different ways of choosing things. I know that this is a gender thing, and something that many couples realize, but at the same time we both think that there is something lacking in the way the other person does their choosing. Lisa worries that I am going to settle for something that isn’t what I really need because I don’t want to put the work into it. I wonder why it is that she spends so much time looking at things, then comes back to the thing she first tried on and gets it anyway.

Lisa and I have totally different ways that we go about making choices. It makes it difficult for us to go shopping together. I get exhausted by her shopping, and she has to put up with dragging me around as I get grumpier and grumpier each minute. Wouldn’t making choices be a whole lot easier, though, if we all had this same connection to God that Samuel seemed to have. Imagine as you went into a store and looked at things that you wanted to see, that you heard a voice from God saying to you, “No, that is not the jacket that I have chosen for you.” Imagine having to send the worker into the back of the store because God has shared with you that the item you need is actually not out on the floor at the time, but hidden in the back. Okay, maybe that’s just not the way it works. But perhaps we need to bring God into our decision making a bit more anyways. Of course, when you are making big decisions or decisions about things that have to do with your spiritual life, you turn to God for guidance. But perhaps we need to involve God in all our choices and decisions.

I. Heroes of Old

There is something about King David that sparks the imagination. Here we have a shepherd boy, one who is the youngest of his family, who is not thought much of. His importance is so low that when the whole family is called together for an important meeting, an important sacrifice with an out of town celebrity, he is left in the field. This is like having Glen Palmberg come to town and ask that your whole family comes and has a worship service with him, but you leave one of your children at home assuming that he isn’t important to President Palmberg. And yet, this same lowly shepherd becomes a great king. He becomes the king that all other kings are compared to. His time as king of Israel is the golden age of Israel. It is a time that ushers in peace, it is a time where Israel becomes great.

One of the first stories from the Bible that we learn as children is the story of David and Goliath, where David trusts God and not his own strength to defeat the enemy. Later in David’s life we find ourselves marveling at the friendship between him and his enemy’s son, Jonathan. We see the mighty fall when David sins and then we see David’s grief and repentance when he realizes the horror of what he has done. Mostly, with David, we see a wartime king who is forced to live the life of war, but in doing this, is able to bring peace to his land, establishing Israel’s place as a people, and ending a cycle of war that had been going on for hundreds of years.

But King David isn’t only famous for his kingly deeds. We also know him from his worship. He is the one responsible for many of the psalms that we find in the Bible. And we find psalms from him to fit every occasion. We find psalms of praise and psalms of joy. David knows who to credit with his victories and he constantly goes to God with thanksgiving. We find psalms of pain and psalms of anger. David cries out to God for help when he feels trapped and God rescues him again and again. We find psalms of confession and psalms of repentance. When David does sin, he goes to God and asks for forgiveness and pleads with God to have him back.

There is much in David’s life to inspire us. There is much that we can learn from him. We don’t all rule countries, but that is not the only thing that we can learn from David. We can learn the power that comes from turning to God in all things. We can learn what true repentance is all about. We can learn about what it means to trust fully in God. And we can learn what it means to have the heart of God. But before we learn all this, we, like Samuel, need to meet David, and discover that sometimes God finds leaders in the most unlikely of places, and sometimes God fulfills his will in the most unlikely of people.

II. Choosing by Sight

So, lets imagine you’re Samuel. The king over Israel, a man named Saul, has proven himself a phenomenal failure, a royal failure if you will. And God has told you that it is time for you to go find a new king. Now, of course, you don’t know what this new king is going to be, the importance that he is going to play, but you know that after the failure of King Saul, you’d better listen close to God and pick a king that the people will follow and who will lead them in the right direction. But, of course, you’re only human and therefore don’t always do the best job at choosing the right king. And so, you know the king is going to come from a certain family, but you don’t know which one. So you bring a family together: the family of Jesse. And you plan to offer a special sacrifice to God with this family, giving yourself a chance to see these men and choose the one that God has in mind for the next king of Israel. As you look at these seven sons of Jesse that are before you, you see strength and you see wisdom.

And so you ask that they pass before you individually so that you can choose the next king. The first son, Abinadab, comes by, and he is tall and strapping. He looks quite strong and is probably quite handsome. He stands out in a crowd. Surely this will be the man that God plans to make king. You’ve probably already taken out the horn of oil that you plan to pore on the head of the future king, but God stops you… this is not the man that I have chosen to be king.

The next son, Shammah, comes by, and you can see wisdom in his face. Surely this will be the man that God plans to make king. But again God stops you… this is not the man that I have chosen to be king.

All seven of Jesse’s sons, all who are here with you for this special offering, come and pass before you, and as each one comes, and as you think with each one, surely this must be the one that will be king, God lets you know that this is not the man that is to be king. Maybe God has made a mistake. All Jesse’s sons seem to be here, and none are to be king. What are you to do?

So you ask Jesse just to make sure, is this all your sons? Well, there is my youngest son, a mere shepherd and he is out with the sheep, but you don’t want to see him. He is young, a mere boy. And so Jesse has his youngest son brought before you, and the moment you see him you realize why God had made you wait, for this is David, and he is to be king. As David comes forward you realize that he is also strong and wise and handsome, much like his brothers.

III. God’s Choice

There is a key verse here, and it is verse 7: Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things human beings look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

It’s a powerful statement that shows the greatness of God’s wisdom and perception. But you need to be careful with this, because it makes it seem like perhaps David wasn’t much to look at. But when David does show up in verse 12 we see that he was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features.

I grew up thinking that this story told of how God took the least good looking and least strong and made him king over his brothers who were much better at everything than him. I think I wanted to hear it this way, because I tend to like to root for the underdog. And having not ever been very good at sports, I like to think that perhaps being strong and handsome might actually be an impediment for greatness. But the truth here is much more profound than God playing favorites for the underdog.

All Jesse’s sons were strong. They were all healthy. They all could be king. David was the youngest of them, yes, at this time still a boy so you are looking more at potential with him than with the others, but in truth, by outward appearance they all were equally able to be king. So there needed to be something else to decide who would be king. I always took the moral of this story to be that appearances lie. But the moral is a bit deeper than that. This story isn’t trying to tell us that appearances lie. Instead it is telling us that appearances just don’t matter. Move beyond the outward completely and begin to look at the heart, as God does here.

This is not something that is very easy for us to do. We live in a culture that is very focused on outward appearances. It puts a lot of energy into telling us how important our appearance is. Outward appearance is pushed in commercials and on advertisements. We are told how we need to spend money making sure that we look our very best. The plastic surgery industry is making more money than ever as people choose to have surgery so that they will look better.

And we are guilty of this focus on the outward appearance here in the church. Do we look down on people if they don’t dress up for church? Do we allow our focus on the outward appearance to keep people from feeling welcome? What starts as a way to make sure that we are showing that we honor God has the danger of becoming something that keeps others away. It’s good to honor God. It’s good to show that. But God tells us that people look at the outward appearance, but he looks at the heart.

Don’t let yourself judge people by outward appearance, it just isn’t worth it. And as Samuel found out, outward appearance doesn’t give you any hint whatsoever as to what is inside.

Samuel is making a big decision that will affect the future of the country he is responsible for. And so Samuel allows God to make the decision for him. But I am convinced that the point of this story about Samuel is to tell us that all our decisions need to be put into God’s hands. I am convinced that we should look to God whenever we face a problem or a decision or a choice. This seems overwhelming at first, especially for God. Imagine trying to be involved in every petty decision that is made by every Christian. And I’m not saying that you are to ask God for a sign at each choice you make. God doesn’t micro-manage his people’s lives. But there is something to be said for involving God in your thinking process. There is something to be said for at least remembering God as you face the questions that this world puts to you. This is where the What Would Jesus Do movement came from. It was a concerted effort to involve God and Jesus in the decision-making processes of everyday life.

Unfortunately, it became a fad and lost its meaning fairly early on. As often is the case, when something becomes very popular it grows a life of its own and people don’t even try to understand what it is that they are doing with it. How many people wore What Would Jesus Do bracelets around without ever thinking about what Jesus would do. At the same time there were people who were touched by this campaign and started specifically including God in their decision-making. There is something about remembering God as you face choices in your life. If you truly believe that God is involved in the things of this world, then you have to believe that he has a certain way he would like us to live, and certain choices he would like us to make. So, like Samuel, let us turn to God for our answers and not try to figure them out ourselves. Let us look not at the outside but at the heart of each issue we deal with. And let us pray that the decisions we make, when we follow God and do as he calls, will bring as much good to those around us as Samuel did when he chose David to be the king.