1 Samuel 16:1-13
Quinquagesima
In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit
The Lord had rejected Saul as being king over Israel. For Saul had not followed the voice of the Lord but the voice of the people. God had told Saul to utterly destroy all the Amalekites, both man and beast, as His judgment on them. But Saul spared some of the animals and the spoils of war, justifying it by saying that it would be offered to the Lord. Under a religious veneer he wanted to benefit from the Amalekites’ possessions and the food from the sacrificed animals rather than devote these things to destruction as God had said. Because of this rebelliousness and presumption, Saul would be dethroned.
The prophet Samuel told Saul, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” Which is a good reminder and warning to us: Be on guard against thinking that you’ve got a better way of doing things than what God has said. Sometimes God’s Word doesn’t make sense to us, and so we come up with what we think is more reasonable, all the while justifying it as being more fair or loving or more likely to draw people to God. We try to forge compromises between the Scriptures and the world in hopes of not losing a treasured possession or a cherished relationship, when we should be treasuring God’s life-giving words above all. We can be tempted to presumptuously put our own self-chosen wisdom above simply doing what the Lord has said.
In place of Saul a new king was to be chosen, a better king, one of the sons of Jesse in Bethlehem. And the way this king was chosen went against everything that was expected, even what the prophet Samuel expected. When Eliab the firstborn son was presented, Samuel thought for sure that he was the one, but the Lord said, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Eliab looked the part and had all the qualifications–strength and military experience and a commanding presence. But that wasn’t how God would choose. Something else was more important.
“The Lord looks on the heart.” So what does that mean exactly? We’ve got sayings like “You can’t judge a book by its cover” and “Beauty is only skin deep.” But that’s not really what this means. After all when David is described, he’s depicted in terms of his outward appearance, handsome and having beautiful eyes. But what is it that you do with the heart? Why is that what the Lord especially pays attention to? Well, with the heart you love, and with the heart you trust; and it matters what you love and trust in. The Lord is looking for those who love and trust in Him. Whatever else is true about you–your achievements, your looks, your job, your friends, your family, your finances–what really counts with God is the condition of your heart. Even if you lack all of those things I just listed, what the Lord is looking for is a heart that looks to Him and seeks His help and trusts in His promises and loves Him and His words.
Listen to what David himself wrote in the psalms about the heart: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” The Lord looks on the heart that is penitent and humbled. Take comfort in knowing that the Lord is looking on you with acceptance when you are laid low, when you confess your sins before Him. Again David says,“The Lord is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped.” The Lord is looking on you when you seek refuge in Him; He receives you who believe in Him with your heart, especially in your time of need. He helps you and saves you in Christ. That is why David goes on to say, “My heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.”
David is described in the Bible as “a man after God’s own heart.” He loved what God loves and hated what God hates. There is a place for hate in our hearts. As Scripture says, “Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good” (Romans 12:9). And David himself prayed in the psalms, “I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord.” “You, [O Lord], hate all evildoers.” David is one who loved fellowship with the Lord and hated anything that stood in the way of that.
That is what it means that the Lord looks on the heart. He’s not looking for some inner beauty or merit in you, but simply a heart that seeks Him, that loves and trusts in His words, a heart that has been moved to faith by the working of His Spirit.
So when you call upon the Lord in prayer, know that He is looking on you and paying attention to you. It’s just like the blind man on the side of the road. What happened when he called out to the Lord for mercy? The Lord stopped. The Lord paid attention to him and looked on him. It’s a beautiful thing. And notice how the blind man addressed him, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus is not just a man after God’s own heart like David; He is the Father’s heart. He is the enfleshment of God’s love and His desire to save you. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the prophecies of the Messiah. He is the promised Son who sits as King on the throne of David forever.
What a strange thing it was for David to be made king, the youngest boy in the family. The thought of him becoming king was so far-fetched that when it came time for this sacrificial meal, David wasn’t even there but was left to take care of tending the sheep. But this shows the way of the Lord, doesn’t it, how he turns the world’s thinking upside down. “The last shall be first, and the first last.” The lowly and the outsider are exalted in the Lord’s presence.
In particular we should note that David was the 8th son of Jesse. That number is particularly important in Scripture. It is the number of the new creation. It is one beyond the seven days of this creation. There were eight people on the ark, in which God made a new beginning of the world. It was on the eighth day that Hebrew boys were to be circumcised, a sign that they were being separated out from this fallen world as God’s own people. And if you start counting at the beginning of Holy Week, Palm Sunday, our Lord Jesus was raised on the 8th day, making all things new in His bodily resurrection from the dead. As the 8th son, David points you to Jesus who regenerates you and gives you a new beginning in the waters of your baptism.
And speaking of that, it’s worth noting here what Samuel calls the new king: the Lord’s anointed. In Hebrew the word for the Anointed One is the Messiah; in Greek it is the Christ. Every faithful Israelite king–and especially David himself–they were little messiahs, little christs, pointing forward to the Messiah and Savior, Jesus our Lord. As David was anointed here among his brothers and the Spirit rushed upon Him, so Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit in His baptism in the midst of sinners. For He had come to make us His brothers by bearing our sin and taking it away to the cross. As the baptized, you all have been Christened; you all are little christs whose Spirit has been poured out on you generously; you have been given power to do battle against sin and the devil and the world, and to overcome by faith.
Almost immediately after his anointing, David would face Goliath in battle. In the same way, immediately after Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit would drive Him into the wilderness to do battle with the devil, being tempted on our behalf. This is who your Lord is, a Warrior King who is not in it for worldly glory but who is willing to wear the thorny crown and who isn’t afraid to get muddy and bloody to conquer your enemies. Like David, He is a Shepherd King, who lays down His life for the sheep to rescue you from the predators. He feeds you with good pasture and prepares a table before you right in the face of your defeated enemies. Your sins are forgiven in Christ; death and the devil are crushed under His feet for you. His fervent desire is for you to be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.
The Lord looks on the heart. Perhaps that scares you; for that means He knows every idolatrous love and sinful desire that you have. But the Lord is slow to anger. He calls you to repent of those of things and turn back to Him. For He is the One who creates in you a clean heart and renews a right spirit within you. Learn to see Jesus as the blind man saw Him, with the eyes of faith. Let your ears have that 20/20 vision as you hear His words. Don’t look upon Jesus according to the outward appearance of His lowliness, but according to His heart of mercy and compassion. He is the incarnate love of the Father who is patient with you and is kind, who did not insist on His own way but walked the way of the cross. He endures all things for you; He is the One who never fails you.
So as we prepare to enter the Lenten season this week, let us ever walk with Jesus as the blind man did and glorify Him for opening our eyes to who He is as our Redeemer. For those who follow Him by faith, who suffer and die with Him, will also rise with Him bodily and live with Him eternally.
In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit