Samuel and David
For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).
God tells Samuel at the beginning of chapter 16 to go to the house of Jesse to anoint a new king. This visit begins the final relationship in Samuel’s long history of service, his relationship with the greatest Old Testament king of Israel, David. Samuel arrives and is introduced to Jesse’s sons. He is impressed with the fine young men placed before him. But the old prophet learns afresh how God chooses His servants. God says to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Samuel, in his disappointment over Saul, looked for someone similar to replace him. And God took him right back to the roots of his existence – in his mother Hannah’s heart. In chapter 1 Hannah spoke in her heart and the Lord remembered her. Many years later, the son that God gave to Hannah was an old man, full of disappointment at the failure of the people of God and of their king. Samuel was temporarily blinded to the way God works. In grace, God speaks to His servant’s heart to remind him that it is into our hearts that God looks and from where He will always begin to work.
There was one more son of Jesse, David. And where was he? Keeping his father’s sheep. It had always struck me that, when Saul was discovered, he was looking for his father’s donkeys which, incidentally, he never found. They were found for him. But David was absent from the line-up of Jesse’s sons because he was keeping his father’s sheep. The man who was to become the shepherd-king of Israel, who would defeat Goliath with a stone from his shepherd’s sling, and who would write, “The Lord is my shepherd”, is introduced to us as a shepherd keeping his father’s sheep. On that day Samuel met a young man who would care for God’s flock, just as Samuel had. And the prophet and great judge of Israel had the joy of anointing a new king, and lived to hear of David’s victory over Goliath in the valley of Elah (ch. 17). Later, when David is persecuted by Saul, he goes and stays with Samuel at his house at Ramah (19:18). David unburdens his heart to the old servant of God. What did Samuel say to him? He may have told him about his own beginnings, the times God spoke to him, and about the responsibility and the disappointments involved in serving God. I am sure he would have told him how God looks into our hearts, and that blessing and victory come by faith and obedience. What we do know, is that God was later to say of David in Acts 13:22, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.”
At the end of his long life of service, Samuel had the joy of knowing God’s blessing and victory as he encouraged David in his future role. As we look at our own service, may God give us the grace to know the importance of being prepared by Him, and the determination to serve Him in the most difficult of circumstances. May He give us the strength to undertake responsibility, and the wisdom and patience to deal with the disappointments we will inevitably face. Finally, may He give us the joy of experiencing His blessing and victory as we serve our Lord and Saviour, share His love and encourage our fellow Christians.
