God Chooses

Bible Passage: 1 Samuel 16:1-13

In the previous sermon (looking at 1 Samuel 8) we saw the people of God making a choice, and leaning on what looked strong externally rather than what is actually the best option in reality. In this passage we see the flip-side of the same idea. This time it is God who is choosing, as he identifies the person who he wants to be king. Having overlooked several options who seemed to outwardly appear the part, God instead chooses David having seen that his heart is right and knowing that this is the important qualification for the job.

We Look at the Outside: The first king who ruled over Israel was Saul, and he was exactly the kind of king the people wanted. He was tall, handsome and physically impressive (1 Samuel 9:2). Once Saul had turned from God and a new king was being chosen, the expectation was that somebody would be picked who matched the same profile. Samuel visited Jesse, and Jesse lined up his sons before the prophet beginning with the oldest and strongest. Eliab was first, and he is described in very similar terms to Saul: tall and good-looking. There is a reason why Jesse presented him first, and a reason why Samuel immediately expected this to be the one. There is something hard-wired into humans to make quick judgements based on appearances. We can be impressed with the superficial, and sometimes pay too little attention to what is going on beneath the surface. In this instance God has to caution Samuel against being overly concerned with external appearances, reminding him that what God looks for is altogether different.

God Looks at the Heart: In verse 8, the Lord tells Samuel that “people look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart”, and this is exemplified in the choice of David to be the next king. By most human criteria, David would not be a strong candidate. So much so that when Jesse assembled his sons, he did not even invite David but left him out in the fields to tend the sheep. David could not match Saul or Eliab for strength or stature, but he did have something else going for him: his heart. David was a worshipper, who had developed a love for the Lord as he sang and played to him in those long nights in the fields. He was also a man of faith who had learned to trust God when his sheep were under threat from lions and bears. These qualities of the heart are much more important for the role of king than the externals that we typically look for. They show us that God’s read on a situation is often different to ours, and if we want to make wise choices then we need to learn to see things the way God does.

God Chooses the Unexpected: God’s choice of David was not what anybody would have expected. Jesse was surprised, and so was Samuel. He was an unlikely option because he was young, and was a different profile to his seemingly more qualified brothers. This choice of the unlikely is something we see God doing regularly through Scripture. In the Old Testament we see Jacob, Moses, Gideon and Ruth as people God raised up who would be seen as unlikely. When he sent his Son into the world, he grew up in the backwaters of Galilee and had nothing impressive about him by human standards. The disciples he called were ordinary fishermen, and the church he builds can be described in this way: “not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.” It can sometimes be tempting for Christians today to go after the impressive and influential in just the same way the world does, but when we do this we miss that God often works in the margins and chooses those who are overlooked by others.

Potential Applications:

• The passage challenges our own tendencies to make surface judgements. Where have we been ruling people in or out based on outward appearances? And how can we transition to looking at the heart instead?
• Are there people around us who are on the margins or overlooked? What might it look like to see them in the way God does and draw them in instead of only focussing on more obvious or “impressive” people?