Seeing only skin deep?

The judge-prophet Samuel was charged with the task of anointing a new leader over Israel. God had sent him to Bethlehem, to the house of Jesse, saying “I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” (1 Samuel 16:1) God knew the person He had for the job, but hadn’t revealed all as yet. At this point, Samuel doesn’t have a name or a face of the next king in town.
 
So, presented one by one with seven sons, Samuel draws on past patterns and experience and relies on his natural senses and human reasoning to assume that Eliab, the oldest and tallest, must be the one whom God has chosen.
 
And in this vital moment of transition in the life of His people, God speaks clearly to Samuel and points out his error: “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)
 
In this valuable verse, God shares His perspective on people and His criteria of choosing. God does not look at things the way we do, nor size-up, appoint or anoint according to human standards of external attribute and achievement. Likewise, God calls us, as His church, to see and do, discern and decide differently from a culture which follows and focuses on the façade. God reminds us to see past the superficial and home in on the heart.
 
God wants our heart. God wants your heart – surrendered and devoted to Him. And God already knows our heart (Acts 15:8). This is because God tests (1 Chronicles 29:17, Proverbs 17:3), weighs (Proverbs 21:2), searches and probes the heart (Jeremiah 17:10, 20:12). God’s word “judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12). Therefore, God “knows the secrets of the heart” (Psalm 44:21). We can’t fool him, like we can fool one another.
 
It is from our hearts that our allegiances form, decisions are made, and our lives take on their shape - “As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.” (Proverbs 27:19) Jesus taught that people bring out that which is stored in their heart, whether it be good or bad (Luke 6:45).
 
The Apostle Paul, recounting Samuel’s task, reminded his listeners, “After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’” (Acts 13:22)
 
David the disregarded, the shoved-to-one-side shepherd, the youngest, the last and seemingly least of the eight (not seven) sons, was highlighted by God because of his heart – a man’s heart after God’s heart. Let us, like God, see past the skin, to the heart within.
Revd Michael Hogg