05/15/2019 BIGGER IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER
I Samuel 16: 6- 7, 10-12 When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the man the Lord has chosen!” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by a man’s face or height, for this is not the one. I don’t make decisions the way you do! Men judge by outward appearances, but I look at a man’s thoughts and intentions.” [The King James translation states: “but the Lord looketh on the heart.”]…..“The Lord has not chosen any of them,” Samuel told Jesse. “Are these all there are?” “Well, there is the youngest, Jesse replied. “But he’s out in the fields watching the sheep.” “Send for him at once,” Samuel said, “for we will not sit down to eat until he arrives.” So Jesse sent for him. He was a fine-looking boy, ruddy-faced, and with pleasant eyes. And the Lord said, “This is the one; anoint him.” [Living Bible translation]
Summary: Although GOD had led the people of Israel by speaking through prophets such as Samuel, the people did not want GOD’s leadership. Wanting to be like all the other nations around them, the Israelites told Samuel they wanted a king. So, Saul became the first king of Israel.
However, when Saul disobeyed GOD, GOD told Samuel to pick a new king. Samuel was instructed to go to Bethlehem to the house of Jesse, where Samuel was told to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as the next king. Jesse had eight sons. When Samuel entered Jesse’s house, he took one look at Eliab, who was manly and tall, and Samuel thought to himself that surely ‘this one’ was the one GOD will want me to anoint. To Samuel, Eliab looked like a king. But, Eliab was not the one.
Jesse then paraded his other six sons before Samuel, but GOD did not instruct Samuel to anoint any of these others either. When Samuel asked Jesse if he had any more sons, Jesse said there was one more, (who wasn’t even significant enough to Jesse to warrant Jesse bringing him in the house), who was watching the sheep. As the youngest, probably the smallest, and the one everyone thought the “least significant,” no one thought much of this boy. But, David was the one---he was GOD’s chosen!
GOD does not think the way that humans think. GOD is not concerned with height, or weight, or human standards of beauty or color. Nor does HE “see things the way other people see things.” In GOD’s eyes, “bigger is not always better.” GOD does not look at outward appearances.” GOD looks at the “heart.”