Look Beyond The External

I Samuel 16:1-13

Not that long ago I picked an apple from a bowl of fruit to eat.  As I held it in my hand, getting ready to take a bite, I saw its beautiful red color.  It looked perfect, without a blemish on its skin.  As soon as I bit into it, though, I saw that I had been deceived by its good looks.  The apple was rotten!  The perfect skin had hid its inedible inside, and the apple had to be thrown out.  Perhaps you may have run across a tree that has recently fallen over in a storm.  It had looked like a perfectly fine tree from the outside, but now laying on its side you can see that the inside was all rotted.  With the inside in such condition, it couldn’t stand through the big storm.

As we take a look at the Old Testament passage for this Fourth Sunday in Lent we see that the prophet Samuel is faced with a challenge.  God has rejected King Saul, the current king over Israel.  The reason that God did not want him sitting on the throne any longer was because Saul would not obey Him.  In the previous chapter we see a very noticeable example of Saul not following a specific command that God had given him, thinking his way was better.  Samuel was grieving over the fact that Saul had failed as a king, and that God had rejected him.  God tells Samuel, in verse 1, to get over it.  Saul had been disobedient to God, and thus, he was not the kind of man He wants to reign over the people.  Samuel was instructed to go to Bethlehem and God will pick a new king from among the sons of Jesse.

As the sons of Jesse start to file one by one before the prophet Samuel, he sees the first one, Eliab, tall and handsome.  In past times, kings and leaders were judged mainly by their physical attributes, rather than character or spiritual attributes.  Saul had been tall, athletic, strong, and good looking, but his character was found to be lacking.  Before Samuel could make the same mistake again, God stopped him, as we see in verse 7.  Seven times each son passed before him, and each one was rejected.  Only when they had to run out to the pasture where the youngest one, David, was out watching the sheep, did Samuel find the one that God had chosen.  David had been considered so insignificant by the family, that they hadn’t even thought to bring him along when Samuel came.

How often have we been just like Samuel was, judging people by their outward appearances alone?  In our workplaces, our neighborhoods, and unfortunately, even in our churches, have we sat and silently, or not so silently, judged someone because of their weight, how homely they look, or because they aren’t as well educated as we are.  Maybe they can’t afford such nice clothes, or we don’t care for where they live.  The people that society rejects are often the ones that God chooses.  When we judge by appearance, we will often overlook good people who happen to lack those physical or financial attributes that society has currently put on a pedestal.

Unlike us, God does not judge us by our outward appearance.  He looks inside and sees what is in our hearts, what is making up our character.  He evaluates our inner disposition.  God sees exactly what we are like inside, and there are no surprises with Him, unlike when I bit into that apple, thinking it was a good one, or the people who would have seen the tree the day before it fell, thinking it was good, when inside it was dead.  Society today praises and glorifies Hollywood and sports stars, when often their lives and moral character leave so much to be desired, and they scoff and scorn someone who stands for righteousness.  They are only looking on the outside, the Hollywood good looks or the strong body and ability of the athlete.

Follow the lead that God was directing with Samuel when we are tempted to judge by externals.  Pray for God’s wisdom, as only He can look into someone’s heart.  We need to look at people’s character, rather than only what we see on the outside.  David’s family thought he had no value, as he wasn’t even considered worthy to attend.  Those who people consider worthless, God often chooses.