Lessons From David #1- 1 Samuel 16
This is our introduction to David: he is a young shepherd boy, not counted as important and certainly not the future king Samuel was looking for. He is described as 'ruddy' with 'handsome features'- nothing to dislike, but nothing to impress either.
'The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.' (7)
This is immensely encouraging for us! We are not sized up by God in terms of height, muscles or social stature. He just looks at our hearts. God is not impressed by how much money or stuff we have- all He wants from us is a 'broken and contrite heart' (See Psalm 51). That means humility- we should recognise our need for Him. We don't need anything else, because God can meet all our needs anyway.
This is shown clearly when David is anointed and the Spirit of the Lord came on him in power (13). This then has the knock-on effect of being the reason for David entering Saul's service:
'He is a brave man... And the Lord is with him.' (18)
David's harp-playing gives Saul peace- already pointing towards Saul's defects as a king and how David is a better, more godly man. But it's notable that David starts small- he doesn't become king straight away. He has to wait, and go through a lot of troubled experiences first. God has much to teach him. And, through his experiences, we have much to learn too.
No comments:
Post a Comment