God Sees What is Hidden

This week we’re working through 1 Samuel 16:1-13. It is where we meet the third major actor in our story, David, the man who would be the greatest king in Israel’s history. It is a story all about how God sees beyond what we can.

If you’re interested, why not check out our earlier posts on how God Sees What Is Ahead and Sees What is Inside?

God Sees What is Hidden

That brings us to our final point that ties these two together: God sees what is hidden.

We can feel that our lives are insignificant – that no one sees our pain, like Samuel. Or that no one sees us pursuing love in the unglamorous, unknown parts of life. God’s choice of David demonstrates that is wholly untrue. God sees, God knows, he is pleased with our faithfulness and waiting to weave you into the great tapestry of his plans.

Whether it is developing patience through endlessly being tested by a toddler who can’t control himself; or having to refuse to act corruptly with others at work; or bearing the pain and loneliness of bereavement; or trying again and again to walk with God at school among people who think you are foolish or prudish or weird; or faithfully getting into the Bible and praying for your family and friends,

No life is hidden from God and no life is insignificant to him.

David is off performing a menial task, forgotten about by his own father, and not even on the horizon of the prophet. Yet God has already seen him and is preparing the way for him to be used.

Wherever you are and however hidden you feel, keep going.

• Grieve, but keep going.
• Pursue holiness, and keep going.
• Look for those who are stumbling or weary and help them to keep going.

God has great plans for you in the year ahead. So keep going and growing, loving him and others.

Bibliography

Franke, John R., Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Old Testament, 3 (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity P., 2001)

Leithart, Peter J., A Son to Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel (Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2003)

Murphy, Francesca Aran, 1 Samuel (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2010)

Tsumura, David Toshio, The First Book of Samuel (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2007)

Image Credit

God Sees What Is Inside

Introduction

This week we’re working through 1 Samuel 16:1-13. It is where we meet the third major actor in our story, David, the man who would be the greatest king in Israel’s history. It is a story all about how God sees beyond what we can.

If you’re interested, why not check out yesterday’s post on how God Sees What Is Ahead?

God Sees What Is Inside

Part of our problem is that we get too focussed upon how things appear; we judge by what we see with our eyes.

Samuel makes that mistake here. He knows that the new king is going to come from the family of Jesse but he doesn’t know who it will be. So he does what any sensible person would – he organises a kind of beauty parade of the sons of Jesse.

Along comes Eliab, the eldest, who is handsome and tall – real king material. Samuel sees him and says to himself, ‘yes, this is surely the man.’ He looks the part and so Samuel assumes that he must be the one.

This is a perennial problem, even if we wish it was not. Most obviously it happens when we judge each other by our physical appearance.

In 2013 Forbes published a compilation of studies showing how people’s looks affect their employment prospects. For example:[1]

A 2004 study by Timothy Judge at the University of Florida found that for every inch of height, a tall worker can expect to earn an extra $789 per year. That means two equally skilled coworkers would have a pay differential of nearly $5,000 per year, simply because of a 6-inch height differential, according to the study.

In turn this means we obsess about how we look and present ourselves to the world. We spend a fortune in money, and time and worry obsessing about how we present ourselves to the world around us. We become focussed on the outside whether that is in clothes, cars, homes, makeup, or our CV.

This can even take in the religious deeds we do – piling up prayers or piety for the benefit of being seen by others and held in high esteem.

Yet God turns this assumption on its head. God does not ‘look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’[2]

What matters to God is not our height, weight, hair colour, suit price, ostentatious giving or prayers, carefully curated Facebook feed, immaculate CV or any of the other ways we try to portray ourselves to other people. Those things may impress or even repel other people but not God.

God looks deeper.

God looks at the heart, at our character, at what we’re like when no-one’s looking and we can’t take a selfy. This is where our energies and focus should be. This is what God is looking for in a new king: not the height to impress other warriors but a humility and kindness, generosity and love that he can use.

As if to make his point God chooses David, the youngest of the family. He has no natural claim to be the most prominent or rule his brothers. Far from it. Yet he is God’s choice.

When he comes we are told that he is attractive yet in a different way to his brothers. He is not the tallest but his face seems to shine – he is radiant and pleasing to look at. David is attractive not because he is tall and strong and can impose himself on other people but because who he is inside shines out to others.

He is God’s man, after God’s heart and it shows. It will show in us, too, if we are committed to becoming more and more like Jesus. Other people will be attracted to someone who is full of God’s Spirit – who is full of grace.

True holiness is more attractive than a hundred well painted faces, sculpted abs or well drafted Facebook posts.

Come back tomorrow to reflect on how God Sees What Is Hidden

Bibliography

Franke, John R., Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Old Testament, 3 (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity P., 2001)

Leithart, Peter J., A Son to Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel (Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2003)

Murphy, Francesca Aran, 1 Samuel (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2010)

Tsumura, David Toshio, The First Book of Samuel (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2007)

 

[1] Kiisel, Ty, ‘You Are Judged by Your Appearance’, Forbes (March 2013) < https://www.forbes.com/sites/tykiisel/2013/03/20/you-are-judged-by-your-appearance/#308155fb6d50 > [accessed 25 August 2017]

[2] 1 Samuel 16:7.

Image Credit

God Sees What Is Ahead

I’ve been away over the summer and am hoping to start blogging again. My plan is that this will take the form of a few short blogs exploring some themes from our Sunday service and a longer blog dealing with a theme (like holiness). This week I’m picking up our Sunday services from the middle of 1 Samuel. You can check out the audio sermons for a deeper discussion.

Introduction

In 1 Samuel 15 we read of the battle that sealed Saul’s fate as a tragic failure. He failed to take seriously his responsibilities as God’s king and tried to con Samuel. In the end we were faced with the sad revelation that Samuel and Saul would not see each other again while Samuel lived. Worse, we read that Samuel ‘grieved over Saul’ and ‘the Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel.’[1]

We left open the question of ‘what happens next?’ Israel’s experiment with having a king seemed to have failed; their government was divided and their king had shown himself unfit to lead. What would happen now?

1 Samuel 16:1-13 begins to answer these questions. It is where we meet the third major actor in our story, David, the man who would be the greatest king in Israel’s history. It is a story all about how God sees beyond what we can.

God Sees What Is Ahead

The first thing we notice is that God sees beyond our circumstances. We can only see the present and the past. God sees everything that could be and will be as well.

The story begins with a depressed Samuel. He has invested his hopes for the future in Saul and has been hugely let down. The future seems uncertain for him and for the young nation he has given his life to. More than that, however, he has seen God’s servant and his people letting him down.

I think that many of us can identify with Samuel’s grief. It is the pain of being let down by a friend or seeing your dreams seemingly collapse; it is the frustration and sadness of seeing your family, friends or even your country walk away from pursuing flourishing under God; it is the pain of betrayal, of disappointment, of knowing that this will end badly.

God does not deny or minimise Samuel’s grief and nor should we. It is proper and good to allow people space to mourn or be sad – to do otherwise is to deny the reality of sin and suffering.

Yet if we are not careful, that is where we stay. We can be left in a place of despair or grief without any hope or movement.

When we do this we misunderstand who God is. We can even begin to refuse to accept that God is in charge and not us.

The truth is that God is sovereign over everything including the failures of kings and friends, of countries and pastors. God is still God and he has a plan. So he tells Samuel to get up and get going again.

There is a challenge here for all of us.

We will face pain and disappointment. We will be hurt by people and circumstances and may even be afraid for the future. We live in a time when it will become increasingly difficult to hold to a Christian understanding of what it means to be human let alone to follow Jesus as God’s only Son.

Yet God is still sovereign despite everything and he still has a plan for us. He still has work for us to do.

Even in the midst of that pain and disappointment God has not given up on us and he has not been defeated. He is still working out his plans and his purposes and he still wants us to be involved in them.

From the nightmare of Saul’s failure will come the greatest king in Israel’s history.

We see this worked out more fully in Jesus. The moment when it appeared that God was ultimately defeated – at the crucifixion of his Son – was actually the moment of his greatest victory.

God specialises in bringing life from death, light from darkness and hope from despair.

Come back tomorrow to reflect on how God Sees What Is Inside

Bibliography

Franke, John R., Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Old Testament, 3 (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity P., 2001)

Leithart, Peter J., A Son to Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel (Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2003)

Murphy, Francesca Aran, 1 Samuel (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2010)

Tsumura, David Toshio, The First Book of Samuel (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2007)

[1] 15:35.

Image Credit