by Ben Opp

"Do not consider his appearance or his height...The LORD does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

God has just dethroned Saul, an experienced military commander who is a head taller than most Israeli men, and replaced him with David, a young man with no leadership experience beyond herding sheep around.  This probably seemed to most people like a really bad decision, sort of like electing an 18-year-old janitor as president.  The nation is at war with the Philistines, a people group wanting nothing other than their total destruction, and they need solid, experienced leadership in order to survive.  David does not seem like a logical choice.

I think this decision tells us a lot about God.  Psalm 147 puts it well - God is not interested in people with strength or muscles, but in people who recognize their need for Him.  He does not necessarily value things that we value, or act in ways that fit our expectations.

Just a few days ago, my girlfriend Samantha received a card from a group of people in her church.  It contained a check for $350, intended to pay for new tires for her car, an expense she knew would soon be necessary but that she couldn't afford.  At first, she thought of this simply as the generosity of her church community, but quickly realized that this was God supernaturally providing for her.  She said that she was expecting God to provide in some dramatic way - something grandiose or miraculous - not through a simple card from her friends.

We both have a similar struggle at times when trying to spend time with God.  We have heard so many stories of God directing people to the "perfect" passage with an answer to their questions, or people having visions, or being directed to talk to some specific person at a crucial moment.  Things like that probably do happen.  But, we find that if we are always expecting something dramatic and crazy, we miss what God has to say in much more mundane, simple ways.

I think this is a lot like Samuel's experience in this passage.  He is expecting God to pick a stereotypical leader - the oldest, the tallest, the best-looking.  Because of his expectations and pre-conceived ideas about what a king should be, he almost misses David, a king of a totally different breed.

I am reminded by this passage that God does not think the way I do.  He is not bound by the cultural norms or expectations that I am.  I do not want to miss what God has to say to me because I am deciding what he will say before he even begins to speak.

A fellow traveler,

Ben