Articles
Seeing as God Sees
Because human being live in physical bodies and walk around on a physical earth, it can sometimes be a temptation to only make decisions based on physical information. However, as we continue to learn about life, there are things we know are true that transcend just physical experience and explanation. This is why religion and our understanding of God is so important. (Acts 17:24-27)
This association with the physical can become a hindrance if we are not careful to measure how much it interferes with our spiritual walk. We end up accidentally making judgments about spiritual truths based on physical information, and this can often lead us to wrong conclusions. What is needed is to use God’s judgments to judge spiritual things, so we are not only looking at the physical.
When Israel wanted a king to rule over them, they were making a physical decision, instead of a spiritual one. They wanted a king “like all the nations” (I Samuel 8:5) so he would “judge us and go out before us and fight our battles” (I Samuel 8:20), but by this request, they had “rejected [God] from being king over them.” (I Samuel 8:7) When Israel was given a king, they were given one “whom you have asked for” (I Samuel 12:13) which was a play on the name of the king, Saul (literally, “asked for”). This king was described as being “choice and handsome, and there was not a more handsome person than he among the sons of Israel; from his shoulders and up he was taller than any of the people.” (I Samuel 9:2; 10:23-24)
Saul not only looked the part, but played the part early on. He was immediately mighty in battle and defeated Israel’s enemies on all sides. However, it was not long before this same king fell from God’s favor through repeated disobedience. (I Samuel 13:5-14; 15:1-35) The result was that Saul’s “kingdom shall not endure” (I Samuel 13:14) and God had “rejected you from being king over Israel.” (I Samuel 15:26)
In the midst of all this, God had “sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and YHWH has appointed him as ruler over His people” (I Samuel 13:14) God had “torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor, who is better than you.” (I Samuel 15:28) The same prophet Samuel who had anointed Saul was told by God to “Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have selected a king for Myself among his sons.” (I Samuel 16:1)
When Samuel saw the oldest of Jesse’s sons, we can see that he was still judging things in a similar manner as the nation had when they beheld Saul. He immediately looked at Jesse’s oldest and thought “Surely YHWH’s anointed is before Him.” But God corrected Samuel and said “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but YHWH looks at the heart.” (I Samuel 16:6-7) The man that God had chosen was David, and he didn’t look like a warrior at all (I Samuel 16:12; 17:42).
This is still an important lesson for us, as we still struggle with making physical judgments. We judge the success of churches by number of members, amount of money they have on hand, or how many baptisms they have per year, instead of judging the way that God does. May we learn to stop looking at the appearance and stature, but start respecting the heart of those who seek to follow God in sincerity and truth.
