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“Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 (NLT)

Do you ever arrive in your Christian life? Is there ever a time when you feel you have learned enough or had enough life experience that you can make the next decision?

If anyone had ever arrived at that point, I would think the prophet Samuel would be near the top of that list. As a young boy, he was given to the Priest Eli to serve at the temple all of the days of his life. He was revered by the people he served, respected by the priest who raised him in the ways of the Lord, and honored by God. Surely he could move forward without consulting God at every crossroad.

Or could he…

Even this man of God was reminded of his humanity when he met with Jesse to anoint the next king of Israel. After Saul made God sorry He allowed Saul to become king, God told Samuel to begin the process of finding his replacement. Samuel arrived at the home of Jesse and his eight sons in Bethlehem. Scripture tells us that Samuel arrived and “took one look at Eliab and thought, ‘Surely this is the Lord’s anointed.’” (I Samuel 16:6)

What if Samuel had just moved forward with that thought? What would have happened to the history of Israel and the lineage of Jesus? There was so much on this decision that Samuel was not even aware of.

Yet, God told Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

We do not see where in scripture Samuel directly asked God who the next king would be, but we do see that he thought before he spoke, and God had time to interject into Samuel’s thoughts and speak to him. This is a result of Samuel’s disciplined life with God.

We see later that Eliab is condescending and rude to David when Goliath is taunting the Israelite army. Can you imagine how unkind he would have been to David if Samuel had spoken his thoughts aloud? If Samuel had said he thought Eliab may be anointed as the next king and had to backtrack and change it to David! We may have had another Joseph and his jealous brothers situation on hand! Yet, Samuel, in all of his years of walking with the Lord, did not speak his thoughts before the Lord could speak to him, and he did not question the Lord’s choice once it was made known.

What can we take away from this?

We can acknowledge our humility before God and live knowing that “…My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways…” (Isaiah 55:8). That in every word, situation, relationship, and interaction we allow God to lead us. We pause before we speak our thoughts, we wait until He confirms, and we bring everything to His throne and weigh it against His Word.

May we never get to the point where we think we have reached the epitome of our relationship with Christ, and we can move forward on our own. Samuel reminds us that we need Him every moment no matter how long we have walked with Him.

“Father, help us to always seek You and wait on You. Please help us to walk in humility with You so that we may honor You all the days of our lives.”

For His Glory

Terrie Tollerson (www.TerrieTollerson.com)
TRBC Women’s Life
All scripture NLT