God looks at the heart

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.  The Lord does not look at the things people look at.  People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  (1 Samuel 16:7 NIV)

Over the years no bible verse has consumed my thinking as much as this one.

Background

God’s favor with King Saul had begun to wane as the King’s reliance on God diminished. Israel’s priest, Samuel, had been tasked with anointing an heir and God had suggested that the new king would come from Jesse’s family. Samuel visited Jesse to identify and anoint the future king. As Jesse lined up his sons in front of Samuel it was clear they were impressive. They were gifted. They were handsome. In the eyes of this world many of the sons checked the box – they were fit for a kingly assignment. And yet…Samuel did not feel that God was providing the green light for the cast standing in front of of him. He asked Jesse if he had any other sons. Jesse suggested that he had one more son…but this son was out tending the sheep. David was called in from the field and in an act that likely surprised the whole family, Samuel identified him for one of the most important assignments in Israel’s history.

Reflections

The central messages of Christianity are frequently counter cultural.  They don’t make sense.  We frequently forget God’s formulas and subtly reset through our own cultural filter.  The world looks at the outward appearance. Many in the church do the same. We look at giftings. We look at leadership skills. We look at eloquence. We look at management skills. We look at potential. And yet…we learn here that God looks instead at the heart.

The Bible is filled with person after person who was delegated major kingdom assignments, not because of their giftings or abilities, but due to the status of their heart.

Proverbs 4:23 sums it up:

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Everything flows from our heart.

What if our lives were singularly focused on pursuing a pure heart in the eyes of God?

What if in our all-out pursuit of a pure heart, God issued a massive kingdom assignment to us?