When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the LORD’s anointed!”
But the LORD said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:6-7)
Paul's whole thrust in his first letter to the believers at Corinth was, "I'm not coming to you with brilliance or human wisdom, and I'm certainly not coming to you with any kind of impressive physique or profound philosophy. Instead, I come in the power of God. And there's a good reason for that." Note carefully how Paul put it:
For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)
Paul says, "Look around, Corinthians. You won't find many impressive people here." Why? So that no one can boast before God. That's a principle we tend to forget, because many of us are still a lot like the Greeks. When we look for people to admire as we choose our role models, our heroes, we are often swayed or impressed by things that are cause for boasting. We want the beautiful people, the brilliant people, the "successful" people. We want the best and the brightest. We are terribly enamored of the surface. The superficial still impresses us—much more than we'd like to admit. We even elect a president because he looks good on television! But God says, "That's not the way I make my choices. I choose the nobodies and turn them into somebodies."
And that, in a nutshell, is the story of how David was chosen to become a king.
Taken from Great Days with the Great Lives by Charles Swindoll. Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com
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