David is known for the remarkable story of his slaying of Goliath, however, a lot of things took place in his life prior to that.
…Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.
1 Samuel 16:1
God had chosen a new king and had announced to Samuel that he was to go to Bethlehem where he would find this young man and anoint him to be the future king of Israel.
Samuel obeys and goes to Bethlehem, finds Jesse, and lets him know God’s plan; to anoint his son to be king.
Interestingly enough, God never told Samuel who it was He had chosen to be king. He just said: Go, and I will show you whom I chose.
When God speaks into our lives, many times He will give us just enough direction and guidance to know what our next step should be, but He doesn’t reveal the whole plan.
Maybe God spoke to you, the Holy Spirit touched your heart and showed you what you should do, but you aren’t moving yet because you want to calculate each step and plan everything ahead, knowing all the details. But most often than not God doesn’t work like that. He gives us just enough information to take the next step, and He is waiting for our obedience, so He can reveal more of His plan to us.
So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him!”
1 Samuel 16:6
Neither Samuel nor Jesse doubted which son God chose. It was the obvious choice: the firstborn, the oldest had to be the one. Eliab was tall, presentable, and he had the makings of a king. However, God was about to teach Samuel a valuable lesson: to look with the eyes of his heart and see beyond what the physical eyes show you.
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7
Often we tend to judge by a person’s physical appearance. It’s a reminder to always seek the Lord’s guidance regarding people’s hearts, and not draw our own conclusions based on appearances.
It is also a reminder for us to guard our own hearts, because that is the source of life, and it is the only thing God looks at when He sees you.
Beit Hallel is a Messianic Jewish congregation in Ashdod, led by pastor Israel Pochtar, serving holocaust survivors and the poor and needy locally and throughout the nation of Israel, while building up the body of Messiah in the promised land of Israel.