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THE LORD LOOKS ON THE HEART
I Samuel 15:34 – 16:13; Mark 4:26-34
June 14, 2009
Betty Berghaus
The people of Israel wanted a king. Samuel had ruled Israel wisely as judge, but when he got older and passed the mantle on, his sons were not as kind or as honest as he was. So the elders of the people went to Samuel and demanded a king to rule over them, just as the other nations had kings. God told Samuel to give them what they wanted, and not to feel rejected because God said that the people rejected God with this request, not Samuel. But God told Samuel to warn the people what would happen with a king in charge. Samuel told the people that a king would take their sons to be soldiers, and their daughters to do tasks such as cooking and baking and making perfumes, that he would take the best of their fields and vineyards for the officers in his army, and more. (See I Samuel 8.) God then sent Samuel to find and anoint Saul, whom God had chosen to be the king of Israel. Saul wrote down the duties and rights of kingship. As king, he valiantly led his armies to defeat the enemies of his people. But Saul did not always obey God’s laws. Finally, fed up with Saul, God told Samuel that he regretted making Saul king, and prepared Samuel to anoint someone else.
Last week we heard about the call of Isaiah to be a prophet, a messenger for God. But the passage this week is not a call story. God did not call Saul or David; God chose them to be king over Israel. Remember, God did not even want a king over Israel, but relented to the demands of Israel. Still, God warned the people that a king would not always be ideal.
The trouble with choosing a new king of Israel was that Saul was still reigning as king. Samuel was afraid of Saul’s wrath if he found out that Samuel was anointing a new king. So God told Samuel to go for the purpose of a sacrifice. It was an awesome thing for such a distinguished man as Samuel to appear in Bethlehem, and so the elders trembled in fear, perhaps assuming that some judgment would be passed upon their town. But Samuel told them that he came in peace, and told them to sanctify themselves for the sacrifice. Samuel then sanctified Jesse’s sons himself. As he did so, he looked over the sons, and he was struck by the appearance of the firstborn, Eliab. The first king, Saul, perhaps like Eliab, was described as more handsome and taller than anyone else. But God told Samuel not to look on the stature of the person, but to look upon the heart. Samuel looked through seven sons, but told Jesse that God had not chosen any of these. “Do you have any other sons?” he asked Jesse. Jesse told him of the youngest, who was out tending the sheep. Jesse must have not considered the youngest as even worthy of bringing before this servant of the Lord. And yet Samuel sent for the youngest. He too was handsome. But, remember, God did not choose him for his looks. He chose him for his heart. “Anoint him,” said God, “This is the one.” Then something happened to David, as the text tells us that “the spirit of the Lord came upon David mightily from that day forward” (16:13).
It seems like a rather straight-forward, simple story, but like most Scripture passage, we can learn much about God and our relationship with God from this story by digging a little deeper. This is an arguable point (and there are those who still argue with me about this!), but it seems to me from this passage and from others that God can change God’s mind, that what we do (or don’t do) has influence on God (though not always as we might expect). Perhaps this simply shows us that God pays attention to us.
Despite what God wanted, or knew to be right for the people, God relented to give the people what they demanded. We, as parents, do that sometimes. Especially as they get a bit older, we sometimes let our children make their own choices, if we do not think their choices will be harmful. We may feel that we know a better way, but we want them to learn and to grow.
In answer to the people’s demands, Father God gave the people kings. But these kings were chosen, not called. There is an inner, as well as an outer, dimension to a call that usually motivates one to pursue and to do well in the call. Many who are chosen develop a call to that to which they are chosen. The March 5th group works on this premise. This group identifies young men and women in whom they or others see some gifts or inclinations toward ministry, and the group sponsors them for one year of seminary education. After that year, the young men or women are on their own. Most of them wrestle with being chosen and then develop an inner calling, and go on to finish seminary. But it is not always so.
So it was with the kings of Israel. Though chosen by God, not all of them felt called by God. And indeed the kings were not always ideal. Simply skim through I & II Kings, and you will see often in the descriptions of the many kings either, “He did what was right in the sight of the Lord,” or “He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord,” and there seem to be more of the latter. Yet God gave the people what they wanted, and let them live with the consequences.
Remember that God told Samuel to use as an excuse to go to Bethlehem a sacrifice. Sacrifices were common practice in ancient times in many religions, and could vary from animals to fruits and vegetables or bread, or sometimes even people. In an agricultural culture, giving up such produce was a sacrifice out of one’s livelihood, something off of their table or out of their purses. In this instance, God told Samuel to take a heifer, a young cow. Sacrifices were often brought to appease the god, or as an appeal for atonement for wrongdoings. For Christians, Jesus made the sacrifice that nulled all other actual sacrifices when He died on the cross for us. Yet sacrifice can still be seen as a part of our worship, when we give of ourselves through our offerings of money, time, or gifts. Giving these up, especially our time, in this hectic, busy world, can be just as hard for us as giving up a first-born calf would be for someone in the ancient world. And we demonstrate our devotion to God with such offerings.
Remember too that in choosing David to be the next king, God passed over his seven brothers, according to this passage in I Samuel. In the version of this story in I Chronicles, David was the seventh son. David was either seventh, a holy number, or eighth, an even greater than the holy number seven. David was a great king, and did many good things, like bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. But he was also human, and used his power for selfish reasons at times too. Yet God kept His promise to David to continue the kingdom through David and his offspring. As we know from Matthew 1, David’s line continued right to Jesus.
In choosing David, God did not look at qualifications for a leader, a king, as we would look. Maybe some would still look for tall, dark, and handsome. Or they would seek the most intelligent, or the most hospitable, the greatest warrior or the best peacemaker. God looked at none of these qualifications. David was the youngest son of Jesse, who was himself the son of Obed and the grandson of Boaz and Ruth. Scripture tells us very little about Jesse, except that he had either 7 or 8 sons, and 1 or 2 daughters, and that one of his sons was David, a shepherd boy who became king of Israel. So in choosing David, perhaps God had a clean slate to work with, a young man with no preconceived notions about ruling a nation, someone God could form into a great leader. The only qualification that David had was that God could look upon his heart, and found him to be acceptable.
In biblical terminology, the heart was the chief organ of the body. It was considered the beat of physical life, certainly, but was also seen as the center of intellectual and emotional life. The personality dwelt in the heart, and the heart was the point of contact with God. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me,” cried the Psalmist (Psalm 51:10), perhaps an older David himself. The prophet Jeremiah quoted God as promising a new covenant, one that God would write in their hearts, and “remember their sins no more” (Jer.31:33). The heart was the most important part of the body and soul.
So God looked into David’s heart, and found him acceptable. Walter Brueggemann says that the young David was “one of the marginal people,” with absolutely no credentials or social claims to the position of king. Those hearing or reading this passage who are also on the margins of life can be encouraged that “among the marginal there are beautiful people, that among the little ones there is the potential for greatness” (Brueggemann, p.124). Privately, in front of his family, the young David was anointed a king. His public anointment and assumption of the office would come many years, and many struggles, later.
When choosing an acceptable leader for the people, God told Samuel not to look at appearance or stature, not to look as mortals look – “for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look upon the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (v.7) When we look for leaders, we may look for different qualities, depending upon the role or task needing to be accomplished. A teacher needs the education and training to lead in a particular field or age level. An athletic coach would need to have experience and expertise in the sport that he or she would coach. Business leaders need skill in their area of business but also skills to handle people. We look for a political leaders and a president who are intelligent, resourceful, and perhaps even charismatic. Though we may prefer kind-hearted people to fill these leadership roles, this would not be the first requirement we seek.
Ronald Heifetz, author of a book called Leadership Without Easy Answers (Harvard University Press, 1994) says that the media promotes leaders as those who have the most authority and the greatest following, ones “given formal or informal authority by others – regardless of the values they represent or the product they play a key part in producing.” (p.13) Heifetz, though, defines leaders as those who “mobilize people to face problems, to tackle tough problems” (p.14). He says, “rather than define leadership either as a position of authority in a social structure or as a personal set of characteristics, we may find it a great deal more useful to define leadership as an activity.” (p.20) Leadership, he says, transforms (p.21). Maybe that is what God was seeking in David, someone to transform the people into God’s people.
Maybe God keeps seeking such leaders. Jesus was and is the penultimate leader, and He leads and calls us to something much greater than ourselves. Rev. John Buchanan says that, as a church, a faith community:
“We are not called simply to exist. We are not called just to survive. We are not even called to be successful. We are called, as churches, to be faithful to Jesus Christ and to serve the world as He served it, to love the world as He loved it, to give our lives to the world as He gave His life away.” (Becoming Church, Becoming Community, p.29)
Buchanan reminds us that Soren Kierkegaard called being church “a leap of faith,” “a leap into an abyss,….a loving entrusting of ourselves to God.” (Buchanan, p.39) That sounds to me like a leading of the heart! Being church community, then, means looking into the heart. When we consider who will lead our church as staff, as officers, as committee chairs, we too need to look as God does, not on outward appearances, not on things that we can count or list or grade, but on the heart. When we find that heart to be loving, faithful, and at peace with God, or at least striving hard to be so, we may have found our leaders. God did not require much more. God looked on the heart, and chose David. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might,” said the Lord. (Deut. 6:5) And Jesus added a second commandment, stemming from the first – Love your neighbor as yourself. Perhaps the most important thing we can ask ourselves as part of a church community is what God will see in looking upon our hearts. Are we ready for such close examination? This place of worship, of study and fellowship, this place where we are baptized and receive communion, where we are confirmed, and married, and buried, prepares our hearts to be open to God and to one another. Come to church, and prepare your heart. Come to church, and help us to prepare the hearts of others to receive our Lord.
Glory be to God! AMEN.