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April 14, 2024
- By Ed Powell
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"So he asked Jesse, 'Are these all the sons you have?' 'There is still the youngest,' Jesse answered, 'but he is tending the sheep.' Samuel said, 'Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.' Then the LORD said, 'Rise, and anoint him; he is the one.'" 1 Samuel 16:11-12
God had dethroned Saul as king of Israel because of his disobedience and rejection of God. God tells Samuel to go to the house of Jesse, and from his sons He will find the "man after God's own heart" who is to be anointed the new king of Israel.
Seven of Jesse's sons appear before Samuel, but none is God's choice. Then Samuel asks, "Are these all the sons you have?" To which Jesse answers, "There remains yet the youngest." "And where do we find him?" "Out in the field tending the sheep."
It was David, a young man with a shepherd's heart. He has been trained in all the tender and sensitive ways of caring for the sheep. God says to Samuel, "Rise, and anoint him: he is the one." How blessed to have the mind of the Lord and be led by Him.
What was wrong with the other sons? One in particular illustrates God's heart. Eliab came before Samuel, a strong, strapping, handsome man who certainly would have been the choice of most. But Samuel said he was not the one. Then God tells Samuel His clarifying thought: "Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him; for the LORD sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).
God ignores what man glories in. David was looked upon as insignificant, unworthy, too young, and unqualified, but he was God's chosen one. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, saith the LORD" (Isaiah 55:8).
Look who God had chosen before: Abraham, from an idolatrous family and nation. Isaac, not Ishmael, Abraham's first-born son. Jacob, not Esau, the first-born of Isaac. Moses, a shepherd on the backside of the desert. Israel, not Egypt, the Babylonians, or the Greeks (each representing commendable strength, wisdom, and culture).
WHY? So that all men might know that power belongs to the Lord, that his ways are past finding out, and that he does all things according to the counsel of his own will.
The story is told of a young cerebral palsy victim at a junior high school camp, who was the brunt of others' jokes and the object of their laughter. Billy moved with an uncoordinated body. He spoke in slow, stammering words from a contorted mouth. The others would mimic Billy's stammering speech. "It's...over...there...Billy." The fury reached its highest point when Billy was told that he was to give the cabin devotions. Billy dragged himself to the front amid giggles that were everywhere. It took him almost five minutes to say seven words: "JESUS...LOVES...ME...AND ...I...LOVE...JESUS!" There was dead silence, and then tears streamed down the faces of the kids. A revival broke out all over the camp.
God had used a "cerebral palsy kid" to do what the testimonies of sports figures could not do. He chose an afflicted, outcast, distorted, and stammering boy to break the hearts of the haughty. "God said unto Samuel, Rise, anoint him: for this is the one." DARE TO BELIEVE!
© 2007 by Ed Powell. Used by permission.
This page was reprinted by permission from: http://litmin.org/dare.php?date=2024-04-14
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