Scripture reading: Ezekiel 17:22-24.

Sermon text: 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13.

Last year, I saw the Mediterranean Sea for the first time. From the surface, the Mediterranean looks like any other sea or ocean. However, the sea hides countless archaeological finds, dating back millennia. Archaeologists continue to find shipwrecks and cities under its surface, evidence of lives lived and lost over the course of human history.

In spite of the mysteries hidden by the surface of the sea, nothing compares to the mysteries hidden by the human heart.

The sermon text today tells us about several personalities, most of whom suffered from a common malady: They all failed to look beyond the appearances to see the reality underneath. This problem caused numerous issues for the nation of Israel, issues that only God could fix. As we examine the sermon text, we can see both the dangers of judging based only on the appearance, as well as the assurance that an omniscient, all-seeing God can work with what lies beneath the surface to accomplish purposes far beyond our expectations.

The nation of Israel found itself in a dangerous situation. The first king of Israel, a man named Saul, had appeared ready for the job in many ways. The people of Israel wanted a warrior as king; Saul stood taller than everyone else and had a temper to match his height. When Saul’s temper blasted out from his personality, everyone scampered for safety.

Unfortunately, Saul also had serious character flaws, all of which stemmed from a lack of faith in God. Saul willingly followed God when God worked according to his timing, but any hint that God would wait beyond Saul’s patience collided with Saul’s fatal tendency to take control of the situation. The last incident from chapter 15 proved that Saul had no intention of obeying God when he disagreed with God’s command, leading God to tear the kingdom from him and leading Samuel to declare, “to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22).

Following God’s rejection of Saul as king, Samuel returned to his home at Ramah and “grieved over Saul.” Samuel probably saw Saul’s failure as one of his own; the people of Israel would never have demanded a king had Samuel’s sons proved themselves worthy to judge the people righteously.

While Samuel grieved over Saul, God had already begun working to call Saul’s replacement. God finally told Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”

Today, most of us think of Bethlehem as a mighty place, the ancestral home of great kings and (of course) of Jesus Himself, the divine Son of God. We need to remember that Bethlehem has never lived up to its exalted reputation. On the surface, Bethlehem never attained the rank of a mighty city in all its history; even today, Bethlehem remains one of the smaller cities in the Middle East, important only because of Jesus’ birth there and the Church of the Nativity that marks Jesus’ birthplace. Samuel could barely have understood why God wanted to call Israel’s next king from such an unimportant town.

On the surface, Bethlehem barely rated a mark on the map. Under the surface, God had prepared Israel’s greatest king — and now Samuel would anoint him.

Samuel traveled to Bethlehem under a strange pretense to hide his true purpose from Saul. In addition to its small size, Bethlehem also rated low on the city scale because it had never hosted a sanctuary to God. The elders of the city justifiably worried why Samuel would choose their city for a sacrifice. Samuel told the elders, “ I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” Among those who attended were Jesse and his sons.

Jesse’s family would have made for a well-attended feast on its own. Jesse, the grandson of Boaz and Ruth, had 8 sons and at least 2 daughters. However, the youngest son, David, did not initially attend the feast; he remained in the fields with the family’s flocks of sheep.

As Samuel called Jesse’s sons, forward, their appearances seemed promising. “When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him.’” Eliab must have looked like a king in some way. The succeeding verse implies Eliab was tall; also, perhaps he carried himself well, or, as the oldest son, he may have helped Jesse handle the arrangements for the sacrifice and feast. Regardless of what Samuel saw, God told Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” Samuel could not see beneath the surface of Eliab’s features, but God saw some flaw that would cause severe trouble should Eliab try to rule the nation.

Samuel then went to the next son — and the next son — and so on, until he had examined every son Jesse had brought to the feast. God chose none of the sons present. “Then Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Are all your sons here?’ And he said, ‘There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.’” Jesse had apparently brought all the sons old enough to attend a sacrifice, leaving the youngest to care for the sheep. Samuel told Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.”

We have no way of knowing how far someone had to go to get David. Most likely, David had taken the sheep to a good grazing area and may have wandered somewhat far from Bethlehem. Jesse had to send someone to fetch him, and that someone probably wound up watching the sheep while David returned to town.

It would seem that appearances mattered in David’s case as well: “Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome.” In spite of his youth, David had already begun developing into a handsome man. God cared nothing for the outward appearance; instead, God told Samuel, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”

Notice what happened next. “Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward.” God had chosen His next king of Israel. The most unlikely candidate, a young boy barely in his teens, would succeed Saul as king and rule over the people God had chosen to serve as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

We have the benefit of history; we know how the story goes. David became Israel’s greatest king, the paragon of all Israel’s kings. David also became one of Israel’s greatest composers of Scripture; we attribute at least 70 of the 150 Psalms to David. David’s reign revealed his holiness, his spiritual depth, and his strength of character.

We also know that David’s greatest Descendant would bring an even greater revelation. The prophet Isaiah, over 300 years after David’s death, wrote a prophecy: “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2). No one who looked at this Descendant saw Him as the one promised by prophecy, the one who would reveal God’s love to humanity. Jesus, David’s foremost Descendant, revealed God’s love: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

In a first-century world rife with religious ritualism, Jesus revealed the true spirit of worship: “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24). After His ascension, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, who would “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8).

Everyone who senses the Holy Spirit’s convicting in their hearts must make a choice whether to believe in His witness or to reject His invitation to believe in Jesus’ atonement for his sins. St. Paul wrote to the Romans, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 9:9-10). We cannot claim Jesus as Lord without believing in our hearts.

Once we believe and confess Jesus as Lord, the Holy Spirit indwells us and guides us to live godly lives. The Holy Spirit will guide us to worship with other believers and to love others as Jesus commanded us: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31).

God looks on our hearts; He knows our standing before Him. God calls us to live in a way that others see the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Believe in Jesus; let His Spirit indwell your heart. Let Him direct you to live so that your life will bring others to believe in their hearts and confess Him as Lord.