GOD JUDGES THE HEART

DAILY WORD

9/6/23

6. When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the LORD’s anointed!”

7. 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 NLT

Today’s Passage returns us to the Sixteenth Chapter of The Story of Samuel after a lengthy hiatus, where we revisit the Prophet’s search for the next King of Israel. God has rejected King Saul for his rebellious and willful actions and Decided to replace him with a better man. God sent Samuel out into the Promised Land to track down His newest Servant.

We find Samuel at the House of Jesse in Bethlehem, preparing to make a sacrifice to God to anoint the next King. The first of Jesse’s sons, Eliab, was a tall, strapping man whose physical attributes seemed perfect for the post. He would have garnered respect from the people simply from his stature and good looks.

But when Samuel suggested that Eliab must be the man he was sent to find, God Delivered one of the most Iconic and Telling Messages of Israel’s early Kingdom. It is a Lesson that still resonates Today thousands of years later. God told Samuel that His Judgments came not from an individual’s physical stature or capabilities but that He Judged their Worth by what was in their heart.

Though we understand this as God’s Way Today, in ancient Israel, this would have been a vast departure from what was deemed routine or appealing to the people. You have to consider that much like Today, where we deem wealth to be the ultimate status symbol, back then, it was your physical prowess that gained you wealth.

If you were big, strong, and capable of overcoming your rivals, their wealth could become yours. If you could take it, you owned it because “might was right” back then. Therefore, considering what was commonplace for them, that would have been the same way Samuel evaluated the next King. After all, that was how the people chose Saul, and look how that turned out.

But what God Ushered in with this One Simple yet Groundbreaking Concept has become how we all should look at people. Their appearances mean little if their hearts are corrupted. What good is attractiveness if your soul is rotten inside? That is why God looks at the heart of an individual instead of Judging their outward appearance that they can easily manipulate and supplement.

Just look at the implements Today designed for no other purpose than to augment our looks. If your hair, hue, lips, curves, height, and even status can be faked, and those are what we are judged by, then what use is physical appearance in the first place?

As Christians, we adopt this Godly Philosophy in our lives only after understanding just how deceitfully wicked the heart can be and how deviously cunning humans can become when esteem and affluence are the ultimate goals. People will do almost anything to be seen as important, including lie and kill.

But if you judge an individual by their character and not their appearance, you cannot go wrong because they cannot hide their true nature for long. And if God is The Judge, they cannot hide it even for a moment! God sees us for who we are, regardless of how we may try to conceal our true selves.

Samuel was just like all of us Today. He saw a big, strong, good-looking man before him and assumed he had to have been the one God had Chosen. But he was dead wrong, and God’s Lesson Delivered to him back then is the Lesson for this DAILY WORD Post Today.

Man tends to judge by the outward appearance, but God Judges the heart. That is one of the most Essential Lessons we can learn as human beings. Stop looking at people and judging their worth. You can’t judge a book by its cover! Take the time to dig deeper, and you may find that just under the surface of all that manufactured crust and fluff, there lies a diamond in the rough, or maybe it’s just a plain old rock. But you’ll never find out if you don’t do a little digging beneath the surface!

Have a Wonderful Wednesday, And Never Forget That Beauty Is Only Skin Deep, But Ugly Goes Clean To The Bone!

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