[392 words]
You wouldn’t think to look at him as mighty. When the man of God came to town, he wasn’t even invited to eat with the rest of his family. Sure he was good at what he did. He was trusted to handle the families’ sheep. He was a musician. He was young. He was characterized as ruddy faced and beautiful, but not mighty. He wasn’t even old enough to go to war. No one had yet sung songs of his glory. He had not yet won any glory for himself.
But he was chosen of God. The man of God had looked at all of his brothers. He had seen potential in them. God had other plans. God chose the shepherd. The nation was in need of a new king. The one they had had not followed the counsel of God. Their king was going mad. They needed a man who would stand up and be the king they envisioned. The man of God thought surely one’ of the boy’s older brothers would fit the ticket. But God chose him. From a position of humility God pulled His next king.
An unusual choice to be sure, but this boy was different. While guarding his flock he defeated not only a bear but also a lion. When the king was troubled he soothed him with his harp. When the God of the nation was being blasphemed by a veritable giant, he stood and asked why? Why would the nation allow such slander toward the God that delivered them. He stood before the king, refused to wear armor he had not tested. He stood before a giant with a sling and some stones. He stood for God when an army, a nation, and a king would not. This was the choice of God. The man of God could not see the promise of this boy. He saw not what God saw. “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, the Lord does not see as a man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’” (1 Samuel 16:7).
This boy had the heart. The heart for God required to succeed. And Goliath was dead before he pulled his sling. Let us have such a heart.
James Bennett
Hooker church of Christ
Hooker, OK