Lent 4A 1st Reading
1 Samuel 16:1-13
James Edlin
David’s heart was his primary qualification for leadership. It was not his height, his appearance, his age, or even his status in the family. Eliab had those qualities. Samuel could see that. But God “does not look at the things people look at … the LORD looks on the heart” (v 7). David undoubtedly had some natural gifts for leadership. But he possessed the most important quality of the kind of heart for which God looked.
The Hebrew term “heart” (leb) names that aspect of humans that drives us to do what we do. It acts as the seat of our will and emotions, the essential person. The heart encompasses the totality of our inner being that includes our convictions and perspectives on life as well as our passions and desires. It holds the vows we have made throughout life both constructive and destructive. Unfortunately, because of Adam’s sin, our bent is toward destruction. Our hearts tend to be arrogant and desperately wicked, leading us away from God, deceiving us, and seemingly having no cure (Jeremiah 17:9).
Yet God longs to give us a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26). When we set our hearts to love God completely and our neighbors as ourselves, God transforms our inner person enabling us to fulfill those commitments. The love of God is “poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5). As Christ “dwells(s) in our hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:17), his Spirit reshapes our aspirations, our propensities and our motivations. The Holy Spirit renovates the surrendered heart into a pure heart that reaps life’s greatest reward of seeing God (Matthew 5:8). Such transformation of the heart, writes Dallas Willard in Renovation of the Heart, is “the greatest need you and I have – the greatest need of collective humanity” (p 14).
Perhaps this is more of what the powerful rush of the Spirit of the LORD was about following David’s anointing (v 13). The Spirit enabled David to be successful militarily and administratively. But such success surely flowed from a transformed heart, one that was being aligned more and more with its Creator’s heart and determined to act only when “it is the will of the LORD” (1 Chronicles 13:2).
The stories of David in the books of Samuel as well as his songs in the book of Psalms reveal a man whose inner being was being formed by God. We can see illustrated in David’s heart a servant’s heart, a brave heart, and a devoted heart.
In the initial introduction to David in 1 Samuel 16:1-13 we begin to see David’s servant heart. As the youngest of eight sons, perhaps he had no choice. He remained behind tending sheep, while his father and brothers attended an important religious ceremony with the famous holy man Samuel. This was undoubtedly the event of the year in the little village of Bethlehem. Even “the elders of the town trembled” when Samuel showed up (v 4). But someone had to watch the sheep. Someone must do the dirty work, stay in the shadows and take care of the vulnerable. Someone must be a servant for the sake of the family. That would be David.
Throughout his life David maintained this heart of a servant. His entrance into the royal household of Saul came as a servant, according to the following story in 1 Samuel 16:14-23. He fulfilled the lowly role of the king’s musician and armor bearer. Even when the tables turned and Saul sought to take his life, David submitted to the king. As the story of 1 Samuel 24 reminds us, he could have taken Saul’s life at one point, but he did not because he remained under the lordship of his “master” Saul.
Not surprisingly, this submissive heart marked his relationship with God as well. Following Nathan’s announcement of an everlasting dynasty, David expressed his sense of unworthiness at God’s favor. In his prayer, David identified himself ten times as “your servant” (2 Samuel 7:19-29). Clearly the all-powerful, remarkably successful king of Israel and Judah understood who the Real King of Israel was and that he simply served at that Sovereign’s command. David saw himself as God’s son in the truest sense, who sat at the right hand of God (Psalm 110) and acted only on behalf of “the One enthroned in heaven” (Psalm 2).
David also portrayed a brave heart. We see evidence of this in the well-known story of his battle with Goliath. He stepped forward while others cowered. His confidence laid not so much in his skills and wit though, but in his God. As he said to the Philistine, “I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty … this day the LORD will deliver you into my hands” (1 Samuel 17:45-46). He was brave because his God was strong. He knew who he fought for and who would fight for him. “The battle is the LORD’s,” David proclaimed, “and he will give all of you into our hands” (1 Samuel 17:47).
Finally, David had a devoted heart. It was committed fully to God. When God rejected Saul as king, Samuel told him that the LORD would seek out “a man after his own heart and appoint him ruler of his people” (1 Samuel 13:14; see also Acts 13:22). David was that man whose level of commitment ironically may be best illustrated in his worst moment, his sin with Bathsheba. Though powerful and successful, David could not live with his sin and apart from God. When finally confronted by Nathan, he acknowledged he was “the man” and confessed, “I have sinned against the LORD” (2 Samuel 12:13). In deep anguish, he pled for mercy, beseeching his God, “create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). He was determined to restore that intimate relationship with God once again.
Almost daily our people must decide whose leadership they will follow, whose influence they will allow to shape them. Our celebrity culture presents a constant parade of choices from television personalities to superstar athletes. Whose lead will they follow? In addition, our people must decide what kind of leader they will be for the many lives they influence. While skills and giftedness may seem important in these decisions, surely the matter of the heart remains most crucial. Today’s scripture passage seems to teach this.
Further, our passage teaches that in order to know the heart of a person one must stay in conversation with God as Samuel did. Left to his own judgment Samuel would have chosen Eliab, who would likely have been another disaster like Saul (1 Samuel 6:6). Fortunately he listened to the voice of God. In the final analysis, only God knows what is in a heart, for He is the One who searches the hearts of humans (v 7; also Jeremiah 17:10). If we are to make good decisions about who will influence our lives as well as how we will influence other lives, we must stay close to the heart of the Heart Expert. For the heart remains God’s number one qualification of a leader.
Professor of Biblical Literature and Languages, MNU