(Author’s Note: I have been preaching a message series from 1 Samuel during the summer of 2024 at Grace Methodist Church of Ruston. This article is an excerpt from the June 23, 2024 message)

1 Samuel 16:7 makes the telling point that inward qualities are more important than outward ones. “The Lord said to 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 a man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

There’s an old saying: “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.” And that’s too bad, because first impressions generally do not reveal inward qualities. The anointing of David demonstrates to us that we are to look deeper into each other than to see only what’s on the surface.
As Jesse presented his sons to the prophet, Samuel thought ““Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.” (16:6) “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (16:7)

I can only imagine Samuel’s confusion as the last son was presented and God said “no, not him”. He turned to Jesse and said, “Is this all?” There was one more son; he was out in the fields taking care of the sheep. Notice that Jesse hadn’t even thought to bring him in. He certainly wasn’t king material. His dad and brothers knew that. But Samuel was insistent and so he was brought into the house and suddenly this young nobody became somebody.

It’s hard for us to understand exactly why David would have been such an unlikely candidate for king, but let me give you three reasons to help paint the picture. First of all, David had an undistinguished family tree. His grandmother was an immigrant and among his ancestors was a woman almost executed for adultery and a prostitute. What kind of kingly lineage was that? His bloodline just wasn’t right. The second thing that made him such an unlikely candidate was that he was in the wrong place in the birth order. He was the youngest son. How many are youngest children? You know what it’s like to live in the shadow of your older siblings.

In David’s day and age your birth order determined your lot in life. The youngest child had a very unlikely prospect for success. The oldest son when he was of age would begin working with his father on the farm as soon as he was old enough to help or tend the sheep. But, when the next oldest son became old enough to help, the older son might leave home to start his own farm, learn a trade, or get married. He could decide to stay on the farm or not. This succession would continue until the last son would ultimately become the family’s shepherd and farm hand because there was no one to come behind him to replace him. David’s place in life was already determined. He had a job and apparently was good at that job from what we’re told later on in his life.

The fact is if we had been living in the farmhouse next door to David’s family on the Judean hillside, we may not have even known the name of David’s youngest son. His dad didn’t even think of including him until Samuel asked him if there were any more. Jesse rubbed his beard and said, “Oh, yeah, there’s my youngest. Almost forgot about him.” So fathers, don’t forget to present all your sons when the prophet comes to visit.

Samuel was so in tune with God that he listened to His will in selecting David to be anointed as king. And, arguably, David was Israel’s greatest king. The story of David is a story of right seeing. It’s a story which challenges us to look beyond outward appearances to a person’s heart and character. God saw something in David that no one else had seen. The Hebrew word that is used in the text to describe how Samuel looked at Jesse’s sons implies that he looked but didn’t really see. Inward qualities are more important than outward.