The One God Cares About

When your child brings a friend home, what is the first thing you care about? Are you curious how big an apartment they live in and what their parents do for a living? Or do you try to talk with the friend to see what kind of heart they have? Perhaps you care about whether the family is well off or not. And you might even tell your child to stay close to a friend whose behavior you do not like, just because you heard the family is rich. Misreading this worldly mind, you may tell yourself that it is a parent’s love helping your child make good friends. But such a mind is the evil human heart wrapped up as love. Parents must always pay attention to whether their children are making the right friends, but urging children to choose friends by the world’s standards is feeding them poison, and it keeps God from helping them.

Even if you go to church, if you cannot overcome the human nature that lies deep in your heart, you will have no choice but to make the same choices as the people of the world. You should make the effort every day to throw away greed and craving, because life in the world has a great effect on spiritual faith. So judge well and keep your distance from surroundings or people that get in the way of your faith, but you must also do your best to bring those souls, too, to become believers.

What I want to tell you is this. A moment’s wrong judgment can bring down your faith, and because of a friend you may go down a path of disobedience you never wanted. That is why, important as relationships are, you must have the wisdom of the Word. You must be careful of people with evil hearts, but you must also be careful of people who are good-natured yet will never receive Christ. For if you cannot coolly keep your distance, your faith can crumble. I am not telling you to quarrel with them. Keep good relations with them, but stay on guard so that they cannot shake your walk of faith and your belief. With the people around you, look at their spirit rather than their appearance, and see whether their words and actions agree. Only then can you keep your faith with an unshaken belief.

In 1 Samuel 16, God told Samuel that he had set apart one of Jesse’s sons to be anointed, and sent Samuel to go and find him. Yet even Samuel, who had carried out God’s work for so long, ended up looking for the king by outward appearance. Look at Samuel, who knew God’s heart, studying the looks of Jesse’s sons and wondering, “Could this be the king?” Then you see how hard it is for a human being to be born again. The chapter also portrays Saul, who was made king without the training of hardship, failing to live by God’s will and in the end collapsing under human greed and lust. These two events are recorded together in the one chapter 16. This tells us that God goes on doing his work regardless of Samuel’s wrong judgment or Saul’s proud actions.

In verse 1, Yahweh rebuked Samuel, who was mourning day after day, asking how long he would stay downcast over Saul when Yahweh had already rejected him. People are bound to one another by affection more than by interest. When someone you prayed for and cared for with all your heart leaves God and leaves you, you cannot easily let them go from your heart, because of the time you spent loving them. I too sometimes feel like shutting my heart when a believer I loved turns away coldly. But because of the time I spent praying for their soul, it is not easy to let them go from my heart, and the hurt is very deep. Just as Samuel prayed for Saul with tears though he knew his sin, I cannot let such a person go from my heart, and I keep praying. And there are times when God tells me that for someone who goes back and forth between faith and the world, suffering is a blessing, and tells me to let them go coldly.

Samuel is now clinging to Saul’s soul, grieving and weeping, probably out of an earnest longing for Israel’s first king to stand upright. But God sees further. He had to work through David, and that is why he told Samuel to stop grieving. He commanded Samuel to settle his heart and, for the sake of the kingdom of God, to set David up as king, for God would not listen even if Samuel wept for Saul, and Saul would not turn back even if Samuel urged him.

God said he had seen a king among the sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite. When Saul, who had received God’s special blessing, turned his heart to the world, God came to care about David, a son of Jesse who was living by faith. Here you must see God’s providence. When four hundred years of darkness covered Israel after the prophet Malachi, the last of them, God prepared the birth of Jesus the Messiah at the end of that darkness. In this way, the deeper the darkness, the brighter the light shines.

When Saul failed to keep the throne by faith and fell into corruption, God was already preparing David, who would raise Israel up. Though Saul was clearly on the throne, God said he had rejected him, and though God could not make another man king right away, he had already set a king in place somewhere else. No one, however deep their spirituality, can know all of this providence of God. That is why we must meditate deeply on the Word and live it out in our lives.

When Eli became corrupt, God raised up Samuel himself, even though Eli was the priest. If Samuel had kept in mind that God would likewise raise up someone else when Saul became corrupt, he would have recognized David at once. When the judges became corrupt, God promptly prepared another judge and had that judge save the nation. If I, a pastor, did not preach the Word of truth but preached false truth, God would reject me for the sake of Watercourse Church and the souls of its believers. Yet unless I quit the ministry, I would still be the pastor of Watercourse Church, so to other people nothing would have changed. But God would not recognize me as a pastor. Ministry without God’s recognition has no meaning. Saul was clearly the king of Israel, but he did not have God’s recognition. Saul sat on the throne, but the worldly wealth and glory he enjoyed apart from God were like garbage.

Samuel went to Jesse’s house to set up a king. Jesse lived in Bethlehem, and “Bethlehem” means “house of bread.” Here Jesse was born, the son of Obed, whom Ruth the Moabite woman bore to Boaz, and Jesse fathered eight sons. The youngest of the eight was David. God had chosen David as king, but he did not tell Samuel the name, so Samuel had to meet every one of the sons. The world we live in now is like this too. God chooses us, leads us, and holds us within his plan, but he does not tell us, so we have to go, and look, and endure. Yet because God has already given it, it is only those who obey who receive it.

When God told Samuel to anoint Saul, he called him a leader, but when David was to be anointed, God said king, “melek.” So God’s heart toward Saul and toward David was very different. Saul and David were each living their own lives, but having seen those lives, God treated them this differently. In people’s eyes they were the same, both kings. But depending on what faith a king holds, he may become a rejected king or an ancestor of Jesus.

In verse 6, when Samuel saw Eliab, he wondered whether this was the one God had chosen, because Eliab was handsome and outstanding like Saul. Samuel had carried out God’s work all his life, yet he too was not perfect. If we cannot throw away human thinking, we will end up in the seat of the sinners who praised Jesus with hosannas when he worked miracles and abandoned him when he carried the cross.

2 Corinthians 5:16

16Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.

The apostle Paul and everyone else did not believe when the lowly Jesus said that he was the Son of God, the Lord of the Sabbath, and the temple. But when they saw Jesus carry the cross, rise again, conquer death, and ascend into heaven, they believed that he was the Christ. For a Messiah, he was born a carpenter’s son, far too poor, without learning, humble and unimpressive. But when Jesus conquered death and rose again, all the believers stopped judging Jesus by the world’s standards.

When Samuel looked at Eliab’s face and height and thought this must surely be the king God had chosen, God read that thought. He told Samuel not to look on his outward appearance, for he is the God who looks at the heart. Look at the prayers of the Pharisee and the tax collector, too. People praise the Pharisee who boasts of his faith, but the Lord commended the faith of the tax collector, who confessed his weakness and was thankful for the Holy Spirit’s leading. When you deal with people, which do you care more about, the outward appearance or the heart? If you judge people only by their schooling, their wealth, and their looks, God would tell you that the outward appearance can deceive in any number of ways, and that you should look at the heart, as he does.

All seven of Jesse’s sons passed before Samuel, but God did not choose them. Samuel, who knew God well, sensed that the one chosen as king was not there. When he asked Jesse whether all his sons were there, Jesse said there was still the youngest, but he was keeping the sheep. Why would the father leave out David, his youngest, from something so important? Jesse acted this way because he judged that David was too young and weak to become king.

Why did God have both Samuel’s and Jesse’s mistakes recorded in chapter 16? To keep us, through their mistakes, from making our own. He is telling you to look carefully: is anyone being left out because in your eyes they are young, in your eyes they have no ability, in your eyes they could never do it? Even his father left David out, thinking he could never be king because he was young, but God chose David, a man of faith. God looks only at the spiritual state. He knew the David who would be changed after being trained, and so he chose him as the great king who would build the united kingdom. Is there anyone you have not even given a chance because of your worldly judgment? If you look not at how they are right now but at the soul that will be born again after you teach them the Word and train them, you would not be able to cast anyone aside so easily.

In verse 13, from the day Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed David, Yahweh’s Spirit came mightily on David, and he came to have power and wisdom. Just as a lowly bush became something fearful to Moses when God came upon it, so when the Holy Spirit came upon David, who had only tended sheep and run errands for his brothers, the eyes with which he saw the world changed, and he overflowed with wisdom and fullness.

1 Samuel 16:14

14Now Yahweh’s Spirit departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from Yahweh troubled him.

People have been under the rule of evil spirits from the beginning, but when Yahweh pours out the Holy Spirit, they are no longer influenced by evil spirits. But when Saul lost Yahweh’s protection because of his own sin, the evil spirit ruled him again.

Now the meeting will begin between Saul, who has left God’s protection and is tormented by an evil spirit, and David, whom God has chosen. Spiritually the situation is this serious, but in worldly terms it is the meeting of Saul, a king of the world, and David, a shepherd. Samuel described David as ruddy, with a handsome face and good appearance, and when one of Saul’s servants introduced him, he said David was skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a handsome person. From these it seems clear that David was an outstanding man.

Saul was in such torment from the evil spirit that he called for David, with whom God was, and had him play the harp. David had not prepared in expectation of such a day, but he had always worked faithfully, and that effort made him someone who was ready. I hope that you too, like David, will always live faithfully and so become someone who is ready.

A shepherd could never meet the king, yet God himself sent David to King Saul. Look at that, and you see that God is in charge of everything. It was not people who lifted David up. God saw that David was ready and led him just as he had planned. You too should always live faithful and honest lives, with a heart that is getting ready, because God always works by using people and circumstances.

David’s playing the harp did not in itself drive away the evil spirit that was tormenting Saul, but when the Spirit of Yahweh helped David, the evil spirit left. This is exactly why believers can win when they wage spiritual war against the world. Just as David received power and drove Satan away, when believers boldly preach the Word, Satan, who torments souls, will let go of those poor souls and withdraw.

The Holy Spirit is helping those of faith who obey the Word. Even if the opponent is a king of the world, those who receive God’s help have nothing to fear, and they are fully able to drive away the spirit of Satan too. I hope that you too will set the Word at the center and, like precious David with his noble character in body and spirit, become people whom God recognizes.

May you always live faithfully and live a precious life under God’s protection. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.

1 Samuel 17:37-49

37David said, “Yahweh who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go! Yahweh will be with you.” 38Saul dressed David with his clothing. He put a helmet of brass on his head, and he clad him with a coat of mail. 39David strapped his sword on his clothing, and he tried to move; for he had not tested it. David said to Saul, “I can’t go with these; for I have not tested them.” Then David took them off. 40He took his staff in his hand, and chose for himself five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag which he had. His sling was in his hand; and he came near to the Philistine. 41The Philistine walked and came near to David; and the man who bore the shield went before him. 42When the Philistine looked around, and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and had a good looking face. 43The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” The Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of the field.” 45Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46Today, Yahweh will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you, and take your head from off you. I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines today to the birds of the sky, and to the wild animals of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh doesn’t save with sword and spear; for the battle is Yahweh’s, and he will give you into our hand.” 48When the Philistine arose, and walked and came near to meet David, David hurried, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. 49David put his hand in his bag, took a stone, and slung it, and struck the Philistine in his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.