Samuel No.12 The Eyes of God

Another exciting story there. The first book of Samuel and chapter 16, first book of Samuel chapter 16 and we'll read the first 13 verses. 1 Samuel 16 verse 1. The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you mourn for Saul since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way.

I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king. But Samuel said, how can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me.

The Lord said, take an effort with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Invite Jesse to the sacrifice and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.

Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, do you come in peace? Samuel replied, yes, in peace.

I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me. Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord. 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 things man looks at.

Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, the Lord has not chosen this one either.

Then Jesse made Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, nor has the Lord chosen this one. Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, the Lord has not chosen these. So he asked Jesse, are these all the sons you have? They're still the youngest, Jesse answered, but he's tending the sheep.

Samuel said, send for him. We will not sit down until he arrives. So he sent and had him brought in.

He was ruddy with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the Lord said, rise and anoint him. He is the one.

So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers. And from that day on, the spirit of the Lord came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.

And chapter 16, and I want to bring to you an address which I would entitle the eyes of God, the eyes of God. Let's look at the seventh verse of 1 Samuel 16. If you haven't got a Bible and the person alongside you has, then please share it.

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 man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

When I speak to you about the eyes of God, I'm not just thinking in terms of his surveillance of the world. I don't see God in his heaven as a sort of divine equivalent to Securicor or of some sort of celestial policeman waiting to jump you if you do something that is wrong. Although I do believe that God registers the ill that we do and it offends him.

But when I use the term, the rather graphic term, the eyes of God, I think of the Lord particularly in the context of someone who is concerned about what he sees. That's why in the New Testament and indeed in the Old Testament, the imagery of the shepherd and the sheep is often employed to illustrate that this God to whom we offer our praise is a benevolent and kindly God who has our interests in his mind. James Wallace has a hymn which opens up with the words, the eyes of the Lord, or rather there is an eye that never sleeps beneath the wings of night.

And it's Peter who says, as I anticipated quoting him, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayers. 1 Peter 3 and verse 12. Well here we've got an account of God having his eyes upon a certain man.

And when you examine this particular chapter of Scripture, you will discover that within it is locked up the answers to the question, how does God choose his men? How does God choose his men? By what criteria does he make his judgments? And how favorably does he look down from his heavens upon ordinary people like ourselves? Now let me remind you, or for some of you, bring to your mind for the first instance the context of this 16th chapter of Samuel. You see, there has been a king on the throne of Israel, the first king, his name is Saul. And he has made, to use a colloquialism, an absolute mess of things.

He has gone beyond his own limited powers given to him originally by the Lord. He has usurped, that is exploited, the power of the prophet and the priest. And because of this, God has dismissed him from office.

We read in the 13th chapter and the 14th verse, the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you, Saul, have not kept the Lord's command. The repetition is in the 15th chapter, where we read that the prophet Samuel, speaking for the Lord, says to Saul, you have rejected the word of the Lord. That's verse 26.

You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel. So, in this 16th chapter, you come face-to-face with God, having his eyes upon one particular person, who will take over the reins of government from Saul. And that is the context.

You see, Samuel is the prophet, he's the spokesman of God, that's what prophet really means. And somewhat reluctantly, the Lord has told him to leave his home of Ramah and go to Bethlehem, because God is going to appoint a new king. How long, he says in the opening verse, how long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way, I'm sending you to Bethlehem.

Saul shot the rapids, and he was wrecked. No man shoots the rapids in his life and becomes wrecked without being warned, and without being wept over. And it could well be the case, before I even move into the main subject matter that confronts me this morning, that I've got a Saul in my congregation.

And it may well be that there's a Samuel who's often warned you, who's often wept over you. May it be by God's grace that yours is not the same predicament of King Saul, who is bypassed by the Lord, and David is brought to prominence in his place. But that's just in passing.

Here is Samuel, the well-known story now fills out, as in front of him are brought seven of the eight sons of Jesse, a man who seems to have had a great deal of influence to some extent at any rate in Bethlehem. And Samuel is in his household, and he tells Saul, he tells Jesse to bring his sons before him. And as he interviews each of his sons, the Lord rejects one after another, after another, until ultimately the eighth son is brought to Samuel, and he becomes the one that God identifies as being a worthy replacement to the unworthy Saul.

But here are the words of the Lord to Samuel. Because you see, Samuel is going to muff the interview. I've known this happen before.

I mean, in modern times, there have been interviews in which I have been involved, or people have reported interviews to me, and most definitely the wrong candidate was appointed. It happens in professions, doesn't it? It happens in the teaching profession, it happens in a medical profession. Sometimes the interviewees get it wrong as they engage in the interview.

Now here is Samuel, and he's about to get it wrong, and so the Lord sends a shaft of information to Samuel in the way of advice. Don't consider the appearance of that one, or that one, or that one. The Lord does not look at the things that man looks at.

When you are ensuring that someone is equipped to do my task, then have this in mind, Samuel of Ramah, man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart, the eyes of God. How does he see? In what context? Well, it seems to me that shouting at me from this particular passage of Scripture is this, that the eyes of God function well when others are blind. The eyes of God, they function well when others are blind.

You see, there in the scrubland, beyond Bethlehem, is the insignificant eighth son of Jesse, and not one of the family circle, as I shall demonstrate, have any idea whatsoever that locked up within that boy are princely characters, characteristics which will converge to make him one of the greatest men in all history. God sees with his eyes when other men are blind. David's brothers, they never saw it.

As far as they were concerned, well, David was just the man or the youngster who looked after the sheep. You get a sort of fraternal rebuke directed to David. You remember, in the following chapter, he has been sent by Jesse, the father, to take his older brothers some sandwiches, because they're engaged in the service of Saul in the army, and when David comes along with the refreshments, he's rebuked by the elder brother, who says that one of the reasons why David has turned up is simply to see the battle, and he is rebuked for having left his sheep.

Look at the 28th verse, why have you come down here, and with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are, and how wicked your heart is, you came down only to watch the battle. I wonder if David to his brothers was like Joseph was to his brothers. You see, in the Psalms, Psalm 69 and verse 8, you get the impression from David that his brothers rejected what he had to teach them about the Lord.

He became an alien to his mother's children, because David, well, he was a sort of specialist in studying out who God is, and what God's message to his people was, and when the young David came and rebuked his brothers for what they were doing that was wrong, they took it unkindly, and as a result, they rejected David, and when Samuel comes to Bethlehem, they don't even realize that David is the one that God's eyes have been upon for a long time. He's the man who can be a worthy successor to Saul. God's eyes function well when others are blind, even his father never saw it.

It's an interesting fact that David never makes any reference to his father whatsoever in Scripture. Twice he refers to his mother as being the handmaid of the Lord, as though his father, uncharacteristically for a father who very often will doubt his greatest attention on the youngest son, bypasses David, and David, it seems, has the sort of relationship to his mother that Hannah had. Perhaps from her came his poetic sensitivity.

Perhaps from her he was schooled in the things of God as a youngster, so that when he found himself on the undulating slopes of Bethlehem alone, he could bring some of these lessons back to mind and search an experience of the living God out for himself. Jesse never recognized that David had such potential. His eyes were blinded to the characteristics of his youngest son.

Maybe I speak to somebody here, and you know your relatives, they do you down. They don't really appreciate you. Family circles can be the most blessed of circles.

They can also be the most cruel, and there is a favoritism within families that sometimes can split the family circle apart. Your father never really appreciated you, or your mother, God forbid that that should be the case, but perhaps it is for some exceptional person here. Then let me tell you this, that there is a heavenly father who looks down from above with an eye of heavenly love, and he has his hand upon you, and you are within his vision, because no one ever moves out of the sights of God.

He has his eyes on us. Even Samuel, the noble Samuel, does not appreciate the characteristics, or so it would seem, of David. At least I mean by that.

Let's approach it fairly. As far as Samuel is concerned, he's quite ready to settle for the older sons. As far as he goes, as far as his judgment is alluded to, they would easily fill the bill, but he has to have this shaft of intelligence, as I said, sent down from the Lord to say, no Samuel, not those seven.

There's somebody else. And even when Samuel is blinded to the potential of David, perhaps a more extraordinary thing is that David himself doesn't know. The greatest wonder that David doesn't appreciate the potential that is locked up within him.

Later on, when he's ascended to the throne, and when he's engaged in prayer before the Lord, he has this to say in the book of Chronicles, the first book in the 17th chapter, and verse 16. Who am I, O Lord, and what is my family that you have brought me this far? Isn't it incredible the way that God will select His people? The way that He has an interest in folk who seem to be utterly anonymous and have little contribution, or so it would appear, to make towards the advance of His purposes? But that brings me back, you see, to the thought of the eyes of God. They function well when other eyes are dimmed.

David's brothers don't see it. His father doesn't see it. Samuel doesn't see it.

Even David himself. But God sees what is within the being of this young fellow, and how the talents can be released in his service. Maybe I've got a David within my congregation this morning.

Not only do others sell you short, but you sell yourself short. Let me remind you of this, that the disciples that our Savior picked, the majority of them would have fluffed any interviewing board. They didn't have what it took on the human level, until ultimately at the divine they took what God could give.

And with God's gift and their willingness, they were used in His service. There is an eye that never sleeps, an eye that perhaps is settled upon someone here in the tub right now. The eyes of God, they function well when other eyes are blind, when even the minister can't see, even the eldest can't see.

Be assured of this, there's a God above who sees all, and who makes His judgments about you on a different scale, on a different criteria, than any other scale that is known to the sons of Adam. The eyes of God, I say, they function well when others are blind. And what's more, the eyes of God, they reveal His character.

Have you ever noticed how character is revealed through eyes? I was on the phone to my wife this morning. In fact, I was on the phone to my wife yesterday. In fact, if she doesn't come back from South Africa soon, I shall be broke.

But you know, when she's here in the tub, she doesn't need to speak, bless her heart. I can read her eyes, particularly if she thinks I'm going on too long. You ever thought it would have been wonderful to see the eyes of Jesus? The flash of indignation, those Pharisees, blind leaders of the blind, digging out for themselves a deeper pit than they were leading others into.

You ever thought of the righteous indignation that our Saviour showed in His eyes when He stood against Caiaphas, the priest who prostituted the very office into which he had been ordained? Aye, but can you think of the tenderness in His eyes as that woman caught in the act of adultery is dropped in front of Him and her accusers wait for Jesus to pronounce the condemnatory words? You thought of the eyes of our Lord Jesus when He took the little children into His arms and blessed them, when He arrested the lepers and gave to them back not only their physical well-being but their dignity and their respect. You can see a lot in the eyes of a person. They reveal His character.

And here we refer to the eyes of God as Samuel is told that the Lord does not look at the thing man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. And in one sense, it's a truism that the eyes of God is the heart of God.

And He seeks men and women on whom He can fashion His attention and affection. The Lord Jesus was engaged in a ministry of searching. He came to seek and to save that which was lost.

And when Saul is told, first of all, that he has bankrupted any claims that he might have had as being the monarch of Israel, we are informed the Lord has sought out a man after His own heart. Psalm chapter 89 and verse 19 has within it one of the great love sonnets of the Bible. It speaks not of a human lover but of a divine, seeking for someone in whom He can delight.

Psalm 89 verse 19. Once you spoke in a vision to your faithful people, you said, I have bestowed strength on a warrior. I have exalted a young man from among the people.

I have found David my servant. With my sacred oil, I have anointed him. My hand will sustain him.

Surely my arm will strengthen him. Commenting on that verse, F.B. Meyer refers to the ecstasy of God. I have found my servant David.

Luke 15 has within its compass a triple use of the verb found. We have the concepts in the parables of our Lord Jesus. Him cast in the role of someone who's looking for something.

A merchant man who goes to all the great ports, endeavoring to find the pearl of greatest price, and has no rest in his spirit until he has found that unique gem. We read of a shepherd who searches out a sheep, of a woman who looks for a lost coin, of a father who waits the return of a son so he can say, that which was dead is alive, that which was lost is found. And this, it seems to me, is discovered in the eyes of God, the searching look, not the shifty look, the concerned character of a benevolent God who has an interest in ordinary people like David, like you, like me.

David was discovered by God long before Jesse, on instruction from Samuel, brought him back from the dales and the valleys of Bethlehem. You see, early in the mornings, months ago, years ago, the eyes of God had been taking in the hills around that city that would one day be named after David, Bethlehem, the city of David, and spotted in the privacy, in the quietness of the early morning, when only the bleating of the sheep disturbed the stillness, saw a young lad risk his life as he went across the crags, as he hazarded his own life in endeavouring to bring help to some trembling sheep, as that poor animal quivers because there's a bear in front of it, and David, the lad armed only with a crook, only with a sling, eventually dispatches the bear and he picks up the little sheep and he puts it around his shoulders and returns it to the fold, and there's the father heart of God above that registers what is happening, as he finds in that lad, in the privacy of the mountains around Bethlehem, he discovers something that is at one with himself. You see, the eyes of God, they see.

My eyes are dull. They don't always see you. Your eyes do not always see me.

My mind is sometimes dimmed. I don't react with the clarity that God reacts. He takes in the whole vista, the whole sweep.

You think you praise the Lord when you come together in community here. That may be the case, I trust it is, and that it's not some perfunctory act, but the greatest worship that you offer Almighty God, my friend, is when you're on the hills of Bethlehem, when you're on your own, when a circumstance confronts you to which you have to react, and there's a father up above who looks down in heavenly love, and he sees a fellow, no older than some of you chaps in the galleries there, risking his life for a little lamb. The eyes of God watch, because he's seeing something by illustration of his own large-heartedness and devotion to the meek and to the mild.

The day finishes, and the night comes in Bethlehem, and in the fields around where it can get so cold in contrast to the heat of the noon, and David again is on his own, just the bleating of the sheep, and maybe some fire that he's made, gathering together some scraps of wood. David, the cast-off of his brothers, because, well, he's just a lad and they don't want him, he picks up his harp, he starts to pluck the strings, and from the mind of David rises one of the most exquisite poems that has ever been written, as he worships the living God, just David and God on his own, there in the fields around Bethlehem, and he sings, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. David, in a school of theology where he alone is the pupil, the Spirit of God is the sole instructor, has an insight into the character of God which is so wonderful, that his psalm is still the most popular hymn that's ever sung in churches, and particularly during times of funeral and bereavement.

You see, God sees all these things. He sees what's done in privacy. He encountered David long before Samuel, ever knew of David's existence.

He heard of a lad who wandered around those selfsame hills of Bethlehem at night and would look up and see the moon, and see the sun as it was going down, and he saw the bejeweled sky and said, when I consider the heavens that your hand has made, the sun and the moon, what is man that you're mindful of him, or the son of man that you visit him? David's aware of his own creatureliness, his own finitude, and over against that, God sees all those proud and arrogant men back in the cities, back in the towns, who could learn a great deal from this young lad David. But when does God see David? When David's on his own. When is the best worship offered by David to God? When he's on his own.

David warms the heart of God, and the eyes of God are located within his heart, so he draws near. And David is in a relationship with God before he's ever known in Israel. And when Saul is rejected, the Lord says, I found myself a man, a man after my own heart, which takes me on to the last thing I want to say, the final part of my address.

Have you ever caught somebody's eye? Now that seemed to be an inelegant expression, and I hovered a lot in my thinking and my prayers early this morning as to whether I should use it, and then I felt that it was made sanctified by God, indicating to me that it's not a dishonorable thing to catch someone's eye. How do you fall in love? Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? Somebody attracts you. There you are in Worthing Tabernacle.

You came in as a handsome 18-year-old. Let's imagine that there are some handsome 18-year-olds. And just as the preacher had lost you in his tortuous comments, you picked up the eye, the glance of someone across the other side of the balcony.

It does happen. It does happen. He caught her eye.

She caught his eye. There was an attraction. If God has eyes, is it dishonorable to think about catching the eye of God? I tell you this, there's nothing more than I want in my life than to catch his eye.

But you see, the problem with my temperament, my natural temperament, is that I go about it the wrong way. You see, I'm looking for the same sort of thing as maybe Hadimabad had, or Oshama had, that was impressive to Samuel, but not impressive to God. Maybe these men had physical characteristics which were attractive.

Maybe they had seemingly dynamic personalities. Ministers make terrible mistakes in evaluating people. Here is this man, this woman, and they come into the church, and they're so radiant, or so it would seem.

The eloquence that falls from their lips, the knowledge that they seem to have. Put them into harness, and they alone will be in revival. And yet often, when six months have elapsed, you don't even see them around.

They've gone on to the next port of call. They've pitched their tent somewhere else. But out there, there's an obscure lad, a girl, older man, older woman, the least, or so it would seem, among the congregation, missed by the unseeing eyes of the elders, missed by the insensitive heart of the pastor, but always seen by that God whose eyes are upon everyone, and whose criteria of judgment is so different from that of a person like myself.

How do you catch the eye of God? How is David described in terms of Jesus Christ and the genealogy? Jesus is David's, great David's greatest son. There is that of David which reminds God of one who shall come into this world, the greatest of all the Davids. David means beloved, and God has within his heart to send from heaven his own son.

God so loved the world that he gave his own beloved son, his own David. If the young psalmist was rejected by his brothers, how much more was great David's greatest son? If David went into the hilly country of Bethlehem, around Bethlehem, and there reflected on the law of God, as Psalm 119 indicates, how much more did David's greatest son move into the countryside beyond Nazareth, beyond Jerusalem, and sometimes at crack of dawn he would be reflecting and meditating upon the Word of God, and bringing to the Lord the things that would be in his business during that following day. David says, I always find a place for the Lord, and he tells us in the latest Psalms that he wrote, that he discovered the lessons on the hills of Epaphrata, the hills where he was born as a lad.

If you want to catch the eye of God, do a David, for David anticipates the coming of the Lord Jesus, whose mind is immersed in the teachings of God, whose heart is at one with the heart of the Lord. My beloved son, hear him. And it's the Apostle Paul who says to you and me, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus.

What is a Christian? A person who, by the help of God, combined with his own initiative, is wanting to reproduce something of the characteristic of the Savior. That's why I will not blush to sing, let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. All his wondrous perfection and purity, all thou spirit divine, all my nature refined, till the beauty of Jesus is seen in me, the eyes of God.

They look down, and he sees what others don't see. Invariably, in every century, he'll have his man, he'll have his woman. They may be in some crofter's cottage, they may be in some pharaoh's dungeon, they may be amongst Gamaliel's scholars.

In the most unlikely places, God will have his men, God will have his women. He will see those to whom he can give a ministry, to those to whom he can place confidence and trust, and he will delight in the fellowship that they offer him. For that's our God.

Away with your academic definitions of God. He is not some impersonal being in the skies that does not relate to ordinary people. He has a father heart.

He has eyes that see. He has desires that want relationships for those desires to be satisfied. And for that reason, he created the likes of you and me.

Come, my friend. You could be the very one who satisfies the heart of God, as his eyes are upon you this morning. You say, I'm nobody.

That's grand. That's a basic qualification. You say, I'm the sinner.

That's marvelous, too, that you recognize it, because this father has dealt with your sins through sending his beloved son. You say, I've lost my way in life. That's fine.

He promises I will guide you with my eye. You say, but sir, I don't know how to be a Christian. The answer is, you simply trust this God and ask him to forgive you of all the things that you ever did that were wrong, because a greater than David died on a hideous cross to bring about your redemption, and then you'll leave the rest to him.

And in his grace, it might well be. I speak with thought. I tell you in the name of God it is, that you today could minister to God as David did, so he can say, my eyes have alighted upon a man, upon a woman, whom my heart loves.

Let's pray. Father, we just ask your blessing to be upon all who listen to this address, as the burden was unfolded in some measure. May something of its significance, if the preacher is not being immodest in suggesting that perhaps it originated in part from you, may its significance be etched on in our minds indelibly, and will you with your eyes follow us throughout our lives, and grant to us the same privilege of ministering to you as David did, so that at the end it can be said of us, we were men, women of God's heart.

Amen.