by Kandice Barley
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.”
1 Samuel 16:7 | NIV |
Now in all honesty, I’m going to tell you that we had originally scheduled Angie to teach this lesson. But isn’t God’s SOVEREIGNTY so amazing? Angie relayed to us that she was struggling with what to write to wrap us up and I asked her if she wanted me to take it. You see, I had planned for me NOT to teach during 1 Samuel but God was really just using the past 11 lessons to prepare my heart for this ONE message. As we’ve studied 1 Samuel, the Holy Spirit has done a mighty work revealing to me the HEART of man. As we’ve walked this journey with Samuel, Saul, and David, the Holy Spirit kept calling to me over and over again--”Look at the heart as I do, not as man does.” And isn’t this what our Creator was telling Samuel in chapter 16 verse 7? So as I studied the past months, I asked God to reveal to me the heart of each character in our study and to speak to me about HOW that relates to the condition of my heart, and ultimately how I walk with the Spirit. I didn’t realize then that He was doing a bigger work and that I’d would be privileged to share it here with you.
So let’s dive into each of the characters and look SCRIPTURALLY at their hearts.
We started our very first lesson with Penninah. 1 Samuel 1:4-7 says: “4 And whenever the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the Lord had closed her womb. 6 And her rival also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the Lord had closed her womb. 7 So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, that she provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat.” While the scriptures here don’t explicitly state that Penninah’s heart is spiteful and cruel, we see it through her actions. She “provoked” Hannah with the intent to make her “miserable,” and she didn’t just do this once, but year after year. Furthermore, we know the condition of her heart to be spiteful and cruel because Luke 6:44-45 tells us: “Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.” Penninah’s actions, the things brought forth from what was stored in her heart, tell us her heart was bitter.
Hannah, on the other hand, brings forth good from her heart. Hannah opens her prayer like so… “And Hannah prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the Lord; My horn is exalted in the Lord. I smile at my enemies, Because I rejoice in Your salvation.” 1 Samuel 2:1 Her heart was focused on praising God, and through that she could smile in the face of Penninah. Because Hannah’s heart focused on the GOODNESS OF GOD, she was able to endure the pain of a barren womb in the face of the enemy who taunted her. She was able to literally give away her precious baby, the prize of her entire existence, because her heart rejoiced in the Lord. And how was she able to endure it all? Luke 8:15 tells us “The seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, WHO HEAR THE WORD, RETAIN IT, and by PERSEVERING PRODUCE A CROP.” Hannah persevered to produce a good crop by retaining the promises of the Lord in her heart.
Just as we start 1 Samuel with a duo of opposite hearts, we continue the bulk of the book with a duo of opposite hearts.
Through Hannah’s baby made prophet (Samuel) we meet Saul. At first Saul’s heart seems neutral. But upon further inspection, we can see that his heart was full of vices; he is rebellious, disobedient, and self-reliant. He starts out seeking God, looking for “the man of God” to guide them to the donkeys, giving God glory for delivering them in battle at Jabesh-Gilead, but we quickly see Saul move to relying on himself instead of God and in doing so he disobeys the Lord and rebels against His command (1 Sam. 12:15). Then over and over again we see that HE KNOWS God has appointed David to be king, and yet he continues to pursue him wanting to kill him. Saul’s heart was in every way rebellious and disobedient against God. And when we won’t allow God to govern our lives as designed from the beginning, we are also self-reliant which leads to ruin. God uses Samuel to tell Saul this very thing in 1 Samuel 15:22-23: “Then Samuel said: Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and defiance is like wickedness and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.” A disobedient and rebellious heart ruined Saul.
Then, we see David who has the opposite heart. Acts 13:22 tells us, “And when He had removed him [Saul], He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.” David’s heart was ALIGNED with God’s. He sought to do God’s will and not his own. The following words describe the heart of David as seen in his own writings:
Humble – Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath. Psalm 62:9
Reverent – I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. Psalm 18:3
Respectful – Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief. Psalm 31:9
Trusting – The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1
Loving – I love you, O Lord, my strength. Psalm 18:1
Devoted – You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. Psalm 4:7
Recognition – I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. Psalm 9:1
Faithful – Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Psalm 23:6
Obedient – Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Psalm 119:34
Repentant – For the sake of your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. Psalm 25:11.
David knew in his heart that it wasn’t about him, but God. And we see David faltering toward the end of 1 Samuel (just as we falter in our walk with God sometimes), but his heart was full of God centered attributes and because he had a repentant heart, even in the missteps his heart was still pure.
So, how does knowing all of this about the characters in 1 Samuel help me? How can I apply all of this to my own walk with God?
Well, let’s look back at the very verse we started with. 1 Samuel 16:7 says, “But the Lord said to Samuel, “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” WHY does God look at the heart? Why is this His focus (and therefore should be ours)? Because Ephesians 3:16-17 tells us “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love.” His Holy Spirit dwells within our HEARTS. God looks at the heart of man because 1 Corinthians 6:19 tells us that our bodies are a temple of God. If our whole body is the temple, then the heart is the holy of holies--it is where the Spirit of the Living God resides. This is why in Proverbs 4:23 we are told “above all else guard your heart for everything you do flows from it.” We are to guard and keep pure our holy of holies because the Spirit will not reside with sin. This is why we MUST as Christians ask the Spirit daily to repent “create in me a clean heart, Oh God” (Psalm 51:10) just as David did, and to reveal our sin. 1 Corinthians 2:10 says “These are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” Conviction is a blessing! The Holy Spirit reveals not only the surface sins we know about, but He will reveal the things buried deep within that we don’t even realize are there...and oh how glorifying it is to God when we ASK the Spirit to do just that. When we ASK the Spirit to reveal all the ugly within, God sees a seeking heart, a repentant heart, a heart after His.
So go ahead, ASK! Ask Him to reveal the condition of your heart, and then do as we are commanded in Matthew 22:37-- “Love the Lord your God with all of your HEART, soul, and mind.”