daily java

Daily Java:

When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Then Jesse told his son Abinadab to step forward and walk in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “This is not the one the Lord has chosen.” Next Jesse summoned Shimea, but Samuel said, “Neither is this the one the Lord has chosen.” In the same way all seven of Jesse’s sons were presented to Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.” Then Samuel asked, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse replied. “But he’s out in the fields watching the sheep and goats.” “Send for him at once,” Samuel said. “We will not sit down to eat until he arrives.” So Jesse sent for him. He was dark and handsome, with beautiful eyes. And the Lord said, “This is the one; anoint him.” (1 Samuel 16:6-12)

The old adage says don’t judge a book by its cover. It’s easy to get swayed by appearance. Something looks good so it must be. Something looks bad so it must be.

Samuel was going to anoint a new king over Israel. The old one was Saul and he had turned his back on God, so God turned from him. Saul was tall and straight and a good warrior, just the kind of king material people wanted.

Samuel came to Bethlehem and to Jesse’s house. He had several sons and one of them was going to become the next king. When Samuel saw Eliab, he fell into the trap of appearances. He just looked kingly. But then again, so did Saul. God said no.

All  of the sons came and none were the one. Samuel finally asked, don’t you have any more sons? Well, Jesse said, there is the kid. He is out in the field. They brought him and God said, this is the one. And he was the one who God called a man after his own heart (1 Samuel 13:14).

A few years ago, the show American Idol had a woman named Susan Boyle come out to sing. She was plain, dumpy and absolutely not good looking. In fact, they made light fun of her. Then she opened her mouth and sang and it was totally at odds with her appearance. She went on to become one of those odd success stories of ability over appearance.

I remember girls swooning over the Beatles. John, Paul and George were handsome, but some girls was going on and on about Ringo. I said, but he’s ugly. One girl said, yes, but he is so ugly he is cute and she went on from there.

Barbra Streisand and Janis Joplin were not pretty women, yet when they sang they became beautiful. They had an inside quality to their singing that came out in their appearance.

But you take a beautiful girl and let her start cursing and all the beauty is gone in my eyes.

My wife is one of those people whose insides come out. She was always cute as a young woman, but she grows more beautiful as she gets older because her heart is pure and good. As she gets older, the inside shows more and more.

And some girls are the reverse. They have nothing but their looks and they know it. They spend all of their fortunes trying to keep those looks because they know that when they are gone, they will be empty.

A beautiful, vain and shallow girl with no real insides would be hard to live with. Sooner or later, you have to get up and put some clothes on and have a conversation. Sooner or later the sex will wear off and the life will begin and there will be nothing there.

And if nothing ever comes there, as she gets older, she will lose her beauty and become ugly. Some movie stars who were so hot in their day lose that young fresh beauty and fade into obscurity because there was nothing to replace it.

Someone once said, beauty is skin deep, but ugliness goes clear to the bone. God sees the bone, we see the skin. It isn’t that we are stupid, it is just the way we are made. We do not have the prescience God does.

God sees the inside. When viewed by the Lord’s standards, the outwardly ugly person becomes beautiful, the outwardly beautiful person ugly. When you look with his eyes, you see the real truth and value of things.