Daily Lesson for July 8, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from 1 Samuel 16 verses 6 through 12:

6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord's anointed is before him.” 7 But 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 man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” 9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” 10 And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” 11 Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” 12 And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”

A few years back I was rummaging the religion section of an old used bookstore in Portland, Maine when I came across the great scholar Raymond Brown's commentary on the book of John, "The Gospel According to John" volumes one and two, which I had been searching for for a long time.  I jumped at the price, got it safely back to my then-home in Vermont and went to reading. As I opened the first volume, I found that the cover on the book was for the wrong volume and so I went to make the switch. That's when I made my discovery.  I had purchased the great scholar Raymond Brown's commentary on the book of John, "The Gospel According to John" volumes one and one.

"You can't judge a book by its cover."  I had always thought that was about people; but apparently it's true about books as well.  Who knew?

Today's lesson is a lesson about not judging by appearance. The priest Samuel comes to anoint one of Jesse's sons as the new king, and seeing the oldest and how he looks Samuel just knows this must be the one.  But the LORD tells Samuel  this is not the one and warns him not to judge by appearances.  So now Samuel stops judging by what his eyes see and goes down the whole line of Jesse's sons by listening with the heart.  He goes through all the sons until finally he comes to the youngest -- David.  "Arise," the LORD then says to Samuel, "anoint him."  And just to throw a double irony in the text says David "had beautiful eyes and was handsome," which would usually mean something to us, but by now in the story Samuel isn't paying attention to that stuff; and neither are we supposed to be.  David might have been handsome, but it doesn't say Samuel noticed -- it just says the LORD told him David was the one.  That was what mattered.

The LORD does not judge by appearances, but looks on the inside.  We are to do the same.

And I try to practice that now every time I rummage an old bookstore . . .