Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 250 · September 7
The Outward Appearance
“But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”
Which of the two are you today: the one who keeps getting passed over, or the one who gets by on how they come across?
Start with the first. Eliab walked in and even the prophet was convinced: Surely the LORD's anointed is before him. The sentence people quote for comfort is spoken while a man is being turned down. Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him. Then Abinadab, then Shammah, then four more. Seven men heard no that day.
Now the second reader, because the story has a detail that gets dropped. The boy who does get chosen is described like this: now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. The chosen one is good-looking too. The verse makes one claim about appearance, which is that God was not reading it.
Israel had learned this once and forgotten. Their first king was picked by exactly the measure God refuses here: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people. And the line runs on to a man Isaiah describes with no flattery at all. He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. A nation choosing with its eyes gets Saul. God's own choice, at the end, looks like nothing.
Spend ten minutes on the last three people you formed a settled opinion about, and be honest about what you were reading. The height, the confidence in a room, the accent, the clothes. Then go back to one of them with the question you never asked, and stay quiet long enough for the answer.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 250 is Double for Your Shame (Isaiah 61:7).