The Outward Appearance

Which of these two people are you? Are you the one who keeps being passed over, or the one who gets by on how you come across?

Start with the first. When Jesse's oldest son Eliab walked in, even the prophet was sure: "Surely the LORD's anointed is before him." The verse people quote for comfort was spoken while a man was being turned down: "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him." Then came Abinadab, then Shammah, and then four more. Seven sons heard no that day.

Now the second person, because the story has a detail that usually gets dropped. When the youngest boy, David, is brought in from the sheep, he is described like this: "Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to." The one God chose was good-looking too. So the verse makes just one claim about looks, which is that God was not judging by them.

Israel had learned this once and then forgotten it. Their first king, Saul, was admired for exactly what God refuses to judge by here: "from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people." And the story runs on to the One 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." People who chose with their eyes cheered for Saul, while God's own chosen King came looking like nothing special.

So take ten minutes and think about the last three people you made up your mind about. Be honest about what you were judging by. Was it their height, their confidence in a room, their accent or their clothes? Then go back to one of them with the question you never asked, and listen long enough to hear the answer. And if you are the one who keeps being passed over, take heart, because "the LORD looketh on the heart," and He has seen yours all along.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 250 is Double for Your Shame (Isaiah 61:7).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two