The God Perspective, 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13
Introduction
An American Indian tells about a brave who found an eagle’s egg and put it into the nest of a prairie chicken. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life, the changeling eagle, thinking he was a prairie chicken, did what the prairie chickens did. He scratched in the dirt for seeds and insects to eat. He clucked and cackled. And he flew in a brief thrashing of wings and flurry of feathers no more than a few feet off the ground. After all, that’s how prairie chickens were supposed to fly. Years passed. And the changeling eagle grew very old. One day, he saw a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky. Hanging with graceful majesty on the powerful wind currents, it soared with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings. “What a beautiful bird!” said the changeling eagle to his neighbor. “What is it?” “That’s an eagle—the chief of the birds,” the neighbor clucked. “But don’t give it a second thought. You could never be like him.” So the changeling eagle never gave it another thought. And it lived out all of the rest of its life living under the delusion that it was a prairie chicken.
Transition
This morning we will talk about learning to have a right perspective in our lives; what I have called “The God Perspective.” This is a theme that I have been working through for the last few weeks because of its absolute importance in the Christian life. How do we change our state of mind? How do we change our circumstances when trouble comes our way? How do we remain full of joy, hope, peace even when trouble comes our way?
Today, we will examine the calling of David, King of Israel to see what we can learn about what the God perspective is and then take a look at how we can apply it to the very real, here and now, circumstances of our lives. If we are going to have victory in our lives, then I am convinced that we will have to learn to see ourselves, our circumstances, and our future through God’s eyes.
Our eyes are often clouded by our own judgments, experience, and preconceptions. We have told ourselves for so long that it cannot be done that we have created self-fulfilling prophecies and indeed unless we change our thinking it will never be done. The God perspective is about removing the scales of human understanding from our eyes and seeing things as they really are!
Exposition
In today’s text we find the prophet Samuel seeking out David who he will anoint as the next King of Israel. It is important to get a little background with regard to the state of affairs in the Kingdom of Israel at that time. In order to fully understand the calling of David, it is first necessary to have at least a cursory understanding of the calling of King Saul.
Prior to Saul becoming King over Israel the only King they had known was God, Yahweh. The only Lord they had known was God, Adonai. And while God had not changed, the heart of the people had. Even though they had seen miracles seemingly without end, even though they had been brought out of Egypt at the prophetic leadership of Moses, Crossed over the Jordan at flood stage with Joshua at the front, and established in the land, the people still wanted to have a King like the other nations of the earth.
1 Samuel 8:1-5 says, “When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” (NIV)
Under the original system Israel was to have only one King; God. God would appoint a prophet to lead them who would act as a judge to govern the people with the help of many local judges who would decide disputes between people and settle domestic and civil conflicts. Up to that time the pagan nations alone had Kings who ruled over them as sovereign rulers.
The people had rejected the sovereign authority of God and asked that they too might have a King like the other nations had. The disparity between what God had done for the nation of Israel and what they had in return asked Him to do may seem unfathomable, unthinkable to us. God had performed many miracles in the generations only recently preceding them and yet here they were asking to have a King over them like the pagan nations.
Is it really that hard to believe though? I see here a great parallel with our day.
There was a great need for leadership in their day. Samuel had grown rather old. He was no longer able to act as judge and prophet over the people as he had once done. He had appointed his sons to act as sort of magistrates in his stead but they had grown corrupt, unjust, and unworthy of trust. The people of Israel, rather than seeking God in the situation, chose the expedient way of seeking a King like the pagan nations had over them.
We too live in a culture, I am afraid, where expediency has taken precedence over truth. We live in a culture where far too often the weak are pushed to the side in the name of what is easiest, what is cheapest, and what is the most efficient. We have made a graven image to efficiency in this culture at the cost of truth.
The people had spoken; they wanted a King to rule over them like the other nations had over them. O, what tragedy awaits God’s people when they choose to look like the pagan nations of the world. What tragedy befalls the people of God when, rather than standing firm for the truth, standing firmly for righteousness, justice, and God’s commands, we turn our hearts aside to the ways of the world around us.
How are we to have “God’s Perspective” in our lives when our vision is clouded by what we see in the world? If we are different than the world around us as the Israelites were different from the world around them, then GOOD!
Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul as found in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” (NIV)
The people of God in choosing to look like the world, to embrace the wisdom of the world, to embrace the vain and empty philosophies of the world, always goes astray and gets into trouble. When the people of God abandon a plain and clear understanding of God’s perspective in their lives, whether it is personally or corporately, we become like a ship with no rudder, like a boat which has gone astray; our only hope of sure footing becomes to crash into the shore.
Why o why do God’s people allow themselves to be led into all kinds of modern ideas? Why are so many Christians compelled to believe that because modern science says that life evolved from “lightening striking a mud puddle” we must find some sort of “middle ground” between the Genesis account of creation and evolution; so called “theistic evolution.”
Why are the people of God intimidated intellectually into accepting “middle ways” of understanding when the Bible offers life-changing timeless truth? My point here has little to do with the debate over evolutionism and creationism. Perhaps we will discuss the details of that at a time near in the future. Suffice it to say that any time the people of God compromise the truth of God by taking their eyes off of God’s plan for them and embracing the vision of the culture around them, whether the Church or the ancient people of Israel, they go astray.
This is what happened to the Israelites. While the Bible says that Saul was a man of great reputation and a strong warrior and good leader in the beginning, he was not the choice of God, he was the choice of the people who had taken their eyes off God as king and asked for a King like that of the pagan nations around them.
It was primarily for this reason that God, in the end, rejected Saul and made His choice, David. The details of Saul’s trouble with God’s prophet Samuel are recorded in the book of Samuel. Saul was a man not given over to patience and he routinely took the place of leader to the exclusion of the provision of God through the prophet Samuel.
On one occasion, for example, rather than waiting for Samuel to make the sacrifice before the Lord prior to the battle, Saul made the sacrifice himself. While this may seem a small affair, God had ordained the prophet to make the sacrifice and this action on the part of Saul demonstrated a heart filled with pride and arrogance.
Saul had been anointed to be King. This was an act symbolic of Saul having been made God’s emissary; while Saul was King his authority did not rest in his own merit, but in God’s. He was king but God was Lord. He was King but God was the only sovereign power for His chosen covenant people.
Saul was the choice of the people. He was tall and handsome. The Bible actually says that he was a full “head taller” than all other people. But David was a young boy. The text says that he was ruddy and handsome. He was the youngest son and initially his father did not even bring him out to meet the prophet when he came to see his sons. David’s own father, though certainly knowing his good qualities, did not consider him something to be shown to the prophet.
Perhaps there have been times in our lives when even the ones we love and who love us the most underestimate our worth. In the Gospels we read of Jesus and His disciples receiving high honor and praise everywhere except in his own hometown. In Matthew 13:57 it says, “And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” (NIV) Sometimes we lack the God perspective in our lives as we underestimate our own worth, ability, or potential, sometimes we lack the God perspective in the lives of those we love. Yet, there is no end to what God can do.
Conclusion
Recently was looking out of the kitchen window as I held my youngest son, Ephram. I was trying to get him to look at the birds on the other side of the window but he seemed consumed with something in the window itself. I realized that I could see my reflection in the glass and so could he. He was transfixed on his own image in the glass. Often, so are we. If we are going to see things the way that God sees them in our lives then we are going to have to look through the glass as it was intended to see what God has in store for us!
Often the people choose the wisdom of this world and it fails them. Far too often the people of God look to the culture around them. We get so consumed with our thoughts, our ways, and the things that we think will get us to where we want to go that we forget altogether to look only unto God, the author and finisher of our salvation. Amen.
