Man Looks, But God Sees
Submitted by Ted Mock
April 2, 2025
1Sa 16:7 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.
The stories of David are some of the most exciting of all the Bible. They trace his life from a child in the field watching sheep to the aged king watching over the Lord’s flock. He was a shepherd, a poet, a warrior and a king. Jewish people would count David along with Abraham and Moses as the three most important figures of their history.
The story begins way back in the book of Joshua to David’s great-great-grandmother, where Rahab the harlot hides the spies on her roof. The scarlet cord she was told to hang from her window represented the scarlet line of redemptive blood from the first blood sacrifice in Genesis chapter three to the Saviour’s Blood on Calvary. David becomes part of the royal blue thread of the godly line from Seth to the Saviour. And the promise of Christ’s return to rule His kingdom on earth, that golden thread, runs through David.
Everything about his choice as king was divinely orchestrated—a picture of the Grace of God. His family tree had skeletons in the closet, his father was not a mighty man of power, and he was the youngest, almost forgotten son of Jesse.
He was not even invited to eat with the prophet Samuel but was left in the field watching the sheep. When each of Jesse’s sons passed before the prophet, Samuel looked on their appearance and thought, “This is the one,” but God said “No.”
We don’t know why God refused the first three boys, Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah, but they were named in the next chapter, unwilling to fight the giant. All seven of his brothers passed before Samuel and the answer from God was the same—“He is not the one.” At last, they sent for the unincluded one—the forgotten baby brother, David.
From the human viewpoint David was the most unlikely one to be the King of Israel. He was just a boy, not yet a man, and a commoner, not of noble title or rank. But David was a man after God’s own heart, the one God told Samuel He had provided.
What does God see in you? Man looks, but God sees.
Consider – God saw in David what others did not see—who David would be, not who he was.
