Connect360: A Man After God’s Own Heart

• Lesson 8 in the Connect360 unit “How Great Is Our God: Passing the Faith Along” focuses on 1 Samuel 16:5-13.

With the city elders and Jesse’s family now consecrated and rightly prepared, the ceremony can begin. Consecrating Jesse and his sons demonstrated Samuels’ obedience to God’s plan. Samuel did exactly as the Lord requested.

However, Samuel did not know whom the Lord had selected, and faulty insight led him to the wrong conclusion. As Samuel looked at Eliab, Jesse’s firstborn son who shared similar traits with Saul, Samuel thought, “Here is the next king!”

Verse 7 is the most important part of this passage, for it illuminates the differences between human and heavenly thinking. Man looks for visibly perceptive traits to determine worthiness. Yahweh, in his ability to understand the depths of human volition, looks “on the heart.” The Lord sees more than just the physical characteristics of an individual. God sees our motives, faults, thoughts and emotions. Eliab was not evil or bad, but at his core, he was lacking in something God desired.

One by one, the parade of sons continued until the seven boys have passed before the prophet. We can imagine Samuel scratching his head and thinking, then asking Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” (16:11). Since Samuel knew God’s word was true and trustworthy, he knew something must be off at the gathering.

Notice Jesse’s reply: “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” His father does not even regard him enough to call him by his name, just the term “the youngest.” Evidently, the lad was not invited to the sacrifice, or he would have been present. Furthermore, he was only called because the prophet insisted on it! Even though the youngest son was working at Jesse’s direction, Samuel wanted to have all of Jesse’s boys appear at the gathering. God had not yet spoken, and Samuel still was listening.

As Jesse’s last son appeared, God revealed his choice for a king had now arrived (16:12). By all outward appearances, the seven sons before David were better material for a king. Visually, people would notice Saul and think, “He looks like a king.” (1 Samuel 9:2). With David, they would look at him and think, “Oh, he looks nice.” David was a shepherd, but there were lots of shepherds. He had good eyes, but so probably did a lot of other young men. He was young and might be a long-lived king, but so might a lot of other young men. The difference in David was that his heart was focused on God over all other things.

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