"For the Lord Looketh on the Heart"
In 2012 while I was incarcerated I was in line at the property desk to pick up something I had purchased. Standing in front of me was a stalky man with a bald head, a faded blue demon face tattooed on the back, grinning at me. He looked tough. Didnt look like someone I wanted to upset. I didn't say anything, just waited in line for my turn.
A few weeks later that man, Dustyn, moved onto my tier and joined the dog program. He became one of my best good friends, and is one of the most generous, enjoyable people I knew in there.
I asked him about that tattoo, looking to see if it had symbolic meaning, like leaving your sins and demons behind you.
He said he got it when he was 17, fresh out of the Job Corps, as teenage rebellion, trying to set himself apart from the crowd, thinking he was an adult.
"I joke that he's there to watch my back," he said, "It has come to mean the demon on my back you don't wanna cross."
Another man had a mean looking scowl on his face all the time. He always seemed angry, with glaring eyes. I avoided him. I wasn't rude, but just wasn't actively seeking him out for conversation.
One day I went to visiting and he was there. While we waited, he spoke up and asked me if my mother was coming. He had seen me before, knew who I was because of the dog program, and had taken note it was usually her that came. In the resulting conversation, he laughed. The laugh never reached his scowling lips, never creased his glaring eyes. I realized that he just had one of those hard faces that has maybe seen too much bad in the world and forgotten how to smile.
When we went in to see our families, his wife had come. She had a mouth that looked like Grumpy Cat, that down-facing horseshoe of a mouth. Even when they talked, even when she smiled, even when she laughed.
Dustyn told me, "...Some of the best hearts are often behind the dirtiest, ugliest, meanest faces. Some people are just good hearted people and what more of the world needs.
"Some people have seen some of the worst of what this world has to offer, and even though it might've changed their appearances it only strengthened their heart."
If I would have let my visual impressions of these two men be the only thing I ever knew about them, I would have missed out on knowing two interesting people, one of which is still my friend today.
4 And Samuel did that which the Lord spake, and came to Beth-lehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, Comest thou peaceably?
5 And he said, Peaceably: I am come to sacrifice unto the Lord: sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice.
6 ¶ And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord's anointed is before him.
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.
Samuel was the prophet of God. He wasn't a shallow man. He wasn't a gossip or a fool. He looked at Eliab and saw the firstborn son of Jesse, strong and tall, and he made the same judgment any of us would have made. That's the one, surely.
God said "Nah, not that one."
Six more sons walked past. Six more times Samuel looked, and six more times God said no. Jesse had run out of sons to present. Samuel must have been confused. He'd done what the Lord had asked. He'd come to Bethlehem. He'd looked at every son Jesse had brought.
"Are these all thy children?"
"There remaineth yet the youngest," Jesse said. Almost as an afterthought. "And behold, he keepeth the sheep."
Nobody had called David. He wasn't in the room. He was out in a field doing his job, and it apparently hadn't occurred to anyone that the shepherd boy was worth inviting to the ceremony.
When David came in, the Lord said: "Yeah, that's him."
This wasn't the first time Israel needed a king. A few chapters earlier, in 1 Samuel 8, the people had demanded one from Samuel — against the Lord's advice, for the record. God warned them what kings did to people. They wanted one anyway. So God gave them Saul.
Saul looked exactly like a king. He was tall — head and shoulders above everyone else in Israel. From a good family. Impressive in every visible way. The people saw him and they were satisfied.
It didn't end well. Saul's problem wasn't his appearance. His problem was his heart. He was proud. He was more concerned with what the people thought of him than what God thought of him. In chapter 13, he offered a sacrifice he had no authority to give — a duty reserved for the priests — because he was impatient and afraid the army would scatter. When Samuel called him on it, Saul explained why it had made perfect sense at the time. That was the problem. His own judgment over God's commandment. And when God told him through Samuel to utterly destroy the Amalekites and take nothing, Saul spared the king and the best of the livestock. He had a reason for that too. He always had a reason. By chapter 15, the Lord had already decided to find someone else.
So when Samuel arrived at Jesse's house, God already knew what happened when you chose by the outward appearance. He had already tried the king who looked the part. He wasn't going to do it again.
This time He wanted the king of the heart.
Now I want to talk about the other side of this.
We've been talking about how we look at the Dustyns in our life. The tattoo. The hard face. The outward appearance. Most of us can accept that lesson. Don't judge a book by its cover. We've all heard it. We can nod and feel a little convicted and move on.
But here's the part that's harder.
You have also stood in front of Samuel and said, "Surely it won't be me."
I was in a Gospel Principles class while I was incarcerated. The lesson was on the Final Judgment and the three kingdoms of glory. I had been there long enough that I had quietly, privately made my peace with it. I was Telestial. I had done what I had done. The Celestial kingdom was for people who had lived better lives than mine. I wasn't bitter about it. I wasn't even particularly sad. I had just accepted it. Written it down in my head as settled fact.
The teacher was going through the Kingdoms. And then he said something that stopped me cold.
Those who repent — even those who had been excommunicated and come back to the church — are not consigned to a lower kingdom. Full repentance, full fellowship. The full glory of the Celestial kingdom, available. Not a consolation prize. The real thing.
I turned to my friend Brad, sitting next to me. "We can go to the Celestial Kingdom?"
"Yeah," he said, "The attonement is for us, too."
I hadn't even considered that possibility. I had looked at my past, my record, where I was, and I had handed down the verdict myself. Telestial. Case closed. I had done Samuel's job for him, and I had gotten it just as wrong as he did when he looked at Eliab.
I was measuring by the outward appearance.
And the Lord was looking at something else entirely.
The Lord seeth not as man seeth. Man looketh on the outward appearance. But the Lord looketh on the heart.
That cuts in both directions.
It means don't look at Dustyn's tattoo and decide you know what he is. You don't. Some of the best hearts are behind the hardest faces, and you will miss good people if you stop at the surface.
And it means don't look at your own past, your own record, your own failures — and decide you already know what God sees when He looks at you. Because you don't. You are looking at the outward appearance. You do not have access to the view He has.
David didn't audition for the throne. He wasn't in the room measuring himself against his brothers, calculating his odds, wondering if he was good enough. He was in a field doing his work. Being faithful with the sheep that had been given to him. He showed up when they called him.
And after Samuel anointed him king, he went back to the sheep. The spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went back to the field. He didn't start acting like a king. He just kept doing the work that was in front of him, and he trusted that God would handle the rest.
That is the job. Be faithful with what is in front of you. Do the work you have been given. Let God do the choosing. Show up when called.
He has already told us what He is looking for.
It is not the height. It is not the countenance. It is not the tattoo on the back of your head, or the things you did before you knew better, or the worst chapter of your life.
It is the heart.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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