Monday, March 05, 2007 - Work Principles from King David - Part 1
If you have ever studied the life of David you would find that it is richly relevant to our lives today. There is much we can learn from David, both positive and negative.
Principle One
Don’t let the exterior fool you. You will recall that David became the king of Israel following the reign of Saul, the first king. Saul had been chosen because of his appearance. He was a tall dark handsome guy. And he looked like the right choice. But soon after he became king, he became thin skinned, and hot tempered. Given to seasons of depression, and even thoughts of murder. He was a very insecure power hungry self-centered man. He looked good, everyone including the prophet Samuel thought he was a good choice. But he turned out to be a disaster.
If you and I allow appearances and majority opinion to influence our decisions and attitudes, will soon discover that we really can’t judge a book by it’s cover. The majority are rarely right. And looks can be very deceiving.
When Samuel was directed to anoint one of Jessie sons as the king to replace Saul. Eliab of the eldest seemed to be the natural choice. He was tall and good looking and Samuel assumed that he would be God’s choice. But God rejected him, in fact Samuel went through seven of Jessie’s sons and none of them were God’s chosen one.
Finally the youngest son, the least likely one, the shepherd boy in the field. David, was chosen by God to be king. Can you think of someone you know, perhaps someone in authority who was chosen because they looked the part, but they’ve been a great disappointment.
We’re so easily fooled by appearances. The next time you find yourself judging someone based on appearances either positively or negatively remember what God said to Samuel when he was assuming that Eliab was God’s chosen king, “Do not consider his appearance or his height for I have rejected him”.
The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
So principle number one we learn from the life of David is don’t let the exterior fool you. We should ask God for His perspective as we look at people. If you hire people to work for you. Pray that God will give you wisdom that see’ deeper than the outward appearance and as you form opinions of others ask God to prevent you from making judgments based solely on looks.
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