And it came to pass when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely Jehovah's anointed is before him.
Samuel arrives at Bethlehem with the horn of oil. He sees Jesse's tall eldest son and makes up his mind before God has said a word. The verse asks an uncomfortable question. If a prophet could be this sure and this wrong, what was he missing?
Samuel's confidence looks reasonable at first. Then you remember who was sitting on Israel's throne.
When Jesse's sons came in, Samuel was struck by the fine appearance of Eliab. He said, "Surely the LORD's anointed is before Him." But at that very moment a man "taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward" sat on Israel's throne, and he was a terrible failure.
We forget such lessons fast. Even Paul was rated by how impressive he looked and sounded.
How quickly we forget the lessons of past experience! How ready we are to look "on the outward appearance," and so be deceived again and again. His children in the faith at Corinth thought Paul's "presence" was poor. For this they were foolish enough to discount his power and worth, and to be carried away with men who gloried in appearance... Of that meek and lowly One who came in His Father's name Scripture says, "he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him."
Samuel had just carried out the ceremony of setting Jesse and his sons apart for the sacrifice. That is why his mistake teaches so much. Everything visible about Eliab was in order.
The Jewish system provided an outward, ceremonial purification of the flesh. So Samuel could sanctify Jesse and his sons according to the ordinances of the law, without asking about their real state, the state of the heart. And he did so. But he was tempted to go beyond this, as many are who take Jewish ground and rest much on ordinances. If everything looks fine, if the conduct is well ordered, if religious duties and services are carried out with care and devotion, what more will the Lord want? The simple but weighty answer is — the heart. Eliab's heart was far from God. We see it in the next chapter. He was a scorner, the first to openly resent God's grace at work in David — as the flesh, in spite of its religion, always does.
Eliab was the first-born, so he had the strongest natural claim. Scripture has a settled pattern for claims like that.
Eliab was the eldest brother. He stands here in the prominence that the flesh always loves and seeks. He was a man with striking natural attractions. But however handsome his face or his height, God "had refused him." The LORD's anointed was not the man people admired. How often the word teaches us this lesson, as God rejects the first-born and chooses the younger! So Eliab stands like Ishmael or Esau. He represents the natural claim of the flesh.
If Samuel had followed his first impression, Israel would have traded one Saul for another.
We cannot doubt that Satan has pushed such men forward in the church. They have got into the place of rule and authority, and they "have disheartened the righteous, whom God has not disheartened, and encouraged the wicked." It would have been so in Israel that day if Samuel had acted on his own thoughts. How far would the nation have sunk if Eliab had succeeded Saul? God must be sovereign, or ruin, universal and beyond remedy, would be certain. God refuses, and God chooses, and there is no injustice with Him.
The Lord did not leave His servant to find out his error later. He spoke, and notice how gently He did it.
Even this man of God is judging by outward appearance, and God has to correct him... Samuel was judging here as a man. He handed his discernment over to the same outward qualities Saul had. With touching grace God stoops to correct and instruct His servant on all these points.
Samuel dropped his own judgement at once. One lifelong habit explains why.
Samuel had long been trained in subjection to the word of God. "Speak, LORD, for your servant hears" shaped his character from childhood. He left Eliab at once, where the Lord left him — refused.
- Samuel looked — the prophet judged by face and height. That standard had already produced Saul, so God stopped him mid-sentence.
- God refused — His refusal ended Eliab's claim as first-born. God passes over the elder and picks the younger right through Scripture.
- The heart decided — the ceremony had set Eliab apart and he looked the part. But his heart was far from God, and that settled it.
- Christ Himself — the One who came in His Father's name had no beauty men would desire. Judging by appearance would have missed Him too.
- Grace instructed — God did not abandon His mistaken servant. He stooped to correct him in time, and spared Israel a second Saul.
But Jehovah said to Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him; for it is not as man seeth; for man looketh upon the outward appearance, but Jehovah looketh upon the heart.
Samuel stands in Bethlehem with the anointing oil. He is sure the tall eldest son of Jesse must be God's king — and God stops him mid-thought. The verse turns a line of brothers into a lesson about how God judges people, and it raises a question for every reader. If He reads the heart, what does He see in mine?
In this chapter an experienced servant of God misreads the situation again and again. God has to pull him back each time.
It is very striking to find Samuel so much and so often mistaken in this chapter. He mourned for Saul. He hesitated to go and anoint David. He was wrong about Eliab. All of it shows how far he was from God's ways. How solemn the Lord's word is: "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." This is the great difference: "the outward appearance" and "the heart." Appearance almost trapped Samuel himself. The Lord stepped in to teach him the worth of the heart.
The warning about height was not abstract. Israel already had a tall king, and he had failed.
When Jesse's sons came in, Samuel was struck by Eliab's fine appearance and said, "Surely the LORD's anointed is before Him." But at that very moment Israel's throne held a man "taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward" (1 Sam. 10:23). That man was a complete failure. God's answer to the prophet reaches far beyond that day… "Let no one boast in men" (1 Cor. 3:21).
Eliab was not a scandalous man. Samuel had set him apart with his brothers for the sacrifice, and everything visible about him was in order.
What if everything looks fine? The person behaves well and performs religious duties with care. What more will the Lord need? The simple but weighty answer is — the heart. Eliab's heart was separated from God. We see it in the next chapter (v. 28). He mocked David, and he was the first to resent the working of God's grace in him. Human nature always does this, despite its religion. Yet appearances deceived the prophet, and he thought Eliab was fit for the Lord's service.
The one God had chosen was not even called in from the sheep. That absence is the point of the whole scene. God's choice ignored the family's ranking.
This chapter gives us in a very striking way the clear sentence of death on all man's thoughts. Look at the contrast. Everyone admired Saul, and God's people chose him for his outward appearance. David, meanwhile, was forgotten even by his own father — and that was when the prophet himself asked about him. No lesson could teach us more. He counted for nothing in the eyes of a single member of the family; yet this was the man destined for the throne.
This overturning runs right through the Bible's story.
When did God ever choose the firstborn of the flesh? All through the Bible God sets aside the one who seems to have the claim by birth. He does it so that everyone may learn that blessing comes only by grace. Not Cain, but Abel. Not Ishmael, but Isaac. Not Esau, but Jacob. Not Reuben, but Joseph. Not Aaron, but Moses. This is always God's way.
The same principle reaches Christ Himself. Human eyes measured Him and dismissed Him.
How quickly we forget what past experience taught us. How ready we are to look "on the outward appearance," and so be deceived again and again. The believers at Corinth, whom Paul had led to faith, thought his physical presence was weak. So they made the foolish mistake of dismissing his power and worth, and followed men who boasted in appearance… It has always been this way, and it will stay this way until the Antichrist comes. He "will come in his own name," and the handsome Absalom pictured him in advance. Scripture says this about the gentle, humble One who came in His Father's name: "He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him."
God weighs hearts. So ability and good looks do not qualify anyone to be useful.
A person may have much learning and great natural ability. He may be attractive to look at and a fine speaker. He may still be useless, because his heart is not right, and its purpose was never formed alone with God. If God's things hold power over the inner person, the outward person will gladly serve the holy and perfect will of God. God looks on the heart, not on the outward appearance. Appearance deceives.
That same standard decides who is honoured at the end.
People would give the greatest reward for the greatest display and the largest visible results. But in the coming day the best prizes may go to others: those who made little noise, whose names few people knew, but who served Christ faithfully with what they were given.
- The heart chosen. God passed over the tall, admired eldest son and took the son nobody counted. Blessing comes only by grace.
- The heart, not the surface. Everything visible about Eliab was in order; what was missing was the one thing the Lord asks for.
- The heart of a prophet. Appearance almost caught Samuel himself. That is why God corrected him so plainly.
- The heart despised. Christ Himself had no beauty that men should desire Him — human eyes have always misjudged God's chosen One.
- The heart rewarded. Where God looks now is where He will reward then; quiet faithfulness may carry off the best prizes.
Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither has Jehovah chosen this one.
Samuel has already been told not to judge by looks, and now the sons of Jesse file past one by one. Abinadab is the second in line, and the answer given over him is the same answer given over his older brother.
Jesse parades the family's finest, and God turns down every one. One writer sums up what the parade proved:
So nature's best, as it were, passed before the prophet — all in vain. Nature could produce nothing for God or His people.
With Eliab, Samuel guessed, and he guessed wrong. From verse 8 on, he stops guessing:
And so in the end faith wins out. "Samuel did what the LORD commanded," and he went ahead, counting on God's word to guide him. Once he had learned that the Lord looks at the heart, he proves himself faithful. His communion with the Lord is clear. He judges at once that "Neither has the LORD chosen" the other sons whom their father Jesse made to pass before the prophet. At last he anoints the only one of them whom the Lord had chosen.
That change came from God's own correction, and He gave it gently:
Even this man of God is judging by outward appearance. God has to correct him: "The LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." … With touching grace God stoops to correct and instruct His servant on all these points.
Abinadab carried a fine name. One writer weighs what it promises, and what it still cannot deliver:
So the same verdict falls on Abinadab beforehand, though as the second son he speaks of help or of salvation. His name too is good, and fits with this — "my father is a generous giver." And why, man argues, should God not let sin go? He is good, and the Father of men. Why not forgive freely, simply because it pleases Him? Why must the Christ be a David, an eighth son? Why must He own in Himself the ruin of man, and go down to the depth of man's condemnation to redeem him? But it cannot be. Sin is the dark and basic opposite of God, and He cannot live with it. To ignore it is not to remove it, but to go on with it, and Abinadab can therefore be no adequate Saviour.
Abinadab was in the room; David was not. That absence carries its own meaning:
Jesse then presents Abinadab, who was clearly the second son. Then comes Shammah, then the rest of his seven sons, no doubt in order of age. But the Lord makes it clear to Samuel that He has chosen none of them. Do we not see here a picture of the Lord passing by all the men of the Old Testament? Not one of them was God's choice for king. Jesse had not even considered his youngest son for such an honour. In the same way, the Lord Jesus is the last man people think of as the One to rule over them.
The refusals add up to a number, and the number carries meaning:
David was the eighth son of Jesse. When Samuel saw the first seven he had to realise that none of them was God's choice as king over Israel. It was only when he asked whether there was another son that Jesse told him about David, the youngest. The number eight speaks of a new start or the introduction of a new order of things. When the Lord Jesus entered this scene everything changed.
The refusals protect something. One writer names it:
If Eliab, or Shammah, or Abinadab, or any one of the "seven sons" of Jesse had had the anointing oil poured on his head, human nature might have gloried in the presence of God. But then David appears — the forgotten David. In him we see one who would give all the glory to Him who was about to put the sceptre into his hand. In a word, David stands before us as a clear picture of the Lord Jesus. When He appeared among men, people despised Him, overlooked Him, and forgot Him.
- Refused — Abinadab gets the same verdict as Eliab. Nature's best produces nothing God will use.
- Corrected — Samuel learns that God looks at the heart. Then he stops guessing and judges each son at once.
- Named — "my father is a generous giver" sounds promising. But a good name cannot deal with sin, so Abinadab is no adequate Saviour.
- Counted — God passes over seven sons. The eighth, the one nobody thought of, marks a new start.
- Glory — if God had chosen a son in the room, human nature could have boasted. The forgotten shepherd leaves all the glory with God, and pictures the Christ men overlooked.
Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, Neither has Jehovah chosen this one.
Samuel has come to Bethlehem to anoint a new king in place of Saul, and Shammah is the third of Jesse's sons to walk past him and be refused. If these fine young men are not God's choice, what is God looking for, and who is He looking at?
Shammah's refusal is part of a pattern. Jesse sends out the best he has, and the prophet turns each son away.
Natural attraction had nothing to do with the Lord's choice. He looks beneath the polished surface of men and things, and judges by His own principles, which never fail. … So the best of nature, as it were, passed before the prophet, but all in vain. Nature could produce nothing for God or His people.
These sons were not bad men. Samuel had set them apart for the sacrifice, and Eliab, the eldest, had already impressed him.
The Jewish system, as we read in Hebrews 9:13, provided a ceremonial way of purifying the flesh. So Samuel could set Jesse and his sons apart according to the law, without looking into their real state, the state of the heart. And he did so. But he was tempted to go further, as many are who put themselves under the law and lean on religious ceremonies. If everything looks right, if the conduct is well ordered, and if a man carries out religious duties and services with care and devotion, what more will the Lord ask? The simple but weighty answer is — the heart. Eliab's heart was separated from God. He was a scorner, the first to openly resent the work of God's grace in David — as human nature, for all its religion, always does.
Samuel himself needed the lesson, and this was not his only mistake here.
It is very remarkable to find Samuel so much and so often astray in this chapter. His mourning for Saul, his hesitation to go and anoint David, his mistake about Eliab, all show how far he was from the ways of God. … Even Samuel would have been trapped by the outward appearance, if the Lord had not graciously stepped in to teach him the value of the heart.
Samuel got Eliab wrong, but he did not argue with God's refusal.
Happily, Samuel had long been trained in obedience to the word of God. "Speak, LORD, for your servant hears" was the shaping principle of his character from childhood. He left Eliab at once — where the Lord left him, refused — and the rest of Jesse's sons with him.
The refusals were God's, not Samuel's. Here is what happens when men like Eliab rise to the top anyway.
We cannot doubt that Satan has pushed such men forward in the church. They have got into the place of rule and authority, and they "have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom the Lord has not made sad, and strengthened the hands of the wicked." It would have been so in Israel at this time, if Samuel had acted on his own thoughts. How low would the nation have sunk if Eliab had succeeded Saul? God must be sovereign, or ruin — universal and beyond remedy — would be certain. God refuses, and God chooses, and there is no unrighteousness with Him.
Shammah stood in front of the prophet. The son God had chosen was not even in the room.
Jesse had not even considered his youngest son for such an honour, just as the Lord Jesus is the last man people think of as the One to rule over them. The youngest was keeping the sheep. He was not thought important enough even to be present at the sacrifice. However, the picture behind keeping sheep is precious to God. Saul, in contrast, was looking for his father's donkeys, which he never found. God's thought of a king is to have one with a shepherd's heart, who would genuinely care for the people.
Everything Jesse valued was allowed to walk past unnoticed.
All that is great in Jesse's eyes is allowed to pass unnoticed; the seven were fine-looking men, but it is the boy keeping the sheep, the eighth, the weak one, who is preferred and taken up!
The refusals are not only about David. They guard the glory of God.
If Eliab, or Shammah, or Abinadab, or any one of Jesse's seven sons had had the anointing oil poured on his head, human nature might have gloried in the presence of God. But then David appears — the forgotten David. In him we see one who would give all the glory to Him who was about to put the sceptre into his hand. In a word, David stands before us as a clear picture of the Lord Jesus. When He appeared among men, people despised Him, overlooked Him, and forgot Him.
- Passed by. Jesse's finest sons file past, and God turns each one down. Nature can produce nothing for God or His people.
- Set apart, not searched. The sons were set apart for the sacrifice and looked right. God asks for the heart, not a well-ordered life.
- Prophets misread too. Samuel misread Eliab. Yet he dropped his own choice at once, because the word of God had shaped him from childhood.
- God refuses, God chooses. Each "no" is God's own choice. If Samuel had followed his own judgement, Eliab would have taken the throne and the nation would have sunk.
- The forgotten one. The true king was out with the sheep, unthought of. No one could glory before God — and David becomes a picture of the Christ whom men overlook.
And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, Jehovah has not chosen these.
Samuel has come to Bethlehem to anoint a king. One by one, seven sons of Jesse walk past him, and God turns down every one. Two questions follow: what was wrong with the seven, and what was God looking for?
This was not a poor showing. Jesse's sons were nature at its best, and still God refused them all.
Outward attraction had nothing to do with the Lord's choice. He looks beneath the polished surface of people and things, and judges by His own principles, which never fail... So the best that nature could produce passed before the prophet, but all in vain; nature could produce nothing for God or for His people.
Being the eldest counted for nothing here. God's choice ran the opposite way.
Here God sets aside all boasting in natural advantage and birthright. He chooses the youngest son, despised and forgotten by everyone, the one who kept the sheep; "for the LORD sees not as man sees." Samuel, taught by God, does not hesitate. He can accept none of the seven who are at home.
Seven sons stood before the prophet. The eighth was out with the sheep, and he never entered his father's mind.
Jesse had not even considered his youngest son for such an honour, just as the Lord Jesus is the last man people think of as the One to rule over them. The youngest was keeping the sheep. He was not thought important enough even to be present at the sacrifice. But what keeping sheep pictures is precious to God. Saul, in contrast, was looking for his father's donkeys, which he never found. God's thought of a king is one with a shepherd's heart, who would truly care for the people.
The danger runs the other way too. We are quick to trust what a person looks like, and one writer turns that on the reader:
How fast we forget the lessons of past experience! How ready we are to look "on the outward appearance," and so let it deceive us again and again... Scripture says this of the gentle and humble One who came in His Father's name: "He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him."
If God had taken any of the seven, people could have credited the choice to breeding, height or birth order. The refusal guards God's glory.
If Eliab, or Shammah, or Abinadab, or any one of the "seven sons" of Jesse had had the anointing oil poured on his head, human pride could have boasted in the presence of God. But then David — the forgotten David — appears. In him we see one who would give all the glory to the God who was about to put the royal sceptre in his hand.
This is God's settled way of working, and one writer ties it to a line from the New Testament:
Truly "the LORD sees not as man sees," for "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world... so that no human being might boast in the presence of God." (1 Cor. 1:27-29)
Seven sons pass by here, so David is the eighth — yet the family list in 1 Chronicles makes him the seventh. Commentators differ: some think one son died young, and others find meaning in the numbers themselves.
"Eight" is right in Samuel, and "seventh" in Chronicles. Both are God's word, and each fits the truth God is teaching in that book... Seven is linked with rest in creation, and eight with rest in resurrection power and glory. As the eighth son in Samuel, David points to the true David who will restore everything and reign over Israel Himself as the risen Man... Eight means God stepping in with grace when everything is lost.
- Reviewed. Seven sons of Jesse walked past the prophet — the family's best. Nature could produce nothing for God or His people.
- Refused. God set aside age, height and birthright. If He had anointed one of the seven, human strength could have taken the credit.
- Overlooked. The forgotten son was out keeping sheep, and God's king must have a shepherd's heart. He pictures the Lord Jesus, the last man people want ruling over them.
- Reversed. God chooses what the world calls weak and despised, so that no one may boast in His presence.
- Risen. David is the eighth, after seven refusals. He points to the true David who reigns as the risen Man, when God steps in with grace after everything is lost.
And Samuel said to Jesse, Are these all the young men? And he said, There is yet the youngest remaining, and behold, he is feeding the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and fetch him; for we will not sit at table till he come hither.
Samuel has passed seven of Jesse's sons before him, and God has refused every one. So the prophet asks whether the family is complete. The answer uncovers a son his own father had not thought worth calling. Nothing goes ahead until that son arrives.
Jesse's reply sounds like an afterthought. One writer sets this forgotten son beside the king Israel admired.
This chapter shows us, in a very striking way, the clear sentence of death on all the thoughts of man. What lesson could teach us anything more solemn than the contrast between Saul and David? Everyone admired Saul, and he was chosen because of his outward appearance. David was forgotten even by his own father — and this was after the prophet had raised the question. He was of no account in the eyes of a single member of the family. Yet this was the man destined for the throne.
The neglect went further than forgetfulness. David had been left out of the gathering altogether. One writer hears scorn in the way his father speaks of him:
A rod out of the stem of Jesse is His object. He is a root out of dry ground, with no beauty in the sight of men. His father, "according to the flesh," says of him with scorn, "There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep." He is the one whom man was despising and the nation abhorring, as they did with a greater than he.
Samuel had already seen seven sons and set them aside. God's choice landed where no one was looking.
God lets everything that is great in Jesse's eyes pass unnoticed. The seven were fine-looking men. But it is the lad keeping the sheep, the eighth, the weak one, whom God prefers and takes up!
"He is keeping the sheep" sounds like a reason to leave him where he was. But the wilderness was where God had been teaching him.
He had not been alone in the wilderness. He had been under God's teaching. He had been preparing for public service in a secret school. His teacher was the One who does not look on the outward appearance, and who does not see as man sees. Now it must be the same with us. There must be a living before the Lord. Unless our souls are exercised before Him, He will not use us as instruments in His service. We may think He will; but it will not be so. God will always deal in secret with the soul He intends to serve Him in public.
The job itself matched the office God was about to give him:
And how good it is to notice David's occupation: "Behold, he is keeping the sheep." The Lord referred to this later. He said to David, "I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel." Nothing can show God's thoughts about the office of king more sweetly than the work of a shepherd. In fact, when a king does not carry it out in the spirit of a shepherd, it fails of its purpose.
Samuel refuses to begin. One writer points to the literal Hebrew noted in the margin:
Samuel heard that there was a shepherd lad. He said to Jesse, "Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here." Note the margin: "Hebrew — sit round." The circle would not be complete without David. He had to be in the centre.
The waiting meal marks the whole scene as one of favour. One writer sets it beside another anointing, done in secret and in haste:
Samuel, by contrast, anoints David king of grace "in the midst of his brothers." They do not sit down at the table until he arrives. This family feast brings them together for a shared meal. After that, Samuel gets up in peace and goes to Ramah.
David was content with his place, both before the call came and after it.
He was the neglected one of the family. But he was content to be so. He was willing to tend the sheep in the field, while his more respected brothers stayed at home to receive the guests and do the honours of the house. … As scorn had not cast him down, so honours do not puff him up. As soon as the occasion is over, he is back again among the flocks.
- Overlooked. Jesse counted seven sons and forgot the eighth. The man destined for the throne meant nothing to a single member of his own family.
- Chosen. What man passes over, God takes up. He leaves the seven fine-looking sons aside and prefers the weak one, the lad with the sheep.
- Trained. The wilderness was not a waste of him but a school; God deals in secret with the soul He means to use in public.
- Fitted. David's work matched his calling. Ruling fails of its purpose unless a king carries it out in a shepherd's spirit.
- Centred. The circle is not complete without him. No one sits down until the chosen one arrives, and Samuel anoints him among his brothers in peace.