From Humble Origins

            David was the eighth son.  While 1 Samuel doesn’t make any big deal about that fact, there is the general biblical convention that 7 is the perfect number.  David is one son too many.  Even his father doesn’t count him when the prophet calls for the boys.  In fact, all the seven older brothers looked like good candidates—tall and handsome.  Of course, we know how well those criteria worked out with Saul!

            But ‘the Lord sees not as man sees:  man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’  What a gift that would be!  To see things as they really are instead of seeing them by the light of the fallen world!

            We see things by the world’s measures:  is the company profitable?  How profitable?  Is the girl pretty?  How pretty?  The world is always surprised when its measurements fail, too.  Consider Bernie Madoff.  There’s a success story—on the outside, at least.  But when reality strikes and we discover it was all a house of cards and a scam, we ask, “Why didn’t we see this coming?”  We don’t see it coming because we measure the wrong things.  What the Lord values are faithfulness, integrity, humility (the list could go on).

            So here’s David, of so little consequence that his dad doesn’t even bother to bring him in from the fields.  But his heart is ‘like the Lord’s.’  When he faces Goliath, he doesn’t rely on the usual trappings of power—armor and swords, he relies on name of the Lord.  And the Lord blesses the work of his hands.

            In this David becomes a type, a foreshadowing of Jesus.  Isaiah prophesies regarding the coming Messiah, “He will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked” (NIV Isaiah 11:3-4).  In the most unexpected way—as a crucified criminal—Jesus looks like he is of no account; but in becoming of no account, he does exactly the thing that the Father wanted.