God looks on the heart: I Samuel 16:7
“He deceived all of us and sullied the institution, and, frankly, I am outraged by the entire affair,” said (former) House Majority Leader John Boehner concerning Florida Congressman Mark Foley who has resigned for sending graphic emails to young to House pages. Foley entered a treatment facility for alcoholism and “other behavioral problems.”, saying “I am deeply sorry, and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent,”
“…for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (NASB)
The reference is God controlling the head of state for His people by choosing a man to walk point after His own heart. The people’s heart had turned hard, cold, calloused, and somewhat seared by rejecting God, who had saved them from their adversaries and troubles. They cry out: Give us a king like all other nations. The “People’s Choice”, was Saul, (the first king of
Saul turns into a monster. He gets religious by doing priestly roles, he disobeys God’s man, and he keeps the best from battles for himself that God said was to be utterly destroyed. It made Samuel and God both mad that Saul was set up as King and leading the people to turn away from God. In the end, Saul loses his anointing, his head of state, his family, he commits suicide in battle, and dies in ruin and disgrace.
God does not want another son of Kish as King, He wants ultimately His own Son—Jesus Christ to be the King of Kings. God wants a king that will mirror his own heart. Not an Eliab, or an Abinadab but a young lad, the son of Jesse, the one that would give us the “Lion of the tribe of Judah”. Enter “King David”, a man after God’s own heart. The class of 2008 “wannabes” are here, we need to see their heart as God sees them. God save the king one that will reveal a true heart as clear as God can see.
God looks upon the heart. Because one is from Harvard, or aWest Point grad , or a decorated war hero, does not mean you get a nod from Him. From the heart flows evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. It is out of the heart that produces men like Mark Foley. The heart of man is desperately wicked and only God knows the abyss of it. The hardness of hearts has given us one out of two failed marriages in this land. The hearts like Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama may think that homosexuality is normal, but God and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace does not think it is normal—and neither do I! Hearts will one day be shouted from the house tops, full exposure will be revealed, and the truth will come out. However, God is looking for a new heart where the Daystar can live and can dwell richly. One where His laws are written, one where He can fulfill His will. A heart that God delights in seeing is one that is broken and contrite, one that is humble and tender, one that is transparently clear and honest. Create in me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me.
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