Opus 2025-134: Reasons for Election

If you read in the book of I Samuel about how David was picked out of a line of a brothers and anointed by Samuel, you come across this passage about how God was evaluating his choices.

1 Samuel 16:7 (KJV) 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.

This is why God rejected the older brothers.  He is going to choose David a few verses later.  The lesson than that He is giving here, though, is that He doesn’t make superficial judgments but looks deeply into the heart.  He looks at the potential.  He looks at the attitude.  He looks at the leaning of the inner man.

Keep that in mind when you’re thinking about who is saved and who is not, about who is called to pastor and who is not, on any choices that you have to make in politics or within the church.  God is concerned about what is deeply buried within.

I think perhaps that also should be taken into consideration when we look at God choosing Abraham and his seed as His people.  It wasn’t a blind choice.  God makes it clear that He didn’t pick them for their great righteousness, but He had His reasons.  It wasn’t just a blind choice.

If you are one of those who likes to think about God, choosing some for heaven and choosing some for hell, then you need to keep in mind that God has his reasons, and He is not capricious.  He does not do things on a whim.  He knows the inner man and the potential future of a man.

He is a living God.  He is a person.  Serve Him like you believed that.

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