Excerpt from the “Short Talk”: How Does God Take My Life?

Rev. Brain Lam

Rev. Lam used the story of Samuel’s anointing David as his text to explain to the participants how God looks at a person and how he takes the initiative to choose servants after his own heart. He first talked about the two passages: verses 1 to 5 and 6 to 10, analyzed two antithetical motifs of “rejects” and “selects,” and then pointed out that “look” is another motif in the second passage. In the following excerpt, we skip the first passage and focus on the second one, starting with the second passage on the motif of “look,” the third motif to the end of the talk.

　　“Look” is another motif in I Samuel 16:6-10. In verse 6, “Samuel saw Eliab,” and in verse 7 God warns him, “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.” In just these two verses, the word “look” appears four times and is an important word. When the word “look” is used in verse one: “…I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” The Hebrew word for “have chosen” means “to look.” God “looks” at what kind of a person we are and “looks” at the kind of person we will become.

　　In verse 6, when Samuel saw Eliab, he thought, “He must be the Lord’s anointed one.” Why was Samuel so certain? It was probably that Eliab was tall and well-built and the king at that time would have to take the Israelites into battle. As you can see, even Samuel assumed he would be a suitable king. Is that the way most of us think today: a minister should be like this or like that. Sometimes we look down on ourselves because we assume that a minister must be like this or like that, and I would never be one. On the other hand we may be so conceited that we think that a minister should be like that and I am just the right one. Not necessarily so! What is most important is that God selects you and calls you. We often say, “Do not look at a person superficially” and this is certainly not without a good reason. But when you look carefully at the text, you should say, “We have to look at men or women as God looks at them. In fact we must be careful not to look at a person as people look at others in general. The key is how to look at men. The scripture clearly says, “The Lord does not look at things the way we look at them. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” God uses you and me because he has selected us. He chooses a new generation of servants. Why has God selected you? It must be that God finds something pleasing in you. What is interesting is that we do not know what that something is. After all, that quality is something different from what other people have. God looked at David and saw something that pleased him; he saw also what David would become. In verse 1, he says, “I have chosen one of Jesse’s sons to be king.” How does God look at you?

　　You have come to this camp as you may be actively considering full time ministry. Baptists maintain that all believers are priests, and so every believer ought to serve God though the mode of ministry can be different. We may not all be called to be ministers, but God will call men or women to shoulder the responsibility of a minister according to his will. Today, how does God look at you?

　　In verses 11 and 12 that follow, we see how the youngest child has been neglected. Even when it is clear that all of Jesse’s sons have to be called to come, he was the very person to be overlooked. This may be due to his age or some other reasons. After all, no one has ever thought of him. Is that true to you: You have never thought of yourself as a minister?

　　In verse 12, it is interesting to note that the youngest child is “ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features” which is different from the description “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” in verse 7. The scripture describes Saul in I Samuel 9:2 as “impressive,” the word also means “handsome,” and we can see that Saul is tall and handsome. God chooses you for he finds some special feature in you that nobody knows. In the scripture that follows, it seems to imply that David was short in stature. What David and Saul have in common is that they are both handsome. Saul is tall and handsome while Jesse’s youngest son is handsome together with something else. What is that something else? The scripture does not tell us.

　　In the last verse, verse 13 in I Samuel 16, the name David is mentioned for the first time. What must not be ignored is the Spirit of the Lord. From that day on, “the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power” which is in sharp contrast to “the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul” in verse 14.

　　“Take my life” can be understood as “How do I take my life?” Remember the woman in Mark 14 who broke her jar of very expensive perfume and poured it on Jesus’ head shortly before the Passover. She took what was the most important and the most precious in her life to pour on Jesus. This demonstrates to us how we may use what is the most valuable in our lives. “Take my life” can also be understood to mean “How does God take my life?” In this passage in I Samuel, from beginning to end, God takes an active role. The reason why David is the leader for the coming generation is because the Spirit of the Lord has come upon David. “Take my life” means God takes my life and uses it for his purpose.

　　If you were David, what would you do? The scripture says that this eighth son of Jesse “is tending the sheep” while three of his elder brothers are good at fighting in battle. Just because he is sheep-tending by occupation, the next time he appears, he can win over Goliath. This is what we would never imagine. Chapter 17 says that David “chose five smooth stones from the stream” and defeated Goliath without putting on a coat of armor or a bronze helmet or carrying any weapon. God takes our lives just because in the past we have done something as we “have kept the sheep” and thereafter God can use us.

　　David was “ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features” which in itself is neither his strength nor his weaknesses. Many things in life are neutral in value, whether it is good or bad depends on how we look at it. In I Samuel 17:42, Goliath despised David simply because “he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome.” God chooses us for there must be something he finds precious, and yet men do not. The main point is that God uses you, and the Spirit of the Lord comes upon David is just the beginning. David will have a long, long way to go because “take my life” suggests a long-term process. God’s choice of David is described in I Samuel 16, and it is not until II Samuel 5 that David finally becomes the king of Judah and Israel. God uses David all his life, and yet David’s life is not without faults.

　　In conclusion, some ministers may sin and fall from grace, causing God to reject them. It may be that it is inevitable for a generation of ministers to have their limitations and deficiencies so that God needs to raise up another generation of ministers. Will you be part of the new generation of ministers? Will God look upon some special features in you of which even you are unaware? “Take my life” can be understood as “How do I take my life” or “How does God take my life.” Since God is in the leading role, you must trust God, knowing he looks at you and knows how he can use you.