“The Life of David”: 1 God’s kind of leader

Focus Passage: 1 Samuel 16:1-13

In sports, leaders can boast about their statistics. We look for .300 baseball hitters. We count sacks or touchdown catches in football. We want winners. Churches often measure the weekend worship attendance, the offering in the plate and the square feet of the building in the same way. Yet, the bible doesn’t talk about leaders that way. God talks about the heart and not the outward achievements because the achievements of people like Abraham, David and Paul are the work of God and not men. In our first look at David, we see why God would want this shepherd boy instead of his stronger and more handsome older brothers. Samuel will get a lesson on what God looks for in a leader and why. 

• God looks in strange places v.1. God sends His servant Samuel far away from the court of the leaders to the backwater town of Bethlehem. It would have made sense to everyone if Samuel had looked among the sons of Saul or among the generals and leaders of Israel. These are men of importance and accomplishment, yet that is not what God is looking for. As we look for leaders in the church, the Lord may take us to unlikely places and unlikely people. God is not impressed with our accomplishments or stature. 

• God looks inside the heart v. 7. Samuel is puzzled when God rejects the older sons of Jesse. Each of the older sons was strong and mighty like the six foot tall Saul. These men were handsome and impressive, but they did not have the heart that God was looking for. Outward looks and strength were not enough. Saul had looked like a king, but been guilty of disobeying the clear commands of God and lying about his sin. God wanted a man with a heart that God could shape and mold into a leader. 

• God looks for people others forget v. 11. David’s family had thought so little of him that they had not even invited David to the feast celebrating the arrival of the great Samuel to their town. To them, David was nothing and it must have frustrated them to wait for David to be retrieved from the fields before they could begin the festivities. Yet, God saw what everyone else missed. He saw a young man of character who would soon display the greatness that others had missed. Here was the man God could use. 

Having God’s heart didn’t mean that David was the perfect king. We have to remember how he would be an adulterer and a murderer later in life. His strength was not that he was perfect, but that he, unlike Saul, would repent when he sinned and that he had a heart for God as shown in the psalms. As we look at our leaders, we need to look for a heart for God. Does your pastor spend time daily in Bible study and prayer? Does he confess when he does something wrong or does he try to cover it up and pretend he has no weaknesses. The strong leader builds his or her ministry on the Lord so that they Lord is able to work miracles through such a man or woman. David failed several times as we will see in this set of devotions, but he consistently built his kingdom on the Lord.