CLEAN, INWARDLY OR OUTWARDLY?

And he said, peaceably: I am come to sacrifice unto the LORD: sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice. 1 Samuel 16:5


BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Isaiah 16-18

The children of Israel disobeyed God and He gave them into the hands of the Midianites (Judges 6). The Midianites were a wicked set of people. They would wait until the children of Israel had planted their crops and ruin everything they had planted. Not only that, they would destroy the sheep, cattles, donkeys and any living things they see. After they had left, the Amalekites would come and repeat the same exercise. After the Amalekites had gone, another set of people will continue where the Amalekites had stopped. This was what the children of Israel were going through, year in year out, for seven good years. After a while, the children of Israel repented and called on God for help. He answered and chose Gideon to lead an army against the Midianites and Co.

Gideon gathered 30,000 men and went to war against the enemy. Outwardly, these men appeared strong and courageous with their swords, axes, slings, etc. They exude confidence, anyone seeing them would think they anchored their trust in God, in the real sense they didn't. The Lord saw their hearts and told Gideon to announce that, anyone who is afraid should go home. The moment the announcement went out, 20,000 men returned home! Gideon was still recovering from the shock when the Lord spoke again and said, you have a lot of pretenders left, let’s test them. Only 300 passed and with the 300, the Lord secured victory for Gideon. 1 Samuel 14:6b says for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or few. From this story, we see that the Lord neither needs a large number of people to fight a war nor does He need a crowd to carry out an assignment. All He needs is a few who have prepared their hearts before Him. All He needs is a few who will trust Him with their life.

When Samuel got to Jesse’s house, he told the old man, tell your sons to clean up themselves for sacrifice. 1 Samuel 16:5 says and he said, peaceably: I am come to sacrifice unto the LORD: sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice. These boys came to the sacrifice looking the part . As they stood before Samuel one by one, the Lord rejected them all. Samuel then asked Jesse, are these all your sons? The man replied, there is but one in the forest but he is not a king material. Well bring him here and let’s see what the Lord has to say about the boy, Samuel replied. They brought David and the Lord said, anoint him. Although the brothers of David had washed themselves, the Lord rejected them and picked a boy who had not washed in days. David may not have had his bath for days because he was tending the sheep, he had a pure heart. Outwardly, the brothers of David looked clean but inwardly they were dirty. From this story, we see that the Lord looks at a fellow’s heart not there appearance. It does not matter the number of times a fellow bathes, if he is dirty on the inside , he is dirty.

TO PONDER: If God where to look inside you and I, will He be happy with what He will see?

Bro Samuel – Reaching the world for Jesus.