A God of Bad Ideas
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.
-1 Samuel 16:7
As a Gen-Xer raised in middle class, suburban America (watching a lot of Disney movies), it is very tempting to take this passage and tell you that what really matters is what is in your heart, not what is on the outside. That no matter what you look like, no matter what is on the outside, if you have a good heart, you can be and do great things—even be the king.
I suppose we could do worse than that. There are times when it is precisely true that if you have the right heart you will overcome trials and difficulties. But this passage is not centered on how to succeed or how to act to make your life better. The center of this story, just like that of the entire Bible, is God. And one way to look at this is to see that the God revealed here is a God of terrible ideas. After all, instead of Saul the warrior as king, he chose the young shepherd boy. Instead of Eliab the older brother, he chose David the youngest. If we read the Old Testament, we find lots of these “bad” ideas: Having Noah spend years building an ark in his yard. Waiting until Abraham and Sarah are nearly 100 before giving them a child, then asking him to sacrifice him. Telling Moses to stroll into the Pharaoh’s palace to tell him to let the Hebrews go.
Aren’t these terrible ideas? Maybe you could pick out some of God’s bad ideas in your own life. Causing you to lose a job that had become the central part of your identity. Giving you a child with special needs when you weren’t sure you could handle your life as it was. Giving you a heart for a particular cause when you don’t have all the resources you need to be able to solve the problem on your own.
Here’s another bad idea: God himself showing up in a manger in Bethlehem as a baby. God living the life of a Jewish carpenter, gathering disciples, teaching them, and then dying on the cross for the sins of the world. These bad ideas are related: God chooses young, unlikely David as a king through whom he’ll shape the nation of Israel. Then he makes a covenant with him to establish the throne of his kingdom forever (2 Sam. 7). Then, generations later Jesus will establish that kingdom through death on a cross, to take away the sin of the world.
This is good news. When we see God working out his plans through a guy like David, we can start to realize that it is not up to us to earn favor with God. Then we realize that we have nothing to offer for our own justification. Then we realize that we are completely dependent on God’s mercy. Then we find ourselves we are standing at the foot of the cross with nothing left to do but receive God’s grace.
And this becomes the way you can see how God brings good news out of his bad ideas in our lives. We can start to see it as good news that when bad things happen to us, instead of explanations, God gives us brothers and sisters in Christ to walk with us through painful times. We can start to see that giving you a heart for but not the means to solve a problem allows or forces others to be involved in helping and serving. We can start to see that a raising a special needs child might open you up to grace and love from places and people you’d never imagined. We can start to see that losing a job that had become your identity allows God to show you your true identity in Christ.
How has God worked in your life through “bad ideas”?
~Pastor Matt