April 22 The Measure of a Man

April 22

The Measure of a Man

1Sa 16:7 …Look not on his countenance,

or on the height of his stature;…

What is there about men who are good looking and tall? Many US Presidents were tall. Washington, Lincoln, and several other men who were presidents were tall. Somehow they just look more in control, and often instill confidence in those around them. And yes, of course there are bad men who are tall, and short men who are successful, but the point is tall men often get the good jobs, promotions, and success out of proportion to their numbers.  

In the Old Testament we learn that King Saul was one of those tall guys who become leaders.

1Sa 9:2 And he had a son, whose name was Saul,

a choice young man, and a goodly: and there was not

among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he:

from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.

When they made Saul king one of the things that Samuel mentioned to them was Sauls height. (1 Sam 10:23-24) We know that Saul turned out to be a bad king that God later rejected.

So the next time Samuel went to identify who God had chosen to be the next king, he was reminded to not look at his countenance or height.

The opposite is also true. We should not reject someone for how the world views them. Such was the case of a preacher I read about. His message was rejected by nearly everyone who heard him. He preached on street corners, and in the marketplace, and wherever he could gather a couple people to listen to him. He was married and had some kids, but didn’t spend much time calling on people or trying to get a church building started. In fact when he finally left preaching he still didn’t have a church building.

It might have helped if he had preached on something besides prophecy. After a while Eschatology (prophecy) can become boring. He was a faithful man, even if a little eccentric, but even he finally realized he was a failure at church planting. He eventually gave up, quit preaching and went to farming. But, things went downhill from there and he started drinking. By that time his old friends were gone and even his family was having trouble. I never heard if he went back to preaching, but I don’t think so. This could be a sad story except the man I just described was Noah. Peter calls him a “…preacher of righteousness…”

I don’t know how tall he was or if he was good looking. I do know that by the standards of today he was a miserable failure. 

     Some famous preachers have built churches from almost nothing into huge buildings with thousands of members. They develop calling programs, have bus ministries and are getting people saved every Sunday. Many of them understand human nature and know what people want to hear.

    Now days the size of a preacher’s church is like a scoreboard of how successful he is. They often have more than one service; a traditional one for old people, and a less formal, contemporary one for younger minded people. Many churches make sure they keep up with the times and use the latest version of the Bible so people can read it without all the thee’s and thou’s. They certainly look like successful ministries. But only God can see the pastors heart. (You may want to consider reading the churches of Revelation 2 & 3- see previous blog entries)  

Vibrant growing churches with dynamic pastors are successful. Weird people like Noah cannot ever hope to be successful for the Lord from the worlds viewpoint. But God saw Noah as successful.

Ge 6:8  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.  

Ge 9:1  And God blessed Noah and his sons

If we apply modern day standards to Noah, he would be a failure. The people who were doing such wicked abominable things probably thought old man Noah was a nut job.  He surely didn’t match up to their idea of success.

The lesson for today is that we should not be conformed to the worlds standards. (Rom 12:1) When you make decisions based on your spiritual insights and Bible teaching, you may be judged by the standards of this wicked world.  There may be some activities that you cannot or would not attend, even though your co-workers or friends urge you to. I do not need to list all the ways the world thinks people are weird who are trying to live a Christ centered Biblical lifestyle. Just know that their standards are not God’s standards.

Do not be surprised when people do not understand or agree with you.  It is getting harder to be a faithful Christian today. Movies, Television, the Internet, advertisers, our government and even some churches are working against our Christian principles. Today’s culture wants you to more accepting and be lukewarm. We should remember Noah and the terrible time he lived, and yet the Bible says he was righteous. Noah preached until God put him in the Ark. He never let up! What an example for us.

The rest of the verse we started with is a good thought for the day.

1Sam 16:7.…for the LORD seeth not as man seeth;

for man looketh on the outward appearance,

but the LORD looketh on the heart.