The heart of the matter

He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. (Isaiah 53:2)

Those words of Isaiah were prophetic of Jesus: they described our Lord seven hundred years before he was born. The Bible says that there was nothing in his appearance that would have attracted us to him. Think about that.

Jesus was not physically attractive in any way. That doesn't mean that he was unattractive, but neither did he possess striking features or a majestic presence that would have turned people's heads.

Jesus was Mr. Normal; he was Mr. Average. Even though he was God, he didn't have a superhuman physique that set him apart from other people. Jesus was average height and average build. That is why Judas, his betrayer, said: 'The one I kiss is the man; arrest him (Matthew 26:48).' There was nothing about our Lord, physically, that made him stand out in a crowd.

There was a reason why there was nothing in our Lord's appearance that would have attracted us to him, and it was a scriptural reason.

God looks at the heart

What were Samuel's thoughts when he went to Bethlehem to anoint the new king of Israel?

When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, 'Surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord.'

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 man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.' (1 Samuel 16:6–7)

Man looks at outward appearances but God looks at the heart. Our hearts are infinitely more important to God than our physical features. And who had a heart more pure and perfect than our Lord's?

Samuel had been sent to Bethlehem to anoint the new king of Israel; the man he anointed was David. Eliab was obviously a fine looking man because God said, 'Do not look at his appearance or his height.' King Saul (who was king of Israel at the time) was also a fine looking man—a man who stood head and shoulders above everyone else (1 Samuel 9:1–2), but his heart was not right before God.

God didn't choose Eliab but chose his younger brother David to be king. It's true that David was handsome and of fine appearance (1 Samuel 16:12), but that was not the reason God chose him. As we've just seen, God doesn't look at outward appearances, he looks at the heart, and the body he gave his Son, Jesus, demonstrated that perfectly.

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. (Proverbs 31:30)

Physical beauty is very fleeting. Nowadays some women resort to surgery as they age because they cannot bear to see their beauty fade, however the heart is the important thing as far as God is concerned.

What the heart represents

What does the Bible mean when it talks about a person's heart? Is it talking about the physical organ that pumps blood around our body? No, not at all.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. (Deuteronomy 6:4–6)

God doesn't want us to love him with all of our blood pump. The heart, in this sense, represents the real us: the centre of our thoughts, our feelings and our emotions—particularly the emotion of love. Even the secular world accepts that definition and uses the heart to portray these things. What symbol is used to represent love in the world? A heart.

After God's own heart

When God rejected Saul as king he told him he had chosen a man after his own heart to replace him (1 Samuel 13:14). That man was David. We need to ask ourselves: Are we people after the Lord's own heart as King David was? We certainly should be.

What does it mean to be after the Lord's heart? Acts 13:22 tells us:

After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: 'I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.'

A man or woman after God's own heart is someone who will do everything God wants them to do. Such people are so devoted to the Lord that they want his will to be done in their lives more than anything else. They are zealous to obey and to do the will of God. God occupies first place in their hearts.

Heart attitudes

Are our hearts on earth or in heaven?

'Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.' (Matthew 6:19–21)

In the parable of the sower, Jesus showed how important the human heart is in receiving and obeying God's Word.

'But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.' (Luke 8:15)

Simon the Sorcerer, having just been saved (Acts 8:13), needed a change of heart.

When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money and said, 'Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.'

Peter answered: 'May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.' (Acts 8:18–21)

Our hearts must be right before God can use us in his kingdom.

His Spirit in our hearts

When we are born again we become a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Do we know in which part of our body the Holy Spirit dwells?

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 1:21–22)

The Holy Spirit dwells in the believer's heart.

His laws in our hearts

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. (Hebrews 8:10)

It is easier for Christians to obey God's commands under the New Covenant than it was for the people of Israel to obey God's commands under the Old Covenant. Under the New Covenant we have the Holy Spirit to help us and God has placed his laws in our hearts. They are no longer cold commands that must be obeyed in the flesh.

God has given us his Spirit to help us live the life he wants us to live. He has written his laws in our hearts and his Spirit gives us the desire to obey them. What more could he do short of controlling us like robots? That would mean removing our free will from us, which he would never do.

Guard your hearts

We began this study with Jesus; let's end it with Jesus.

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.

'Then I said, "Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, O God." ' (Hebrews 10:5–7)

David (a type of Christ) was chosen by God because he would do everything God wanted him to do. When Jesus came into the world he also did everything God wanted him to do—perfectly—even to dying for our sins on a cross.

God prepared a body for his Son and you can be sure it was exactly as Isaiah had predicted. There was nothing in our Lord's appearance that would have attracted us to him, because the beauty and majesty of our physical bodies are not important—it's the heart that matters.

The world in which we live puts so much emphasis on the way that we look. Are we dressed correctly? Have we got the latest fashions? Are we using the best skin creams and lotions? These are worldly things designed to improve our outward appearance, but they don't impress God. God looks at the heart.

Brother or sister, is your heart right before the Lord? We need to examine our hearts regularly to make sure that nothing has crept in to divert us from our sincere and pure devotion to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3), because the human heart is deceitful and difficult to understand (Jeremiah 17:9).

Proverbs 4:23 says:

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

The Hebrew word translated 'wellspring' in that verse means 'the starting point and the end'. That means that the human heart is the alpha and omega; the beginning and the end—the most vital part of our being as far as eternal life is concerned.

The Christian's heart is a battle ground and we must guard our hearts above everything else.

Michael Graham
June 2004

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version ®. NIV ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.

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