Searching for a KingSample

Waiting patiently for God's promise.

Waiting patiently can be a hard thing to do.  Our world of ‘buy instantly online and it’s at your door in two days’ has eroded our ability to be long suffering and wait for good things.  One of the things we learn about David was his patience when it came to waiting for God’s plan to unfold.  David was still a young man, a shepherd boy when Samuel came and anointed him the future king of Israel.  Still, Saul was the reigning king and even though God had left him he was the man in charge in the kingdom.  David knew this and respected this fact.  

Imagine being elected the next president of the United States, but there’s still someone different sitting in the oval office.  How difficult do you think it would be to sit patiently and wait for your turn to govern, especially if you don’t agree with the sitting president’s policies and ideology.  To some extent that was David’s situation.  He know the nation would be his to lead… eventually… in God’s time.  

Now imagine you’re the president-elect and the current president is determined to have you killed because of intense jealousy because of your popularity.  Sounds like a political thriller if I’ve ever heard one.  This was David’s situation throughout the second half of the book of 1 Samuel.  Saul spends years obsessing over trying to kill David.  He chases him to the ends of the nation.  David is forced to hideout in caves and in the wilderness.  On a couple occasions David even has an opportunity to kill Saul and doesn’t take the advantage.    He has the chance to finally take his rightful place on the throne and end all the stress of running for his life and David chooses not to take the king’s life.  Why would someone do that?  Because David respected Saul’s position and God’s plan.  It wasn’t God’s plan for David to murder the ruling king.  

When the time comes and David gets word of Saul’s death, in battle, instead of throwing a big “I’m finally king!” celebration, what does he do?  David mourns the death of Saul and his son Jonathan (who happened to be David’s best friend).  Talk about respect.  

Today, we can often look at life and say “When is God going to give this to me?”, “How long do I have to wait for this to happen?” or “I’m tired of waiting on God, I’m going to jump in the driver’s seat and take control of this situation.”  These attitudes show our lack of faith in God’s plan and his all knowing, omnipresence.  We need to be willing to wait patiently and respect God’s plan for our lives… even if it means hiding out in a dark cave.