The Importance of Waiting

David was a young man whose life changed overnight after an encounter with a priest from the Lord. David was used to the fields, to watching over sheep, and going on long walks under the sun, moon, and stars. The idea of becoming a king one day was something that he probably never thought of, dreamed of, or even aspired to become. To David, life was all about protecting animals, singing to his Lord in the cool of the day, enjoying the green pastures, maybe slinging a couple of rocks at a tree in the distance, and occasionally fighting a lion or a bear.

The interesting thing about David is that he did not choose to become a king, but God chose him to be king of Israel. After David’s anointing, you would expect that the path to the throne was an easy, smooth ride. Surprisingly, his anointing did not lead to a life of luxury and riches, but to years of pain, suffering, and hiding in caves.

We know David was a man after God’s own heart, and I believe we all want to be called men and women after God’s own heart. But if this is to be so, we need to be ready to walk in the path of men and women who seek after God’s heart.

David was chased by a mad king. He had no real motive to have him killed, but had jealousy fuelling rage against David. This could be seen as a negative or unfortunate set of events, but God used them to shape David into the man He intended him to be. In Genesis Chapter 50, when Joseph is talking to his brothers, he tells them, “And as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.” God can turn around anything that we might see as evil to use it for our good.

David later went to become a king, a great king whose line was chosen for the coming Messiah who would deliver humanity from the power of sin. According to historians, the point at which David was anointed king until the moment he actually became king was probably fifteen to twenty years. A long painful wait!

Imagine how hard it would be to know you are supposed to be king, that you have slayed giants and killed thousands, that you are a hero who is celebrated in songs, but that you have to wait more than a decade to be king, be chased by a mad king, and endure much hardship and suffering. Things take time in the kingdom of God, and sometimes things happen that make no sense and which shake us up. But we have hope that God knows what He is doing.  He is sovereign, and can even turn mad kings into instruments to shape us into becoming men and women after His own heart.