Lets all be honest, there are times in life when things just don’t seem to make sense. Everywhere you expect there to be an open door, the door is slammed shut. Right after a great victory the floor caves in. When one thing breaks, four others follow closely behind. It doesn’t make sense! It’s in these times when we look to the heavens and we say, “God! What is up? I am doing my best to follow you but nothing seems to be going right lately.” I wonder if that’s how David felt in the years following his victory over Goliath?
If you or I were in charge we may have looked at David at this time and said, “Yes! Now is the time to make him king. Samuel anointed him. He defeated the giant. He’s our man!” It makes sense, right? But this is not what happens. David never returns home after this fateful day. He stays with King Saul and King Saul’s admiration quickly turns into a jealous rage. David spends the next twenty years waiting for God’s promise to be fulfilled. Many of those years he spends as a fugitive running from a crazed king bent on killing him.
So often, we spend our time looking at the injustice. What happened to David was unjust. He had done nothing to deserve a contract to be put out on his life by the king. He served him faithfully. In fact, David’s harp playing is the only thing that can calm Saul’s restless heart. How does Saul repay this?
1 Samuel 19:10 Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape.
Saul tries to pin him to the wall with a spear! Are you serious? This is the thanks I get for delivering peace to your kingdom and to your soul. The very man who should have been most grateful hated David, and for no other reason then sheer jealousy. David could have spent all of his time seeking revenge and complaining about the injustice. He didn’t though. He continued to trust God and believe, that in His time, God will fulfill his promise to David.
David become a fugitive. Innocent of any crime, he doesn’t have a one-armed man to point to either. His culprit is the King of Israel. David has nowhere to turn. He can’t go to his family, his best friend, his wife or even his pastor. All of these crutches have been kicked out from under David. David is so desperate and confused he actually tries to seek shelter in the camp of the enemy by disguising himself as a mad-man. That doesn’t work real well either. The only one David can turn to is God. He finds himself, all alone, in a cave in Adullam. God meets David in this cave. God is always at work in David. It is in this cave that David’s cabinet is being formed out of misfit and malcontents.
I Samuel 22:2 All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.
It took many years for God to fulfill his promise with David and I don’t know all the reasons. I do know that God used all that time to form David’s heart and shape his character. None of David’s struggles were in vain. David continued to trust God despite the circumstances. Sometimes our struggles are just not going to make sense. We can ask the questions, “Why is this happening?”, or “What did I do?”, but in reality life just doesn’t make sense sometimes. Maybe we just need to learn to trust like David did. Listen to the words of his son Soloman in Proverbs…
Proverbs 3:5,6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Have a great week!
Pastor Stan and Polly
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