We want it, NOW! And, we want it to come to us, EASY. If not, doubts and fears creep in. Rinse, repeat. In 1 Samuel chapters 16 – 17, we read of the account of King Saul, Israel’s first King, losing his position of leadership through his impatience and disobedience. You may recall that Israel wanted a king like all the other countries had. And while it was an insult to God’s honor to hear such a request (why wasn’t God good enough to lead them after all?) The Lord consented by giving them, Saul. A tall, well-respected leader who starts off strong but ends poorly. The concession God made was that He would pick their king and that king must take direction from God’s prophet, who in this case, was Samuel.
Well, eventually Saul slips up. It was just before a major battle and the people knew that they were supposed to wait for the prophet to show up and make a sacrificial offering before Israel engaged their enemy. The prophet was late. The people were nervous and losing heart about their prospects against this enemy. And well, Saul had at least one major character flaw; he cared more about what the people thought than what the Lord thought.
So, when the prophet, Samuel, tarried, people started to get nervous. Some were quietly slipping away from the army while they waited. Saul, fearful of what others thought of him, took matters into his own hand and did the sacrificial offering himself. And wouldn’t you know it? Just as he finished, Samuel arrives!
This turns out to be the final straw for God toward this “King” who couldn’t even follow simple directions about waiting and allowing God’s prophet to mediate their relationship with God, by means of the sacrificial system. Saul, in effect, pushed God’s prophet aside and took matters into his own hands. In case you haven’t read 1 Samual 16-17 take a few minutes and read it. Because just as soon as Samuel arrives on the scene and figures out what Saul has done, he announces to Saul that he is no longer king according to God.
Now this didn’t come to pass overnight. The people still regarded Saul as king for quite some time. The process of putting the new king into power would take some doing. God’s people, then and now, were stubborn and fear-based. Not good qualities for following God, if you were wondering. But from that day on, Samuel was on the lookout for the next king.
This is where David comes in. The King David we’ve all heard of, right? Jesus descended from the line of David. Yes, that David. The process of Samuel locating the next king, the one who would start a line of kings that our savior would trace his ancestry to, occurs in a powerful lesson on outward appearances.
From 1 Samuel 16:6b-7, we read:
“Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
The Lord had and always has had, a very different way of seeing people. The Lord choose David very differently than we would have chosen a leader. And even though it was clear to Samuel who the Lord wanted, it would be quite some time and several struggles and dramatic moments before David actually become king. The process was filled with suspense and setback and genuine struggle.
You see folks, just because something is in God’s will, DOES NOT automatically mean that it will come easily. Remember that when the Israelites were given the promised land, they still had to fight for it over many years. Over and over again in the Bible, we read account after account of God giving the people something or approving of a direction of some sort, and the people had to struggle mightily for it to happen.
Where has God given you the green light to do something but you’ve encountered setbacks and now have doubts? That’s a very practical area of spiritual growth for us as a congregation and for each of us as individuals.
So, keep praying and taking action. Keep on faithfully pressing into where God is leading us. It’s worth the struggle. It really is.
~Pastor Mark
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