Word Weld

“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.”

Psalm 62:5

Whenever we are attempting to get from one place to another, or to accomplish things that we have set out to do, there is the chance that we will encounter difficulties, problems, or obstacles for us to reach that destination or goal. I know this happens to me at work. I have to write down on a post-it-note things that I need to get done, because inevitably as I’m sitting down to do something, I will get a phone call with some emergency thing, or someone will come and ask me a question and throw off my train of thought, and I’ll have to put my original goal on hold or get back to it later. My wife encounters this, often on a moment-by-moment basis, with our numerous kids. She can set out to get herself a coffee in the morning, or lunch, or do the dishes, and here comes an army of questions, needs, she-said this-to-me, “Mommy” this and “Mommy” that. And my wife is an incredibly focused person so distractions like that are difficult for her to deal with sometimes. Sometimes she never accomplishes the thing she set out to do. Or perhaps you’re like I was not that long ago, when on my way home from work Kristina called to say she needed something, so I thought to myself, “I’ll just run by the Dollar General in Kentwood and grab that.” So I crossed over the freeway on my way to go through Osyka, got on 51 and headed toward Kentwood, only to get to the crossing at 38 and what should meet me… but a parade. Yes, I had arrived at the exact moment that the police were blocking off Avenue G and with it my only route to the dollar store. I had literally encountered a roadblock! What I needed was within sight, but was in reality far, far away.

You know, God has plans for you and me, and most of the time we don’t know what those plans are specifically, but He tells us generally what He wants for us:

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Jeremiah 29:11

I know this verse is pretty heavily talked about, but I want to look at this verse a little more closely and break it down, and then go on a little jaunt through the Scriptures to dig into a few familiar examples of this concept of “an expected end.” Notice first that these are God’s thoughts. These are not the thoughts of a man. In Isaiah 58:8 God speaking through the prophet says that His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are His ways our ways. I’m sure that the thoughts of God are incomprehensible to the likes of mortal men, but let me submit to you that if there is one way we can be sure that God’s thoughts differ significantly from ours, it is because of His complete knowledge. How different would your thoughts about your kids, or your job, or yourself be, if you knew everything about what would happen? I think the question carries its own answer. And then, notice that God’s goodness and grace is displayed, as His thoughts for us are of peace. God does not want misfortune, or evil, for His children, any more than we do on our children. This goes along with everything that we know about God’s love.

Now, it’s important that we just aside here for a minute and mention that God’s love is not always roses because we are imperfect, rebellious, sinners addicted to pleasure and bent on our own self-will and interests. This tells us that God’s overflowing, perfect love can also be very unpleasant, not because there is anything wrong with God’s love, but because there is something wrong with us, with me. My children are getting older, and as they get older, they are becoming more and more adept at two things: first, they’re finding it easier to find fault with my wife and I, legitimately or not, and second they are discovering all the ways people can justify their actions by doing mental gymnastics. Sometimes, my love and my wife’s love for them is actually something they don’t want. Because love does what is best for a person, not necessarily what makes them happy. And God being the perfect personification of love is exactly the same, but perfect, unlike us. His love was not always pleasant to the Children of Israel, it was not always pleasant for Abraham, Jacob, Job, Joseph, or David. Even Jesus, the co-equal Son of God, found God’s love to be extremely unpleasant when He suffered immeasurable agony for those who had done nothing to deserve it, namely you and I. So God has thoughts of peace, of goodness, of love, for us, just as we have for our own children.

Last, and this will wrap up my introduction and allow us to launch into the rest of my message, God says that the purpose of His thoughts is to bring us an “expected end.” A parallel verse that goes right along with this is the opening verse:

“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.”

Psalm 62:5

What is an “expected end?” Well, I think it’s a bit like raising children. What is the goal of parenting (or what should be the goal)? The goal of parenting is to bring children into the world who will grow up, both physically and mentally, and someday be able to care for themselves and potentially their own children, without any further assistance from us if need be. That is a clear goal, an expected end if you will, but how do you get there? To further illustrate, it’s like finding a place on a map, and then trying to find a way to get there. You plan out your route, but there could be construction along that route. There could be heavy traffic. There could be a road closure or some other obstruction. You don’t know how that journey will go, but you know the destination. God says, I know where I’m going to take you, and I want you to have peace, and I have carefully planned on how to get you there, so have peace. Let’s take this concept of an expected end, but before we do, I want to tie it together with one of my favorite passages, which I simply cannot get enough of:

¹Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: ²Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, ³According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: ⁴Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

II Peter 1:1-4

I love that phrase, “exceeding great and precious promises.” Honestly, I could probably stop and talk about the entire book of 2nd Peter and even just about this 1st chapter instead of what I’m trying to communicate in this message, but I won’t. I’ll just touch on this parallel phrase. These three phrases are one to me, the “promises” that Peter talks about, the “expectation” David speaks of, and the “expected end” that Jeremiah references. They are all talking about the destination that God wants to take us to. Is it a physical place? Certainly, but as with most journeys, the destination is seldom just physical. Something about us changes along the way. This is why so many films and books use journeys to effect character development. We don’t grow by standing still. You don’t reach the grocery store by sitting in the car in your driveway. You have to step out into the world and take that trip, and when you do, you have no idea what will happen to you or around you on the way to your destination. But God does.

It’s like the character Bilbo from J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary work, The Lord of the Rings says to his nephew, “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” And we don’t know where we will be swept off to when we start moving toward a goal, but we do have an expected end, if we have our faith in God and are honestly pursuing His will. Let’s look at a few examples tonight to help us.

1. The Promised Son

¹And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. ²And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. ³And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, ⁴As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. ⁵Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. ⁶And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. ⁷And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. ⁸And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

Genesis 17:1-8

¹⁵And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. ¹⁶And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

Genesis 17:15-16

In this passage we see that Abraham received those “exceeding great and precious promises,” as Peter put it. He believed and had faith in God and God had told Abraham that he would become a mighty people, a people who would produce kings and rulers, not to mention the Savior of the World. He promised Abraham that to facilitate this end, He would give Abraham a son, though at the time it seemed impossible. It would be like God telling me that night that I would get to the dollar store while the parade was going on. Seemed pretty impossible. It would certainly have taken a miracle. But God told Abraham and Sarah what to expect: you will get to this place, Abraham, of having a son who will go on to create a great nation. What God did not tell Abraham was what it would take. He did not tell Abraham or Sarah the journey that they would go through before that would happen. He did not tell them about how their own doubt would lead to the birth of Abraham’s son Ishmael, and the trouble that this would create, both for them, and for their descendants, and even for us thousands of years later. He did not tell Abraham how He would ask Abraham to sacrifice his promised son upon a mountain top. He also did not tell Abraham all of the things that would happen to his descendants before they became a nation at all, and all of their toils and suffering in Egypt. All Abraham was given was the promise, a precious promise, of a future that God was meticulously crafting for him, and for his descendants, a future of peace.

Before we move on from Abraham and Isaac, there are a few takeaways I want to glean from the story of Abraham, by examining the roadblocks he encountered. First, he encountered uncertainty. Abraham journeyed to a foreign land, away from all he knew, and lived in this land the rest of his life. I think this is why his grandson, Jacob, would later refer to his own life as a “pilgrimage.” He was following God toward a destination that he had been told of, but had no idea what it would be like. Are we not often burdened by uncertainty in our lives? I know I am. I have lost jobs, or had the possibility of losing a job. I’ve experienced the uncertainty caused by illness, or sudden circumstances. Uncertainty is a roadblock we will all encounter, but how did Abraham overcome it? By faith.

⁸By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. ⁹By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: ¹⁰For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. ¹¹Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

Hebrews 11:8-11

Our greatest weapon against uncertainty is faith, just as it was for Abraham. BELIEVE God! And comfortingly, did not Abraham and Sarah both doubt at first? Yes, they did. But their belief overcame the uncertainty and doubt, and so it must be with us. Uncertainty is a heavy burden, but notice that it says that Abraham “looked for a city which hath foundations.” Not sure if you’ve ever given this part of the passage much thought before, but think about this: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all dwelt in tents. And you pitch a tent on top of whatever ground there is. But if you live in a house, you build a foundation first. Abraham was looking for an end to the uncertainty, a city with foundations, no longer to dwell in tents moving here and there. We also look for a city with foundations. We too, though our physical houses have foundations, dwell on this earth in a pilgrimage, moving from one place to another, namely our home in heaven, where will be no uncertainty.

The second roadblock that Abraham encountered was surrender. This is another area of Christianity that I could speak on for the entire message but I’ll just touch on. Even after Abraham had seen at least part of the promise that God had made, namely his son Isaac, God said he would take that son away from him.

¹ And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. ² And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Genesis 22:1-2

Even after he had seen with his eyes the Lord’s blessed promise, that exceeding great promise, Abraham was tested by God. He said, “Abraham, you’ve seen my promise realized, but now I want you to throw it away. You’ve hoped and prayed for this child, and by nothing short of a miracle you have received him. Now, I want you to give him up.” God in this passage is testing Abraham’s love for His Lord, yes, but He is also asking for even more faith, for full surrender of Abraham’s will and understanding. And Abraham, as we know, passed the test. Hebrews again provides us with the underlying truth to Abraham’s sacrifice.

¹⁷By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, ¹⁸Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: ¹⁹Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

Hebrews 11:17-19

Notice the language. “He that had received the promises.” This is like me reaching the Dollar Store during a parade, by some miracle, only for Kristina to call me after I had already walked in, and purchased what she needed, and was back out at the car with the bag in my hand, to say, “Hon, on second thought, I don’t need that, just throw it away.” Obviously, it’s a lot deeper and more significant than that, nor am I trying to compare children to dollar store groceries, so I’ll just leave that analogy entirely and move on. “He that had received the promises.” And he believed God to the point that he was willing to surrender Isaac back to God, not understanding how but knowing that God would get him to his destination, that this would just be another roadblock, another detour. And God did not disappoint. You and I must also surrender things in our life. Sometimes, we must surrender a hobby or a habit. Maybe we have to surrender watching a certain show. Maybe we have to surrender watching the Superbowl on Sunday. Maybe we have to sacrifice a fishing trip. Maybe we have to surrender our time to go to a committee meeting. Maybe we have to surrender resources to make a meal for someone or help someone in need. But maybe our surrender is more difficult. The most difficult. Maybe we have to surrender a loved one to God’s embrace. Maybe we have to surrender our pride. These are much bigger road blocks. How do we get through them? Again, by strengthening our faith, taking God at His word, and believing the promises He has given us, and believing that God will make a way.

2. The Lost Son

⁵And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. ⁶And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: ⁷For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. ⁸And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. ⁹And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.

Genesis 37:5-9

Next we’re going to look at another example of going the long way around to reach your promised destination. Notice that in this passage, God does not speak directly to Joseph, but instead gives him a dream. I have listened to many of my children’s dreams, some of which may not really be dreams at all but rather nighttime thoughts. But realize with me that Joseph’s dreams were significant to him, his brothers, and especially his father. Joseph is called a “dreamer,” and rightly so, but recall that Jacob too was a dreamer of sorts. In Genesis 28:12, Jacob flees from his brother Esau, who he has defrauded with his mother’s help, and it says that he dreamed of a ladder going up to Heaven, and received a promise from God. In Genesis 31:11, Jacob tells his two wives, Rachel and Leah, how the angel of God spoke to him in a dream. I’m sure that his father, Isaac, had told Jacob of the dreams that his grandfather, Abraham, had dreamed of God. So when Joseph told his family these dreams, know that they carried significance, which is why Jacob expresses disbelief that Joseph’s dreams are actually real, as he cannot conceive of a situation in which he and all the family would bow in obeisance to Joseph, who was one short of the youngest in the family.

But of course, Joseph was in this way provided with a promise from God. Joseph, you’re going to be a great ruler. And this is what the dream was saying, since in order for Jacob to have bowed before Joseph, Joseph would necessarily had to have been very great indeed, as Jacob in addition to being Joseph’s father was considered a wealthy and powerful man, just as his father and grandfather had been. So, Joseph is delivered a dream of being a powerful man one day, more powerful even than his father, and no one can believe it. Perhaps Joseph himself did not believe it. It would certainly have been difficult to believe if you consider the obstacles that he faced. And what road blocks can we glean from Joseph’s life? Of course he dealt with uncertainty as he waited in the pit to see what his brothers would do to him, and what his life would be like down in Egypt. He faced testing when confronted with the advances of Potiphar’s wife. But what other roadblocks did he face?

First, I want to notice that Joseph had to face patience. Joseph was 17 years old when he dreamed his initial dream and told it to the family. In Genesis 41:46 we are told that by the time Joseph ascends to become the royal vizier of Pharaoh, he is 30 years old. It took 13 years for Joseph’s dream to be realized, for him to reach the expected end that God had showed him. Thirteen years of suffering and difficulty. My wife and I have experienced some times after the loss of a job and the uncertainty of living dollar to dollar, from one bag of groceries to the next. It was a few years, but it wasn’t 13, and it wasn’t in the bondage of prison, or as a slave. Joseph literally lived the verse in Romans 5:3-4 which says:

³…we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; ⁴And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

Romans 5:3-4.

Patience is one of the hardest of all lessons to learn in life. But Joseph waited patiently, even when he didn’t know how long he would be a slave in Potiphar’s house, and even when he didn’t know how long he would be left in that dirty prison. And he didn’t know if the butler would ever remember him, but he knew what God had promised him, and that was enough. As the writer of Hebrews puts it:

For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

Hebrews 10:35

Notice that we have patience, we do God’s will, and then we receive the promise. This is exactly what Joseph did. He waited on his God, did the things that He knew would please God, and then in the fullness of time he received the blessing, a blessing greater than he could have imagined.

The second roadblock I would like to take away from the story of Joseph is misfortune. You could also call this bad circumstances. Despite what we often think, I don’t necessarily believe that Joseph knew his brothers would physically harm him for his dreams or his father Jacob’s favoritism. As much as they hated him, family was a much stronger bond then than it is now, and culturally the bond of family was much different too. Jacob too, having sent his favorite son alone to check on his brothers in the wilderness, did not seem concerned that they might physically harm him, even though the Bible records in Genesis 37:4 that his brothers could not speak peaceably to him. This was even though Jacob’s sons were morally questionable at times and at least some of them were outright murderous, if you read the account of Jacob’s daughter Dinah. Yet still neither Jacob nor Joseph believed his brothers would harm him. And they both were surprised to learn they were wrong. Nor, indeed, was being sold as a slave any better circumstance for Joseph than being killed, in all likelihood, as instead of a swift death it meant a lifetime of servitude, hard labor, and likely mistreatment. Only God’s favor followed Joseph into those dark times and saw him through both the slavery in Potiphar’s house, and his imprisonment in the Egyptian jail. God preserved Joseph through one bad situation after another, but why? How is it that Joseph was able to surmount this roadblock to achieving God’s promise? The answer is found in Genesis 41.

³⁸And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? ³⁹And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: ⁴⁰Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.

Genesis 41:38-40

Here at the end of the misfortunes, God uses the pagan King of Egypt to reveal to Joseph just why God has blessed Him. Notice there are three things mentioned. First, God’s spirit was in him. Even the pagans of Egypt could see that there was something about him different than everyone else. Potiphar had noticed it. The keeper of the prison had noticed it. Even the other prisoners had noticed it. Nor does God’s spirit live lightly within us, the spirit is noticeable most when we are in fellowship with Him.

²⁹ Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. ³⁰ And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Ephesians 4:29-31

Paul tells the Ephesians that good communication is both edifying and ministers grace to those who hear it. The Bible also uses the word “communication” to mean deportment or our general disposition. Such as in Philemon when Paul writes:

⁵ Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints; ⁶ That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.

Philemon 1:5-6

Notice how this applies to Joseph. The communication of thy faith, Paul writes. You can clearly see that in Joseph’s life. Was he perfect? Certainly not, but never once are we told that Joseph ranted at God or blamed others for his problems, even when others were to blame. He had the spirit of God within him, and that was both because of, and caused that good communication, that Godly deportment. Notice second that Pharaoh calls him discreet, and thirdly wise. Discreet, which carries with it a host of meaning in the original language, everything from cunning and intelligence to wisdom itself, consideration, and understanding. These, I present to you, are not the characteristics of a man sold to be a slave, taken from his father’s house at 17. These are not the attitudes and deportment of a man unjustly accused and sent to prison for years as a result. Truly, Joseph was an extraordinary person, a person in whom was the spirit of God. And that is what we need to be too, a people not controlled by emotions, but a diligent, discreet people, even during the time of testing. This is a great way to be set apart among nonbelievers, and is a natural outgrowth of our closeness with God and our synchronization with His Spirit. The Bible refers to “misfortune” as “trials.” And as usual, I prefer the Bible’s word to our own, because “misfortune” is a word that we interpret often as “bad luck,” which is literally what it means. But the word “trial” means a test, something that does not occur by accident, but something that is allowed to happen so that something can be learned about the object of the test. Just as Abraham was tested by God, and just as computer codes are tested, and just as recipes are tested, soldiers are tested, students are tested, we also are tested by the circumstances of our life. How do we do during such testing? Do we rant and complain? Do we observe that “life isn’t fair”? I love the show Forged in Fire to see the craftsmanship, and there are numerous techniques that a metal smith uses to get the perfect knife or tool. One of these tools is thermocycling, wherein a worked piece, a knife or sword or tool, is heated and then cooled repeatedly. This process causes the metal to grow harder and more able to endure further stress and damage. I think this is a beautiful picture of God with us. And I am no fan of difficult circumstances, financial difficulties, illness and uncertainty, but I do realize that these things are allowed not to destroy us, but to test our metal.

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

James 1:12

Peter also has this to say:

⁶ Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: ⁷ That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

1 Peter 1:6-7

Trials are difficult, but there is something else about the smith we can learn: even in the trying of his work, his hand is always upon it. And so God’s hand is always with us. This is why Jesus refers to the Spirit as the Comforter. Why would He call the Holy Spirit a Comforter, unless there was something we need to be comforted about? And that comfort is in large part needful because of the fallen world we live in, and how misfortunes will come. But we can overcome those, as Joseph did, by being in synch with God’s spirit.

¹⁶And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; ¹⁷Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

John 14:16-18

3. The Smallest Son

¹And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.

¹¹And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither.¹²And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he.¹³Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.

I Samuel 16:1, & 11-13

Our next stop is in 1st Samuel chapter 16. By way of brief context, the people of Israel rejected God and demanded a king, in some kind of odd peer pressure at a national level. God gave them Saul as a result. Saul starts out good but ultimately rebels against God and thus God tells Samuel He is choosing a replacement for Saul. He tells Samuel to go the house of Jesse the Bethlehemite, where Samuel proceeds to guess wrong every time about which son is the new King of Israel. Finally, David is brought back from the fields, and God tells Samuel to anoint him. As with Joseph and his dreams, the act of being anointed by a prophet was a definitive seal of God’s approval and appointment. Recall that being anointed King of Israel had only been done once before at this point, to the current King, and also by Samuel, who was the last Judge of Israel. Jesse himself had to know how significant this was, and hid his knowledge of it for as long as he could, though Saul eventually found out on his own. Realize too that this was while David was still a very young man. He had not faced Goliath yet. At this early stage in life, he was anointed by God to become the next King of Israel, and become the most powerful ruler in the land. There was only one problem: there was still a king on the throne. Now, I just want to pause here and clarify something: most depictions of David and most preachers talk of David as being a boy or teenager. However, if you read carefully, you will note that he is actually not as young as many portray him to be. And this is clear from 1 Samuel 16:18, where after an evil spirit comes upon Saul and troubles him, his servants suggest to him that he find someone to play music to calm his spirit, and they recommend David, who they say is not only cunning in playing [music], but also “a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person.” So we see that even before his confrontation with Goliath, David was already known for being in some capacity a soldier and warrior. Nevertheless, he was still a young man when he was anointed to be king. Furthermore, with David being in the presence of Saul following his anointing, he had to know what kind of obstacle stood in between him and the expected end that Samuel had readied him for. To some, this would be all but impossible. Saul was not an old man, but in the prime of his life, and beyond that, he had heirs who would be able to assume the throne if he died in battle or by some illness. And after Saul, legitimately believing David to be a threat to his throne, tried to kill him, David does not try to make the promise come true, as Abraham did in his life. David, in fact, flees, further distancing himself from the promised destiny.

And it was well he did, and well that he spared Saul’s life several times, for if he had taken his destiny into his own hands, he would have been declared a usurper, but his honoring of Saul and his house only served to endear him more to the people he would one day rule. But you can be sure that hiding in caves and strongholds in the wilderness while Saul hunted him, David probably wondered how he would even live to see the morrow, much less somehow see the massive obstacle that was Saul and his house removed from the throne. In fact, in Psalm 13 we can see some of his heart during this time:

¹How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? ²How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? ³Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; ⁴Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. ⁵But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. ⁶I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

Psalm 13

At times David despaired that he would even live at all, much less ever become king. Still, to his great credit, he trusted in God, and this is the takeaway I would like to share with you from the story of David. We’ve talked about a lot of obstacles, but this one is one of the hardest to deal with, because this obstacle is the obstacle presented to us in life by people. Both enemies and friends, strangers and family members, can be obstacles to us in reaching the place that God wants us to be in. And the story of Saul and David is a story for us, because in it we see David repeatedly betrayed by Saul, a man he had served faithfully, even as a son. A man he had risked his life for. And yet out of jealousy and spite, Saul had thrown all that to the wind and sought to take his life. He was betrayed by someone close to him, his own father-in-law. And we will also face betrayal and opposition from people, both believers and unbelievers, acquaintances and close friends. And it may seem insurmountable, but notice that David’s response was to not focus on those people and those betrayals, or on himself and how his pride was hurt, or how his rights were spurned, or how unjust his enemies were to him. At the end of his despair, he adds “but I have trusted in they mercy; my heart shall rejoice in they salvation.” Like Abraham, like Joseph, he had faith that God would see him to the end, even when his emotions could not process that, and even when to his mind it was impossible. Unbelievers often call faith blind or dumb, but that depends on who you have faith in. And let me assure you, God is more solid and trustworthy than anyone or anything in this life.

Perhaps it’s an odd verse to end with, but I found this in Isaiah 46, and thought, “Wow, what a fitting statement for those of us wondering how God will get us through all the insurmountable obstacles that we face in reaching the place that God wants us to reach.” And I realize this is a promise to Israel, but listen to the certainty in God’s voice, the concrete firmness, and tell me that you could possibly doubt that God will do whatever He said, and that He could ever break His promises to us.

⁹Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, ¹⁰Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: ¹¹Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.

Isaiah 46:9-11