When I was fifteen years old, like most of my peers, I wanted my driver’s license so badly. It seemed like it took forever to turn sixteen. When my wife Michelle and I got engaged, our wedding day was about nine months away, an impossibly long time. When we discovered that Michelle was pregnant with our first child, that was another nine months. When we were approved by a mission agency to be missionaries in Jamaica, it took three years for God to raise support so we could move there. When I started seminary, earning those 90 credits was an eight-year process that never seemed to end.
I could go on and on with more personal examples of waiting. As Tom Petty sang, “the waiting is the hardest part.” When my son was in the military, he learned the phrase “hurry up and wait,” seemingly one of the US Army’s foundational principles. We contemporary Americans can really struggle with waiting of any kind. Maybe you know the feeling. What are you waiting for?
In our blog series about the Life of David, studying the Old Testament books of 1st and 2nd Samuel, David has been waiting a long time for God to fulfill his promise to David. In 1st Samuel chapter 16, though he was just a young man, maybe even a teenager, God, through the prophet Samuel, anointed David to be the next king of Israel. Since that episode, we have followed the many detours in David’s journey to the throne. All told, David has been waiting for at least ten years. Likely longer. After King Saul died (1stSamuel 31), David is finally made king, but only over his own tribe of Judah (2nd Samuel 2). Civil war broke out between Judah and the other eleven tribes, who installed Saul’s son, Ish-Bosheth, as their king. Imagine how David felt being so close to enjoying the fulfillment of God’s promise, but still having to wait.
Maybe you’ve experienced something like that too. You are waiting so long, and you come so close to the end of the wait. But you’re not quite there. You can start to wonder what role, if any, God is playing in this situation. Does he not know how terrible it feels to wait? Does he care? You’ve likely prayed a lot. Why isn’t he answer? Waiting can be so frustrating. When we waiting, and we feel as though the wait is taking too long, we can get so frustrated that we take matters into our own hands. Often we’re sick and tired of waiting, and we attempt to make something happen, anything. Sometimes, maybe that helps. Sometimes we can make things worse.
This week on the blog, as we study 2nd Samuel chapters 4 and 5, we’re going to watch David do more waiting. How will he wait? When you’re waiting, struggling, what do you do? What is the right way to wait? Is there a wrong way?
Engaging Scripture 