I was recently reading in I Samuel, the record of the start of
Saul's kingdom. Saul was made king within very short time. Before he
even understood what was going on, he found himself as a king. He didn't
have the character, he didn't have the qualities needed. He was a humble
man in the beginning. He didn't even dare to come out when his name was
called (I Samuel 10:22). But the children of Israel were so pressing
asking for a king. I bet they could not wait at all. They wanted a king
and they wanted him now! No wonder therefore that Saul ended up the way
he did. Most of us would have ended up the same. We wouldn't know what
to do, our pride would rise up, and we would mess around not having the
character and the qualities needed. It is not to know exactly what to
do, but to have the character to wait and find out what to do. It seems
to me that Saul was a victim of the Israelites stubbornness. But then
David came. David didn't come as a king. He had the word of God from the
beginning but then many years passed and it seemed that this word would
never be realized. He was fighting in the deserts and in the mountains
and it seemed that that word only trouble had brought to him. He had
lost his friends, his peace, his contact with his family and all this
because of that word. Why did God tell him that? Why He didn't rush him
to be a king right away? Why God "treated him so badly"? If
somebody had un-answered whys this must have been David. And yet the
appointed time came. Saul, the result of the rush of the Israelites,
died. I'm so sorry for him. It was not God's mistake, it was probably
not even his mistake. It was mostly the mistake of his own people that
did it. Saul dies and David becomes a king. It took many years. It took
many frustrations. It took many whys. It took much trouble in between.
He could have died in those years. His life was continuously at stake.
It was certainly not what he had dreamed about God, about his life about
the word of God spoken to him. And yet its purpose was clear: after all
these, David was now READY to be a king. He wouldn't blow it. Because he
was trained. He was softened. His desires were subjected to God's will
and were put into His hands. It is frightening all that he went through,
but it is also encouraging. For it may also have happened in our lives.
We just wonder why this and why that. Why God does not do it right from
the beginning. But God wants to make us like David, so that we can enjoy
what he opens before us. Saul had it right from the beginning but then
he destroyed it. I love God's way even if it is sometimes painful and
looks like a desert. For the desert finishes and a new bright day
starts!
Tassos
Kioulachoglou
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