Patience

Today’s Passage – 2 Samuel 4 – 7 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers also read – Matthew 17 – 18; Proverbs 9; Psalms 41 – 45)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song –  Psalm 34:1 – 4

Read the “0409 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Read a previous post from today’s reading – “Check With God First.”

“5 And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went, and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who lay on a bed at noon. 6 And they came thither into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched wheat; and they smote him under the fifth rib: and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. 7 For when they came into the house, he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, and they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and gat them away through the plain all night. 8 And they brought the head of Ishbosheth unto David to Hebron, and said to the king, Behold the head of Ishbosheth the son of Saul thine enemy, which sought thy life; and the LORD hath avenged my lord the king this day of Saul, and of his seed. 9 And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said unto them, As the LORD liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity, 10 When one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings: 11 How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth? 12 And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth, and buried it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron.” (2 Samuel 4:5-12)

“1 Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. 2 Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel. 3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the LORD: and they anointed David king over Israel. 4 David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. 5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months: and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.” (2 Samuel 5:1-5)

David was anointed by God through the prophet Samuel to be king over all of Israel about twenty years or so prior to his actually becoming the king. He had many opportunities to hasten the timing of his actually becoming the king, but David was patient. He knew that God would eventually do for him what he promised that He would do. He had two opportunities and the human justification to take out his predecessor Saul. After all, Saul was trying desperately to kill David so David would just have been defending himself. However, twice David stated that he would not put forth his hand against the Lord’s anointed (See 1 Samuel 24 and 26).

In our reading today, in chapter four, Saul’s son, Ishbosheth, was assassinated by some of his own men because they thought that was what David would have wanted. Remember, Ishbosheth was made the king by Abner after Saul’s death. David has the assassinators assassinated for what they did. David understood that God was working and moving, and that the people of Israel were moving in the direction of recognizing him as God’s choice to be king over Israel. Some people within the kingdom, however, were not willing to wait; they wanted to take matters into their own hands to make it happen.

It can be very frustrating for a leader to wait for God to work out His will. We often want to take the reins out of His hands and make things happen for ourselves. There is a fine line between moving forward in His will and getting ahead of God’s will, or worse, getting out of God’s will, in order to move forward. David’s men were willing to murder the King of Israel so that David could take his place on the throne that he would eventually occupy anyway. David was willing to wait; to do it God’s way.

“35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. 36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” (Hebrews 10:35-36)