Now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. And David grew steadily stronger, but the house of Saul grew weaker continually. 2 Samuel 3:1

David was called in from the sheep fields, as a youth, to be anointed king. Immediately on that anointing – nothing happened. He went right back to being the youngest, caring for the sheep, the least prestigious job. And his job was go-fer, shuttling supplies to his brothers on the front lines of battle. His brothers were doing the real work. They were warriors. David was their page.

And he waited. And waited. Did Jesse forget the anointing? Did his brothers, how they were passed over one by one? Did David forget?

David keeps to himself, writing songs, playing his harp. It is that personal, private quality that gets noticed and he is summoned to serve as musician to Saul, who just happens to be sitting in David’s chair. No one sees this irony but David, and he keeps silent.

David kills a giant. He is a national hero. Surely this will be his moment of public coronation? His claim to his God-given rightful status? Nope.

There is still someone sitting in his chair. David insists throughout Saul’s life and beyond that Saul is God’s anointed. David will not lift his hand against him, literally, twice, when given the opportunity.

Even after Saul dies, and Saul’s heirs and followers do not recognize David, David patiently waits.

Why? Why will David not ever so much as utter a syllable toward what was so graphically announced all those years ago? Why will he not enforce what is indisputably rightfully his?

At least two reasons. First, Saul was God’s anointed, even if God had determined Saul would no longer be king – someday. David understood that if David’s anointing meant anything, then so did Saul’s. For David to disrespect Saul’s anointing would be to disparage his own.

As for the timing of when God would bring about the change, David was a man of faith who trusted God to fulfill His own promises. David would not take matters into his own hands.

Second, David was modeling Jesus, who, though being in very nature God, did not regard equality with God as something to cling to or reach for.   But rather Jesus humbled himself, taking on the lowest form, a man, a servant, a criminal so despised as to warrant public condemnation to death.

David mourned, mourned, Saul’s death.

So time passed. Lots of time. David would not hurry it. David did not regard his office, though his, as something to be grabbed.

In the fullness of time, and beyond, things began to happen. After Saul’s death, vestiges of his power continued, for a while. But they were waning. David’s office was increasing. Still, David waited.

David accepted what came to him, his initial anointing, his coronation by only Judah at Hebron, the offer of Abner to bring all of Israel to him.

There is a peacefulness about this. A lack of stridency.

In repentance and rest you will be saved. In quietness and trust is your strength. Isaiah 30:15, a, b.

 Jesus’ calling brings us into conflict with the status quo. Conflict, but not stridency. There is a difference. The difference is trust.

“Now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David.” War. A long one. That cannot have been pleasant. It was conflict, killing and loss.

What was the war if it was not David trying to seize the kingdom? The inertia of the old, diminishing though it may be, colliding with the emergence of the new.

Sometimes these things happen gradually. John the Baptist, the last of the old covenant prophets, said he must decrease and Jesus must increase. The transition was a gradated one, culminating at the Cross.

Even in us, the flesh struggles to hang on, destined for destruction though it is, against the new nature that is ours, even if not yet fully evident and flourishing. This conflict confounded Paul, as he wrote in Romans 7.

God’s promises, that is, the timing of His promises, are not to be forced. As surely as He promises, He fulfills. As divinely providential are His promises, so also is His timing.

It is one thing to discern God’s intentions. It is another to wait for His timing and fulfillment of them.

The joy, the peace, come in the resting, the quietness, the trust. In these in between times, we don’t yet see what God intends. We long. But we do not pine. We expect, anticipate and hope. We do not stress.

We can wait patiently because in this in between season we are presently abiding in Jesus. It is as if we are in a jetliner, traveling 450 miles an hour. The destination is still hours away. But we can sleep, read, and rest, because we are secure in this aircraft, and professionals are at the controls. The clouds and distant earth seem lazy and unconcerned, and so are we, unaware of the screaming horsepower of the jet engines and massive air foil keeping the heavy plane aloft as if floating, all of which is beyond our control and consciousness. Jesus is even better.

This in between season will not last forever. God will accomplish His purposes. We will see His fulfillment of his promises. Saul’s house is getting weaker. David’s is getting stronger. And we abide in Him, trusting, at peace.

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