How The Faithful Overcome Challenges Series

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As we’ve seen over the past few weeks the life of David so far has been a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows. From his anointing by Samuel, to defeating Goliath all the way to having Saul hurl spears at him. The picture we are seeing through David’s life is one where someone who is anointed and faithful overcomes obstacles. How we face challenges and trials ends up proving not just to God but ourselves that we can actually accomplish the great things God has planned for us in our lives.

We need to get one thing straight right off of the bat, being anointed or having God’s favor is not a free-pass to a trouble free life where you just float around and everything falls into your lap. We need to understand and accept the idea that “anointing equals work,” we see this play out in the lives of not just David but also Joseph, Abraham, Moses and Paul. These were all people who were called and commissioned by God but they had to put in the effort to see the benefits of God’s promises become a reality.

Moses didn’t deliver Israel while he was shepherding in Midian, Abraham didn’t become the father of the covenant because he decided to stay in Ur, Joseph wasn’t promoted because he grumbled and complained while doing as little work as possible, and Paul didn’t become the great apostle by remaining in Damascus to meditate on his encounter with Jesus. All of these people had to not just put in the work but they had to struggle through the difficult times.

Don’t you think Moses would of preferred to not lead a people that complained the way the exilic Israelites did, or do you think Abraham would of preferred to stay in the metropolitan hub of Ur. Or what about Joseph I’m sure he would have been happier not being in the prison for those years, and I bet Paul didn’t want to postpone the launch of his evangelistic association by an entire decade so he can go back to Tarsus.

This concept of anointing equals work is not the exclusive property of those during the Biblical era it is something we deal with also right here and right now under the New Covenant. No matter how much faith or grace we have there will still be struggles to face and walls of impossibility which will pop up on our path towards God’s purpose for our lives. So we shouldn’t be surprised when we encounter difficulties, slow-downs, detours, challenges or the like because it is in these frustrations that God is trying to refine us so we can become someone better. Not because we have the natural means to do so, no rather we become better and more refined because in these times we learn to walk even closer to God, and the closer we are to him the better we will recognize the answers to our prayers and understand the miracles he is doing all around us.

Jealousy Leads To Hatred

David faced many of these seasons of challenges and trials but each one was allowed by God to advance and refine David into a person who could be a true King over the people. So that brings us to 1 Samuel 18 where David has defeated Goliath and has become a key part of the Israelite army while remaining Saul’s royal minstrel.

As time went on the people began praised David in the streets saying how he had killed tens of thousands of their enemies while Saul had only killed thousands. This isn’t a literal number but rather it shows how the people saw David as the greater warrior and protector of Israel. They no longer saw Saul who was head and shoulders taller than the rest as their mighty warrior and this also lead them to believe that God was showing more favor to David than to Saul.

Last week we saw how a deep jealousy started to take hold of Saul’s heart and now we witness how that jealousy transformed into hatred and culminated in a murderous desire. In Saul’s eyes David was no longer the poor shepherd boy that played the harp but rather his competition for the love and support of the people. Everything Saul had built and the lives of his children hung in the balance, David was seen as the usurper of the throne so Saul in one of his fits tried to deal with his problem.

1 Samuel 18:9-10 “9 Now the distressing spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing music with his hand. 10 Then Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away from Saul’s presence; and he drove the spear into the wall. So David fled and escaped that night." (NKJV)