Palace or the Pasture
1 Samuel 16:11 KJV
[11] And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither.
Gene Edwards, in "tale of three kings” speaks of the isolation of David.
David was the youngest son...
The youngest child generally two distinctions...
1. spoiled
2. uninformed.
In David's day, very little would have been expected of him.
He displays fewer characteristics of leadership than his brothers. After all, he never lead.
He only follows, he has no one younger on whom to practice leadership.
The seven older sons of Jesse worked near their father’s farm.
The youngest was sent on treks into the mountains to graze the family’s small flock of sheep.
This youngest son would leave home and carried two things: a sling and a small, guitarlike instrument.
Spare time for a sheepherder is abundant...
The sheep would graze for days in the green meadow.
As days became weeks, david became very lonely.
There was a feeling of friendlessness inside him.
It would perhaps rise up and cause him to weep from isolation...
In his boredom, He would play his harp to pass the hours... As his harp playing improved, he added singing...
His voice changed over the years and became strong...
When these activities failed to comfort him...
I can see in my minds eye David as he gathered up a pile of stones and, one by one, placed them in a sling an pd twirled it overhead as he swung them at a distant tree...
When the rock pile was depleted, he would walk to the blistered tree, reassemble his rocks, and designate another leafy enemy at yet a farther distance.
I'm sure he had many victories over many trees...
In his loneliness, David worked on something else also...
David loved God...
At night, when all the sheep lay sleeping and he sat staring at the dying fire, he would strum upon his harp and break into quiet song...
He sang the ancient hymns of his forefathers.
While he sang he wept... and while he wept, he praised...
The distance mountains lifted up his praise and tears, passing them on to next mountains, and so on until they eventually reached the ears of God.
When David was not praising and cry he tended to each and every sheep and lamb...
When not occupied with his flock, he swung his sling and swung it again and again until he could tell every rock precisely where to go.
One day, while singing to God, angels, sheep, and passing clouds, he spied a living enemy:
It was a bear!
David lunged forward. Both found themselves moving toward the same small object, a young lamb...
Shepard and bear stopped halfway and whirled to face one another...
“Even as he instinctively reached into his pocket for a stone, the young man realized, “ I am not afraid.”
Meanwhile, brown lightning on mighty, furry legs charged at the shepherd with foaming madness. Impelled by the strength of youth, the young man married rock to leather, and soon a brook-smooth pebble whined through the air to meet that charge.”
“A few moments later, the man—not quite so young as a moment before—picked up the little lamb and said, “I am your shepherd, and God is mine.”
And so, long into the night, he wove the day’s saga into a song...
He hurled that hymn to the skies again and again until he had taught the melody and words to every angel that had ears...
Worship
It has been said, what is done in darkness, will come out in the light...
We tend to lean towards the negative when this point is made...
We seem to believe that out sins will find us out...
If all you do in the dark is sin that is true...
That's not the only things happening in the dark...
Psalm 119:62 KJV
[62] At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.
Acts 16:25 KJV
[25] And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
I've come to tell someone, midnight is what you make it!
Those lonely times are what you make them...
That isolation is not a time of punishment, is a time of preparation...
I wish I could get a witness...
More importantly I wish I could get someone to understand that God is more interested in preparation, than punishment...
When you see as an end, God sees as a beginning...
Worship
Peter thought it was over.... Denied and disconnected....
But Jesus said, it's in that lonely time that I prepared you for Pentecost...
In the midnight of his life, when Peter was isolated and alone, Jesus was working some pride out.... Some arrogance out.... Some selfishness out....
When he was brought out of isolation, he was also brought out of preparation...
You better hear this preacher, if it had not been for the time in the wilderness, you couldn't handle the promise land....
See, your destiny is greater than your dilemma...
Pardon my improper English, but, if you ain't got no dilemma, you ain't got no destiny...
When your isolated, lonely, discouraged...
You better recognize what's happening!
God has set you apart so you can perfect the tools that you will need in your destination....
Instead of pouting, pray...
Fleeing, fast...
Worrying, worship...
Wringing your hands,read your bible...
Bad things ain't the only things happening in the dark, lonely hours...
Some of us have been being prepared for the greater part of out life....
It's not happening where everyone can see it, it's not tasking form in center stage....
Worship
I'm going to blow your minds...
When Saul called for David to play the harp to sooth his spirit, that wasn't the first time David picked one up...
Long before he played for the king, he was playing for the king of kings...
Before the kingdom knew his name, he perfected his ministry in isolation...
Before the kingdom sang his praises in the streets, he sang Gods praises in the meadows...
You want to know why David rejected Saul's armor? It had not been proven in the trying times of isolation...
David understood that God was going to meet his needs and make a way....
If he didn't need it in the lonely hours and days with God, it was going to be weight.... Before Paul told a church to set aside every sin and weight.... David proved it works!
Worship
Let's take it another step farther...
When David picked up his sling that day Goliath was challenging, it was not his first day to "try it out"!
Years before David defeated a giant, he was defeating trees and targets...
Don't get hung up on the philosophy that God guided that stone...
I propose to you today that God guided a Shepard boy...
God graduated David from trees and targets to a bear...
When his faith was strengthened he guided him to a lion...
Then a giant...
god was guiding long before that stone left that sling...
What do you think gave David the faith and confidence to think he could take a giant?
It was the time spent in isolation...
God guided David in times of isolation, so he could stand in times of admiration...
If you get admiration, before isolation, it will lead to devastation...
Your wondering why you are where you are....
It's so you can be prepared for what is coming....
Well brother, it's been a long time....
One of two things are happening either there is a great destiny awaiting you, or you are not working on the things you should be...
If David had never picked up the harp in his time of isolation, he would have never been asked to play...
If he had never picked up the sling...
If he had never sang and praised God, he would have never been anointed King...
God didn't get to know David in the palace, he got to know him in the pasture...
Where are you today?
