Let me ask you this: Do you know how long it takes to hatch an egg? 21 days.
• Is there a way for us to shorten the days? Can we do something to speed it up?
• I’m afraid not. Speed up the process and we would spoil what God is doing.
Most of us have a problem waiting for God to fulfil His will.
• It is our prayer, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” but we can’t wait.
• We cannot wait for the egg to hatch. That’s too long. We need to speed things up. We help to crack the egg.
• We think we are smart, but in the process, we kill the chick.
The problem is, we don’t see any GOOD in the wait. In fact, we believe nothing good come out of the waiting.
• If we are going to think that way, we will not only lose trust in God, we are going to mess things up.
• We will take things into our own hands, trying to resolve the problem. We want to “help God” fulfil His will, as if He is not capable of doing that.
• This is what we are going to see today in 2 Samuel 4.
Last week we saw the tragic death of Abner, the commander of Saul’s house.
• He lived a life without any regard for God, driven only by his vain conceit and selfish ambition, and eventually came to a fruitless end.
• We want to live a life guided by God’s agenda, driven by God’s purpose – to know Him and do His will.
Nothing can compensate that – not prestige, power, position, possessions or the pleasures of life.
• King Solomon says, without the fear of God, everything is meaningless, utterly meaningless (Eccl 1:2).
• Without God, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction, and events without reason (Rick Warren).
Now Abner is gone. We are left with a puppet King, Ish-Bosheth, and in the eyes of many, he should not even be there. Let’s read 2 Sam 4:1-12.
Two men decided to take matters into their own hands and help remove the useless King. That would speed things up and resolve the problem.
• They obviously believe that they have the better plan for Israel. Ish-Bosheth ought to go and make way for David.
• They cut off his head and travelled all night to bring it to David (v.7). They were eager and excited about telling David:
2 Sam 4:8 “They brought the head of Ish-Bosheth to David at Hebron and said to the king, "Here is the head of Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, your enemy, who tried to take your life. This day the LORD has avenged my lord the king against Saul and his offspring."
They thought they were doing David a favour. They believed they were also doing God a favour.
• “This day the Lord has avenged my lord the king against Saul and his offspring.” (v.8) How? By our assassination!
• They’ve taken matters into their own hands, and tagged God’s Name to it.
DON’T TAKE MATTERS INTO YOUR OWN HANDS
They thought they had Saul’s household exterminated, but they were wrong.
• The author reveals in 2 Sam 4:4 in parenthesis: (Jonathan son of Saul had a son who was lame in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but as she hurried to leave, he fell and became crippled. His name was Mephibosheth.)
• These men were mistaken. Saul has a grandson who was still alive.
David was angry that the men had done such an evil by killing an innocent man and that being Saul’s son!
• He told them what happened to the Amalekite man who killed Saul (2 Sam 1) and came running to him with his crown (in Ziklag).
• They made the same mistake of thinking that they had done David and God a favour, and they were similarly executed.
David would have no part in seizing the throne for himself, not even when God has given him the promise. He submits to God and waits.
• This is not an easy lesson for many. It takes humility to know that you are not the one running the show. It takes trust to let God take His time.
Remember SARAH, Abraham’s wife. God promised her a child but she could not wait any longer, being 76 years old and still childless (Gen 16).
• She came up with a plan to help God fulfil His promise and urged Abraham to have a child through her maidservant (a common practice in that culture).
• It looks workable at first (it usually does, at the beginning). That’s just man’s wisdom. Genesis 16 tells us very soon the relationship between the childless Sarah and the expectant Hagar became very sour. Jealousy and bitterness sets in, and Sarah did not see it coming.
• Ishmael was no doubt born, but with Isaac coming after, they became the source of conflict and grief to the couple, to the family, to the nation, and now to the world. Man’s way looks good only for a moment.
Be patient with God. He will bring everything to fruition in His own way and time.
• Our job is not to figure out how and when, but to make up our mind that we will not lose faith and give up on Him.
• Can you trust Him? That’s all that God is expecting from you. You don’t have to understand all the how, the when, the what, the where and the why.
• Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. (Prov 3:5-6)
GIVE GOD TIME
And the currency of TRUST is time. Trust does not come as a button that you can press. It comes with TIME.
• Time plays an important part in learning to trust God. When we see the faithfulness of God over and over again, we will find ourselves letting go of trusting ourselves to placing our trust on Him.
• That’s why PATIENCE is a FRUIT of the Spirit. And it’s an important one.
The men were so caught up about clearing the throne (for David and thus fulfilling God’s PROMISE), that they have ignored the PERSON of God and obeying His will.
• To them, the end justifies the means. They are prepared to do whatever they can, even an assassination, to accomplish what they thought was the plan of God.
• How foolish. The right end can never justifies the wrong means.
• God will accomplish His right end with His right means. God will fulfil His righteous purpose in His righteous way.
We don’t have to worry for God. We need to worry for ourselves.
• We make such mistakes when we are too caught up by the PROMISE and not the PERSON of God.
• We get impatient. We ask, why didn’t God do this or do that, how long must we wait, where are the blessings God promised us?
• We just want the PROMISES, and not so much the ONE who promise. We are very concerned about the GIFTS, but not the GIVER.
FOCUS ON THE PERSON, NOT THE PROMISES
Today many are taught to pick out the PROMISES of God. We look through the Scriptures digging for nuggets of His promises.
• Don’t do that without KNOWING Him. We are no different from pagan worshippers if we do that.
• Frankly, I’m not too concerned about His PROMISES. I trust Him. I know they are true and they will come true. Even if He did not promise me anything, I’m fine. God is good. He knows what He’s doing.
Remember Jesus made this comment, to the many who followed Him.
• John 6:26 “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.”
• Our priorities can get mixed up sometimes. We follow Him because we want the loaves and the fishes. We want the freebies.
• Don’t tell me about what I’m supposed to do. Just give me what I want.
What happens when blessings don’t come? What happens when the job we wanted doesn’t pan out, a sickness interrupts our plans, our children don’t act the way we think they should? Are you going to deny Jesus and walk away?
• Jesus asked the Twelve - John 6:67-69 “You do not want to leave too, do you?”
• Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."
It’s all about the WHO we follow, not the WHAT we can get out of Him.
• People leaves Jesus because they have been worshipping the GIFTS and not the GIVER. So when the gifts stop flowing, they stop coming to church too.
• They are disappointed with God, for not giving what they want, for not answering their prayers. They believe God only for the blessings, but not for the trials.
• Actually, they are not worshipping God; they are worshipping themselves.
Cultivate David’s heart. Honour God. Heed His ways. Trust His time.
The promise that God made to Israel and David took a long time to be fulfilled.
• This is typical of the way God brings about His promises and purposes. God is not in a hurry.
• Like David, waiting is a significant part of our walk with God, and He will reward us surely, if we are patient and faithful.
2 Samuel 5 will come. David becomes King over all Israel.
• That’s 20 chapters from 1 Sam 16, when he was anointed. But it will come, because God says so.
• Be patient with God. He will finished what he has started.
