I’ve been studying the Old Testament (love all those amazing stories!) and noticed something in 2 Samuel chapter 5 that caught my eye.
“David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years,” (2 Samuel 5:4).
In preceding chapters, we learned that David was only a boy — many Bible scholars believe him to have been around 15 years old when he defeated Goliath — when he was first brought into the palace by King Saul to serve as his armor-bearer and private harpist (1 Samuel 16:21-23). But Saul, out of jealousy, soon rejected David and decided to kill him (1 Samuel 19:1). The spirit of God left Saul and entered David.
The prophet Samuel disclosed to David that God has anointed him to be the next king, but they kept it their little secret. Saul had his suspicions though because he chased David all over the countryside for an undisclosed number of years, beginning in 1 Samuel chapter 21 until Saul’s death at the end of chapter 31.
Then followed a seven-year civil war between the house of Saul and the house of David before Samuel officially crowned David king of Israel (2 Samuel 5:3). So, there was a 15-year gap between the time David knew he would be king and when he actually became king. He knew at 15 years of age but had to wait until he was 30 to begin serving the Lord in what was his preordained destiny.
Yikes! Who wants to wait that long for anything?
Not me. Not you. And probably not David either.
But evidently waiting is included in Papa God’s plan for us. Waiting time isn’t wasted time. David used those 15 years to hone his skills as a warrior and leader, building the respect and loyalty of his countrymen. His kingdom was more powerful and cohesive because of those 15 well-spent years.
So, I think the takeaway is that we should expect waiting in our life journeys. Maybe LOTS of waiting. And in the meantime, we shouldn’t lose patience … or hope. Because in God’s economy, waiting time isn’t wasted time.
