(1 Samuel 13:8-14, 2 Samuel 5:17-25, Isaiah 28:16b, Isaiah 45:2)
Essentially, in all of our endeavours and imaginations we must seek for the Lord to go before us and not we before Him.
I pray as we go through this week Point of Focus, the Holy Spirit will open our heart to what Saul and David did concerning “letting the Lord go before them”.
If the Lord must go before us, we must deliberately seek Him for that particular purpose. Hence, our first seeking the Lord as David did is the confirmation that we really want Him to lead us, for us to follow and not for us to lead Him. Secondly, our waiting for His response is the confirmation of our trust in His capability to lead us aright.
After David sought the Lord concerning the issue before him(either to go up to battle or not), then He heard the Lord saying, “Go up: for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand.” Here God said “go up”. This is David receiving the authority he required for his battle. “Go up”, is the authority most of us do not receive from God before setting out, because we cannot wait for it. This authourity is greatly needed and worth longing for, as all the expenses of our journey will be settled by it. It is our authourisation card which we will tender to whoever challenges the authourity by which we operate.
“And the LORD said unto David… I will doubtless DELIVER the Philistines into your hand.”
Here, Father is telling us that all we are anxious to go after, is in His dominion and He can deliver it to anyone anytime. Nevertheless friends, we can only receive this when we are not going before Him. If God is saying this to a man who sought His guidance then He can say the same to us too; when we give Him the chance.
In verses 23 and 24 we see God discussing strategies with David like a commander with his soldier.
One of the best thing we can do for ourselves is to always let the Lord go before us. Then you will be seeing Him breaking forth against your enemies and making crooked ways straight.
Contrary to this, in 1 Samuel 13:8-14, we can see king Saul going before the Lord by acting when the Lord expected him to wait. King Saul reigned for years but the Bible in 1 Samuel 13 :1 makes us to understand that he already missed it after 2 years of his reign. Just because he could not wait for God to lead him. It might be easy to blame Saul but if we read 1 Samuel chapter 13 from the first verse, we will see the pathetic situation he found himself. Prophet Samuel was yet to arrive, the already weak army around him were also abandoning him, the enemies armies are vast, superior and fully ready to attack. Yet friends, the Bible makes us understand that these were still not reasons good enough for him to go before the Lord. If we take time to now meditate on this, we will realise that even if Saul has all of Israel behind him, they will still not look like what could conquer the Philistine army described in this chapter. So also, if we would compare why we cannot (humanly speaking) wait for God and why we must wait for God (divinely speaking), we will realise that waiting for God is a better and profitable option. Instead of going out before God, we should press harder in prayer for grace and mercy. May God grant us such understanding in Jesus name!
We most times go before the Lord for the following reasons:
1) For selfish reasons: This is always to score a selfish point or done for a personal goal and purpose. We can even start blaming the Lord for not glorifying us in such selfish pursuit.
2) Putting people’s interest before God’s will. It might be that we are acting to be more generous or merciful than God who gives rain and sunshine to both the good and the wicked. This was often displayed in the different times Saul disobeyed God.
3) Thinking and acting like you know better than the all-knowing and all-sufficient Father. We most time think God’s time will be too late. We think Jesus is acting too slowly. And we think our plan will be best executed if we go all out on our own. Whenever the Israelite try this, they did pay with great loss. King Saul paid dearly for this also.
Whoever will be the child God will love should know that He might not be so dramatic or spectacular in speaking to him. Most times, God would send you forth in an unspectacular manner- without any show of mightiness. Your faithfully obeying this will then be the prerequisite for a spectacular confirmation of His Word through you. Most of us, because the instruction of our Lord to us does not look so spectacular, we find it so undramatic to a waiting and eager audience or challenging situation. Then we seem to add more dramatic action from our own wisdom. This always mars His mightiness, regarding Him as a weakling- too slow or too weak, to be taken at His Word.
Verse 24 is particularly telling us what God needed to do in going before David if David will not suffer loss.
For anyone that will refuse to go before God but let God go before Him, verse 20 of 2 Samuel 5 shall be his testimony:
“The LORD has broken forth upon my enemies before me, as the breakthrough of waters.”
May this be our testimony and may He make all our crooked ways straight in Jesus name.
Prayer Points
1) Lord Jesus, forgive me for ever going before You.
2) Father, remove the guilt of going before You from me and remove the record away from Your presence with the blood of Jesus.
3) Oh Lord, release into me the grace to seek and let You go before me at all times, in Jesus name.
4) My Father, My God, go before me, subdue my enemies and make crooked ways straight, in Jesus precious name.
5) Father, please do not put me on hold, do not put my issue on pending and do not delay in saving(healing, blessing etc) me.
