Greetings again my Brethren. Let us continue looking at the divine providence in the life of David. This month we will look at four areas enthroned, preserved, chastened, and restored. The word enthroned means to be placed on a throne as a king or queen or to be placed in a place of high authority. In 2 Samuel we read where David was anointed king by the people, but 14 years earlier David was anointed king by Samuel and God. “So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the LORD: and they anointed David king over Israel. 4 David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.” (2 Samuel 5:3-4) Until then David was on the run for his life from Saul, but when God says it is time to be king things happen. One would think he lived happily ever after, but not in David’s life. Actually once he became king things really happened: to him and in him. So too in our lives. When God begins to use us change around us and in us takes place. In 2 Samuel we see David in the second area we shall discuss this month in a place of preservation and at rest from his enemies. “And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the LORD had given him rest round about from all his enemies,” (2 Samuel 7:1) This rest comes by being preserved by God. Before we can answer the call of God in our lives we must be at rest in our physical life, but more important in our spiritual. If our outward life is troubled; bill collectors calling, running from the law, a mountain of debt and loans that fills our thoughts, or even our health in question our inward spirit will be troubled and hearing from God will be difficult at best. God has kept us all of these years in spite of ourselves and our actions and now God has us at rest so we can receive of His instructions, if not what the LORD has for our lives will never come to pass. I can look back in my life and see how God preserved me from so many bad things that would have short circuited from His will for my life. At the time I did not see His preservation, but now with spiritual insight I see how God protected and kept me while others I was with ended in jail or dead. What is the cost for the unseen hand of God in our lives? I do not know, but what I do know is we must pay it if not we will end in ruin and destruction. One would think with the protection of the LORD there would be no need for correction or chastisement, well not so in God’s order of things. As a matter of fact the more we walk in God’s ways and the more He does for us the more correction and chastisement He brings into our lives. Now here is the odd thing God uses people near and dear to our heart to bring this correction. Even to this day in Israel no king was more beloved than David. But king David made some huge mistakes as a king and as a father that almost caused him his throne and his life. God knows how to get our attention. He knows how to get to our heart, where our hands hang by our side and our knees shake. Also in 2 Samuel God was getting David’s attention with his son Absalom because of David’s in inability to run his house hold. His failure caused jealousy and division in his household and kingdom to the point God’s plan for David’s life was in jeopardy of total collapse. In 2 Samuel we read, “And it was so, that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took him, and kissed him.6 And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment: so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.” (2Samuel 15:5-6) Make no mistake my friend God has ways to get our attention. When we get off track God knows just the fears, scars, and infirmities in our lives that will get our attention to get us back on track. Now many Christians would say God would not do this, well I am here to tell you God is a master of using people and events in our lives to show us our errors and to bring correction so that we may learn from our errors. God is not trying to kill us, but is trying to teach us His ways so He can use us. How can God use us if we do not know how God operates? Functions? We cannot. God must teach us His ways and God uses the chastening in our lives, because He loves us. The writer to the Hebrews tells us, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” (Hebrews 12:6) The chastening and scourging leads to the last area this month and that is restored. We can never be restored unless God can chasten us. The restoration comes out of us learning we have failed in some way and when we make it right between God and man something magically happens when we are restored back to God and sometimes man. Notice I said sometimes with man. With God all the time, God will take us back to His heart if we confess our failure or sin, man well he is a different animal. I have been waiting to be made whole in many relationships with family and Christians and will continue to wait, but it takes two to allow God to work on their hearts. If one is worked on and the other not yet then waiting on God is the only thing to do. Restoration is God’s goal in any relationship that has been fractured. In David’s case we read in 2 Samuel, “And Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why speak ye not a word of bringing the king back?” (2 Samuel 19:10) God spoke and Absalom was killed. Absalom was the second son of David to die because of his disobedience. A heavy price to pay for a king to lose two sons, two heirs. Even those restored back to God and man often there is a price, a cost we will pay for our waywardness and disobedience. Often this cost is paid by people we love and live near us.
Next month we will finish looking at David and the entire teaching “The Call of God” by looking at Psalms 75:5-7 and how it relates to divine providence. In two months we will begin a brand new teaching “Waiting on God.” Did you hear Him call? If not listen closely my friend it is not too late to hear Him call.
Written by David Stahl
