Not In The Plan

When we left David yesterday, he was standing over Goliath's body. He had to feel like he was on top of the world. The king was well pleased with him. The king's son, Jonathon, and he were rapidly becoming the best of friends. He truly had it all. That whole believing in God thing seemed to be working out wonderfully. 1 Samuel 18 says that Whatever Saul sent him to do, David did it so successfully that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the people, and Saul's officers as well.

And then it all changed. On the way back home, the people came out to sing songs about Israel's victory. The problem was, their song gave more of the credit to David than to King Saul. Saul became so jealous that he decided the only way to keep David from killing him and taking his throne would be to kill David first. Very quickly David had gone from nobody of consequence to the rock star of Israel to a fugitive. He would spend the rest of Saul's life on the run, constantly having to look over his shoulder to see if the king's men were on his heels.

It doesn't make sense to us why our lives can go from low to high to low and back again. We feel like once we've figured it all out God will bless us and life will be rosy from then on. David must have had some of the same questions we do. What David didn't do, however, was lose faith that God had a plan for him. Twice during his time on the run, David had the opportunity to kill the king. He even had his companions urging him on and telling him he should. In 1 Samuel 24:6 David says, "The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD's anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD."

You and I cannot forget that God is there and his plan is being carried out even when things seem to have gone terribly wrong. And when a potential way out presents itself to us, even if our closest friends and family are telling us to go for it, we have to stop and take a look at the situation. God isn't going to ask us to do anything that collides with his love and will for us. David knew that killing God's appointed king was wrong even though it seemed like the answer on the surface. Likewise we have to remember that the easy way out isn't necessarily God's plan for us.