A Time of Waiting

No one likes waiting—it’s hard. We say things like, “What’s taking so long?” “What’s the holdup?” “Don’t they have any competent people around here?” Waiting is uncomfortable. We feel we are wasting time that could be spent in a more profitable way. “I could be doing a hundred other things I want to do.” Waiting, however, is part of life. We wait our turn at the checkout, at the doctor’s office, and in traffic, but most importantly, we wait on God.

Yes, God makes us wait, too. Why would he do that? He does that because we are not ready, so we wait. David had been chosen king but wasn’t prepared, so God had him go through a period of waiting that lasted 13 years. Yikes, we say!

Psalms 130:5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.

When Things Look Bad God Is Working

The last five chapters of 1 Samuel interweave the two contrasting stories of Saul and David in a way that suggests that the events described in each narrative were happening at about the same time. As the terrified Saul approached his final confrontation with the Philistines, and at last took his own life on Mount Gilboa, David was three days journey away, to the south, smashing Amalekites.

2 Samuel 1:1 After the death of Saul, David returned from striking down the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days.

We Had Hoped He Was The One

In the end, the Philistines defeated Saul and drove him to suicide. He died an utter failure. The people lamented, “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”

The book of 2 Samuel opens with the implied question, what will happen “after the death of Saul”? If Saul could not secure Israel’s life, what hope was there?

Luke 24:21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.

Jesus’ shameful, humiliating death dashed the hopes of those who had believed in him, just as the death of Saul had shattered the hope of his followers.

Certainly some saw Jesus’ terrible death (like Saul’s) as God’s judgment on him, and they were not entirely wrong. They drew the apparent conclusion that his death (like Saul’s) marked his disqualification from being the Messiah he had claimed to be.

The death of the king and the terrible defeat suffered by Israel at the hands of the Philistines up north was devastating. We are told that the Philistines proclaimed the “good news” of their decisive triumph throughout their land. While this is the main action we hardly notice what was happening with David, far away to the south. It would have been difficult to think that whatever was happening down there near Ziklag could have any bearing on the dismal future now faced by the vanquished people of Israel

The victorious one was David. Any hope in Saul was now gone. All hope now rested in David. Not all Israelites yet realized or accepted this. However 2 Samuel opens by drawing our attention from Saul and his final failure to David and his distant victory over Israel’s enemies.

Two Days That Changed Everything

The reference to the period of time after David had won his victory, but before the news of Saul’s death had reached him: “David remained two days in Ziklag”

2 Samuel 1:1 After the death of Saul, David returned from striking down the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days.

We are told that David remained there for two days before the next major event occurred.

1 Corinthians 15:4

that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

The two days between the death of Saul and the emergence of David “on the third day” (2 Samuel 1:2) was a part of the pattern.”

Jesus’ disciples did not realize that these two days of darkness were part of God’s plan. While Jesus lay in his grave and all seemed lost, God was making his people wait. He was, however, about to do something that would change the world forever.