Because the historic account given 1 & 2 Samuel is not a moment-by-moment, month-by-month or year-by-year telling of events, a bit of catch up is necessary to set the scene for this lesson on partnering with God. By the time we reach 1 Samuel 16, Saul had been king for 25 years. It had been full of constant conflicts with “enemies on every side.” Military-wise King Saul had been quite successful.
Now when Saul had taken the kingdom over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, the sons of Ammon, Edom, the kings of Zobah, and the Philistines; and wherever he turned, he inflicted punishment. He acted valiantly and defeated the Amalekites, and delivered Israel from the hands of those who plundered them. (1 Sam. 14:57,58)
However, when it came to partnering, Saul was an epic failure, whether with Samuel or his son Jonathan, and especially with God. It is amazing how many times all of them kept trying. He didn’t get that God wanted to partner with him, just like He wants to partner with us. “For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.” (2 Chr. 16:9) “Strongly support” is the Hebrew word chazaq, which means to enable, encourage, and work with. He wants to be there with and for us, through it all. But, there is a condition. He is looking for a willing partner. “Completely” is the word shalem, which means ALL in - everything as a whole, as well as each and every aspect. It is OUR choice. It was Saul’s choice.
Unfortunately, Saul’s constant choice to NOT partner with God, also led him to making other bad choices, including blatant disobedience followed by justifications and blame. It reached the point where Samuel had to tell Saul, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you.”(1 Sam. 15:28) Despite his son’s worthiness to succeed him, Saul’s kingdom was going to be a one king kingdom. It would end with him. Only God knew when that would be.
As frustrating as Saul had been over those 25 years, Samuel cared deeply. He had invested a lot of time and effort into him, especially on his knees interceding for him. He grieved deeply over what was and what wasn’t and what could have been. His heart was broken. God’s heart was broken. The more we partner with God, the more our hearts will be in tune with God’s heart. What breaks His heart, breaks ours. Partnering with God can be painful.
Partnering with God can also be scary.
I love the fact that God gave Samuel time to grieve. Ecclesiastes 3 tells us, “There is an appointed time for everything … a time to weep, a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.” (vs. 1a,4) It still wasn’t time to laugh or dance, but it was time to get on with what God had for him to do. Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have selected a king for Myself among his sons.” 1 Samuel 16:1 That is quite specific: specific town, specific family.
Samuel was willing to do whatever God asked. However, there was a problem. “But Samuel said, “How can I go? When Saul hears of it, he will kill me.”(1 Samuel 16:2)
Why was Samuel afraid to go? In the following chapters in 1 Samuel, it becomes clear that Saul was losing it. He was cracking under the paranoia and fear. At any time his being king would end. He didn’t know when or how. Saul knew that Jonathan would not be his successor – not just because God said so, but because in a fit of self-righteous anger put a binding curse on him that he would never be king. It seems he was trying to make sure no one else became king either. There is a very good possibility that he was having Samuel watched at all times just in case he anointed someone else. What would our lives be like if we put as much effort into preventing consequences as avoiding them?
What made this even scarier for Samuel is that in order to go from Ramah, where he lived, to Bethlehem, where God told him to go, he had to passed right through Gibeah. Gibeah was where Saul lived and ruled – His place of power. God’s instructions to Samuel to go to Bethlehem meant walking right through his greatest fear and vulnerability. No wonder he was afraid that Saul would kill him. It was a very valid concern. Saul might not have needed to post spies.
God’s will and leading often require the same faith journey of us – taking us on a direct route into our worst fear-facing, faith-challenging “Gibeah” – travel right through the “enemy’s” hometown.
Why would God do that, especially to someone so wholeheartedly partnering with Him?
1. Because what He needs us to do is on the other side. We need to remember that His will for our lives will not lead us where His power cannot get us and His grace cannot keep us! Getting there is as important a being there and doing what He asks of us.
2. We are to walk by faith, not by sight. Fear and assumptions can cast a false illusion of what is “reality.” God alone knows what was, is and will be. We tend to forget that we walk into what is history to God. For us, faith is required. Every step of partnership is a step of faith. This is never more evident then when He asks us to walk through the unwanted and the unexpected. We need to trust Him that He is as involved in the journey as He will be in the assigned destination.
3. We need to learn to trust God with our fears as well as in our fears. Fear is a God-given emotion that makes us take seriously threats to our well-being and those for whom we are responsible. I love the fact that God did not belittle Samuel’s fear. He welcomes honesty. But Samuel still had to choose. So do we. “When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me? (Psalm 56:3,4)
Samuel asked, “How can I go?” Given his age and the current situation with Saul, it makes more sense that God would simply send the next king to him just like He did the first time with Saul. Then he used a herd of runaway donkeys. (See 1 Samuel 9:15-17) Instead God sent Samuel and provided him with the perfect solution where there was no reason for Samuel to sneak or lie. He was to do what he always did, just do it in Bethlehem. “And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ “You shall invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for Me the one whom I designate to you.” So Samuel did what the Lord said, and came to Bethlehem.”( 1 Samuel 16:2b-4a)
God has a perspective on things that we do not. He also does not think the way we think or even how we think He should think. In Isaiah 55:8,9, God tells us, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” We need to know this – believe this – trust this, because higher often means more than different. It may seem downright crazy or worse dangerous. It probably means going right through your Gibeah.
Do you know where Gibeah is on your life map – where what you fear most lives and rules?
My Gibeah is - inadequacy - a measurable lack of wisdom, resources, knowledge, ability, experience, education, strength and sometimes “want-to.” I can’t seem to go anywhere or do anything, without going through a reminder of how inadequate I truly am. God consistently calls me into ministries and sends me into situations where I fear my inadequacies could “kill me” or at least my effectiveness.
There are incredible discoveries you will make about yourself and your God that can only be made by partnering with God and walking by faith through your Gibeah. What I have learned from constantly traveling through my “Gibeah” is:
1. God prefers the inadequate.
“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29NIV)
2. Any and all adequacy comes from Him.
“Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:5,6)
3. Partnering with God in my obvious inadequacies requires that I learn how to not only be “strong in the Lord and the strength of His might” (Ephesians 6:10), but even more to be “weak in Him,” so that “the power of God flows”(2 Corinthians 13:4) and “learn to be well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”(2 Corinthians 12:10).
Samuel made it to Bethlehem without incident. However, an uneventful journey is not evidence of ungrounded fear, but praise-worthy confirmation of the incredible grace of God. I confess my usual response is mere relief or berating myself for having been afraid. Fear that freezes is faith-less; fear that actively partners with God is faith-full. So when we make it to our destination, stop, drop and worship. He is the one who got us safely through our Gibeah to this place of obedience. And remember, like Samuel, going home may mean another trip through Gibeah.
