Sometimes, God likes to drop a bombshell when I’m not expecting it. For example, I was walking through a bookstore a few days ago, minding my own business, admiring the breathtaking stained glass windows on the ceiling, when I heard a distinctly prophetic word come from out of nowhere.



“Even the King had to wait to be King.”

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*Crickets*

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…yeah, that was my reaction too.

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I spent the next several minutes sitting down behind one of the tables in the coffee shop of said bookstore, praying and trying to capture what that phrase meant. Soaking in the silence of the quaint shop, suddenly, it hit me.

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David. The King was David. And in an instant, I had one of those breakdown, no way, “Really, God? Here and NOW?” moments where I had to fight back tears and swallow my skeptical, stubborn and unbelieving pride.

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There are major moments in the life of David we focus on because they teach us so much about his character. Being a shepherd boy, slaying Goliath, running from Saul, screwing up royally with Bathsheba (no pun intended), and ultimately, handing the throne to his son, Solomon. These are all great moment in his life, some remarkable and some shameful, but I think we ignore a major season in his life that he walked through, just because the bible doesn’t but a big red circle around it like most of the others.

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The season where David served.

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Saul was King over Israel. He started off a relatively great guy, but over the course of his reign, things began to deteriorate. More so, his relationship with God began to deteriorate. The crown got to his head (another unintentional pun), and before long, he was making his own decisions, defying what God was telling him to do over what was more profitable in his own eyes. It says God even went so far as to regret making Saul the King of Israel. You’ve gotta be doing something pretty dang horrible for God to regret using you.

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Not wanting a man like that to rule over His people, God sent His servant Samuel on a journey to find and anoint a new King, a King who would do right in the sight of God and obey His commandments. So Samuel gets to Bethlehem and finds a guy named Jesse who has four sons. Jesse introduces his three eldest boys to Samuel first. All three of them are mighty, rugged, Kingly looking guys who seemed like they’d do an excellent job representing the throne (then again, at this point, anyone was looking to do a better job than Saul.)

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God rejected the three men, and told Samuel He wasn’t interested in a man who looked like a King, He wanted someone who had the heart of a King… His heart. (1 Samuel 17:7)

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Samuel is then led to Jesse’s youngest son, a shepherd named David. Taking one look at David, Samuel was probably unimpressed. Unlike his older, masculine, war-torn brothers, David was a teenage pretty boy who played the harp and to sang to sheep. What made him different than his brothers however, was that unlike them, he was relentlessly pursing God. He was hungry on a daily basis to become more like Him, and reckless in following His commandments.

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Taking a flask of fragrant oil, Samuel then anointed David as King over all Israel. The Spirit of God that had once rested upon Saul, was transferred in that moment to the young shepherd boy from Bethlehem.

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Here is where the story gets me…although David was technically in command, it would be another few decades before he ever sat on a throne, wore a crown or was acknowledged by the Israelites as their King. In between herding the sheep and heralding the monarchy, there was a silent season of servitude.

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David played several roles in Saul’s kingdom shortly after he was anointed. He became the private musician to a restless Saul after the Spirit of God left him (for David, ironically), and after he bravely went up and killed Goliath, he spent the next several years as the general in Saul’s military. Everyone loved David. Saul’s kingdom, Saul’s army, Saul’s kids, and Saul’s God. Everyone that is, except Saul himself.

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Numerous times, Saul tried to have him killed and make it look like an accident. Attempts that were, not surprisingly, unsuccessful. Still, David honored his King, and most importantly, honored his God. David was aware of who he was. There was no mistaking the Spirit of God was upon him and that one day, he would rule over  Israel, but until that day, he would selflessly serve King Saul at whatever capacity he could, even if that King Saul wasn’t really the King at all.

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David’s story mirrors that of another King who faced a lagging delay between His anointing and His throne. This King however, was the King of Kings. Jesus.



Jesus was born to be King over all the world, replacing a realm of darkness thousands of years in the making. Just hours after being born, shepherds worshiped Him, and at age 30, after being baptized, the same Spirit of God that rested upon his ancestor, David, rested upon Him as well. You’d think, after all his, He would have taken His rightful place at the right hand of God. You’d be wrong.

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Although He was King, the throne tarried. For three years, He spent His life serving others. Healing the sick, talking to misfits and preaching to the masses. He was loved, He was hated and He was humbled. He washed the feet of those He called ‘brothers’ and was turned upon by the very ones who called Him ‘Master.’

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You can’t help but wonder as he hung upon that broken and bloody cross, dying in the most brutal imaginable, if He thought He might have missed something. The belly of hell screamed His name, mocking His crown, saying His efforts had been in vain. “You are no King”, I can imagine the demons laughed. Hope for humanity, and the throne, seemed lost.

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Plot twist: The battle wasn’t over.

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Just as God finally removed Saul from the picture, He removed death from that of Jesus’. By rising again three days later, Jesus took his rightful place as King. The kingdom of darkness trembled as it collapsed to the ground in reverence of the new Authority. Death had lost and redemption had been found. Once more, the rightful King ruled over all the earth. As He still does.

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This relates to us in SO many ways. God hardly ever hands His promises over as soon as He makes them. For reasons we can only see in hindsight, He makes us wait for them. Just like the time between the anointing the throne, there is a period of servitude we’re called to. A period that can be both beautiful and uncomfortable, a period where it hurts, a period where we have to serve “Kings” who are far from noble to us.

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It’s in our patience, that those demons try to tell us the same thing they told Jesus--we’re foolish. We begin to doubt God and question His faithfulness. We argue with ourselves and wonder if the promise we cling to, the invisible throne awaiting us, is even worth it.

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No good thing comes overnight. When a promise is made, there is almost always a prerequisite, especially with God.  Habakkuk 2:3 says “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come.”

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Though your promise lags, and you find yourself in a season where you’re smack dab between your past and your future, do not let go of the hope God has given you. In the end, it will speak so much louder than any whispering demon or unruly predecessor. God will do what He says He’ll do. Though you wait, He moves. And the throne awaits.