I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt . . . (2 Samuel 7:5-7).

At a very early age I learned exactly where God lived.

I came to understand that God lived in the same place where I went to church every week. God’s address was the address of the Baptist church where my Dad preached and where I went to Sunday school and sang in choir. To go to church meant to pay a visit to the house of God. And when you went to God’s house a certain decorum was expected. For one thing, you dressed your best. And above all (I had to be told constantly) you were never to run in church.

It would be a few years before I came to understand God’s house in a more nuanced way. I was never bothered by whether the Methodist church or the Catholic Church in town were also God’s house. I just assumed that God inhabited my church and that the furniture and the carpet and the smell of cinderblock classrooms were part of God’s dwelling place.

A House for God

In the story of David there comes a season when the overlooked shepherd boy is firmly established is Israel’s king. Those days of running from Saul are over. David’s enemies either feared him, or they had just grown weary of fighting him. A period of peace settled on Israel, and David was finally able to think and act like a real King – a man with power and authority and resources. David was in a good place, and this is when he got a brilliant idea.

David’s soul was sensitive enough to be troubled by the discrepancy between the fine paneled house where he lived and the tent that served as God’s dwelling place. Since the days of Moses, the Ark of the Covenant had been housed in a mobile home, a tent that could be dismantled and packed up and then put back together again.

Comfortably settled in his palace of Cedar, David started to feel some discomfort with this arrangement. God deserved a real house and David would see to it that such a house was built.

The prophet Nathan was totally on board. After all, wouldn’t anyone who cared anything about God want God to have a nice house?

The only one who had no interest in the plan, as it turns out, was God.

God On the Move  

Through the prophet Nathan God had a message for David. God wanted David to know that he was getting ahead of himself. Basically, God told David “Stay in your lane.”

God had been doing just fine for centuries and had never needed a house. Rather, God had always been on the move. This is how God works – moving with his people, leading and guiding and correcting when they lose their way.

To be fair, God did have a special place of meeting with his people. God had given detailed instructions for the construction of the tabernacle. And God did allow a Temple to be built – but David would not be the one to build it.

What God wanted David to know would later find expression in the words of the apostle Paul. “The God who made the world and everything in it does not live in temples built by hands.” (Acts 17:24).                

This is good news for you today. God doesn’t hang out a shingle and wait for you to come to his place of business. Your place is his place of business. God is faithful to meet you in that cherished place where you worship week by week, but he is truly at home beyond those walls. God is on the move, going where you go and helping you do what you need to do.

You can find God right where you are and anywhere you plan to be. So today, talk with him freely. Walk with him closely.

Prayer:

Go with us today, O God, and grant that we might find you in the ordinary places where we dwell from week to week. Give us eyes to see how you are at work around us, and by your Spirit do that work through us, we ask in Jesus’s name. Amen.  

“There remains yet the youngest . . .” (1 Samuel 16:11)

What comes to us as an afterthought is always forethought with God.

What never occurred to us was held from eternity past in the inscrutable mind of God as his plan and will.  

Moved by the mystery of God’s ways, the apostle Paul asked, “Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” (Romans 11:33-36).  The implied answer is clear: No one. Ever. The prophet Isaiah gave voice to the same idea, reminding us that God’s ways are not our ways. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).  

In amazement and surprise we sometimes ask, “Who would have thought?” What we learn from the story of David is that God thought it. God thought it all along.

The One Overlooked

The prophet Samuel wanted to meet the sons of Jesse.

Slightly puzzled, but greatly honored, Jesse was only too happy to oblige. He didn’t know exactly what was going on, but like any proud Father he gathered his boys and had them extend a proper greeting and welcome to the visiting holy man.

What Jesse didn’t know was that Samuel was ready to anoint the next King. That was the whole point of his visit to Bethlehem, a visit disguised as a worship event so as not raise Saul’s suspicions. With every greeting Samuel looked at Jesse’s sons wondering if this was the one.

God had ruled out what appeared to be the natural choice, the impressive Eliab. Jesse then had Abinadab and Shammah extend their welcome to the prophet. Nice guys, but no. God had not chosen them. The other sons passed before Samuel, seven of them in all. No word from God. No king among them.

Finally, Samuel pressed Jesse. “Is this it? Are all your Sons here?”

And then . . . the afterthought. The one overlooked. The least likely. Jesse answered, “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.” Samuel insisted on meeting him. They would not even sit down until he arrived. And when this youngest son appeared God spoke. “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”

So begins the amazing story of King David. Jesse’s afterthought was God’s forethought.  

Where from Here?   

Sooner or later we all ask ourselves, “What’s next?” or “Where from here?”

We consider our options, make a list, come up with a plan. And maybe, one by one, the things that seem to make the most sense to us simply don’t work out.

This is when – like Samuel and the family of Jesse – we stand and wait.

There is something you haven’t considered, a possibility that seems unlikely. There is a plan that hasn’t occurred to you. There is someone you have yet to meet. God delights in surprising us this way. God chooses what we overlook. Our afterthought is God’s forethought.

This may be true of your future spouse, a job you’re not looking for, a child you will one day adopt, a move you have yet to make. God sees all of this. So be still. Stand and wait. That might be what God is asking of you today. Something that never occurred to you is about to happen.

Maybe there’s a prayer you need to pray today that might go something like this: “Lord, show me what I’m missing. Reveal what I’ve overlooked.” And then be ready to stand still long enough for God to answer.

Remember, what others saw as a ‘kid’, God saw as a king. 

Prayer:

Grant me grace, O God, to see beyond what is obvious and reasonable. Grant to me a holy patience when the best options seem to be going nowhere. Remind me that there is yet the unlikely way – a way of your choosing ad not my own. Help me to stand still and wait on your surprising work in my life, I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.