PODCAST EPISODE: The Spiritual Coaching Dashboard… Click HERE to listen instead of read.

QUICK SUMMARY: For this episode, I am going to continue the discussion about being benched by God. For this to make the greatest impact on you, and make the most sense to you, it is best that you go back and catch the previous episode HERE. I describe being benched by God as when he pauses, ends, or removes something you value and does not explain or replace it! It is when God gives you postdated (future) marching orders and nothing to do in the meantime. Benching happens when God sits you down and says, “I’ll get back to you.” It is when he takes away meaningful ministry or work and all he says is, “trust me!” The change creates a sudden wound, the lack of explanation leaves you silently wondering, and the absence of replacement forces you to sit and wait. Wounded, wondering, and waiting. That is what it is like to be benched by God.

In David’s story, we see a teen who is anointed king… who begins to move into manhood and great promotion… who is then abruptly paused by God for a prolonged wait… till his advancement and career is eventually unpaused and allowed to move forward. But what he learns while paused, and the people God puts around him in that season, are as important as the future God has waiting. He distinguishes himself as a leader who can think for himself and stand against the pressure of temptation. He willingly settles for the cave of an outcast instead of the cape of a hero. He learns a difficult lesson about what impatience as a leader can mean to those who follow us. He stays present and grows where God has planted him. He manages to get others to join him in the waiting room, on the bench, far from the game being played without them. And we see what all that does for his eventual reign as king. He is not the only one who is made ready to step into their destiny by some time on the bench!

Looking for more? Keep reading!

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GO DEEPER: (Read the “QUICK SUMMARY” first.) In the last episode…

What God does while you wait is as valuable as what you are waiting for!

Sideline Lesson #1 When benched, focus on God, not the next task – wait closely.
Sideline Lesson #2 – When benched, focus on the present, not the future – wait currently.
Sideline Lesson #3 – When benched, focus on faith, not comfort – wait courageously.

Called But Stalled… Prepared But Paused?

Here is why I stuck this unplanned episode into the mix. While reading the Bible the other morning I was reminded of a great example of being benched by God. It is the story of David’s long wait to become king of Israel.

Let me set the stage with a reader’s digest condensed version of the story. King Saul makes a mess of things and God  rejects him as king. He sends the Prophet Samuel out to anoint aa very young shepherd named David. David ends up in King Saul’s court as a musician helping calm Saul when he is agitated. He becomes a very agitated and fearful guy after Samuel informs him the God has rejected him because of his rebellion and disobedience. Then David kills Goliath. Things are definitely looking up for David now. He not only wins that prestigious one-on-one fight but turns and leads a victorious battle against the enemy. He is even given King Sauls daughter in marriage as was promised to the man who killed the giant Goliath. The people are singing songs about his military prowess… and that he has been more successful than Saul. As you might guess, that is when things begin to go precipitously down hill. A very jealous Saul makes multiple unsuccessful attempts on David’s life. David’s skill at dodging spears in battle saves him from Saul’s javelin. Saul’s own son and daughter have to intervene to save David’s life. 

To keep my promise to keep the story short, while running for his life he has to fain insanity, begs for food from priests, and ends up hiding in a cave. The very priests that give him food are slaughtered, 85 alongs with the families and livestock, because he told them he was running an errand for the king, not that he was running from the king. Imaging the pain, guilt, doubt and regret that threatened to crush his spirit. David is on the bench, so to speak, for 12-13 years before becoming king of Judah, but 15-20 years before he finally becomes king of all Israel, which is what he was promised. 

An Outcast’s Cave Not A Hero’s Cape!

At the front end of his wait we find David hiding in a cave! As the narrative advances, we find David and his men wandering in the wilderness to avoid detection and dodge engagement with Saul and his minions. He is choosing to stay where God put him, on the bench, instead of finding a way off it. While hunted by Saul (1Samuel 23:-15), and protected from discovery by God, there were two occasions when he could have ended it all by taking advantage of a clear opportunity to kill King Saul. He could have left the cave behind for the throne room of the palace and sent his many companions home to their families. Those very companions are of course urging him to kill Saul, once in that very cave he hid in, and once as Saul slept at his feet after David snuck into the camp. But he resists the pull and push of peer pressure, of his own bottled and throttled energy, capability and destiny, to wait for God’s timing. His men see God’s hand in the opportunity, but David sees something else. There is no way he is going to help God’s plan along in his own power, especially by raising his hand agains someone God has put in power and seen fit to leave there for the time being (1Samuel 24 & 26). He did not know how or when God would end Saul, but it was God’s choice to make, when to end a life, especially one chosen, appointed and promoted by God (1Samuel 23:9-11).

He resists the pull and push of peer pressure, of his own bottled and throttled energy, capability and destiny, to wait for God’s timing. 

He was rejected and ejected! Only by man, not by God, even though the pause could have made it feel like God has walked away. King Saul was where the action was as well as the national support – he was the epitome of “in the game.” Where was David? Hiding in a cave (after fainting insanity and being rejected again, 1Samuel 21:10-15). He had to sit still and watch the nation he loved and would one day rule, suffer under King Saul’s unpredictable rule. When he observed injustice from afar and noticed areas where improvement could and should be made for the welfare of the people, he had no power or opportunity to do anything. Close enough to see, to be frustrated, to be almost there, and yet far enough away to be powerless and forced to do nothing.

Impatient Curiosity = Deadly Consequences
In fact, when he got curious or impatient, ventured from his damp and dank confinement, and allowed himself to get drawn in too close, bad things happened… to others. Many people died when they innocently gave aide to David. He took the sword of Goliath, which was rightfully his, and even ate the bread consecrated to God because he was so hungry, and got 85 priests and their families slaughtered. Occasionally he emerged and was able to lend some aide (1Samuel 23), but that only lead to the wilderness and betrayal, and more hiding from Saul, driving him deeper into the wilderness. Only news of war in the homeland, to which Saul had to return to, saved David from detection. Surely this experience helped him wait later, during the many years on the bench, so that his followers were not sacrificed on the altar of his promotion or vengeance or impatience.

Like Goliath’s sword, the kingdom was rightfully his also, but that he did not take. Starting a fight is a very different matter from taking the spoils of war after God has called us into a fight. We must wait for God’s leading – give him credit for the victory – before the spoils are ours. (See the post-Jericho battle at Ai and Achan’s story, Joshua 6-8)

Right after huge victories, when things seemed to be going so well, when he has the king’s favor and everyone else’s for that matter, God let things go sideways, paused his progress, and benched him!

He was anointed but for a future time, commissioned but his moment was not yet. With no explanation other than it will someday be your kingdom, Gid benches David. But God is in that cave with him, at least as far as Divid’s relationship with God goes. Right after huge victories, when things seemed to be going so well, when he has the king’s favor and everyone else’s for that matter, God let things go sideways, paused his progress, and sent him back to the dreaded bench!

Stalled But Not Stagnate
But neither God nor David are stagnate while waiting. David’s character is being further developed. The fear of God over the fear of man, differentiating himself from the crowd and cultural pressure and temptation to conform, patience, self-control, hearing God, embracing discomfort and God’s blessing over comfort without it, being burdened and called but refusing to make a way to step into it before God is ready for him to do so… lots of growth opportunity… before God has him ready to do so. All that was happening whether or not David saw it, or viewed it as important if he did.

…Being burdened and called but refusing to make a way to step into it before God is ready for him to do so…
Before God has him ready to do so.

Consider what it says about David’s time in that cave and in the wilderness:

1Samuel 22:1-2 So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. Soon his brothers and all his other relatives joined him there. Then others began coming—men who were in trouble or in debt or who were just discontented—until David was the captain of about 400 men.
1Samuel 23:13, 24-25 So David and his men—about 600 of them now—… began roaming the countryside. Word soon reached Saul that David had escaped, so he didn’t go to Keilah after all. David now stayed in the strongholds of the wilderness and in the hill country of Ziph. Saul hunted him day after day, but God didn’t let Saul find him… Meanwhile, David and his men had moved into the wilderness … When David heard that Saul and his men were searching for him, he went even farther into the wilderness…

Not Alone On The Bench
A couple things stand out from these verses. David was a leader, he could not help but lead. Other warriors, and those that were down-and-out, were attracted to him. Not all leaders are this attractive, nor do they need to be, but every leader eventually finds that people are following of their own accord. Even as an outcast who was going nowhere, doing little or nothing, people wanted to follow him. I am not sure how many of them knew where they were going, but where ever it was, they wanted to go there with David. He excelled where he was. He was who he was, where he was. They may have been a band of malcontents and misfits, but they found someone worth their allegiance in David. Surely relationships and bonds were being made that lasted a lifetime. We know that is true because they followed him even when he was (apparently) running like a coward deeper and deeper into the middle of nowhere. All those men, strong men, valiant men, physically mighty, strong of heart and will, needed to be lead. David was not only learning how to lead those who could be difficult to lead, but he was learning about particular gifts of specific men who he latter would appoint to various positions in his administration. Whether it was David that was growing, or his connections and their character also, his presence, character and leadership moulded them, allowing some serious development to happen. The bench was a place of great activity. He just had to settle down there, temporarily but contently, patiently, tenaciously, for the good to be done in that season, to get done. Seems David successfully got others who would normally be the last to sit down, to join him on that bench!

They respected his courage, his fight, his resolve, his abilities in battle AND on the bench!

Surely David could attract and retain those lives because he could relate to them from his own story. Because they could relate to his story. Because they wanted the strength David had to excel wherever he was, even when the plan was taking far too long to develop. Even when the visions seemed to have no hope of being realized. They respected his courage, his fight, his resolve, his abilities in battle AND on the bench! He was not just a warrior, he was a poet, song writer, musician. He was strong enough to be both fierce warrior and impassioned worshiper. His faith was strong enough to last all the days of prolonged waiting because this heart was big enough, humble enough, soft enough, transparent enough to reveal his struggle and resolve. And hard enough to stand loyal to God no matter what. His lyrics and melodies were sung at night around the campfires, keeping the fire in their bellies stoked as well. 

Post-Benching Prowess
And what do we know of David after God pushed play again. After he un-pauses his life and career? After he finished with Saul, and Jonathan for that matter. After things were made ready for David to reemerge, once God had perfectly set the stage? He was eventually able to reunite the kingdom into a cohesive whole (2Samuel 5:1-5). Surely there were warriors among his men from every tribe in Israel that made the merger possible. Immediately he leads that combined army up to Jerusalem and despite their over-confidence and taunts, takes it, makes it his own, and his capitol (2Samuel 5:6-10). Ever since that city has played a huge role in world history. Then he defeated their constant enemy, the Philistines (2Samuel 5:17-25). His accomplishments just keep rolling from there forward. Do not think that God’s pause was random, without purpose, or had little or no affect on that outcome!

While the following verse was written after David’s time, it makes you wonder if the author, or God who inspired him, had David’s story in mind.

Habakkuk 2:3 This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed. (NLT)

“For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay. (NASB95)

It seems David somehow knew that… what God does while you wait is as valuable as what you are waiting for! In fact, he must have come to believed that what God does while you wait is critical to what he does when the wait is over.

His courage showed not just in his skills in combat, but in his relationship with God — his faith in God’s promise, his trust in God’s character, and his willingness to play whatever role God chose for him.

David kept his focus on God through obedience, patience, and worship. The next mission would come soon enough. He was present focused, not so fixated on the future that he missed opportunities in the present or wasted the chance to grow himself and others right where he was. He certainly was not focused on his physical comfort or any other kind of luxury for that matter or he would have taken matters into his own hands long before God was ready to put him back in the game. His courage showed not just in his skills in combat, but in his relationship with God — his faith in God’s promise, his trust in God’s character, and his willingness to play whatever role God chose for him.

Remember these lessons from the sideline…

Sideline Lesson #1 When benched, focus on God, not the next task – wait closely.
Sideline Lesson #2 – When benched, focus on the present, not the future – wait currently.
Sideline Lesson #3 – When benched, focus on faith, not comfort – wait courageously.

If anything you read hit home, raised questions, or helped you realize you could use some help, follow this link to get in touch with a Two Rivers coach.

Read the previous connected blog that details what being benched by God is, HERE.