BOLD Daily Devotional: Recognition or Selection

Samuel chapter 4, and I've given it a title, and the title is Don't Confuse Recognition with Selection.

All right, so just to give you a little bit of background knowledge, um in 2nd Samuel 3, well, good evening once again.

We're gonna be doing 2 Samuel chapter 4, and the title for tonight's message is Don't Confuse Recognition with Selection.

2 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

And again, trying to give you a little bit of background knowledge or some context, we're gonna go to 2 Samuel 3, and we know that Abner has been killed.

IspoSheth has lost the man who largely sustained his kingdom, while on the other hand, David is still waiting for the full kingdom that God has promised to him.

Now we're gonna walk through 2 Samuel chapter 4 very quickly.

2 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

In verses 1 through 4, Isposheth becomes afraid.

And then we get introduced uh to Mephibosheth.

Oh, these are difficult names.

In verses 5 through 8, there's Bana Bana Ish, and they bring his head to believing that David is going to give them a reward for their deed.

In verses 9 through 10, David remembers God's faithfulness and he refuses their interpretation of that murder as God's work.

And then finally, the chapter comes to a close in verses 11 through 12.

David executes justice rather than benefiting from their wrongdoing.

So then I have to ask a question: why could David afford to respond the way that he did?

Right?

He knew what he had been promised.

The very thing Ish Boshet's death appeared to make possible, right?

Yet David didn't say, Well, gee whiz, finally God has removed the last obstacle.

On the other hand, he rejected the means because he trusted the one who had selected him to handle his elevation.

Now we're going to talk a little bit about not confusing recognition with selection.

So we're going to go back briefly in the Bible to 1 Samuel 16, and we know the story.

In that chapter, David was selected there, right?

Then we fast forward a little bit.

Judah recognizes him in 2 Samuel chapter 2.

2 Samuel 2 · chapter mention

And then, spoiler alert, all of Israel recognizes him in 2 Samuel chapter 5.

2 Samuel 5 · chapter mention

So again, don't confuse recognition with selection.

Selection answers the question, who chose you?

Recognition answers the question, who can see it?

And they're not the same thing.

Now we know that David was selected again by God in verse 16 when Sal anointed him.

But body didn't immediately recognize what God had placed on his life.

You know the story.

Of time between God's selection and people's recognition.

And in that distance was David's or some of David's development.

So selection can happen before recognition.

When Samuel goes to Jesse's house, David wasn't even initially brought into the room, if you remember.

His father presented the other sons while David remained with the sheep.

Yet the person people overlooked was the person God had already selected.

So being overlooked by people does not mean you've been overlooked by God.

David's selection, if you recall, didn't begin when somebody finally noticed his potential.

God saw something in David long before people around him understood what they were seeing.

Recognition often comes in stages.

This is particularly interested in David's story because recognition for him was not one dramatic moment.

If you remember, he was first recognized as God's choice when Samuel came to anoint him.

Later, if you remember David entered Saul's court, and then the people began recognizing David's military success.

The Bible says that the people were saying, Saul hath slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.

And then, of course, later uh Judah recognizes David as king in 2 Samuel and 2.

Um, and then we'll finally learn tomorrow that in 2 Samuel 5, all of Israel recognizes him as king.

So God's selection then was settled long before the public recognition became complete.

Now, in the meantime, David had to live faithfully in that space between the selection and the recognition.

And that's where much of the story tends to take place.

Now, the space between these uh two points, recognition or selection and recognition, can be dangerous.

So once you believe God has called you to something, there can be a temptation, and I'm sure we've all experienced it, to become impatient when other people don't recognize it.

And that's where people sometimes begin to try to manufacture recognition.

What might that look like?

Well, they might try promoting themselves, they might try manipulating relationships, they might become resentful toward the person who occupies that position that they believe belongs to them.

Right?

They might interpret every obstacle as someone preventing their destiny, or they accept questionable opportunities because those opportunities appear to be able to move them closer to what God has promised.

Now, David had many of those same kinds of opportunities.

He could have taken advantage of them and done exactly just that.

He could have killed Saul, but he didn't.

He could have celebrated Saul's death, but he didn't.

He could have benefited from Abner's murder.

And then, of course, in the chapter today in 2 Samuel chapter 4, he could have rewarded those two men for killing Ispo Sheth, but he didn't.

2 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

As a matter of fact, he had them killed.

Each event could have been rationalized by thinking and saying that would have said, this must be God making room for me.

But David was a man of integrity.

He refused to confuse an opportunity to advance with permission from God to advance that way.

Right?

And that's significant.

So selection does not eliminate preparation.

Right?

When Samuel poured oil on David, David was selected, but he wasn't ready to govern Israel yet.

The anointing identified him.

The process, on the other hand, developed him.

So between the oil in 1 Samuel 16 and the throne in 2 Samuel chapter 5, David learned leadership.

2 Samuel 5 · chapter mention

He learned warfare, restraint, relationships, grief, betrayal, dependence upon God, and he learned how to handle the anointing as well as power.

So we could say then that selection tells us that God is chosen.

Preparation develops the character that's necessary to carry that for which God has chosen us.

Recognition will come afterwards.

And sometimes we want recognition to arrive immediately after selection.

But I would think God is more concerned about character.

He's more concerned with the formation of that character.

Recognition does not validate selection.

We shouldn't conclude, well, if God really loved me or really called me, excuse me, eventually somebody will recognize it.

We can't hinge in on that, right?

David's story doesn't give us permission to hang on to that kind of a statement, not even to promise it to ourselves, right?

Because people can misunderstand God's calling.

Some may never recognize it, right?

And sometimes we ourselves can mistakenly believe that God has selected us for something that He has not.

Therefore, recognition is not the proof of selection.

God's calling must be discerned through relationship with Him, scripture, character, wisdom, and confirmation, and even fruit, right?

Not merely applause or opportunity.

Those are the things that would help us to get there.

Lastly, recognition can confirm what God has already established.

So now we get there it is, there's the fruit.

Now we arrive at 2 Samuel chapter 5.

2 Samuel 5 · chapter mention

We're gonna know, spoiler alert, the elders come to David and essentially say, We recognize who you are, and they anoint him king over Israel.

But their anointing didn't suddenly create God's purpose for David.

They were catching up with what God had already declared.

And now this brings us back to Ishbosheth.

Abner made Ishbosheth king.

We know that.

God selected David to be king, we know that.

But Isbosheth needed human power to sustain what human power had established.

David, on the other hand, had to trust God to bring into public recognition what God had already selected in private.

So, what do we do when we believe God has selected us, but people haven't recognized it yet?

Let me say that again.

What do we do when we believe that God has selected us, but people haven't recognized us yet?

David's life gives us several answers.

For one, we can serve where we are, just keep serving, just keep serving, or as the Lego would say, just keep swimming.

You develop while you wait.

We honor people we could easily resent.

We can refuse shortcuts that violate God's character.

We can allow God to deal with those obstacles that might be in the way.

And we don't mistake visibility for validation, right?

And we don't require a title to begin becoming the person that God has called us to be.

So, in summing it up, recognition may reveal a calling, but it does not create one.

If God has selected us, our responsibility is not to force people to see it.

Our responsibility is to faithfully become prepared to carry it.

And 2 Samuel chapter 4 shows us David doing exactly that protecting his character while God handled his elevation.

2 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

And with that, I will yield.