We come to the end of David's training period before becoming king. Back in 1 Samuel 16:13, David was anointed by Samuel to be the next king of Israel. This was fifteen years ago. What David did not know was his training was just beginning. What he did not know was just how long this period would last, how difficult it would be, and how unprepared he was when it started. There were many high points in these years such as God's victory over Goliath through David. There were his earlier victories as he rose in the sight of the nation. But then with the envy of Saul there were so many years of hiding, running, loneliness, etc. These were the seemingly never-ending wilderness years. These were the years of preparation as God transformed this shepherd boy into the next king of Israel. These were the years that David had no one and nothing else to fall back on other than God. Interestingly Joseph, back in Genesis 37-50 went through a similar experience spending 14 years during one trial after another between his visions and his becoming 2nd in command next to Pharoah. Concerning Joseph, we read in Psalm 105:19, "Until the time that his word came to pass, The word of the Lord tested him." David had many times of moving forward interposed with times of backsliding. The times of backsliding was when he trusted in his own instincts and his own strength.

The times of David's moving forward is revealed in the many times such as in 1 Samuel 7-8, "Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, "Please bring the ephod here to me." And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. So David inquired of the Lord, saying, "Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?" And He answered him, "Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all." David once again directed his eyes onto God for direction.

We all want an easy road to success. We want to go to school but don't want it to be hard. We choose a vocation and we desire to be catapulted effortlessly to a leadership role. Our goal in life is not to move from dependence on our parents to independence as is so often stated. It is to move from dependence on our parents to dependence on God realizing our own impotence and frailty in the process. We need these wilderness experiences as much as David did. When we find ourselves there, we can either whine and complain, commiserating with our peers as to how difficult and unfair things are, in the process learning nothing. Or we can learn to take our eyes off of ourselves and focus on the only true source of strength and power, our God, who will see us through to the other side stronger than we started and in a position to become a leader.