God's Dark Room

Back in the 1950s, the Brooklyn Dodgers had a manager named Leo Durocher, known for his ruthless tactics and generally nasty personality. The Dodgers’ cross-town rivals, the New York Giants, were managed by the honest and likable Mel Ott. When a reporter asked him about this, Durocher once quipped, “nice guys finish last—the nice guys are over there, in 7th place.”

David’s story raises the question: do nice guys finish last? Long ago, he committed to living for God’s glory and trusting God’s word. Where has it gotten him? It has been fifteen years since God promised to make him king. Walking God’s way has gotten David nearly assassinated, slandered, driven from home, forced to hide in caves and among the Philistines. When God finally brought him back to Judah, he immediately plunged into a long, bitter civil war. We admire David’s integrity, faith, and patience. But does God’s way—this long, steep road—just lead to a dead end? Do nice guys finish last? Do the meek inherit the earth? The story of 4:1–5:5 should encourage us.

We are reminded that God’s way is often slow (4:1-4). In high school, my English teacher had us read the short story, “the Fall of the House of Usher.” Here in 4:1–4, we find the fall of the house of Saul. It crumbles before our eyes. Saul has killed himself. Jonathan lies with him in the grave. Abner the general has been murdered by Joab. Ish-bosheth the king has had a nervous breakdown. Their only hope is Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, and he’s just a kid, crippled after his nurse dropped him. It doesn’t take a political analyst to see Saul’s kingdom is on its last leg, and David is on the rise. God is transferring the kingdom from Saul to David, just like he said. It’s obvious to all.

But it has not always been obvious. Seven years earlier, it was a very different story. The house of Saul looked strong, and David looked weak. Eleven of the twelve tribes sided with Abner and Ish-bosheth over David and his one tribe in Judah’s hills. Before that, mighty Saul had all Israel and David was just a fugitive in a cave with a band of outlaws. The point: God didn’t promise to make David king one morning and put him on the throne that afternoon. It has been a painfully slow process. God often seemed to be doing nothing, and it looked like David would never be king. God’s way is slow.

If you want to take a photo, you probably whip out your phone, point, and snap. Not only can you immediately see the picture, but in seconds you can edit it and share it with the world. When I was a kid, we had cameras. You bought little rolls of film with room for, say, 24 photos. After the roll was full, you rewound it and put the film in a plastic tube. You took the tube to Wal-Mart, to a person in a white coat at the photo department. He or she took that film into a “dark room.” Through some wizardry with lighting and chemicals, they “developed” your film. A week later, you returned, paid $4.50, got a paper envelope, and saw how your picture turned out. It was a process.

This is God’s way. In Christ, God has made extravagant promises about the future he has prepared for us. But we do not get them instantly. He makes us wait, while he develops things in some hidden dark room. That’s because God wants us to walk by faith, trusting his character, and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7). While we wait and wonder, God is maturing and preparing us for what he has planned. So don’t lose your patience, or your integrity. Just keep walking. God’s people never finish last.

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Article by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church