There was a time in my life, a day, a specific moment when I felt the rejecting and dismissive spirit from some who presumed to judge me without even knowing me. It was truly an experience that felt like an emotional ambush and in my mind I asked God, “What is happening here? This isn’t at all what I had been led to expect.” It seemed to me that a cloud of spiritual conflict was in the room from the moment I sat down. As soon as I asked, the Lord responded with this Word, “This isn’t about you. Watch and wait.” I watched and waited through one disastrous encounter after another as the war dragged on, feeling very much like collateral damage in the battles, carrying a battle flag but little else in the way of a weapon……. like Denzel Washington in “Glory”, knowing full well my hopes and ambitions would be a casualty of the war.
But God was steadfast, gracious and good. He eventually showed me the turning of the tide in the battles I was called to and the likely outcome of the war and I was released to walk away, having done my part in the cause of Christ and His kingdom.
We know God had His reasons for hardening the heart of the Pharaoh against Moses and the children of Israel as Moses sought their release, so that Pharaoh’s magicians could be shown to be charlatans whose power was no match for Almighty God and to build up to the crescendo of sending the Hebrews forth loaded down from the treasury of Egypt, parting the Red Sea and destroying His children’s pursuing enemies ….. a miracle of exodus that would provide renown before them for decades as their story informed other enemies of their God’s favor, majesty, and might.
Why should we not also consider that resistance and hardened hearts against us might also be according to God’s will for His glory, our good, and others’ gain?
When King Saul seemingly inexplicably turned on the young anointed future King David, whom he had taken into his own palace and family, David spent years running, hiding, and avoiding King Saul and his army all the while honing his own patience, negotiation skills, strategic acumen, mercy, trust in God in high stakes situations, and gathering and developing his own group of mighty men. He would need all of that when his own reign was established and when even he, as a beloved son of Israel and man after God’s own heart discovered there are consequences for disobedience, even for a king.