By David Faust

God isn’t a shallow pool; he is a deep well.

The longer I walk with God, the more I recognize my own limitations. The closer I grow to him, the less worthy I feel of his attention. The more I learn about him, the more I wish I knew. He meets me where I am, then he takes me places I didn’t expect to go.

In a well-known Scripture passage the Lord declares, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). Earlier in that same chapter God says, “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples” (vv. 3, 4).

God’s covenant with David illustrates how God’s ways are higher than our ways.

Bigger Plans

David pondered building a house for God, but in an ironic twist, the Lord promised to build a house for him! But instead of a house made of wood and stone, God had in mind a dynasty of kings from which the Messiah would come. He promised David, “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:16). After David died, a series of 20 kings ruled in Jerusalem, all descended from his bloodline.

In time, God’s covenant promise to David came to fruition in Jesus Christ. The angel Gabriel told Mary that her child would receive “the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32). When the Roman emperor ordered a census, Joseph and Mary headed to Bethlehem, their ancestral hometown, for they traced their lineage back to David who grew up there (Luke 2:1-5).

It seemed like a noble idea when David dreamed of building a house for God, but the Lord had far bigger plans in mind.

Different Timetable

David was an activator. Like him, I can be impatient. When I come up with an energizing idea, I want to dive in immediately and “get ‘er done.” But David’s vision wasn’t his to accomplish. God’s schedule called for the temple to be built by the next generation, by David’s son.

The Lord’s timetable supersedes our own. It sounds noble to give God our lives, but do we trust him with our clocks and calendars? I keep a things-to-do list on my desk, and most weeks it is pretty full; but that list shouldn’t be my dictator. Jesus is Lord of all—including unexpected interruptions and blessings that arrive only after long waits. At the top of my things-to-do-list I have written a line that reminds me, “Interruptions are God’s appointments.” I probably should add, “Delays are God’s teaching tools.”

Greater Grace

Second Samuel chapters 7 through 10 describe David’s successes, but chapter 11 describes his moral failure—his adultery with Bathsheba and its sad repercussions. The fact that God was so gracious to someone like David gives hope to the rest of us with messy lives marked by public and private failures.

The same God who made a royal covenant with David desires a personal relationship with us. His love is deeper than we deserve, his grace is greater than we imagine, and his ways are higher than our own.

David Faust serves as the Associate Minister at East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Based on International Sunday School Lesson, © 2013, by the Lesson Committee. Scripture quotations are from the New International Version ©2011, unless otherwise indicated.

As you apply today’s Scripture study to everyday life, read Engage Your Faith by David Faust and the correlating Evaluation Questions.