Mount Gilboa – what a place of terrible memories that became! The Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled: a total collapse, a great retreat. In the final chapter of the book, we see the death of Saul and Jonathan in this great battle with the Philistines.
Like David, we too have long waits. If God is going to build something significant, and he is going to privilege us with instrumentality, we will have long preparation, many pitfalls, many difficulties. What came out of it all? you ask. What came out of thirty years waiting plus? A long reign, great fruitfulness, and centuries and centuries of life, if you include the psalms: these great hymns of faith and experience, built into the very word of God, nourishing the hearts of believers, born-again people, for generations. You begin to think, ‘What? David only had thirty, forty years preparation for that?’ God is very gracious and very economical, and it may seem that we have hard trials and long waits at the time, but not really, not when you consider what God does with every effort.