Sunday, September 6 · Woodside Bible Church
God Finishes What He Starts
David waited fifteen years from his anointing to the throne over Judah and seven more before all Israel crowned him, and the sermon holds that up as proof God finishes what he starts, in his own timing and true to his promises. The years in caves, in civil war, and in a town full of graves were not wasted; God was growing roots while David waited for branches.
The passages
Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and spoke, saying, “Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led Israel out and in. Yahweh said to you, ‘You will be shepherd of my people Israel, and you will be prince over Israel.’” So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Yahweh; and they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.
2 Samuel 5:1–5
‘Consider, please, from this day and backward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, since the day that the foundation of Yahweh’s temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed yet in the barn? Yes, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree haven’t produced. From today I will bless you.’”
Haggai 2:18–19
A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit. Yahweh’s Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.
Isaiah 11:1–2
Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.
John 12:24
…being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. It is even right for me to think this way on behalf of all of you, because I have you in my heart, because both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Good News, you all are partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how I long after all of you in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:6–8
…looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2
He who calls you is faithful, who will also do it.
1 Thessalonians 5:24
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom.”
Luke 1:32–33
Go deeper
Does God ever start something in a person and then just walk off the job?
This is the fear underneath the unfinished folder, the stalled career, the healing that has not come. David was anointed as a teenager and was still hiding in caves years later, and the sermon's answer is that God was not idle in those years. What looked like a delay was the taproot going down where nobody could see it.
…being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. It is even right for me to think this way on behalf of all of you, because I have you in my heart, because both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Good News, you all are partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how I long after all of you in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:6–8
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the middle of his brothers. Then Yahweh’s Spirit came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
1 Samuel 16:13
Yahweh will fulfill that which concerns me. Your loving kindness, Yahweh, endures forever. Don’t forsake the works of your own hands.
Psalms 138:8
…looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2
Is a partial answer from God a broken promise, or is he just not finished yet?
David was crowned over one tribe and had to wait seven and a half more years for the other eleven. The sermon reads that as God keeping a promise in stages rather than abandoning it. Abraham bought a grave in Hebron and never saw the nation that was promised to him, and the crown still came there generations later.
Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and spoke, saying, “Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led Israel out and in. Yahweh said to you, ‘You will be shepherd of my people Israel, and you will be prince over Israel.’” So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Yahweh; and they anointed David king over Israel.
2 Samuel 5:1–3
So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all of its borders, were deeded to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city. After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan. The field, and the cave that is in it, were deeded to Abraham by the children of Heth as a possession for a burial place.
Genesis 23:17–20
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. If indeed they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had enough time to return. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Hebrews 11:13–16
‘Consider, please, from this day and backward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, since the day that the foundation of Yahweh’s temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed yet in the barn? Yes, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree haven’t produced. From today I will bless you.’”
Haggai 2:18–19
What is God doing in me while I wait, when I cannot see any fruit?
The sermon's turn is from asking when God will come through to asking what he is building in the middle. An oak spends its first years underground, and a seed has to be buried before there is a harvest. Jesus said the same about himself: the grain of wheat has to fall into the earth and die before it bears fruit.
Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.
John 12:24
A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit. Yahweh’s Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.
Isaiah 11:1–2
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2–4
Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Romans 5:3–5
Do the years I spent waiting actually count, or did I waste them?
The text keeps the six months David reigned at Hebron instead of rounding it off, and the sermon takes that as God counting every part of a life as one reign. David's forty years include the cave and the civil war, not just the throne. Eugene Peterson's line about a long apprenticeship sits behind the question.
David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.
2 Samuel 5:4–5
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive, as is happening today.
Genesis 50:20
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
Ecclesiastes 3:1