“When you hear the sound of marching
in the tops of the balsam trees, then march
out to battle, for God will have marched
out ahead of you to attack the camp
of the Philistines (1 Chronicles 14:15).”
Waiting on God is possibly one of the most difficult lessons a Christian has to learn. But God often forces us to wait on Him to teach us, first, that He doesn’t need human means to accomplish His plans for our lives; and second, that we can trust His ways even when they seem strange, risky, and even impossible. The temptation we have to fight while we wait is taking matters into our own hands.
David knew the importance of waiting on God and His direction. In fact, waiting to hear from the Lord versus taking things into his own hands was literally a matter of life and death. After David had finally become the king of Israel, the Philistines heard the news and planned to wage war against him (1 Chronicles 14). The enemy army surrounded David twice, and both times, David sought the Lord’s counsel.
After the Lord delivered the Philistines into David’s hands the first time, David went to Him again to seek counsel about what to do the second time, and he was probably surprised by God’s instructions. Essentially, God told David not to attack the enemy head-on. Instead, David and his army were to go to the outside of the Philistine camp and wait for the enemy to retreat. The signal that David and his army could march out to battle was the sound of God’s angel army marching on the tops of the balsam trees (v. 15).
Can you just imagine the sound of God’s invisible army marching on the treetops, waging war on behalf of David? Friend, this is the same angel army that God commands to go before you, to wage war on the impossible in order to bring about His plans for your life. Will you trust Him? Will you wait for Him instead of taking matters into your own hands? Will you stop assessing your circumstances by what you can see with your natural eyes and instead keep your focus on the One who created the world out of nothing?
In 2 Kings 6, we get another glimpse of this angel army. The King of Aram “sent horses, chariots, and a massive army” (v. 14) to Dothan, where Elisha and his servant were staying, to capture the prophet. When Elisha’s servant woke up the next morning and saw Aram’s army surrounding them, he was terrified. But Elisha prayed that God would open his servant’s eyes to see reality. God answered that prayer, and the servant “saw that the mountain was covered with horses and chariots of fire” (v. 17). God’s angel army.
I think we get restless in the waiting because we can’t see God working, so we assume He’s completely forgotten about us. But just because we can’t see God working doesn’t mean He’s not. In all things, at all times, God is working for our good.
Let’s have ears to hear the sound of His angel army going before us, and eyes to see His angel army surround us, and rest in the waiting.
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