Page 61 - The Road from Babylon to Zion

roads due to choosing to be obedient to the voice of the Spirit. These ones will be
misjudged by family and friends and other Christians who do not understand the
ways of God. It is a bitter thing to have others look at your greatest trials, your
greatest acts of obedience and faithfulness to God, and to esteem you as a sinner, or
to consider you to be deluded. The temptation will arise to justify yourself before the
eyes of others. You will want others to say “Well done!”, and to encourage you on
your path, but instead you will receive misunderstanding and discouragement.

Listen to the voice of the Spirit when these times come. You will hear Him speaking
to you and encouraging you to rest and remain silent. He will exhort you to leave
your reputation completely in the hands of the Father and to seek only His approval.
If you are concerned that others do not recognize your obedience, and you are
insistent that they should acknowledge your faithfulness, you will only become angry
and embittered when they don’t. Know this with confidence, Yahweh will in His time
reveal those who are faithful and those who are not.

Consider David. He had the anointing oil poured over his head by the most revered
man of God in his day. It was prophesied that he was a man after God’s heart and
that Yahweh would establish him as king. Did anyone acknowledge this? Did anyone
honor those qualities in David that God was so pleased with? No! David’s father
thought so little of him that he did not even invite him to meet the prophet Samuel
when Samuel told Jesse to bring all of his sons. After Samuel anointed David, Jesse
sent David back out to tend sheep.

When David was sent by his father to check on the welfare of his brothers who were
serving in King Saul’s army, David’s oldest brother Eliab despised David, and he was
offended that David did not understand why no one had answered the challenge of
Goliath.

I Samuel 17:28
Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and
Eliab's anger burned against David and he said, "Why have you come
down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?
I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart; for you have
come down in order to see the battle."

No, David’s own family did not see in him the things that so captivated the heart of
Yahweh. David was little esteemed in the eyes of his family. After David slew Goliath
Saul brought David to be with him in his household and to be a servant to the king.
Yet Saul was jealous of David because he saw that God was with him. Saul did not
acknowledge that David was pleasing to God, nor did he give him honor. Instead,
Saul sought to kill David without a cause. We are told that David had to flee, and his
family had to flee as well. David had to take his parents to a foreign land to stay.