King David’s army was fighting against the army of Absalom. Absalom was
David’s son and was trying to take the kingdom from David. Absalom’s
army was defeated and he was killed. Ahimaaz asked for
permission to run and bear the news to King David. His request
was denied and another messenger, an eyewitness, was sent. Ahimaaz
continued to express a desire to run. He was finally given
permission although he had no tidings to share.
Ahimaaz ran faster than the other messenger and arrived first. He
was unable to answer King David’s questions because he didn’t have
all the facts. They had to wait for the real messenger to arrive.
The desire to ‘run’ was commendable, but Ahimaaz had no message to
share. It is important for all of us to learn to wait patiently on
the Lord to direct us in our service to Him. A desire to work for
God is good, but there are qualifications that must first be met. We
must be as ready to wait as we are to run. If we ‘run’ and are not
qualified, we will find ourselves discouraged and incapable of
meeting the task at hand.
If one desires to minister the Word, it is necessary to wait on that
ministering until God gives the message. There have been times that
someone in zeal has stood up to preach without the true message from
God and gotten ahead of the real messenger. Let us be careful and
diligent to wait until we know God’s will, before running.
This is exemplified by an experience I had with two of my boys. I
asked “Who can go to the mailbox for me?” Without further ado, both
of my boys took off running outside to the mailbox. There was no
mail. The whole time I had needed to have one of them take a letter
for me out to the mailbox. In their zeal, they didn’t stop to get
instructions. I was left with a letter in my hand. Lord help us to
wait on our running for instructions from above.
