The Lord says He is with me. That I am hidden, not forgotten.
I am hidden as in His pocket.
I am in His pocket as a rock in the pocket of David when he was approaching that giant Goliath.
I can imagine that the rocks in his pocket felt like no small pebbles. His adrenaline would have been running fast. His heart in his throat. Perhaps he felt even that one of those stones was in his throat. His task was large before Him and yet what was uppermost in His mind was that this giant had dared to challenge God. I imagine there might have been a little sweat glistening on his forehead.
Perhaps the stones in his pocket felt large like the task. Perhaps they felt like a fire as he engaged his faith in the midst of his fear. Because I do not imagine that the presence of his faith was absence of fear; just trust in the bigness of His God in the midst of it. After all he had faced predators before. The bear and the lion had both succumbed in their battles with David. Others offered him their own armour. But it was too heavy for him, actually of no benefit whatsoever. The only thing of benefit to him were the stones in his pocket and his slingshot.
This makes me think of how often we try to apply the “strategies” of others in our warfare, like a formula that would guarantee us a win if we just used it. But the power is not in the strategy but in the trust. It is not in the name of this Jesus whom Paul knows I cast demons out. It is not in the teachings of any celebrity christian you might name, that you are guaranteed an overcomers’ life.
It is by YOUR faith and experience in the name (and character) of God that gives you victory over your enemies So what might God be saying when He impresses upon me that I am a stone in His pocket?
The first thing that comes to mind is a sense of His closeness, of being on the inside of something. Perhaps to see or feel the inside of what could not be seen on the outside? Oddly enough what He brings to mind are a couple of situations from the word.
He tells me that whenever He draws men closer to reveal Himself to them, it is like they are in a spiritual pocket. They have one experience, and those around them have another.
First, He reminds me of when he took His disciples up on the mount of transfiguration. It was like He said that when they got closer to Him, they entered a spiritual pocket, where they could see Him as He is.
Mt 17: 1 Six days later Jesus *took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and *led them up on a high mountain by themselves. 2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. 4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. 7 And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, “Get up, and do not be afraid.”
Jesus was in this pocket in John 12: 27 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him.”
When Moses got closer to God to speak to Him face to face He entered the pocket of God-the revelation of God. But to the crowd it was a fearsome thing; they did not see what Moses saw. Exodus 20: 8 All the people heard thunder and saw the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. 19 Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourelf and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.” 21 So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.
Today we do the same thing. We want others to approach God for us. If we don’t know enough about God’s character to know how He might respond to us if we ourselves were to try to get closer. Perhaps He is angry with us. Far easier to let our Moses, our pastor our apostle tell us the commandments, give us the rules, tell us the formula so that we can do it without the risk of approaching God ourselves.
To be in someone’s pocket used to be a common idiom. It meant to be very close to and closely involved with someone. To know everybody’s business, as in ‘I’m tired of villages where everyone lives in everyone else’s pocket’. To be in someone’s pocket was to appropriate (take) to one’s own use ,To be under someone’s influence or control or to be small enough to fit inside a pocket
What does it mean to be a rock in God’s pocket? To be realistic about our size? To choose to stay close to God, to approach Him to see Him as He is? To experience Him for ourselves?
The rocks in David’s pockets were an unlikely strategy.
Perhaps we are unlikely strategy against God’s enemies in the earth. The power is not in the strategy but in whose Hand we are in.
A small stone in the right Hand only needs to be used once to fell a giant.
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