Man Caves: Adullam - Getting out of Funky Town
I am wanting to do a series about Man Caves in the bible, it is interesting some of the things that happened in caves. I am not sure I will do the whole series now we will see how the Lord leads.
Today I want to talk about the cave Adullam and how David went there in one of the most difficult times in his life. I want to talk about how this cave can become a "funky town," ( a place of sulking) or it can be a springboard to great things. I will give a brief summary of 1 Sam 16-22 and then 4 principles on how to leave funky town.
Background
David is the youngest of 8 boys. He gets stuck with sheep duty.
He does what boys do when they are bored. He played with his weapon.
For David it was a sling. I think it was near an obsession with him. I am sure he hit trees, squirrels, birds everything and anything that moved. He shot at tree trunks, then specific branches, than individual leaves.
His mother probably complained, can’t you ever play a game that doesn’t have killing in it?
That aggressive spirit was in David by the will of God. We live in a day and age where society is trying to neuter men. We like football, we like boxing, its in the genes. There are other societies where aggression by men is highly prized and if we don’t stay with them, they will overcome us some day.
I bet David’s mother had a totally different idea about David and the sling the day he came home and told her a bear came to attack one of the lambs and he killed it. She probably wished he had just turned and ran, and then in another instance he did the same with a lion. She probably did not realize that warfare would be a part of David for as long as he lived.
David had another passion, playing the harp/guitar. I imagine him looking up at the stars at night, thinking on the awesomeness of God, playing and worshipping God. David is the epitome of what a Christian man should be .... a worshipping warrior.
He gets anointed king, by the prophet Samuel
He faces a Goliath and kills him with just one shot from his sling.
The good times are rolling.
He becomes king Saul’s armor bearer, and chief of his personal guard.
The woman of Israel sing songs of his bravery at 17 years of age. Saul the king gets very jealous and envious of David. But because of his popularity he offers him the hand of one of his daughters in marriage, at the last minute he has his daughter marry another man.
One of Saul’s daughters named Michal (Mekawl) let her father know that she loves David. I think David also loved her, but that is a whole ’nother story. Anyway Saul thinks to himself, I can use this to my advantage as a way to kill David. I will let the Philistines kill him, and then I will be free of any blame. So he says to David, I will let you marry my daughter, but I want a dowry of 100 foreskins of the Philistines. He knew there is only one way to get that, and David would have to kill. It was Saul’s hope and belief that David would be killed in the endeavor. But to his surprise David brings him 200 foreskins and claims his daughter as his bride. (Interesting that David later used the same type thinking to get rid of Uriah. Beware the spirit that attacks your father, doesn’t also come after you.)
David’s heroics are noticed by Saul’s son Jonathon and they become best buddies. Jonathon recognizes that though he is the blood heir to the throne of Israel, God had chosen David for that honor instead of him. They become blood covenant brothers, swearing to protect each others lives and families.
Saul’s envy and hatred of David grows to the point he has to flee Jerusalem. His wife warns him of a plot and helps David escape, keeping his escape secret giving him time to get away. When her father, King Saul, finds out he is furious with his daughter and in hatred to David makes her marry another man.
Then Jonathon tries to rationalize with his father that David is a true and loyal man, but his father in rage tries to kill Jonathon with a spear, saying that he was siding with his enemies. Jonathon meets secretly with David and tells him he has to flee for his life. They part with tears.
David flees to a town called Nob. Where the high priest was. The priest is fearful of him, he asks David where all his men were and why was he alone. David lies and says he was there on a secret mission for the king. He asks for food and was told only the bread they had was sacred bread, David talks him into giving it to him. Asks if he has any weapons, and amazingly the priest had the sword of Goliath, which David happily takes. He had left Jerusalem so fast, he didn’t have any weapons with him.
Then his really bad day began. He flees to the land of the Philistines and winds up in a town called Gath. Gath you may remember is Goliath’s home town. Here he is a refugee, rides into town with it’s greatest heroes sword on his side, the sword of the guy he killed, and cut off his head and is immediately he is recognized by the king of Gath’s servants who say to him, "hey aren’t you the guy which our enemies sing of, singing Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands?" David freaks out and realizes he is in a world of trouble. He then decides to use the insanity defense. Plays a nut, lets spit run down his beard pretends to write on doors with his finger. The Jews say that the king of Gath had a wife and a daughter who were insane, and he says to his servants don’t we have enough crazies around here? Get him out of here. The rouse works and David is chased from the king of Gath’s presence unscathed.
One more thing I want to add before we talk about the cave. Remember I told you about the priest who gave David food, and Goliath’s sword. Saul heard about it, and was livid. He sent for the priest and all his family and he then accused them of betraying the king to his enemies. The priest says that the reason he helped David is because David is a very honorable and loyal servant of the king, and besides he told the priest he was on a secret mission for the king. He said that he had done nothing wrong, and had only shown himself loyal to the king. Saul would hear none of it and ordered the priest killed, and his entire family. Then they also went and completely destroyed every man, woman, child and animal in the city of Nob, the priests hometown. One priest escaped alive and came and told David what happened, David realized that some of the responsibility for the death of those people was on his shoulders because he lied to get food and weapons. David says, "I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father’s house."
Which brings us to the man cave, the cave of Adullam.
1Sa 22:1 ｶ So David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s household heard [of it], they went down there to him.
1Sa 22:2 And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him.
1Sa 22:3 And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother come [and stay] with you until I know what God will do for me."
1Sa 22:4 Then he left them with the king of Moab; and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.
1Sa 22:5 And the prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah." So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.
So when David arrives at the cave he has:
Lost his wife
Lost his friends, especially his best friend Jonathon
Lost his job
Lost the prestige and self worth that went with that job
Lost his income
Lost his dreams
Lost his confidence (playing a nut)
David was probably at an all time low and had a self worth of about zero
He was probably the farthest he ever could have imagined himself from what God had said would happen in his life. He would be king - yeah, right.
He is homeless and living in a cave, with the army of a nation tracking him down.
On top of all that he is struggling because others have had to bear the consequences of his moral failings. Sometimes we are the Jonah that causes others to be in storms.
David is wrestling with all that:
Caves are where people find themselves when all of their life supports, all of the things they relied on, all of their dreams, are stripped away! Caves are where people find themselves when they had thought to do great things, to have a wonderful family, to go "boldly where no man or, woman has gone before," only to realize or discover that things simply were not going to work out as planned! Caves appear to be the place of choice for those of us who would engage in having major "pity parties"! Perhaps, you are finding yourself in a cave - right now!
This is where we are headed this morning: how to get out of your cave, how to get out of funky town.
How to get out of the cave ps. 142
Ps 142:1 ｶ (Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer.) I cry aloud with my voice to the LORD; I make supplication with my voice to the LORD.
Ps 142:2 I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare my trouble before Him.
Ps 142:3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, Thou didst know my path. In the way where I walk They have hidden a trap for me.
Ps 142:4 ｶ Look to the right and see; For there is no one who regards me; There is no escape for me; No one cares for my soul.
Ps 142:5 I cried out to Thee, O LORD; I said, "Thou art my refuge, My portion in the land of the living.
Ps 142:6 "Give heed to my cry, For I am brought very low; Deliver me from my persecutors, For they are too strong for me.
Ps 142:7 "Bring my soul out of prison, So that I may give thanks to Thy name; The righteous will surround me, For Thou wilt deal bountifully with me."
1. He prayed.
You can cry at the Lord, or to the Lord.
Hezekiah’s foolproof prayer method. Make it about God’s name. Spread out your complaint before Him, not complain to Him.
2. God made Him to see what he had, and to stop focusing on what he didn’t have.
He found coal and diamonds in the cave.
The Ballad Of Jed Clampett
Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed,
Then one day he was shootin’ at some food,
And up through the ground came a bubblin’ crude.
Oil that is
Black gold
Texas tea.
First thing you know old Jed’s a millionaire...
Some of you are familiar with this old TV show. It is the story of poor hillbilly who had millions of dollars right under his feet, yet lived in poverty, until one day by accident he discovered it. In like manner David needed to see what he had, not to focus on what he didn’t have.
Since he had no work he concentrated on the spiritual part of his life. He wrote and sang Psalms.
If you are unemployed, use the time to develop your spiritual life. After all the bible tells us when we seek first the kingdome of heaven all these things will be added to us. David wrote three Psalms while in the cave. Paul wrote numerous epistles while in prison. Make down time financially work for you as up time spiritually. David couldn’t work for the king but he could compose psalms of praise.
Ps 34:1 ｶ [A Psalm] of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed. I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise [shall] continually [be] in my mouth.
Ps 57:1 ｶ To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave. Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until [these] calamities be overpast.
Ps 142:1 ｶ (Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer.) I cry aloud with my voice to the LORD; I make supplication with my voice to the LORD.
Friends and bonds made in sorrow are the most reliable and most trustworthy you will ever have.
Something amazing starts to happen.
People start joining themselves to him.
At the cave he began to have a gathering of eagles. (Although at the time they looked liked vultures)
Listen how they are described in 1 Samuel:
Everyone who was IN DISTRESS
Everyone who was IN DEBT
Everyone who was DISCONTENTED
They came to the cave …
Because they knew they would find sympathy not criticism.
David was the last person in the world who would find fault with them.
Broken men don’t throw stones at other broken men.
These men did not come to David when he had his big high paying job. He couldn’t relate to them then, and they couldn’t relate to him. You don’t have to lose your job to be an inspiration to others, you just have to have a reputation for being sympathetic and a person who knows how to pray.
They came because they saw in him a man who cared for them, not simply for what they could bring to the table.
Illus: Cartoon in a magazine, pigs being fed by a farmer. He is really loading it up with good stuff, one pig turns to the other and says, "You ever wonder why he takes such good care of us?"
God made David a reject so that he could be accepted as the leader of an army of rejects. He also did it, to help David not look in the ranks of the armies "elite", but to be willing to accept the misfits. Because that is where God saw the diamonds in the rough, the millions of coal in the cave that others trample over never realizing the great worth around them.
Through David’s misfortunes he earned a credibility, and an ability to speak into the lives of others going through similar things.
Misfortune will cause you to meet misfits, and then you will find that their are a great many of them who are diamonds in the rough who just need the touch of a master jeweler to bring out their great worth.
Men were drawn to David because they saw a guy who didn’t lose his faith when he had every reason in the world to do so. They saw a faith that came alive in trouble, not one that disappeared in hardship.
They came to him because they saw in him a man whose convictions didn’t fluctuate with the weather.
They came for acceptance
For inspiration
To follow a genuine leadership
They became his mighty men of valor whose exploits are legendary. All because they found a guy who loved God, even in the worst time of his life.
3. He left the cave of sulking.
1Sa 22:5 And the prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah." So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.
I didn’t say he left his problems, I said he left the cave. He left the cave of sulking.
Some people are still in the cave of sulking 10 years on.
He went back to the land of praise. The prophet told him to return to the land of Judah, Judah means praise. If you sit and sulk, and moan and groan, you will become a marinated mess. You will marinate in misery. You can tell when people have marinated in misery. It has infused every aspect of their being, conversation, outlook, prospects for the future. It is all negative. So to spiritualize the text, he is being told by God to leave funky town, or the place of sulking, and to go back to the place where he will bless the Lord at all times.
What defines you and your destiny is not your circumstances, it is not your past, but God’s promises.
We are not to rationalize our promises to our circumstances, we are to war against our circumstances by our promises.
1Ti 1:18 ｶ This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight,
He didn’t have his wife back, money back, friends back, if you sit in the cave till things get better we will see you 10 years later still in the cave, the journey back to the land of praise, does not begin with miracles, it begins with you by faith honoring God with the words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart.
David said, I will bless the Lord at all times, something he actually did. He sang that right after he left Gath and having played the madman to survive.
4. He humbled himself
Frustration is designed to get you in the mood to explore options you never would have considered otherwise. David was forced to take his parents to a heathen nation for protection.
Pride prevents sometimes prevents us from doing certain things, such as asking for help. Let me help you with that, sometimes we are asking for help, not for our benefit but for theirs. I believe part of the reason David went to Moab was possibly in answer to Ruth’s prayers for her nation. They would have been a godly influence while they were there, and God would bless them for their kindness to the house of David.
Close: The four things David did to get out of his cave:
1. He Prayed
2. He focused on what he did have
3. He left the cave of sulking
4. He humbled himself
I believe when David left the cave he was still smarting from what happened to him, expecially the situation with his wife, there is scriptural evidence he carried that pain for a very long time. The important thing is that he didn’t let it stop him. Some of you have had difficult things happen, are you go to let them stop you.
My future is not determined by the troubles of my past, but by God’s promises of my future.
Prayer for people in caves, it is time to leave funky town.
