How to Behave in a Cave
1 Samuel 22:1-2
When we ended our study last week, we saw how God had taken everything away from David. We saw how David lost every crutch he had that could have taken the place of God. He lost his position, his wife, his prophet, his friend Jonathan and finally his self-respect. Even his enemy the King of Achish, Goliath’s king, didn’t want anything to do with David.
Now let’s read our passage and see where David goes next. “David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.”
Now without a country or a home, David takes shelter in a cave. David has hit absolute rock bottom. In a matter of days David has gone from living in a palace to living in a hole in the side of a hill. He’s gone from having friends and family to having nothing. And if you want to know how he feels, David isn’t shy about telling us. In fact, there are at three Psalms that identify how David was feeling at this low point in his life. Psalm 142, Psalm 57 and Psalm 34 were all written after David left King Achish of Gath and was in the cave, so have your bibles ready because we’re going to read from all three. We’ll start by reading Psalm 142, so turn there. As we read this, remember that David has no security, no food, no one to talk to and very little to look forward to. He was alone in a dark cave and away from his friends and family. It doesn’t get much bleaker than this. It isn’t very long, so let’s read it together.
That is very dramatic. In verse 4 David says, “I look for someone to help me, but no one gives me a passing thought. No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me” (vs. 4). David has a severe case of the “Whoa is me’s!” But now look again at verse 5. David says, “Then I pray to you, O LORD. I say, ‘You are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life.”
When your life is in a cave – a cave God probably brought you to so He could remove all the crutches in your life – then your first mode of behavior should be like David’s. We’re going to see two things happened with David in that cave. First we are going to see how David reacted, and then we are going to see who he attracted. The first thing David did was he—
1. Cried out to God (Ps. 142). In the midst of David’s lowest point he never lost sight of God. How different that is from so many people, even proclaiming Christians, who have gone through difficult times and wonder where God is.
Have you ever been to the place where the only thing you thought you had left was God? I vividly remember a time when I was at the monastery when I felt like David. I was apart from family and friends who were in California. I was the only non-Catholic at the community, and it seemed like some people took delight in telling me how I was not only different, but in some way inferior. I had no idea what my future was and I was beginning to doubt my sanity for even asking God if I could join the Little Portion community. I remember sitting in a nearly dark chapel, alone with my back against a wall and my hood pulled up over my head. I felt I literally had nobody left in my life and nothing to look forward to. It was then I could only pray one thing over and over again: “You and me, Jesus, You and me. If there is nothing left in my life but You, Lord, then it will be You and me.”
Here is something we all need to know before we can go any further in our study. When the Lord brings us to the place where we feel we have nothing, it is not to end our lives but to reroute it. But it is precisely when we feel like we’ve lost everything that the enemy will whisper in our ear, “This is your fault. You caused it. You sinned. You’re nothing like you thought you were and you’ll never get out of this cave and you have nothing to return to and nothing to look forward to.” If you’ve ever been at that point in your life, you know just what I’m talking about.
But it is precisely at this point where God says, “Not so fast, my child. I didn’t die on the Cross to leave you alone. I said I wouldn’t leave you. Ever. Now, and only now, can I reroute your life. Before this you were in control because you had the tools to control your life. Now that you have nothing, I can finally be your Lord and create you into the person you were meant to be in the first place.” But until we are willing to find ourselves in a cave, we may never know just what it means to let God truly be God in our lives. When you feel like you are in a cave, the first and best thing you can do is cry out to God. Next, David—
2. Declared his dependence (Ps. 57). Let’s take a look at the first three verses. “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy! I look to you for protection. I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until the danger passes by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me. He will send help from heaven to rescue me, disgracing those who hound me. My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness.”
Here we see David declaring his entire existence is in God’s hands. He is looking for God to protect him, and the reference to hiding under the shadow of His wings may be a reference to the winged cherubim that one saw in the tent and the veil of the Tabernacle. In other words, God’s protection comes by being in God’s presence, and when you can no longer take care of things yourself you must declare your dependence on God.
Now here’s the thing that bothers most pastors. It’s the fact that many good church-going people want Jesus to be their Savior, but they’re not too keen on letting Him actually be their Lord. They want to be saved from the penalties of their sins, but they don’t want that salvation to actually impede upon their way of life. They want the comfort of knowing they are saved, but they don’t want to be put upon to bring other people into the Kingdom. They want to ask forgiveness for their sins, but they don’t want to live in obedience to all the teachings of Christ.
This is seen in the ways people invest first in themselves, and then in others. For example, let’s look at the Great Commission of Jesus in Matt. 28:18-20. “Jesus came and told his disciples, ‘I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’” First, Jesus is talking to His Disciples, those who have taken up their cross and chosen to follow Him at all costs. Next, Jesus tells them to go and make disciples. This brings up two questions. First, are you in the process of being a disciple? Not a follower. Not a weekly church attendee, but a disciple, a person who seeks to study the Word, who gets together with other Christians to challenge and be challenged to live the life Christ died for us to have. Hebrews 10:23-25 says, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Look at that word “spur.” It means to provoke, incite, irritate. When you gather with other Christians then you should be spurring them, provoking and inciting and even irritating them on towards good works. It also means when you gather you are willing to be spurred. But we cannot be spurred if we are not gathering, and we cannot be spurred or provoked towards good works if we only show up every once in a while to a church and leave as soon as possible. Still, this happens week after week in churches all over the world. But according to the Great Commission, to be a disciple and to make disciples means you are personally investing in the lives of others.
And this is terribly inconvenient. It means you will have to invest the one thing that means more to many of us than money – our time. We would rather pay someone to take our neighbor to the grocery store than actually drive them ourselves. We’d rather pay someone to work on the church than show up ourselves. We’d rather buy someone a book on finances than commit to going to their house for 12 weeks and taking them through the book and teaching them through our own example. I’m very glad that Jesus didn’t send someone else to earth to do His work. He came personally. He took time away from His throne in Heaven to invest His life, and then His death, so He could make disciples. That is what it cost Jesus. What are we willing to invest to make disciples? It will cost us our time, our talents, our personal touch and yes, even some of our treasure. But that is what it means to be a disciple. So ask yourself: “Am I a disciple, or am I just content with being saved?” I don’t know how anyone can think of the price Jesus paid to bring us to Heaven and be content with merely being saved.
Some of you may be wondering why I’m saying this. Why do I teach in a way that provokes, spurs and irritates people? Because I don’t want anyone I know to face Jesus one day, and knowing what He did for you in order to save you from hell, say to Him, “Thanks for the salvation. Sorry I wasn’t really a disciple. Sorry I didn’t find the time to study your Word and or take the effort to make disciples. Sorry I didn’t find it a priority to teach a Bible study or a Sunday school. Sorry I didn’t make it a priority to invest my time in the lives of the people You died for.” I don’t want anyone to be sorry for the way they lived their life after they knew what Jesus did to pay the penalty of their sins. I want people to be able to declare their complete, not their partial, but their complete dependence upon God, and this means doing more than getting saved. It means taking the time and the effort to become a disciple. Here’s my first spurring, irritating and provoking question.
Question: In what areas of your life are you not a disciple of Christ?
3. Praised God’s greatness (Ps. 34). The title of this psalm says, “A psalm of David, regarding the time he pretended to be insane in front of Abimelech, who sent him away.” Abimelech is a royal title, like the name “Pharaoh,” not a proper name. The name of the king was Achish, while his title was Abimelech.
Now look at verses 1-3. “I will praise the LORD at all times. I will constantly speak his praises. I will boast only in the LORD; let all who are helpless take heart. Come, let us tell of the LORD’S greatness; let us exalt his name together.” Praising God is a practice that flows naturally from the lips of a disciple, and it also the natural progression of one who has learned to cry out to God in their distress and declare their complete dependence upon Him. Look at David’s “I will’s.” Praise. Speak. Boast. When you are in a cave your mind wants to wander into the worst of things. The enemy wants to tell you how much of a failure you are. But it is difficult to think your life is over when you are praising the God who holds the world in His hands. It is a complete life changer when you can say like Job in Job 1:21, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be stripped of everything when I die. The LORD gave me everything I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!”
Some of you know what it is like to have most of your possessions removed from your life. Some of you know what it is like to lie in a hospital bed and know that more than all the riches in the world you want the peace and grace of God to be upon your life. Heb. 13:15 says, “With Jesus’ help, let us continually offer our sacrifice of praise to God by proclaiming the glory of his name.” Sometimes praising God is a sacrifice. Sometimes you come in here on Sunday morning with everything else on your mind but praising God. But you do it anyways because you know above all else, God loves you and His grace is beyond compare. The way to behave in a cave is to continually offer praise to God. It may not change your circumstances over night, but it will certainly change your attitude, and you know changing your attitude is most of the battle.
Question: What challenge was the most difficult for you to offer God a sacrifice of praise?
We’ve now seen the three ways David acted in a cave. Now let’s take a look at who David attracted. Look at 1 Sam. 22:1: “When his brothers and the rest of his family heard he was there, they went down to be with him” (The Voice).
The first thing we see is that David attracted—
1. The family. How did they know he was there? Did David send word? Did he hang a sign in front of the cave announcing his new place of residence? Did he go to the post office and leave a forwarding address? We don’t know how they knew, but they did. You see, even when you think you are all alone and nobody cares, God has people ready to rally around you. And they may even be people in your own family that, not too long ago, didn’t pay much attention to you.
Remember when Samuel came to Jesse’s house and told him to gather his sons? After going through seven sons, Samuel asked if there was anyone else. Jesse scratches his beard and says, “Oh yeah. I forgot. There’s the runt out watching the sheep.” That had to be a real confidence booster to the baby of the family. Then when David goes to the war camp and sees Goliath for the first time, his brothers accuse him of having false motives and an evil heart. Now they’ve all gathered around him in the cave.
The truth is David’s family may have been at risk. Since Saul had murderous intents towards David then the rest of the family may not have felt safe. If you keep reading you see in verse 3 that David took his parents to the king of Moab (Moab is where his great-grandmother Ruth was from) and left them there until it was safe.
Not only did David’s family come to him, let’s look at the rest of the crew that shows up. Look again at verse two and you will see three types of people attracted to David. First we see—
2. The distressed. The Hebrew word for distress also means “under pressure, under stress, in anguish.” Here are a bunch of stressed out people seeking David who has nothing in his life but a desire to cry out to God. Next, David attracts—
3. The debtors. The Hebrew word for those in debt means “to lend on interest, to have a number of creditors.” These were people who couldn’t pay their bills, and may be in this position due to the king’s taxes. Finally we see—
4. The discontented. This Hebrew word means “to be in bitterness of soul, to have been wronged and mistreated.”
Here is the hard part. When you are running for your life and all you have left is a cave to live in and God to cry out to, one of the last things on earth that you want is a bunch of family members who didn’t want you around a while back and a group of malcontents coming to hang around with you. It is then that you begin to understand that these were the exact people God died for. When the people with land and money didn’t want to come to the King’s banquet, Luke 14:13-27 says He sent His servants out to drive down the dirt roads and look under the bridges and down by the railroad tracks to bring them into the party He planned.
Sometimes you invite people to come into the Kingdom, and sometimes God sends people to you in order for you to lead them into the Kingdom. In Luke 14 Jesus said to go out and look for them. In 1 Sam. 22 God brought the people to David. And David took this motley bunch of debt ridden, distressed and discontented people and used them to form his army and his cabinet. He treated them with the respect and leadership they deserved.
Here’s another irritating question. How has God brought people into your life? Who is distressed and seeking your companionship? Who is in debt and needs a lesson in how to handle money? If you’ve been through a cave experience, you may be just the candidate to help others learn how to behave in a cave, because that is just what David did. Can God count on you to do the same?
I caution you against praying a prayer today in church today saying you’ll make God your refuge, and then leaving here and going to the restaurant only to complain that tomorrow you have to go to work and you don’t like your job and the people drive you nuts. Because when you do that you’ve just left the refuge of God and have replaced the comfort of God’s presence with the complaining sound of your own voice. You’re confessing you don’t really want to be surrounded by the malcontents that God wants to turn into saints – you just want a life of peace and comfort where everyone gets along. Perhaps that will take place in heaven, but that place doesn’t exist on earth.
You may not like to hear the complaints of the distressed, the discontent and those in debt, but when you became a Christian you said that your life was not your own and your mission was to make disciples. And the funny thing is God doesn’t make disciples out of saints. Instead, He always starts with sinners. You know, people like you and me.
I believe everyone has a malcontent in their life. Maybe two. This is why Paul said, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2).We all know people who are distressed, in debt and discontent with their life. And God, for some weird and humorous reason, has brought them into your life. The question for all of us is, “What are we going to do with them?” Are we going to wish they would go away? Is that what your personal David did when you were a mess? Did someone care enough for you to help you get out of your cave and become a disciple? Are you willing to behave in a way that brings glory to God and disciples into His Kingdom? You are if you will follow David’s example of what it means to behave in a cave.
Question: How can you behave like Jesus to the malcontents in your life?
