C. H. MacKintosh pointed out that there are three rests spoken of in Scripture. The first, is the rest which we, as sinners, find in the finished work of Christ to take away the penalty for our sins. The second is a rest we are called to at the present, which, as saints, we find in being entirely submitted to the will of God. The third rest spoken of is the rest that remains for the people of God, eternally, glorified and in His presence.
David becomes a beautiful example of the second type of rest for us, in the snapshot we get of him right here in these two verses. He has already been anointed king, and since that anointing came from God’s man, David must know that in God’s eyes, he is king, even though Saul still sits on the throne. But he is at peace, and willing to wait for God’s timing, because his years in the desert with his father’s sheep, and his time in the house of Saul and even his ill-treatment at Saul’s hands, has taught him that perfect peace is being in the center of God’s will.
It was quite probably while sitting in the caves of Adullam, that David penned the words of the 94th Psalm, where he says,
“This poor man cried and the Lord heard him,
And saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps around those
who fear Him,
And rescues them.
O taste and see that the Lord is good;
How blessed is the man who
takes refuge in Him!”
(vs 6-8)
The Castle or the Cave
Chapter 21 of I Samuel recounts the early travels of David after he was warned by Saul’s son Jonathan and fled the presence of the jealous king.
Then verse 1 of our text says that David escaped to the cave of Adullam. And that is accurate, of course; at that moment David was avoiding the clutches of Israel’s enemy, King Achish of the Philistines. But I want you to see today, that these caves were much more than a hiding place and a place of refuge. They were a place of growth and training and waiting on the Lord.
How many times in the history of God’s people, even up to the lives of those hearing this sermon, has it been proven that we grow the most, and learn the most, after His Spirit has removed all distractions from us; taken us out of our comfort zone, kicked all of our standards and expectations out from under us, and taken us to a humble, lonely place, where only we and He know what’s going on in our hearts?
David is called a man after God’s own heart, and we can certainly see His likeness to Christ in His refusal to attack God’s anointed in order to ascend to his rightful place; as Christ, the greater David, humbly submitted Himself to the plan and purpose of the Father, and waited and obeyed unto death. He, who...
“In the days of His flesh, ...offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety”
Who...
“...although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered, and having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.”
Saul sat in comfort on the throne of the castle, rejected of God, but refusing to surrender or submit to Him.
This is the way of the world, and even, unfortunately, in our own hearts as Christians; that we would prefer to be outside of God’s will and comfortable in this world ~ even enjoying the passing pleasures of sin, in order to avoid the discomfort that may be involved in having it removed from us.
But the way of peace; the way of Christ-likeness; the way of obedience and blessing and eventual exaltation, is always, always, outside the camp with Him.
Remember, David was taking refuge in the caves, but he was still the king; and Christ was despised and rejected of men, but He was never less than King of Kings; and if we are identified with Him in this world, we too will be despised and rejected by a Satan-owned world system... but we remain nonetheless, royal children of the King.
Remember the exhortation of Peter:
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time...” (I Pet. 5:6)
...and wait.
The day of triumph is coming, but this is still the day of Christ’s humility, and we are here, in the cave of Adullam, to continue His work of humility and patience; suffering with Him outside the camp of this world, until the trumpet sounds.
Who is drawn to the rejected King?
Now I want you to stop for a moment and think about the type we have before us, with King David representing a rejected Christ, and the house of Saul being a type of worldly religion; having a form, but not the power ~ not the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Had David stayed in Saul’s house, there would have been no perception of a need for separation in the minds of the people.
I remember an old “Dragnet” television episode back in the mid ‘60s, when the arguments about the dangers or relative safeties of marijuana use were in full bloom. The main character, Sgt Joe Friday, was expounding to a young suspect the harmful effects and results of heroine sale and use, and how in his business he witnessed many times, that so-called innocent marijuana users often graduated to worse things. He ended his tirade by saying, “You want to know what I think of marijuana? I judge it by the company it keeps”.
Christians, people outside of the church do not understand the church. They do not know Jesus; they have absolutely no knowledge of the Holy Spirit; they do not care one iota for the will of the Father; but as they look on, and hear that we call ourselves ‘Christians’, and watch our lives, they will judge us by the company we keep.
And when they look at a church body and witness gossip and judgmental-ism and condemnation, and formalism and ritual, but no love and no peace, they will see no need whatsoever, to separate themselves from the life they have in order to join what is there. They will go away with a shrug, saying, “They are no different, so why waste my time?”
If the people of Israel had only the picture of David, coming and going freely from Saul’s house in apparent peace and harmony with Saul, then to them, David would have been no different than Saul.
But the moment David separated himself from Saul and chose rather to be an outcast, rejected of men than to be connected with one rejected of God, then no one could remain neutral. Then they had to make a choice. THEN, they were GIVEN a clear choice.
So, we see;
“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.”
Continuing to look at this account as a type of Christ and the church, what kind of people flocked to David, seeking leadership and comfort and counsel and direction?
The distressed, the debtor, the discontented.
Jesus told the grumbling Pharisees that it is the sick who need a physician. In saying that, He was sending them the implied message that if you are not aware of your need, you will not be inclined to seek the cure.
I did a brief word study, and what I discovered was that these words used to describe those who were drawn to David are more intense than the English words they translate to.
The word ‘distressed’ refers to those oppressed to the point of anguish; under a great deal of stress and pressure.
Now the word ‘debt’ there is pretty straightforward; but common sense would tell us that it is not just referring to those who have run up some credit card bills and need some financial counseling to get back on track.
These were folks, most likely, who had borrowed against their property, and perhaps against their own freedom, in hopes of pulling themselves up out of poverty. But having gambled that crops would be good, or livestock markets would rise, or whatever, had lost it all, and perhaps borrowed again, and lost again. I’m engaging in some degree of speculation here; but remember that in those days there were debtor’s prisons. There was indentured servant-hood. There was harsh punishment for debts unpaid. And whatever the individual circumstances were, they were enough to drive them from their homes to David’s side.
As to that word, ‘discontented’; this one impressed me the most. It actually comes from a combining of two words that, in short, means, ‘bitter souls’.
Ah, how very many of us can nod our heads and let out a long sigh, and say, “Yes, I know that feeling. I know what it is like to be so disappointed by the people I’ve loved...so let down by the things in which I’ve put my trust...for so long, with no relief; seemingly no vindication, that bitterness threatens to take root in my very soul and drag me down into the darkness”.
In self defense we sometimes even joke about it, and the fact that everyone laughs at the jokes only confirms that they all know the feeling.
“When you finally see that light at the end of the tunnel, don’t get your hopes up; it’s probably just an on-coming train”
But in reality that is precisely how most of us have been conditioned to look at life; by the very fact that 9 times out of 10 it really is just an on-coming train; and what we thought was some relief from our troubles turned out to be just another crushing blow.
Bitter souls. Look around you, believers. They are all around you everyday, and they’re in the church too; for the moment. And whether they stay or go will depend entirely on whether they find that they have come to David or to Saul.
But let’s not allow this to escape our notice; these are not innocents running for cover. Their oppression is often brought on by their own sin and self-service. Their debt is often a result of years of gambling with the few resources they have; and over-spending because of greed and materialism. And their discontentedness and bitterness is often a result of an unwillingness to realize that the world doesn’t owe them comfort and bliss, and they have responsibilities toward their fellow man like everyone else. They’ve lived for themselves, grabbing for what they can get, manipulating when they can and bullying when they must, and the world has responded in kind, and now they are bitter souls.
But Jesus said, “It is the sick who need a physician”. So whether their condition is imposed by life, or self-inflicted ~ no matter ~ when they come to recognize their need that is when they will run to the greater David for refuge.
David found himself surrounded by about 400 men, gathered to him, and he became their captain.
And what an army to start with! Stressed-out rebels with empty pockets and angry creditors on their tail. And in keeping with the type were studying here, my friends, that pretty much describes the church!
We were oppressed of the devil, we were rebels against God in our own selves, and we were spiritually bankrupt, and the spirit of this world constantly hounded us with its claims on our souls.
But we gathered to David.
And let’s see what became of this motley assemblage to the cave of Adullam.
What does the King make of those who draw near to Him?
As we consider this question of what became of these men who gathered to David and the type we see here of Christ’s church, I want you to see first the difference between them and other Israelites in their response to the truth.
All Israel was aware that Samuel the prophet had anointed David king. They knew David as the champion who had killed Goliath. Jonathan, Saul’s own son, had befriended and protected David.
But only 400 were willing to be so identified with him that they went out and shared his rejection and separation from Saul’s reign.
It was one thing to be an Israelite, but it was another thing to be with David in the cave.
Even Jonathan continued to eat at his father’s table
Now I want to avoid anyone thinking here that what I am saying is that the Christian makes himself better by his efforts; that separating himself from the world to Christ is what makes him holy and righteous.
That is monkish thinking. That is the thinking of the legalists, whose constant emphasis and energy is spent on calling believers to take up this, or put away that.
In keeping with the type, remember that these 400 men did not become loyal to King David when they went out to the cave. They went there because they were loyal.
The man in Christ does not become sanctified and holy because he withdraws from the things of the flesh and the world and draws near to Christ. He does those things as a matter of his course, because Christ has sanctified him and called him ’holy and blameless’, and that through faith, not works of any kind.
It’s not a soldier’s acts in battle that make him a hero; heroic acts are the manifestation of an heroic character.
Now as I said, other Israelites also knew David was king by God’s command. So in a sense, they were believers also. The difference between them and the 400 at Adullum; the difference today between the believer clinging to the comforts of the world and the believer sold out to Christ and willing to suffer with Him, ~ are you listening? ~ the difference is in what Christ is able to accomplish through that life.
If I tell you that you are a better Christian if you draw spiritually nearer to your Lord than the believer who never quite lets go of the comforts of Saul’s house, then the ground is no longer level at the foot of the cross. If I make those distinctions, then we are not united in one Spirit, because we cannot exist on varied planes of worthiness and be united.
If I tell you that to be a successful Christian your life must be a demonstration of sacrifice and suffering and worldly rejection, then I have nullified grace.
The difference is in what Christ is able to do through the life!
The difference is in the impact that the sold-out life will have on a watching world.
What do we know of Jonathan, other than whose son he was, and how very much he loved David? We know that he died ignobly, at the hands of uncircumcised Philistines, on Mt. Gilboa, along with his brothers. You can read about it in I Chronicles 10.
But we read of much grander things from the lives of those who went with David.
If you go to I Chronicles 12, you will read things like this of them:
“...mighty men of valor, men trained for war, who could handle shield and spear, and whose faces were like the faces of lions, and they were as swift as the gazelles on the mountains”
and
“...he who was least was equal to a hundred and the greatest to a thousand”
Then in II Samuel 23 their stories are told. Men like Eleazar who stood alone and struck down Philistines until the muscles of his hand were so weary that his hand clung to the sword. (Can you see his comrades, pouring warm water over his hand and helping him to unclench his fingers?)
Then there was Shammah who took his stand in a plot of land full of lentils and defended it against a troop, saving the lentils for the people.
And Benaiah, who slid down into a snow-lined pit and killed a lion, probably just to keep his friends safe from attack during the coming night.
But even these did not attain to the honor of the three unnamed mighty men, who, having overheard David mumbling to himself that he longed for a drink from the well of Bethlehem which was near the gate to a heavily fortified town, fought their way through the Philistines, drew water from that well, and brought it back to David; just to be a service to their King!
Now I ask you; would we know of these things if it weren’t for the Holy Spirit, recording them for us in the Scriptures? Who would have thought to pass on for future generations, a simple account of three fools, willing to risk their lives to draw a cup of water for their leader? Who would have thought to mention a man sliding down into a snowy pit to face a ravenous lion?
These things are recorded for us, to encourage us, to teach us what God is like, to show us that there is no earthly limit to the amazing things the Holy Spirit of God will accomplish through the life yielded to Him.
In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews the writer documents the faith and acts of faith, of people like Noah and Abraham and Moses and Rahab, and makes mention of Gideon and Barak and Samson and David and Samuel. He lists their great accomplishments and their great suffering for their faith, and calls them “men of whom the world was not worthy”.
But of greater interest to us in light of all that information, is the exhortation he gives in chapter 12.
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Believer, no matter your age, no matter your level of academic intelligence, no matter your accomplishments, no matter your vocation or your socio-economic lot in life, ~ if you are a Christian by scriptural definition, then you have a place with Him for eternity. All the promises of heaven are yours, because He purchased them for you and preserves you for that day.
But also know that no matter your age, intelligence, accomplishments and all those other things, there is no earthly limit to what God will do with the life sold-out to Him.
Don’t be afraid to leave Saul’s table. Let go of the worldly and the material and the temporal, and go to our greater David, outside the philosophy and the mindset of this world and worldly religion. Gather to Him at the cave of Adullam, and He will lead you forward to meaning and fulfillment and ultimate glory in Him.
“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear it and rejoice. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.
I sought the Lord, and He answered me. And delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed..”
Psalm 34:1-5
