Introduction:
A. I thought we would start with a little humor from some cartoons I came across this week.
1. “Peter finds his faith much stronger in the winter.” Walking on the water is nothing if the water is frozen!
2. “Another Eskimo baptism gone bad.” The preacher should have kept his pre-baptismal comments much shorter.
3. “Things eased up on guardian angels after airbags were invented.” Praise God for airbags and guardian angels!
4. One more – Dad, “How come the waitress gets 15% and God only gets 10%?” Good question!
B. Now let’s turn our attention to the story of David, as we continue our series on David that we are calling “Cultivating A Heart For God.”
1. Last week when we left David, he was dribbling saliva down his beard and scratching on the gate of the enemy like a madman.
2. Realizing that his identity was known by the Philistines, David feigned insanity and then slipped out of the city of Gath.
3. Once more he was a man on the run.
Story:
A. The Bible says, “David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam.” (1 Sam. 22:1a)
1. David has now left the land of the Philistines and has returned to his native area of Judah.
2. The exact location of this rock cave has been disputed by scholars, but it may very well have been one of the desert hideouts not far from Bethlehem with which David was familiar from his days as a lonely shepherd boy.
3. You can see in this picture how rough and rocky that region is and what a good hideout it would make.
4. But this is certainly the lowest moment of David’s life to date.
5. He is hiding in a cave all alone without security and without food.
6. He is away from everything and everyone he loved – that is everyone except God.
B. And if we want to know how he really felt, all we have to do is read the Psalms he composed during this period.
1. Look again at the verses from Psalm 142,
“I cry aloud to the LORD; I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy.
I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble.
When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way.
In the path where I walk men have hidden a snare for me.
Look to my right and see; no one is concerned for me.
I have no refuge; no one cares for my life.
I cry to you, O LORD; I say, ‘You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.’
Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need;
rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me.
Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name.
Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.”
2. That’s how David felt as a cave dweller – “I don’t know of a soul on earth who cares for my soul. I am brought very low. Deliver me, Lord.”
3. Can you feel the loneliness of that desolate spot?
4. Can you feel the darkness and dampness of that cave?
5. Can you feel David’s despair?
C. Yet in the midst of all this, David has not lost sight of his God.
1. He cries out to the Lord for deliverance, so that he might praise the Lord and be a leader of the righteous.
2. It is this part of David that God knew that caused God to choose him and call him a man after God’s own heart.
3. David has been brought to this place where God can truly begin to shape him and use him.
4. When the sovereign God brings us to the bottom, to a place of nothing, it is not to destroy us, but to rebuild us.
D. Look at what happens next – look who God brings to David.
1. The Bible says, “When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there.” (1 Sam. 22:1b)
2. This is the same family that had not been all that good to David along the way.
3. His dad had almost forgotten that he existed when Samuel came to the house looking for candidates for the next king.
4. And later when his father sent him to the battlefield to check on his brothers, they reacted very negatively toward him and accused him of having a wicked and selfish heart.
5. I don’t know if David wanted to see his family at that point or not, but here they were anyhow.
E. So what did David do? He rose to the occasion.
1. He showed a measure of his unusual discretion and love by making the decision to move his family to a place of safety.
2. The Bible says, “From there David went to Mizpah in Moab and said to the king of Moab, ‘Would you let my father and mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do for me?’ So he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David was in the stronghold.” (1 Sam. 22:3-4)
3. Knowing that his family would be in danger because of Saul’s hatred of David, he swiftly took everyone to Moab, a region east of the Dead Sea, out of the land of Israel. (see Map)
4. Interestingly, Moab was the region from which his ancient maternal roots had come.
5. Ruth, the remarkable Moabite widow, who married Boaz, was his great, great-grandmother.
6. In Moab David made arrangements for his aged parents to take refuge in comparative safety.
7. If Saul, in his madness wanted to try to get to David through David’s family, he would have to go all the way to Moab to try to do so.
F. But David’s family wasn’t the only group that God sent to David there in the cave.
1. The Bible says, “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.” (1 Sam. 22:2)
2. What a motley crew this was! (Show picture – I wonder if they looked like this group?)
3. All those who were in distress came.
a. The Hebrew word means “distress, under pressure, under stress.”
b. So here came hundreds of people who were stressed out.
4. With them came those who were in debt.
a. These were the people who couldn’t pay their bills. They had extended themselves too far with their creditors.
5. And with them came those who were discontented.
a. The Hebrew word means “to be in bitterness of soul, to have been wronged or mistreated.”
6. How did these folks get so distressed, indebted and discontented? The answer is – King Saul.
7. Long before Saul had been anointed king, Samuel the prophet had warned them about the oppression the new monarch would bring.
8. The people were really aching under the rule of Saul
G. How do you think David felt about this?
1. I doubt that this is the kind of support group he was looking for!
2. Why would God send a group like this to David?
3. I think that there are several things going on here.
H. First of all, God was preparing David to lead the nation.
1. David went to the cave to hide, but God saw it differently.
2. Believe it or not, that dark, dank cave became a place of training for those who were the beginning of the army that would later be called “David’s mighty men of valor.”
3. They were destined to win the greatest victories that the people of God ever enjoyed.
4. This motley crew would become his mighty men in battle, and his cabinet when he took office.
5. David rallied this group of disgruntled, desperate people and taught them disciple and character and gave them direction.
6. David taught them the truths of God, like this one that he wrote in Psalm 34:15-19,
“The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry;
the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from
the earth.
The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all;”
I. Second, in addition to learning leadership, I believe David was learning compassion.
1. Amid his exile and his grief, and amid his distressed comrades, David was learning first hand the frustration and anguish of the oppressed.
2. David was developing an enormous empathy for the underprivileged of his people.
3. Never would he be immune to the suffering of his subjects when he became their king.
4. Oh how important it is for us to learn compassion!
J. A third thing I think was happening during this period was the binding of the hearts of the people to David.
1. This motley crew was coming to love David with an incredible loyalty.
2. No king had ever been put through what David was about to be put through, but in the midst of it David was honorable, and self-less.
3. His men will come to a place of commitment to David that his wish is their command.
4. In a future story, David is longing for the water from a certain well near the gate of Bethlehem, and three of his men fight their way through the Philistine army to get David water from that well. (2 Sam. 23)
5. David would become the most beloved ruler ever to reign in Israel, for he knew fully what it was to be the underdog, and to suffer among the poor, and the oppressed.
K. Scripture tells us of one final development in today’s story.
1. The Bible says, “But the prophet Gad said to David, ‘Do not stay in the stronghold. Go into the land of Judah.’ So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.”
2. The mention of the prophet Gad is significant – lone individuals did not have their own prophets.
3. Even though David is in exile, he is the Lord’s chosen king, and God intends to direct his steps.
4. I think that there is a contrast to take note of – Saul has lost all prophetic support, but David already has a prophet to advise him.
5. It took faith for David to obey the voice of the prophet Gad and to leave the stronghold of security.
6. But because of David’s prompt compliance with the will of God, his life would be spared, as well as those of his men.
7. Others were destined to be less fortunate and fall under the mad fury of Saul’s cruel, avenging temper.
8. As the rest of chapter 22 reveals, in his bitter anger Saul will annihilate innocent priests, women, children, infants, and animals.
9. Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech the priest will be the only one to escape and survive, and David invited him to join David’s gang for protection.
Application:
A. What lessons can we learn from “David The Caveman” to help us in our lives? Let me suggest several.
B. First of all, the lesson I want us to embrace and embody has to do with David’s reaction to his circumstances.
1. When David finds himself in the most difficult of circumstances he does two things – He cries out to God, and he does what God gives him to do.
a. David didn’t turn away from God in the midst of his trouble, rather he turned to God.
b. And when he turned to God, he cried out and was honest with God about how he felt about the situation.
c. Whatever it is that we are experiencing, we can be honest with God about how we feel about it.
d. God hears and honors such vulnerability. We don’t need to fake it with God.
e. I get so tired of the false Christian philosophy that is so often promoted today that says that the Christian life is just one silver-lined cloud after another – and that Christians always have to be positive and soaring.
f. That’s not the truth, and that’s not reality.
g. Sometimes the Christian life includes a deep, dark cave.
h. Sometimes we Christians find ourselves in the pit of pain and despair.
i. When we find ourselves in that kind of place, we can be honest with God about that and we can be honest with each other about it as well.
j. That’s what David did and said. Remember Psalm 142:1-3?
“I cry aloud to the LORD; I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy.
I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble.
When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way.”
2. The other thing that David did was he busied himself with the Lord’s assignment.
a. No matter where we are and no matter what is happening, God has an assignment for us.
b. We simply need to respond to the Lord by doing the job he has assigned.
c. When David was led to the cave, he had no idea what jobs God was about to assign.
d. But then it became obvious.
e. God sent David his family whom he needed to take to a place of protection.
f. Then God sent David a motley crew of 400 difficult, distressed folks.
g. What was his job? To minister to them. To give them direction. To train them for the future.
h. David easily could have shirked these assignments. He could have been so caught up in himself and his own frustrations, that he missed God’s opportunities and assignments.
i. He could have said, “No, I want things my way and I’m not going to serve you until they are.”
3. So, David is a great example for us when we find ourselves in difficult situations.
4. In the midst of whatever is happening, we should be sure to stay honestly connected with God, and we should look for the opportunities that God is giving us to serve.
5. Therefore, we will not only be blessed in the midst of the situation, we will also be a blessing to others.
C. The other lesson I want us to consider has to do with the way that David’s situation reminds us of Jesus and His coming into the world.
1. The Captain of our salvation was rejected by men and crucified, but God lifted Him up and placed Him upon the throne, and crowned Him with glory and honor.
2. And Jesus gathered to himself a motley crew of malcontents and sinners like us.
3. We aptly fit the description of those who were in distress, in debt and were discontented.
4. Think of the kind of people who were attracted to Jesus during His ministry – they were the sinners and the outcasts of society.
5. And those tend to still be the kind of people who are more likely to be open to the message of Christ today.
6. Those who were powerful and viewed themselves as perfect were not the ones who came to Jesus, and they still don’t.
7. But look at what Jesus did with his band of uneducated, common, outcast individuals – He created a community of love and truth that changed the world.
8. And that continues to be the will of God for the church – to create a caring community of love and truth that changes the world – one person at a time.
9. People who are physically, emotionally or spiritually in distress, debt or discontented don’t need a group of critics.
10. They don’t need more guilt or more piled-on distress – no they are hurting enough already.
11. What they need is a safe and secure environment.
12. They need a place of encouragement. They need a refuge. They need a place to hide and heal.
13. That’s what God is, and that’s what God’s people should be.
14. God is our refuge, our shelter, our Mighty Rock, our Fortress, our Stronghold, our High Tower.
15. And with God as our refuge, we become a community of refuge.
D. Let me end with this quote from the book Edge of Adventure, by Keith Miller and Bruce Larson: “The neighborhood bar is possibly the best counterfeit there is to the fellowship Christ wants to give his church. It’s an imitation, dispensing liquor instead of grace, escape rather than reality, but it is a permissive, accepting, and inclusive fellowship. It is unshockable. It is democratic. You can tell people secrets and they usually don’t tell others or even want to. The bar flourishes not because most people are alcoholics, but because God has put into the human heart the desire to know and be known, to love and be loved, and so many seek a counterfeit at the price of a few beers.
With all my heart I believe that Christ wants his church to be unshockable, democratic, permissive – a fellowship where people can come in and say, ‘I’m sunk!’ ‘I’m beat!’ ‘I’ve had it!’ Alcoholics Anonymous has this quality. Our churches too often miss it.”
E. We here at Wetzel Road can be that kind of people and that kind of place.
1. Let’s know God as our refuge and strength. Let’s run to him in honesty and vulnerability.
2. And then let’s continue to create a community of help and healing. A place for real people with real problems and real pain.
3. Then like David we can say, “Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name.”
Resources:
David – A Man of Passion and Destiny, by Charles R. Swindoll, Word Publishing, 1997.
David I, by W. Phillip Keller, Word Books, 1985.
The Making of a Man of God, by Alan Redpath, Fleming H. Revell Company, 1962.
I and II Samuel, David F. Payne, The Daily Study Bible Series, Westminster Press, 1982
First and Second Samuel, J. Carl Laney, Everyman’s Bible Commentary, Moody Bible Institute, 1982.
