In the previous two articles, we have considered how David had confronted some of the caves of his life, either in physical or mental peril and anguish. We conclude this theme, continuing David’s experiences and contrasting them with those of Jesus Christ.
6) Reaching Out to Others
In 1Sam 22 we find David escaping Gath for the Cave of Adullam. Perhaps we can picture him hiding in the recesses of this dank, dark cave warily watching for Saul and his troops. Chapter 22 also explains that David did not spend all his time in the cave alone. Instead, his brother’s and father’s house gathered to meet him in the cave (1Sam 22:1), and this small group grew daily to include “everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented [Hb. bitter of soul]” (1Sam 22:2), until 400 men had mustered around the former captain of Saul’s army!
One might naturally assume that David and this troubled crew shared a mournful ‘pity party’ amidst the solitude of the cave. However, David could clearly see that the strength of this group lay not in collectively commiserating over their troubles, but in elevating each other and channeling their energies into something positive. This could only happen if someone provided strong leadership and spiritual guidance, and so, David bowed to the privilege and “became a captain over them” (1Sam 22:2). Gradually, through David’s organization and ability to draw out the best from people, “this desultory, low spirited company was forged into a closely knit, responsible and loyal troop, energized by the courageous, godly, faithful strength of a man who ‘had not where to lay his head’ ”.1
There are several powerful lessons to observe from this moving record. When we learn of someone who is experiencing troubles, it may be our first inclination to avoid them. Perhaps we do not know what to say, or how to help. We may steer a wide course from them, fearful the dark and despair of another’s cave will swallow us up. Rather, when we are aware of the struggle, we should take the example of David’s family and ‘go down to the cave’, reach in with a helping hand and assist those who are “bowed down” and “among lions” (Psa 57:4).
While suffering in the cave, we can become completely focused on self: our problems, our challenges, our misery, what I need, what I am dealing with. The magnitude of our trial may indeed be quite serious and burdensome (it is not to be minimized!), but we will benefit greatly, at some point, by shifting our focus from self to others.
David and his crew would gain nothing by collectively wallowing in their personal distress, debt and discontent. This only serves to further rot and destroy ones spirits. Instead, listening to others, comforting the downtrodden, helping lift others from the mire, and sharing the confidences we have in God can help restore our spirits and move us forward. Granted, God as a comfort provided the 400 men to a lonely, anxious man, but they also became his responsibility. As God had ‘sheltered David under His own wing’, so David saw a need to shepherd this flock of sheep threatened by beasts of prey. In effect, it also became an opportunity to “praise thee, O LORD, among the people” (Psa 57:9).
With David as captain, the gloom of the cave was swiftly swept away. Adullam means ‘justice for the people’, and it was here that David began to rebuild the justice which Saul’s faithless leadership had destroyed. It is remarkable to observe that the number of men following David grows from 400 to 600 in the space of one chapter (cf. 1Sam 22:2 with 1Sam 23:13). It is equally striking that Adullam is described as a cave in 1Sam 22:1, but shortly thereafter as a stronghold (Hb. fortress) (1Sam 22:4 ESV)! God had ‘answered David’s prayers’ (Psa 142:1,6), ‘brought his soul out of prison’, ‘compassed him (Hb. to crown, as a captain) about with the righteous’ (Psa 142:7), and provided him ‘refuge under His wings’ (Psa 57:1).
When we channel our energies into Godly support and leadership, it is amazing how the cave can, with time and patience, slowly dissolve and give way to God’s warmth and light.
7) Exiting the Cave
It would be a mistake to assume that David readily applied the aforementioned solutions, and immediately ‘the storms of destruction passed by’ (Psa 57:1). Although we do not know how long David abode in Adullam or En-gedi, the Psalms suggest a prolonged stay, accompanied by a protracted struggle to come to grips with the trial. The battle between the ‘carnal mind’ (Rom 8:7) and the ‘inward man’ (Rom 7:22) was intense, as evidenced within the Psalms by the frequent flip-flop of confidence and despair. Trust in the Father was not developed overnight, rather it took time and tears.
It also took time before David was ready to rise and exit the cave. He had found refuge, respite, friends and family while in the cave. Perhaps life had stabilized, and the thought of moving from the cave, only to expose himself to Saul and the risk of greater distress, was strong motivation to stay put.
Our personal trials may also require a prolonged struggle, in which God-centered solutions do not come about immediately. The caves may crush our spirit and deplete our energy. Often, it is challenging to shake off the despair, draw near to God, and work with Him to overcome our challenges. Emerging from the cave is not an easy process.
But, prayer cannot simply be presumption. “Prayer is cooperating with God. It does not leave everything to Him, nor does it ignore His help”2. If we ask God to help us with our burden, He expects us to act on our prayers. David could not pray for refuge from Saul and then stand waiting in the open fields of the Shephalah for his imminent destruction. Likewise, he could not pray, “Bring me out of prison” (Psa 142:7) if he was not willing to look for the exit and firmly grasp God’s hand as He drew him from the pit.
Eventually, divine direction came to deliver David from the danger. The prophet Gad meets David and tells him to “depart, and go to the land of Judah” (1Sam 22:5). It was time to exit the cave and find safety, but it was also a test of David’s obedience. Without questioning, David and his men accept God’s guiding hand and travel onwards to the forest of Hereth some 20km north near Hebron.
There comes a time in our own cave experiences, hard as it may be, when we must do the same. Pick ourselves up, stumble from its dark recesses to the opening, and though blind to the future, move forward in full confidence that God ‘knows our way’ and will continue to be ‘our refuge’ wherever we may reside ‘in the land of the living’ (Psa 142:3,5). In The Man David, Harry Tennant provides a touching summary of this last solution:
“Weeping relieves feeling and betokens inner emotions, but it does not solve problems. Out of our tears finally, if they are to be of value to us, there must emerge a resolve of spirit. Perpetual and inconsolable grief is defeat and self-destruction. However great the burden, however irreplaceable the loss, however terrible the desolation which brings about our sorrow, for the follower of Jesus the moment must come when, having poured all our tears into God’s bottle, we lift up our head and say ‘Arise, and let us be going!’ ”3
Christ and the Cave
David’s experiences at Adullam and En-gedi are two of the most prominent ‘cave events’ in Scripture. Yet, the most significant is contained in the New Testament. While preaching to the Jews in Antioch, Paul summarizes the account when he says “And when they had fulfilled all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree, and laid Him in a sepulchre” (Acts 13:29). The word ‘sepulchre’ or ‘tomb’ is the same Greek word translated ‘cave’ in John 11:38 whereby John describes the burial place for Lazarus. It is heartening to recognize that even Jesus spent time in a cave.
The Old Testament foreshadowed the power of this event many years earlier. In Josh 10, we find Joshua mounting a battle at Gibeon against the united forces of five Amorite kings. Collectively, the kings represented the sin that Israel was commanded to remove from the Promised Land. In an attempt to evade Joshua, the kings flee and hide in the Cave of Makkedah, several kilometers north-west of the Cave of Adullam. When Joshua finds them, he has the men dragged from the cave, and instructs his captains to place their feet on the necks of the kings (Josh 10:24). Afterwards, “Joshua smote them, slew them, and hanged them on five trees … And it came to pass at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave wherein they had been hid, and laid great stones in the cave’s mouth” (Josh 10:26-27).
The events at Makkedah pointed forward to the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The feet placed on the necks of the five kings are an echo from Gen 3:15 where the head of the serpent is to be crushed by the heel of the seed of the woman. In effect, sin (as represented by the kings) was slain by Joshua (a type of Christ), hung on a tree to die, removed in the evening and placed in a cave behind a great stone (Mark 15). Although God rolled the stone back and raised Christ from the cave (Mark 15:46), sin was left behind, never to exit again.
Once again, God’s salvation is illustrated through events surrounding a cave. The very man that released others from physical, emotional and spiritual caves (e.g. Lazarus, Legion) was saved from the cave and freed from the shackles of sin. His release from the cave is surety of our own salvation. Ultimately, it is sin that brings us to the cave, but ‘king sin’, along with our human struggles, can be overcome through trust and hope in God. As he stood over the five kings at Makkedah, Joshua reminded Israel of this same hope: “Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom ye fight” (Josh 10:25).
In addition to the physical cave, it is encouraging to recall that the Lord Jesus also experienced emotional and spiritual caves throughout his life. He was ill-treated, slandered, betrayed by friends, pursued by his enemies, and accused falsely. At times, he must have been lonely and overwhelmed, ready to retract from those around him, curl up in a dark place and leave the crowds behind. In the garden he was ‘greatly distressed, troubled, and very sorrowful, even to death’ (Mark 14:33 ESV).
When his spirit was overwhelmed, Jesus turned to the same solutions as David. In the dark and anguish of Gethsemane, Jesus left his disciples three times to pour out his pain to God in prayer (Mark 14). Several times Jesus weeps to relieve his emotions (Luke 19:41; John 11:35). During the transfiguration, we can be sure he drew strength from the faithful ‘past’ experiences of Moses and Elijah (Luke 9:28-31). In Mark 13 Jesus expresses his ‘future’ assurance of the kingdom age: “then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory” (Mark 13:26).
Throughout his ministry, Jesus devoted himself to helping others through comfort, healing, and teaching. Of Christ, Isaiah declares, “the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Isa 61:1). Despite their weaknesses, even the disciples are commended for supporting a lonely man during his darkest hours: “Ye are they which continued with me in my temptations” (Luke 22:28). Finally, Jesus recognized it was time to exit the despair of Gethsemane, and to be obedient to the cross, when he instructs his disciples “Rise up, let us go!” (Mark 14:42).
Cave experiences played a necessary part in the development of the Lord Jesus. While pursued by his betrayers, there was method in the madness: like David, he was being prepared to become the next King of Israel. We are comforted and inspired when we realize, that he too “offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard” (Heb 5:7).
‘They Without Us’
We began by considering the faithful saints of Hebrews 11 who experienced both triumph and trial, including experiences where many “wandered in dens and caves of the earth” (Heb 11:38). Hebrews 11 closes with some encouraging thoughts for ALL who have spent time in caves and relied on God’s strength to help them through: “These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect” (Heb 11:40).
Despite the tough times they endured, they have not yet received their full inheritance. Instead, they await a future day when, together with us, we will ALL witness the fulfillment of God’s salvation in the kingdom age.
The darkness of the cave is an overwhelming experience. Everyone who truly follows God will enter the Cave of Adullam sooner or later. Perhaps our sin brings us there; perhaps the testing of our faith, or perhaps the correction of the love of God. The experience has been designed by God and is necessary for our proper growth. Adversity is one of the tools God uses to chisel our characters into shape, and we must allow that to happen. Through it, our patience, trust and faith in God are developed.
Far from abandoning us, God brings us to the cave to recognize, like David: “THOU art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness” (2Sam 22:29). The cave is not made for despair. Instead, it forces us to seek refuge in God and to lean on God-given solutions as illustrated so faithfully in the life of David — a type of Christ, and a man after God’s own heart. In so doing, our Father will ultimately dispel our darkness, rescue us from the cave, and “deal bountifully with us” (Psa 142:7).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One