May 20th, 2018

In the Cave

“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

David was on the run.  Fearing for his safety, David escaped to a cave in Adullam.  Adullam comes from the Hebrew root word: dalah – which means to dangle, like dangling at the end of a rope.  Adullam is the place where we run and hide, grow and learn. 

At Adullam, David found himself surrounded by 400 who were:

      Ø  In distress

Ø  In debt

Ø  In discontent

 1 Sam. 22:2 details this passage: what a group of outcasts, misfits, and what today’s world might call “no bodies.”  They flocked to this man David, who did what a true leader does:  he “became a captain over them.”  The no bodies were about to become somebodies!

David had been called, anointed and killed Goliath.  Yet God put him in a cave to sit and wait at Adullam;  as if to say now go sit on the backburner and simmer awhile.  Adullam was the hardest place for David, yet the place where God developed the qualities in him that would be necessary.  It was a place of suffering, of confusion, and of testing, for David. 

David led these 400 men in preparation, patience, and practice.  They learned their lessons well and they did not leave the cave at Adullam until the Lord (through the prophet Gad) instructed David to go the Judah – the place of praise.  When David and his men marched out of Adullam, they were the greatest military force the world had known.  David had learned what he needed while he was in the cave!