DAILY BYTE
When life does go pear-shaped and we land up in a cave called ‘Adullam,’ what happens to us there? What happens to our faith? What particular life lessons can we learn from David cave experience?
What really amazes me is how David embraced the reality of his new situation. Sure he must have wept and lamented, and sure he probably had a nervous break-down on the Gates of Gath, but David eventually took this band of misfit outcasts and losers and gave them new purpose.
He formed a type of ‘Robin Hood’ band with these men where he used his soldiering talent to protect and care for the defenceless. One group of shepherds later described David’s mean as a ‘wall of protection around us at night.’
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned a quote from Richard Rohr – how God does not necessarily give us all the answers we require during life’s tough times but will always give meaning. Well, this is a prime example of how that works out. New purpose, new hope and new lives are given to all sorts of down and out people because David made a choice to stay faithful to God even in his cave.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn once wrote how he survived life in a Siberian concentration camp for so many years. When he first got there, he carefully studied the people around him in the camp and found that those who were doing well were those who most accepted the reality of their new situation. They had realised that the one thing that couldn’t be taken away from them was their choice of how they would react to life in prison.
Of course they wept and grieved for their old lives and went through bad patches, but ultimately they embraced life as it was. They chose to relentlessly hold onto hope no matter what. They chose to live to the full in the midst of their prison experience rather than waiting for their situations to improve before life could begin again.
One story told about David’s ‘cave years’ illustrates just how relentlessly he chose to hold onto faith in a God whom he knew would relentlessly hold onto him. King Saul had launched yet another man-hunt for him, and while out on this hunt, Saul by chance went into the exact cave where David and his men were hiding ‘to relieve himself.’ Saul had no idea that David and his men were hiding in the back of that cave.
David had an opportunity to kill Saul there and then, to take the easy way out of his misery. However, at the end of the day, David refused to return like for like and hatred with hatred. Although sorely tempted and urged by his men, David rose above that. That’s exactly the kind of choice that brings life and renewed faith, even in the darkest of cave moments.
Although King Saul had taken everything away from David, he couldn’t take away his choice of how he would react. David knew that he could be more, that he should be more, and so his choices reflect that.
They also reflected the man and the king he later became – ‘a man after God’s own heart’ as the Bible described him.
Are there any important life choices you need to make? Choices that will influence whom you will later become?
PRAY AS YOU GO
Loving God, help me to see how important the choices I make are. That how I react to life’s tough moments will shape and define the person I later become. Thank you for David’s example and help me to similarly stay faithful to you always. Amen.
FOCUS READING
1 Samuel 24. 1-7 NIV
After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, "David is in the Desert of En Gedi." So Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.
He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. The men said, "This is the day the LORD spoke of when he said to you, 'I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.' " Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul's robe.
Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. He said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD's anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD." With these words David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.
