DAILY BYTE
One by one, all David’s achievements and successes were stripped away. Let’s be clear – not because God stripped them from him, but just because of the ‘general cussedness of life’. Life is difficult and sometimes it all goes horribly wrong, despite our best efforts.
David’s success began to threaten an increasingly jealous King Saul. Saul tried on numerous occasions to kill David, until eventually David was forced to run for his life.
David ran to his mentor, the prophet Samuel. But Saul sent soldiers to find him there, and David had to flee again. Samuel died soon afterwards, which meant David would not see him again, or benefit from his fatherly advice and guidance.
Next David went to his best friend Jonathon. Now Jonathon loved David, but he could not lift a sword against his father, so David ended up on the run once more. Sadly enough, this was also the last time that David would see Jonathon before his untimely and violent death. Finally, King Saul in a rage gave his daughter Michal to be married to another man. This of course meant that David lost out on his wife as well.
Am I depressing you yet?
In a short spell, David lost his job, income and security. Some of you know what that’s like. Then he lost some of the most important relationships in his life, including that of his marriage. Some of you know what that feels like too.
David is so desperate that he runs for refuge to his sworn enemies, the Philistines, who lived in the city of Gath. To try to get them to have pity on him and take him in without killing him, David pretends to be insane. He foams at the mouth. He scribbles and scratches on the city gate.
Perhaps this behaviour is very close to the truth for David, as it represents the underlying storm in his soul. It really would be no surprise if David was close to a nervous breakdown by this stage. Anyway, the Philistines also kick him out and so David ends up living in a cave called Adullam.
From a palace, loved by all, David ends up living in a cave of the doomed. Surrounded no longer by the best of the best in terms of friends and fellow soldiers, now gathered around him are the worst of the worst in terms of life’s outcasts and losers (see focus reading). David would spend approximately the next ten years living like this.
And you know, like with David, nobody ever plans on ending up living in a cave such as Adullam, but there are very few people who don’t end up there at some point or the other. It’s part of the brokenness of our world.
Spend some time reflecting on your own ‘Adullam Cave’ experiences. What have you learnt or how have you grown from these experiences?
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord, when our lives go miserably pear-shaped, help us to never give up on you and never give up on the belief that you are loving and good. May our moments of suffering deepen our faith and not weaken it. Amen.
FOCUS READING
1 Samuel 21:10-22:2 (NIV)
That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. But the servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances:
" 'Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands'?"
David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.
Achish said to his servants, "Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?"
David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father's household heard about it, they went down to him there. 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.
