I have had some
thoughts from 1st Samuel 22, verse 1 and 2. I'll read them. "David
therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his
brethren and all his father's house heard it they went down thither to
him. And every one that was in distress and everyone that was in debt
and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and
he became a captain over them; and there were with him about four
hundred men."
Now this to me was like a picture of us
coming to Convention and coming to the only One coming in our debt and
coming in our need to the only One who can help us, Jesus our Saviour
and that's just what these men did, they came to David. He was the
anointed king but rejected by many but they recognised him as the
Anointed One, they recognised him as the king and they made him the lord
of their lives. They knew that he had gone up ahead of them just a
little while before, and they knew that he had to flee also and they
came - they came to the one who had understanding of them and haven't we
come to One just like David, but a greater One of course, come to the
Anointed One who was rejected of many, we believe in Him; we believe
that He is the Son of God; we believe He is our Saviour, we believe He
is the Christ and we have made Him our Lord and we know that He has gone
this way before us in flesh just like ourselves and we know that He
feels for us and He will feel our pain. We've known that before and so
we come, as it's right to come to this Convention; coming to the One who
understands about us.
They came to the cave Adullam, which was
a strong hold. I was reading about strong holds and about the strong
towers – they are different. A strong tower is an obvious thing, it is
on high and when men flee they run into it, they flee there for safe
keeping and for refuge, but I believe that they would be able to look
down on the enemy and see the enemy and watch the enemy and maybe from
there go out to battle, but a stronghold is a secret place. A place that
people - that David and his men fled to, hid themselves in, and didn't
let the enemy see them because the cave was in the earth. God made it,
God made the cleft in the rock, it had been there forever. God provided
it and they ran into it and they hid themselves. They didn't let
themselves be seen; didn't let their face be seen. Hid themselves and
didn't let themselves be discovered. If the enemy passed by they didn't
let him see them and that's where they fled. A stronghold, a secret
place, a place where they could hide themselves, a strong place. Their
strength was, their safety was in that they hid themselves, and kept to
themselves in the secret place - kept in the secret place.
I read a place back in the Bible about
the cave Adullum; or the land round about it and the cave was in that
position, among God's people, the children of Israel and that means that
someone had fought battles and won, and disposessed a people who once
lived there. When lots were cast for the tribes of Israel, it was given
to the tribe of Judah. David was of the tribe of Judah and that meant
he was in his inheritance. He was truly in the right place. He was
where he should be and it was right that he should be there. I just
thought of Christ Jesus the same line, the line of Judah through Mary,
and we just know that as God's children, as the children of God we have a
place, a right to the secret place, we have a right to run there, to
flee there, to hide ourselves there, and we know that the battle has
been fought by our Saviour. Battles in Heaven, battles on earth, battles
within His own heart, battles within the garden and He overcame and as a
result we are enjoying the secret place, we can hide ourselves here -
it's safe for everyone, everyone distressed, everyone in debt, everyone
discontented. Everyone who was there that came to David, they were all
poor and needy and tonight that's how we are, everyone has come because
they are poor and needy, but I was thinking, “Why did they come?”
because of David, and why do we come? Because of Christ. We are not
comforted because others about us are poor and needy, that's not our
hope, that's not our comfort that doesn't make us feel good, but it is
because the Saviour is here.
I was remembering today, that one time I
visited parents in the Children's Hospital. Their little child was in
the cot and very sick and I was just standing by the parents. I just
looked around the ward and it was full of little cots and little
children and anxious parents there. Then I just thought of our parents,
well, they sleep in company and so they shouldn't feel vulnerable and
they should just feel that there are others in the same situation and
that should be a comfort to them, but I realised they never let their
eyes wander from the face of their little child, and I believe they
didn't even know who else was in that ward, but then the door opened of
the ward, and they looked up, but it was just another parent and they
quickly looked down and it was as though no one came in the room. Then
the door opened again and the doctor came in and they watched the
doctor. Would he come? He was their hope, the physician, the doctor, he
was their hope he was the one who could give them help and hope and
comfort and they listened to his words and they focused on him. Isn't
that how it is for us when we come here tonight and visit Convention? It
is our Saviour, the Great Physician, it's His Word, His advice, it's
His presence, it's His verdict, it's His judgement. He's our hope and
He's our comfort and that's why we have come. He's the One we've come to
find help from. Everyone in distress, they came.
I was thinking of our Saviour. He
understands and knows the struggles of life and the perplexities and He
knows the experiences that we have passed through and everyone that is
distressed, He has help for them, He has comfort for them, the comfort
is in the New Testament. There's a list of things and then there's a
question, “Shall these things separate us from the love of God?” And
among them is distresses, shall the distress separate us from the love
of God? Did the distresses separate these men from their helper? No,
they drove them to him, they fled to him, they ran to him, and isn't
that what drives us to our Saviour, our distresses? He can help us. What
does God want to do when we come into His presence? He doesn't change
the enemy but He changes us. He changes our spirit and our attitude, He
changes our heart and our thinking, He changes our outlook, and the
Lord wants to send us out helped because we have been with Him in the
secret place. We will go out and face the same enemy, he is just the
same but we will see him altogether differently. The Lord doesn't want
us to go out and face the enemy still smarting, still hurting, still
perplexed, our wounds still festering, but He wants to heal them and He
wants to help us. When David went out of the stronghold, he faced the
same enemy, Saul again. He wasn't smarting, he wasn't hurting and when
his men said to him, “Stretch forth your hand, God has given you
opportunity, God has delivered your enemy into your hands.” David didn't
let his hand go out to take the life of his enemy, Saul. He spoke to
them, he taught them a lesson by word and by his life and that's what
God wants to do for us, that we will go out and face the same enemy but
the Lord has changed us and helped us.
Everyone of us is in debt. The Lord
wants to help us. We come to the Lord, it says in the margin about the
creditor - isn't that a kindly way of speaking about it - of the creditor,
taking the focus off us, we are debtors. God doesn't make us feel
debtors, the tremendous price that has been paid, that is the gift of
God, that's God's love to us and God doesn't ask us to repay it. We come
here and see it again and we appreciate it and we love the One whose
Son did this for us. God makes us feel better, He helps us feel
appreciation. He helps us to see it again more clearly what Christ has
done. We came feeling debtors because the world would like to make us
feel under obligation to them, the world would like to put us in
bondage, the world would like us to feel that we owe them something. We
are glad, that when we come into the presence of the Lord Jesus, He helps
us understand we owe the world nothing; we owe them nothing but just to
witness Truth and to testify of the Lord Jesus and power in our life.
I read also about the creditor and God
made a command and He said that if people sold themselves and went into
bondage and became debtors, every seven years the creditor must let them
go free, and I just wondered about the people that came running to
David. They couldn't wait, they didn't want to be in bondage, they
didn't want to bear the burden of debt and they came running. It tells
us in the Scripture that God hears the cry of the poor and needy and
those that are oppressed that God will with be with them. It tells us in
the Bible that God was saying to His people, just come to the secret
place, just hide yourself, just stay a little while until God's
indignation is passed. Let God deal with it - let God deal with it and
we just rest and wait in His presence and we'll see a merciful God, a
loving God, a forgiving God.
Then there were those who were
discontented. It tells us in the margin bitterness of soul. God
wants to help us with our bitterness; with things that have hurt us that
we feel bitter; that we might feel we have known some injustice, and we
feel bitter. The New Testament tells us that if a root of bitterness
springs up there are going to be many defiled as a result of it and God
wants to deal with that these days, the root of bitterness lest others
be affected or influenced by this that is working in our soul; this that
prevents us from having sweet fellowship with the Lord. We've run to
Him; we've fled to Him, and we want Him to deal with these things. When I
read in the catalogue of the mighty men of David and to think that they
were these men who fled who ran to him in their distress in bitterness
of soul, they were these men, great men, and they obviously did go out
and fight, they fought battles. There was a time when David was in the
cave of Adullam and he longed, he yearned for a drink of the water that
was by the well of Jerusalem and three men - it wasn't like a command;
It wasn't like a question, who will go? But three men heard the cry, the
yearning of the heart of their Saviour and they went out. Where did
they get their courage? Where did they get their love? Where did they
get their loyalty? In the secret place in the presence of their Saviour,
learning of him - learning of him, and I read where they went to many
strong holds; from one strong hold to another and that's just how it is
for us because we are with the rejected King. The Anointed One, but
rejected, and He is our Saviour and we follow Him wheresoever He leads
us. It just takes us from one secret place to another and then finally
when He reigns - when He reigns, when He comes again, we'll be sharing
in the glory, but now, it's in the secret place and we're glad we can be
here in this convention hiding ourselves, but don't deceive ourselves
that the Lord can't work and Satan can't be seeing us and won't be
having an effect on our lives, and may it be so. |