By Edgar F. Reibetanz*
His character became saturated with the cloudy oil of bitterness and jeal ousy. The inevitable followed—the weakness of the head was reflected in the body. The nation took upon itself a national character of bitter ness and strife. Morale declined to depths hitherto unknown among the people. As a consequence, Israel be came a prey for the surrounding na tions, and invasion and attack were common things. During the course of his career, Saul was instructed of God to de stroy the Amalekites—to destroy com pletely all of them and their posses sions. Saul failed to do this, not be cause of any lack of ability or mili tary strength, but through sheer dis obedience. He decided, on his own, to save and retain unto himself those things which were best among the Amalekites. As a result, God rejected him as the king of Israel— “ For re bellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because thou has rejected the word of Jehovah, he hath also re jected thee from being king” (1 Sam. 15:23 R.V.). It was then that the Lord directed Samuel to visit the house of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, there to anoint God’s chosen one to be king over Israel. When David appeared before the prophet, the voice of God came to Samuel, saying, “ Arise, anoint him; for this is he.” The remainder of the story is fa miliar to the reader. David was brought to the court of Saul, and his exploits became the talk of the people. Outstanding among his deeds was, of course, the acceptance of the challenge of the giant Goliath, and we recall how he slew the champion of the Philistines and caused their armies to flee. Other exploits followed, and he proved to be the hero of the nation. “ And it came to pass as they came, when David returned from the slaugh ter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with timbrels, with joy, and (Continued on Page 20)
S CRIPTURE makes it unmistakably clear that there is a link between the Christ of the New Testament and the shepherd king of the Old Testament. Prophecy indicates that one will come who will sit upon the throne of David, there to rule in righteousness. History reveals that the Christ came of the seed of David, after the flesh. Thus prophecy and history join hands to establish the link between the second king and the Last Adam. But there is also the link in type. Even when we bear in mind that typol ogy can be carried to untenable ex tremes—and remembering that any earthly type must of necessity have within it certain weaknesses and de fects which cannot be carried over into the heavenly reality—even so we cannot overlook the typical relation ship between David and Jesus the Christ. It has been pointed out, with the clarity of brevity, that David was a shepherd before he was king. He was anointed of God for his kingly posi tion, then rejected. Because he was anointed of God, he became the sub ject of persecution. During the period of his rejection, he consummated a union with one other than his own people; he married a Gentile wife. And ultimately he sat upon the throne of Israel, there to rule righteously and prosperously. If we can keep the weakness of the earthly type in the background and look at the broad relationships, then we are ready to see an incident in the experience of King David which seems to bring forth a truth that has the value of immediate applica tion. This is his experience in the cave o f Adullam. •Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, Muscatine, Iowa.
It appears that because of the per sonalities involved in this particular phase of the life of David, many people have come to use the phrase “ the cave of Adullam” to describe the meeting place of all groups or asso ciations of discontented men, men who are perverse in soul and mind. I once knew a group of Christian men who sensed grave difficulties in an organization in which they were in terested, and they came together to pray about it. The place of their meet ing was referred to as “ the cave of Adullam.” People who hold this idea would be greatly profited were they to study the story of Adullam with a bit more care. If open minds were employed, I am of the opinion that they would be amazed to discover how wrong they are. Let us look at the story in the record of the first and second kings of Israel. The King Anointed Our readers are familiar with the story of Saul coming to the throne as the first king of Israel. The people clamored for a king, that they might be like the nations around them. God, in His patience and forbearance, granted their request and singled out Saul for the post ."? This Benjamite, son of Kish, came to the throne with tremendous promise. A man mighty in stature, one who gave evidence of mental and physical prowess, stirred the hopes of his people. After the first wave of enthusiasm had subsided, there came the reaction which follows inevitably in the wake of a weakling. The light of promise became dim, and finally was snuffed out altogether. This man Saul, who had so much upon which to build, became a man of evasiveness, of indecision, of intrigue.
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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