Cave Dwellers are not really alone...

1 Samuel 22

The Priests Slain at Nob

¹ So David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s household heard of it, they went down there to him. ² Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him.

Never Alone
by Charles R. Swindoll

Read 1 Samuel 21:10--22:2; Psalm 142

David had bottomed out. This was the lowest moment of David's life to date, and if you want to know how he really felt, just read the song he composed during those days, Psalm 142.

Can you feel the loneliness of that desolate spot? The dampness of that cave? Can you sense David's despair? The depths to which his life has sunk? There is no escape. There is nothing left. Nothing.

Yet in the midst of all this, David has not lost sight of God. He cries out for the Lord to deliver him. It's here we catch sight of the very heart of the man, that inward place that God alone truly sees, that unseen quality that God saw back when He chose and anointed the young shepherd boy from Bethlehem.

David has been brought to the place where God can truly begin to shape him and use him. When the sovereign God brings us to nothing, it is to reroute our life, not to end it. Human perspective says, "Aha, you've lost this, you've lost that. You've caused this, you've caused that. You've ruined this, you've ruined that. End your life!" But God says, "No. No. You're in the cave. But that doesn't mean it's curtains. That means it's time to reroute your life. Now's the time to start anew!" That's exactly what He does with David.

Here he is, broken, at the end, without crutches . . . crushed in spirit. And would you look who comes to him? Those same brothers and his father along with the rest of the household. Sometimes when you're in the cave, you don't want others around. Sometimes you just can't stand to be with people. You hate to admit it publicly; in fact, you usually don't. But it's true. Sometimes you just want to be alone. And I have a feeling that at that moment in his life, this cave dweller, David, wanted nobody around. Because if he wasn't worth anything to himself, he didn't see his worth to anybody else.

David didn't want his family, but they came. He didn't want them there, but God brought them anyway. I love it that they crawled right into that cave with him. (Swindoll)

******I don't think this 'cave' is the same thing as the 'man cave' we joke about. I can't imagine wanting to be in a dark cave alone...I know what wanting privacy and quiet time are all about. I know what wanting to take a break and retreat are all about.

Take yourself back to David's time. He was familiar with the surroundings. Being in a cave alone was nothing new. When he was a shepherd he probably took shelter in caves. But David being afraid? depressed? and alone?was probably not a place he was use to being. So if it is 'shelter' and a 'hiding Place' we are seeing, I can identify with him and I bet you can too.

How does a Mother surrounded by all her children, a man carrying the load of financial responsibility, a person dealing with health issues, relationship troubles, grief, disasters that have bottomed one out find their cave? Their hiding place...their shelter?

I know someone who told us that HE was our hiding place and our strong shelter. I know that He will teach us what this means...Not to be taught by human words... It's a God thing only revealed by Him.

May we know Him intimately...comfort, shelter, company, understanding, counseling...and remember, caves can be dark; but He also says in Psalms 119 that 'His word is a lamp for our path and a light for our feet"...sounds good to me in that dark cave.

What if you don't know his word (bible)?? No problem...He says of himself "I AM the WORD"... He alone can reveal himself.

Blessings to you