1 Samuel 22: Against All Odds

This chapter could set the stage for a movie OR could be an awesome picture of the church. I love this chapter probably because I love movies and I love the church.

All of the promises of the Kingdom have been given to David, yet he must wait. Not only must he wait, but he must run for his life, alone, and when he finds brothers-in-arms, they are the downtrodden, debt-bearing, discontented sinners of the former regime. He is the captain of 400 misfits facing the outgoing regime’s king who can line up thousands against them. He has the comfort of his family and the word of God through the prophet Gad to help him as his bones ache and his heart breaks in the dark caves of Adullam. We can read how God met him in these caves in Psalms 52, 57, 63 and 142.

While God was meeting with him, evil was raging on the outside. Doeg the Edomite, inexplicably without a conscience slays 85 Godly men, their families and their entire town. The full collapse of Saul’s leadership into despotism has occurred and it is clear to all around that his kingship is not from Yahweh. So hope rests with an outcast who leads the misfits and sinners. Don’t you want to see how this movie plays out?

That is why I love the church. Jesus is the ultimate outcast captain and I get to be one of his misfits. Saul’s false Kingdom is reflective of Satan’s kingdom. Satan is waging war and has new Doegs in the world inflicting unthinkable evil yet the truth about his rule is clear. A new king has been anointed and his ultimate rule is sure. Satan, like Saul will be overturned through a messy and desperate battle. Hope rests in the new king who is bringing a new rule and we as his misfits get to follow his leadership and bring his love, his order and his peace to this world, one life at a time.