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Transcript 257A
The "Cave" as a Figure of Hell [1 Sam 22:1 & Ps 142:1]
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Good evening. Several weeks ago I asked you something about a passage in I Samuel 22. And there we read, "David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. And 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."
And then we agreed that this is a marvelous figure of mankind's sin situation. And David is a figure of Christ, who is the captain of salvation. But you also mentioned something interesting, if I'm quoting you correctly, that the word cave is often a figure of judgment, or a figure of hell.
And I saw something in Psalm 142 that I wanted to share with you today, to see if it applies. The heading is, "A maschal of David, when he was in the cave." It's a prayer. And in verses 3 and 4 we read, "In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me. I look to the right watch, but there is none who takes notice of me. No refuge remains to me. No man cares for me. I cry to Thee, oh Lord. I say, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. Give heed to my cry, for I am brought very low."
And this seems to suggest the same type of condition. And I wondered if you could reply.
HC: Yes. Your question really is, Is there a relationship between Psalm 142, that talks about a song that David wrote when he was in the cave, and I Samuel 22, which gives us a description of him in the cave? And can we tie these two passages together and see in both of these Christ as Messiah?
Now in Psalm 142, this definitely is a Messianic psalm. It is the language of Christ, who is about to go to the cross. And the terribleness of the wrath of God is such, because of the sin of mankind, that He is crying to God, "Oh God, make sure that I will come out after I have paid for the sins of mankind." This is a Messianic psalm that finds similar language in other psalms.
We read, for example, in Psalm 18:4: "The cords of death encompassed me, the torrents of perdition assailed me, the cords of Sheol entangled me, the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord. To my God I cried for help."
This is already seen when Christ is in the Garden of Gethsemane. "Father, is it possible that this cup might pass from Me?" The terror of facing the wrath of God is so great. This is the language of Psalm 142. And so he says, "Give heed to my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. Bring me out of prison." Hell is prison, where he is going to spend the equivalent of an eternity on our behalf. But Christ is effectively saying, "I don't want to be consumed there. Once I have adequately paid for the sins of those who heave died, be sure that I will be raised, that I will come into the land of the living."
And notice it continues: "The righteous will surround me, for thou wilt deal bountifully with me." And the righteous are the kingdom that Christ came to establish. They will surround Him. They will be His people eternally.
Now this ties right back, and very correctly, to I Samuel 22, where David went into this cave, the cave of Adullam. That cave is a figure of hell, as Psalm 142 very clearly proves. And those of us who believe on Him meet Him at the cross. That is, we meet Christ where we are, requiring salvation. We are subject to hell. We're under the wrath of God. It is here that He became sin for us. And therefore we can be free from hell.
And I don't know if I talked about this before with you. But that next phrase, "And there were with Him about 400 men". The number four in the Bible is very frequently a figure of universality. And it suggest in I Samuel 20, at any rate, that those who would meet Jesus in hell, that is, those who would become saved, because of Christ going to hell on our behalf, would come from every part of the world. It would be a universal salvation in that sense.
CALLER: Do you think you can put your finger on something else that talks about 400?
HC: What else relating to 400 speaks of universality? Well, we know, for example, that the number four is used in the sense of the four winds of the earth, the four corners of the earth. "Men will come from the north, the south, the east and the west, and sit down at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." These are a couple of illustrations. There may be more, that just don't come to mind right now.
CALLER: In Chapter 24 of I Samuel, this is when David spares Saul. And he's in a cave again. He's in a cave, and this is where Saul is trying to kill him, in this cave. Could that have the same implication?
HC: Does I Samuel 24, where David again is in a cave, and Saul is still trying to kill him, at which time David could have killed Saul, because he cut off the skirt of Saul's robe, have the same idea? I really think it does. You see, Saul is a figure of Satan. And Christ actually did destroy Satan by going to the cross, by enduring hell for our sins. Now he didn't destroy Saul at this point, because there was also the historical development that had to be carried out. But he had the capacity to destroy Saul. And only because Saul was the anointed king, he did not. But figuratively speaking, he did destroy Saul, because was in his power at that point. And Christ went to the cross to destroy Satan, as we read in Hebrews 2:14.
Incidentally, if I may add just one more quick thought, the interesting thing in I Samuel 24:2 is that Saul took 3000 chosen men and went to seek David. Now that's kind of interesting, that Saul took 3000 men, because the number three in the Bible is frequently related to God Himself.
You see, it was God's program that Christ should go to hell. It was God's program that Christ would do battle with Satan. It was God's program that it would be the hour of the power of darkness, and Satan himself would enter into Judas and betray Christ, and so on. And I think this is perhaps, perhaps, signified by the fact that Saul comes with 3000 men. In the spiritual sense here, he is coming in order to accomplish God's program in precise detail. Satan accomplished God's program in precise detail by bringing Christ to the cross. But in doing this Satan himself was destroyed, even as Saul was brought into the power of David, so that he could have destroyed Saul.
CALLER: Is it also significant in verse 3 that it says, "David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave," because Christ went down into the innermost parts of the earth?
HC: The Bible teaches, in Matthew 12:40, that Jesus was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And the heart of the earth is very definitely a similar statement to that which we find in I Samuel 24:3, where it says that David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave.
In other words, Christ endured the awfulness of the totality of hell on our behalf. It was not just a skirmish with hell. It was not just a superficial contact with hell. But He had to enter into the bowels of hell, in a sense, in order to save us, because that's how deep our sins are. That is where we are under the wrath of God. We are subject to the depths of hell for our sins.
CALLER: That makes wonderful sense. Thank you.
HC: Thank you. Good night.