Helps For Distress
Ever have a bad day, a bad week or a bad month? Does life seem like it is against you sometimes? What do you do? Who or what do you turn to for help? Do you have moments of DISTRESS?
Escaping from enemy territory, David made for the area he knew: Adullam (the name means ‘refuge’) in Judah, halfway between Gath and Bethlehem. It was a Canaanite city in patriarchal times (Gen. 38:1), and was captured by Joshua in the course of his occupation of the land (Josh. 12:15). Close by was a hill which was both fortified and known for its caves, which provided a natural shelter for the homeless David, though his movements did not go unnoticed. His brothers and all his father’s house, under threat from King Saul because of their relationship to David, took advantage of the opportunity to escape from Bethlehem, which was too close for comfort to Gibeah.
Others who resorted to him were men in distress (Heb. māṣôq suggests/oppressed’), in debt and discontented or, more literally, ‘embittered’, and therefore passionate for change. It was from such raw material that David trained a loyal army, with its ‘mighty men’ who would do anything for him (cf. 2 Sam. 23:8–39). Thus his abilities as a leader were developed as he and his ‘underground’ force of four hundred men prepared for action. Not much later he was commanding six hundred men (1 Sam. 25:13). He appears to have accepted all comers.
The king of Moab was an enemy of Saul (1 Sa 14:47), and the great-grandson of Ruth, of course, was related to the family of Jesse. David, therefore, had less anxiety in seeking an asylum within the dominions of this prince than those of Achish, because the Moabites had no grounds for entertaining vindictive feelings against him, and their enmity, to Saul rendered them the more willing to receive so illustrious a refugee from his court.
After David had secured the safety of his parents, he returned to Adullam and then moved his company to “the stronghold” or “fortress,” which many students believe was at Masada by the Dead Sea, about thirty-five miles southwest of Adullam. The Hebrew word mesuda means “fortress” or “stronghold,” and can refer to natural hiding places in the wilderness. David lived in different “desert strongholds” (23:14, NIV) as he tried to protect himself and his friends and outwit Saul and his spies. But the Prophet Gad warned David that the wilderness fortress wasn’t safe and that he should return to the land of Judah, so he relocated in the forest of Hereth in the vicinity of the cave of Adullam. Hereth means “thicket.”