King David is a wonderful type of Christ, the Son of David. At the birth of Jesus it is already announced that He would receive the throne of His father David (Luke 1:32). That will be fulfilled in the near future. Now we do not find Him on that throne, but we do know Him as the Christ, which is the Greek word for the Hebrew Messiah. And that means Anointed.
So we live in a time when He is the Anointed One, but not yet the king. David also experienced such a period. We already read in 1 Sam. 16:13 that David is anointed king, but he does not yet rule over Israel, that would take some time. In 2 Sam.5:4 we find it described that David becomes king. In the meantime, Saul reigned, but David was the Anointed.
David and company
Although you can also say that he did rule, but not over Israel. We find something special about David. David had to flee and hide from Saul, but he was not alone:
1 Samuel 22
1 David went from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and all his family heard this, they came to him there.
2 And everyone who was in trouble, everyone who had a creditor, and everyone who was embittered, came to him, and he became their leader. They were with him, about four hundred men.
Adullam
David and his party stayed in Adullam. That is a beautiful foreshadowing of our current times. Christ is hidden, but He gathers a company. Adullam has to do with the Hebrew olam, which means hidden. The cavern is a hiding place in the rock, which is also an image of Christ and it is an underground (hidden) hiding place. After all, David was sought and persecuted by Saul. In the New Testament we find a Saul who persecuted the ecclesia…
thaf
Four hundred is the numerical value of the Hebrew letter Thaf. The meaning of the Thaf is cross. These four hundred men were with David, as we belong with Christ, on the basis of the cross.
The description in 1 Sam.22:2 of those who came to David also ties in with how we find the believers of the ecclesia described:
1 Corinthians 1
26 For look at your calling, brethren: not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.
27 But God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God chooses the weak things of the world to shame the strong things,
28 And God chooses the ignoble things of the world, and the despised things, and the things that are not, that He may destroy the things that are,
29 so that no flesh will boast before God.
We now live hidden with Christ and share in his humiliation. Just like the men who came to David. But we will be revealed with Christ in glory (Col 3:4 ) and share in all his promises made to him (Eph 3:6).
David’s hero’s
We also see this in the story of David. Above the periscope being in 2 Sam 23:8 is in the Dutch Statenvertaling David’s hero’s. Nothing further is known about many of these men, but several are specifically associated with Adullam (2 Sam 23:13 ). Here it is described how those who once shared in his humiliation and were with him at Adullam were appointed hero’s of mighty men and given high places in the court of David (1 Chron. 11:1).
In the same way, we, as the body of Christ, will soon share with our Head in the subjection of all creation (Eph 1:22).
Deze blog in het Nederlands lezen (read this blog in Dutch).