The Cave of Adullam.

 
It is true that those who resorted to David in this cave appear to have had no character to lose; they were either themselves debtors, or companions of those that were. But the day of Saul in Israel was like the world―a scene of apostacy and enmity to God. Either God had to act in grace, sovereign grace, or full destructive judgment. And grace can and will gather the harlot and the publican, or receive the discontented and the debtor. But then observe what this company became in the cave of Adullam; they resort thither as men without character, but there they make characters. (See 1 Sam. 22:1, 21David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him. 2And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men. (1 Samuel 22:1‑2), and 1 Chron. 11:15, 1915Now three of the thirty captains went down to the rock to David, into the cave of Adullam; and the host of the Philistines encamped in the valley of Rephaim. (1 Chronicles 11:15)
19And said, My God forbid it me, that I should do this thing: shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? for with the jeopardy of their lives they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mightiest. (1 Chronicles 11:19).)
Fellowship with David has power and virtue. He was no debtor, though he will receive debtors. His distress was that of righteousness, and not of wrong. He had won a character already, though he would now, in his “den and cave of the earth,” receive those who had lost theirs. But in his company they become new men, and do such exploits of virtue as give them honor in the day when righteousness is exalted. David’s receiving of such is the condemnation of the world out of which they gathered to him. His making of them new creatures, or their becoming such while with him, is the vindication of that separated place to which they thus gathered. How easy it is to apply all this to a greater than David! When Jesus receives sinners, He receives them in grace; it is no question of previous character with Him. He gathers “bad and good,” as we read; those found in the lanes and alleys, the highways and hedges. It matters not in the reckoning of the Son of God. Not that He countenances evil, or can brook it in His presence; but He will not sanction the self-righteousness of the world; He will receive sinners, and eat with them. But His presence has its virtue―virtue to write a new description under a man’s name as here. (1 Sam. 22:22And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men. (1 Samuel 22:2), and 1 Chron. 11:1919And said, My God forbid it me, that I should do this thing: shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? for with the jeopardy of their lives they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mightiest. (1 Chronicles 11:19).) Such is the mystic power of this separated place in the wilderness, or of Him whose presence and company make it what it is; and what do we covet to be but such Adullamites―men who, having destroyed ourselves in the ruin of character and circumstances, have fled to the Son of God, and with Him have acquired names and dignities, which He will own in the day of enthroned righteousness?