David, Two Exiles, and the Great Commission Collision
A GUEST ARTICLE BY MATTHEW CANDLER OF IHOPKC
Woven into the fabric of the Biblical story from Eden until the time of David and beyond, are two prominent threads of the biblical story line. First, the coming Seed of the woman Who would reverse the dire consequences of the rebellion in the Eden’s garden-sanctuary. Second, the result of this reversal would invite reconciled humanity within the gates of Eden again, brought out of the exile of banishment into God’s embrace. This is why Genesis pays particular attention to genealogy, they were looking, longing, anticipating the promised Seed to come from the woman.[1]
The punishment for the sin of humanity was death and exile from God’s presence. The idea of exile as punishment for sin is shot through the Scriptures. Just as Adam was banished in exile from Eden, so also Israel was warned of the horrors of exile for not obeying His voice.[2] This perilous scattering due to disobedience Israel knew all too well in her history— first to Assyria, then Babylon, to 70AD. The judgment of exile was so familiar, even the man after God’s own heart experienced it and its effects.
The Two Exiles of David
I love the life of David. There is nothing like it. I have enjoyed decades of musings over the man after God’s own heart in books, music, and movies to ignite my holy imagination. Apart from Jesus, no one is featured more prominently in the Scriptures than David. Like so many, one of the reasons I value the life of David so much is because we discover how to be a person after God’s heart when we fall flat on our face in sin and failure.
Exile of Disobedience
Within a very short time after David was made king over all Israel he crashed and burned in sin. He despised the commandment of the LORD by taking Uriah’s wife Bathsheba and attempted a cover up that eventually lead to Uriah’s premeditated murder. According to the law, we would have expected the death of David[3], but the LORD opted to preserve his life and enact a three-fold judgment.[4] First, David’s house and kingdom would know the sword all their days for the slaying of Uriah by the sword. Second, an adversary from his own house would take his wives in public view for the taking of Uriah’s wife. And lastly, the son conceived and born would die.
It wasn’t until some decades later that David would know that the adversary from his house would be his son Absalom. At the height of the insurrection, David arose and fled Jerusalem.[5] Originally stemming from his sin and disobedience so many years before, David flees in exile away from the ark of His presence in Jerusalem.
Then David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee, or else there will be no escape for us from Absalom.[6]
The scenario is all too familiar isn’t it? Like Adam before him, he “saw” the forbidden fruit, that it was “good” and “took” it,[7] resulting in death in exiled from God’s presence because of his disobedience. I refer to this flight during the latter part of David’s life as an exile of disobedience, or rather, an exile due to disobedience or sin.
Exile of Obedience
Yet this was not the only flight of exile that David knew from a family adversary. He also knew a flight from his father-in-law Saul, the first king of Israel who pursued him for years across the landscape of Israel.[8] But this exile was different from the one in his later years, this one was an exile of obedience.
While David was not perfect in this flight, his righteous character is intentionally contrasted with Saul’s time and again. He is honorable and kind to Saul who attempted to murder him multiple times. He cares for his family who rejected him, restrains his men from striking Saul, patient amidst suffering, defends Israel from her enemies endangering his own life, bears reproach from his own countrymen while protecting them, and more. In fact there are numerous overlaps between this period of David’s life and Jesus in the Gospels.[9]
Although I did not always see David’s flight from Saul this way, especially when he settled in one of the three capital cities of the Philistines for sixteen months, Ziklag.[10]
So that day Achish gave him Ziklag. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. And the number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.[11]
I used to think that David was in rebellion to God’s word by stationing himself in Ziklag because of what the prophet Gad spoke to David 1 Samuel 22:5, “…go to the land of Judah.” A few things shifted my perspective. First, Ziklag was part of the original tribal allotment to Judah.[12] Like his hometown of Bethlehem which had a Philistine outpost within it,[13] David still resided in the land apportioned to Judah when he asked Achish for Ziklag. He also chose Ziklag for its access to metal weapons for the men of war rallying to David during this time[14] as well as its strategic location to protect Israel against the Amalekites which Saul failed to do because of his pathological pursuit of David leaving Israel vulnerable.[15] Lastly, nowhere in the biblical narrative do we find where the LORD or a prophet call into question David’s action to base in Ziklag as disobedient or rebellious.
David is not the only one who knew an exile because of being obedient to the LORD. Joseph likewise was well acquainted with the animosity of his family resulting in an exile to Egypt, but due to no sin of his own.[17] There is also Joshua in the wilderness wanderings amidst rebellious Israel, and Daniel in Babylon.
So David had two primary family adversaries from his own nation that resulted in two flights or exiles. The first was at the hands of Saul and was an exile because of his obedience to the LORD. The second was from his son Absalom and was an exile that was the result of his sin and despising the LORD.
The Great Commission and Collision of Exiles
So what are we to make of this? We see the man after God’s own heart in exile in both a season of obedience before he was king as well as disobedience following his kingship. At minimum we see that there is a cost to obedience, not only a cost to disobedience. David’s obedience to the LORD during his flight years from Saul was costly and David was not concerned with managing his reputation before the nation but his righteousness before the God he loved.
We also see that you can’t judge an exile by its book cover so to speak. Not all exiles are because of sin. In fact, this is where it hits home with us and the gospel of the kingdom doesn’t it? Since the fall of Adam and the consequent exile from God’s presence due to sin, humanity has wandered on this earth in an exile of disobedience.[18] But when we are brought into relationship with God by the shed blood of Jesus, our exile of disobedience is transformed into one of obedience—a pilgrimage of purpose, though strangers to the world, now children of God. Though we remain in exile, God has promised and provided His Spirit for His sojourners in this exile, the sanctuary-provision of His presence.[19] We are still in exile, though the nature of it has changed.
This is why Jesus prayed that we would not be taken out of the world, out of this exile, but rather kept from the evil one, sanctified and sent into the world of sinful exile as pilgrims just like He came to us from the Father.[20] In essence, Jesus prayed for the collision of these two exiles, and that is exactly what He sets up in Matthew 28 when He commissions his disciples.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”[21]
Just a short time earlier Jesus spoke broken-hearted words over Israel, yearning to gather her to His presence, but they would not have Him just like their fathers. The result would be the destruction of the temple and the consequential scattering of Israel in exile, as had happened many times prior.
Let’s now try to hear the words of Jesus on the ears of His disciples in light of what they would know regarding sin and exile. Here in Matthew 28, as Jesus commissions his disciples, he sends them to the very same place of exile as those under judgment in Matthew 23. He commands them to “go…to the nations”, the very same place disobedient Israel will shortly be scattered in judgment. He commands them to go to those under judgment, and make them disciples of a differing exile, an exile of hope, a sojourn of suffering-love. Yet Jesus makes provision for our costly journey of obedience with the gift of His presence, not unlike the bread of the Presence given to David for his flight, until the end of the age when He returns.
Maranatha.
Matthew Candler is an intercessory missionary and senior leader at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. He teaches and serves as Prayer Director with his wife Dana Candler at the International House of Prayer University. Learn more about Matt and his passion for Christ in the Psalms at thepsalms.org.
[1] Genesis 3:15
[2] Deuteronomy 28
[3] Deuteronomy 22:22, Leviticus 20:10
[4] Exodus 34:7, 2 Samuel 12:7-15
[5] 2 Samuel 15
[6] 2 Samuel 15:14
[7] While it is important to note that the ark of God’s presence and central organization of worship had yet to be established formally, it was nevertheless anticipated as seen in Shiloh (1 Samuel 2) and at Nob (1 Samuel 21). Furthermore, David was zealous for God’s presence and house to be established and centralized (Psalm 69:9, Psalm 132:1-7). This is remarkably evident even during David’s flight years from Saul, when both David and Samuel the seer established the gatekeepers in their office of trust for the temple yet to be built (1 Chronicles 9:22).
[8] 1 Samuel 21:10
[9] James H. Hamilton, The Typology of David’s Rise to Power: Messianic Patterns in the Book of Samuel. Julius Brown Gay Lecture presented at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary on March 13, 2008. Online at: http://www.sbts.edu/documents/JBGay/thetypologyofdavidsrisetopower2008-03-101.pdf
[10] 1 Samuel 27:6-7
[11] 1 Samuel 27:5-7
[12] Joshua 15:31
[13] 1 Chronicles 11:16
[14] 1 Samuel 13:19-21
[15] 1 Chronicles 12
[16] The closest being in 1 Samuel 22:5 when the prophet Gad commanded David to return home to the land of Judah when he was in “the stronghold”, an undisclosed location mentioned in the text, but assumedly in Moab. The reason that David was commanded by Gad to return to Judah was due to the prohibition in the Law concerning Moabite treaties Deuteronomy 23:2-6. Therefore David basing in Ziklag, a land apportioned to Judah, was not in disobedience to the prophet any more than if David returned to his hometown of Bethlehem, which likewise was a Philistine outpost 1 Chronicles 11:16.
[17] It is noteworthy that David and Joseph’s exiles of obedience land them in Ziklag of the Philistines and Egypt, for the Philistines were an Egyptian race (Gen. 10:13-14).
[18] Ephesians 2:12
[19] Ezekiel 11:16, Isaiah 8:14, Ephesians 1:13-14, 1 Peter 2:11-12
[20] John 17:15-18
[21] Matthew 28:18-20