DAVID AS A TYPE OF CHRIST

J. Mitchell

1 Samuel 22: 1, 2, 20–23; 2 Samuel 8: 15–18; 9: 1–4, 13

I wish to speak a little of David. God said of him that he was “a man after my heart, who shall do all my will”, Acts 13: 22. It is very remarkable that that should be said of a man, but it is said of him because he was a type of Christ. Indeed, David was a beautiful type of Christ because morally David was a beautiful man. He was not the kind of man that would appeal to men of the world. Indeed where we read in 1 Samuel, David was in rejection. He corresponds in that sense with the present position of our Lord Jesus Christ, a Man after God’s own heart who did all His will. There was not one iota of the will of God that was not fulfilled by Jesus, but He is not a Man who is acceptable in the world, so that, like David in 1 Samuel, He is at the present time rejected. But although He is rejected He is still a Saviour. That is the wonder of it that though man has rejected Christ, He is available as a Saviour to every man. Think of the grace of God that has designed things in such a way that the very Person they have refused and cast out, and will not have in their system because He does not fit into that system, is available to all men as a Saviour. He is available to you today, available to me, available to every one of us. I find my mind can hardly take it in that He is available for all men; for every man, every woman, every boy and every girl, Jesus is available as a Saviour.

But if He is to be known by you as a Saviour, the first thing is that you must feel your need of Him. That is the first thing in your soul history.

I say to the younger ones that soul history is a very important matter; that is the relations of your soul with God. It is the most important matter in your life, and the beginning of soul history is that you feel the need of a Saviour. You see your complete unsuitability to the

presence of God. You see that you do not come up to God’s thought of man, as the word is, for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”, Romans 3: 23. That is that as we measure ourselves up with Christ, we find that we come short, and hence the need of a Saviour, the need of One who can take up our cause, the need of One who can meet our needs. In 1 Samuel 22 there were persons who had needs, a variety of needs, and they went down to the cave of Adullam where David was. Now that is symbolic of the present time.

Christ is in rejection, but nevertheless God is setting forth a rejected Christ to meet the needs of men; He can meet the needs of every man. There is no need in this world among men that is too great for Jesus to meet. He has suffered at Calvary, He has gone into death, blessed holy One; He has suffered the wrath of God in those three hours of darkness on Calvary’s tree; He has laid down His precious life; David did not do that. David was a type, but the Lord Jesus did that, the perfect, holy, sinless One. He became the Sin-bearer. Sin came in through man and God dealt with sin in man; but He dealt with sin in a sinless Man. It had to be so. He could not have dealt with sin in a sinner because every sinner’s life is forfeited on account of sin; but He has dealt with sin in the sinless Man, nevertheless in a man.

The Lord Jesus felt the limitations into which He had come. In John 4 it says He sat by the well, “wearied with the way he had come” (John 4: 6). That is one of the most beautiful pictures you could possibly think about. There was One who in His person was God, the Creator of the universe, but who had come into manhood accepting the limitations of manhood, and there feeling what it was to be wearied and thirsty. He was there approaching a sinful woman in order that He might engage her in conversation, in order that He might fill her heart with all that He had in His mind in blessing for men. That is the Lord Jesus, the One who is the subject of the glad tidings. That is the essence of the glad tidings, that God has come here in a Man, a wonderful

Man, the most gracious Man that possibly could be, come near to mankind, so near that He could engage that woman in conversation in order that He might fill her heart with what was in the heart of God. It says earlier in the chapter that “he must needs pass through Samaria”

(John 4: 4), and the need really was the need of that woman, that is what drove Him there.

We started the day with that hymn,

‘O Lord, Thy face was set,

Set steadfastly’. (Hymn 268)

It was love that drove Him on in that unremitting committal of His, that He would go down even unto death. What that death involved for Jesus, who can fathom? We sometimes say that what He suffered was unfathomable. That is not just quite right because He fathomed it, and God could measure it. In its full extent it is beyond you and me, but nevertheless He met sin there. He dealt with sin, the whole question of it. He went right to the deepest point and cleared the whole matter before a holy God. That involved those hours of darkness on Calvary’s tree, His death and burial, His resurrection and where He now is on high. He is “set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood” (Romans 3: 25). One who is qualified, where man has departed from God, to bring in infinite blessing for men.

Now that was seen in David typically. Publicly he was of no account. He had been the one who had gone into the valley and had dealt with Goliath, dealt with the enemy at his very source, and cut off his head. He was the great victor. The way in which he did it would not impress the world. He had not tried Saul’s armour, and he did not use that, he used a sling and chose “five smooth stones out of the brook”, 1 Samuel 17: 40. It was one of those stones that overcame Goliath. The Lord Jesus has met the enemy in his power and He has vanquished that power. You might think the enemy has power over you. He has tremendous power and he uses that power for the enslavement of men, but the Lord Jesus has conquered that power. He has been into

death. He has unquestionably broken the power of Satan, and He is available to us to relieve us of that power over our souls. What a Saviour He is! Here it says that certain persons went down to David, “every one in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one of embittered spirit collected round him; and he became a captain over them”. They went down to David when he was in rejection, when publicly he was of no account. Saul was on the throne, with all his murderous thoughts and the wickedness of his heart. David said, “the king of Israel is come out to seek a single flea, as when they hunt a partridge on the mountains”, 1

Samuel 26: 20. Saul pursued him unrelentingly with a view to taking his life, but here there are persons who actually collect round him. They have a need and, as I said, that is the beginning of soul history, to feel your need before God. And as you feel your need before God. God would give you light in your soul that He has a Man who is able in every way to meet that need.

It says that “he became a captain over them”. It is not the public side of his kingdom. We will come to that in the second book of Samuel. This is the period of his rejection, but there is a company of persons there in the cave of Adullam to whom David is everything. There is a company of persons here today on earth, where Christ is rejected, for whom Christ is everything. They have owned their allegiance to that blessed One because He is the One who has met their every need. What an administration is the administration of David! We will come to it in its public aspect in a moment but this, you might say, is in the private setting of the cave of Adullam. Very small, insignificant in the world, but nevertheless all that was there resident in David could be known. He could meet the need of every one and “he became a captain over them”. I wonder if Christ is your Captain. That is a question well worth asking.

You can ask the preacher too. Is He my Captain? Does He mean everything to me? That is the point of the glad tidings. God is not only proclaiming Christ as a Saviour,

but He is presenting Him to you as the Man who can be everything to you, the Man who can govern your whole life, the Man who can meet every need that you have, the Man who can give you entire satisfaction. There is no satisfaction outside of Him. He is the Person who is typified as a captain over these persons in the cave of Adullam. It is well worth knowing Him in this way. When He comes into His public glory, I suppose many might wish to know Him then, but the great issue is whether we know Him now in the time of His rejection. This is when He is cast out of this world. The world has no room for Him, but in the hearts of many He is a Captain. He becomes everything to them. But I ask the question again. Is He your Captain? Because that is really the issue in the glad tidings. God is presenting Him not only as a Man for your need. He is certainly presenting a Man to meet every need, but He is presenting a Man for your heart. That is what God is presenting in the glad tidings, a Man to satisfy your heart. It is the only way in which men can be satisfied.

Now I read at the end of 1 Samuel 22. It says there, “one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David”. Saul was on the throne and he represents, insofar as the type goes here, the great opposition to Christ. It is a terrible thing to think about that there is opposition in the present day to Christ. Indeed the whole world as a system is really opposed to Christ. Therefore those who have come to the cave of Adullam to David represent persons who have no room for the world and all its system because they have rejected the One who is their Captain. Saul heard that the priests had been sympathetic with David, and the result is that the priests are slain. It tells you how many, “eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod”, which is a beautiful expression. So it says, “and fell on the priests and put to death that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod” (v.18). It is a good thing to be enlightened as to the attitude of this world, not only to

Christ but to those who belong to Christ. The attitude of the world is one of murder. It is a terrible thing to think about, but that is the situation, dear friend. If you examine it closely you will find that what I am saying is true, and these eighty-five persons wore the linen ephod. It does not say they were priests, but it says, “they wore the linen ephod”. That is what they were, persons who considered for God, and persons who in their affections held David in esteem. Abiathar escaped and came down to David, and David was very tender with him.

He says, “I am accountable for all the lives of thy father’s house. Abide with me, fear not; for he that seeks my life seeks thy life; for with me thou art in safe keeping”. Now I want to say a little on that expression, “for with me thou art in safe keeping”. There is salvation from our sins, what we speak of as eternal salvation, and that rests on our Lord Jesus Christ; but then there is present salvation, and we need that. As I say, the world system is really antagonistic to those who belong to Christ, and as you go through the world day by day you need present salvation from that terrible system that really hates Christ. That is what marks it, but you can be in safe keeping with Christ. David says, “Abide with me, fear not; for he that seeks my life seeks thy life; for with me thou art in safe keeping”, and it was so. As you read through this book, and it is a most interesting book, you find that there is but a hair breadth between David and death; nevertheless David was preserved all the way through. I can assure you, my friend, if you keep near to Christ you will be preserved all the way through every day of your sojourn here.

Now where I read in 2 Samuel David is not in rejection but he is actually on the throne. It says, “David reigned over all Israel”. What a day that will be when the true David, that is Christ, reigns over all Israel; what a day it will be when Christ reigns over the whole earth! It says that the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2: 14). What a wonderful day it will be!

Prophetic writings tell us something about it in all its beauty, as the earth comes under the administration of Christ. God will for a thousand years show publicly that His Man, Christ, can reign in the very scene where He has been rejected and that has been marked by sin. God does not do away with a world because sin has been in it. Before the present heavens and the present earth are done away with, Christ is going to reign for a thousand years. That is a great triumph for God. It is well worth, therefore, being with Him in the time of His rejection. The hymn says,

‘Who suffer with Thee, Lord, below,

Shall reign with Thee above’. (Hymn 397)

What a day that will be when those who belong to Christ will reign with Him. He will be known publicly in the great administration that He has! These verses that I read tell you about the organisation of David; who was over the host, who was the chronicler, and so on. It suggests that Christ has an administration of blessing under His hand for the blessing of men, and that will be known in its fulness on the earth in that day to come. But there is a sphere now on the earth amongst men where the great administration of Christ can be entered into and known. That is a wonderful thing. Prior to where I quoted in chapter 4 of John’s gospel it says, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”, John 3: 35. That is a very beautiful thing to think about, and as you proceed into chapter 4 you get that lovely reference, “near to the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph” (John 4: 5). Joseph is another example of the great administration of Christ. He was the saviour of the world.

Christ’s great administration can be known at the present time. He will be the Saviour of the world in the day to come in a public way, but you can know Him at the present time in a secret and inward way in the very time when He has been rejected. So David’s kingdom was set up here, and his administration was set up, and Israel enjoyed the greatest blessings they had ever had under the reign of David. It will only be surpassed by the reign of Christ

publicly in the thousand years to which I have referred.

The Spirit of God proceeds into 2 Samuel 9 and brings out the character of that administration, and that is something that I wish to say a little about. The character of the administration of Christ at the present time is the same character as what will come out publicly in a day to come, but it is known now in a secret and inward way. The character of it is pure grace. How wonderful that is. Saul was a wicked man, jealous of David, and with murder in his heart. He would have done away with David in a second if he had had the opportunity. But God preserved David right through, and Saul finally was slain. He was dealt with so sorrowfully on mount Gilboa, and here is David now on the throne. What is he to do?

His administration is set up. What is to characterise it? Is it judgment against the house of Saul? It is a remarkable thing that when Solomon’s reign is set up, it commences with judgment. That is a side that we need to think about, but I am not really dealing with that in this preaching. What I am really thinking about is that David’s administration is characterised by grace, and so he says, “Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” Think of the grace of it! In your heart, you may have been an opposer of Christ. Indeed, it may be that in your heart you are still that, but He would speak tender words to you tonight. He would speak words of grace. He would appeal to your heart. He would say. Is there anyone here of that character? I want to show kindness to them.

That is what He is doing. It is not judgment. You have to wait for Solomon’s reign for that.

What Christ is doing at the present time is showing kindness. And it comes to light that there is a man, “And Ziba said to the king, Jonathan has yet a son, who is lame on his feet”. You might say, What good was that for David’s kingdom? But David says, “Where is he?”, and he sent and fetched him out of “the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, in Lodebar”, and brought him into David’s house.

Where I finished, it says, “So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem; for he did eat continually at the king’s table. And he was lame on both his feet”. You think of the wonder of that. He dwelt in Jerusalem. What is Jerusalem? Jerusalem is David’s city. That is what it is.

Jerusalem occupies a peculiar place in the mind of God. It is there at the present time literally, and God has His eye upon it. The presence of Jerusalem is a thorn in the flesh to the nations at the present time, but God has His eye on Jerusalem. Let me tell you this, dear friend, that He has His eye on that area where Christ’s administration is presently known and where persons like Mephibosheth can be taken so that they might eat continually at the king’s table. Have you ever eaten at the King’s table? Have you ever sampled the administration of Christ, what is at that table? There is no shortage at that table and there is nothing to pay. It says, “he was lame on both his feet”. He could never give a return to David for David’s kindness. David wanted to show the kindness of God, and that is the attitude of Christ in the preaching at the present time. If anyone here is an opposer of Christ, that is the attitude of God to you. Does it not break down your heart? As you read on in the scriptures Mephibosheth was always loyal to David. Even when Absalom usurped David and David fled from Jerusalem, Mephibosheth was secretly loyal to him. And when David came back, the sad thing was that David was not just as discerning as he ought to have been. He took what was Mephibosheth’s and gave it to Ziba who had slandered him, and finally said, Let them divide it between them. If David had been right at that moment he should have given everything to Mephibosheth, but Mephibosheth says, “Let him even take all, since my lord the king is come again in peace to his own house”, 2 Samuel 19: 30. What a wonderful spirit that is! He was not concerned about anything but that the king was reinstated in his place.

Well that is the character of a man like Mephibosheth who is affected by the kindness of God.

Now such a one proves the great administration of Christ that would have him at His table and feed him there. May it be the portion of every one of us to feed at Christ’s table and to be satisfied with it, for His name’s sake.

Preaching at Manchester
18 June 2000