The Cave Before The Crown

How leadership within yourself is actually built.

What if the most important thing ever built in you happened in a season nobody saw?

Many of us pursue approval and attention don’t we? What about you?

My Bible schedule takes me to 1 Samuel 22 and something really struck me. it’s how God actually works with leaders. The “soon to be king” David has already been anointed by the prophet Samuel to be the next king of Israel.

God has already chosen him. The oil has already been poured. But he is not sitting on a throne. He is hiding in a cave, running for his life from King Saul, misunderstood, hunted, exhausted, and rejected by the current government. By every outward measurement, he looks like a man on the losing side of history.

And yet — people come to him anyway. Why is that? Here’s the verse:

“David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and other relatives heard that he was there, they went to see him. Everyone who was in trouble, or who owed money, or who was unsatisfied gathered around David, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.”

(1 Samuel 22:1-2 NCV)

Four hundred men, not polished soldiers with impressive résumés. Four hundred broken men, guys in trouble, crushed under debt, described in the original Hebrew as bitter of soul. They were deeply wounded, discouraged, and discontent with life.

That is who gathered around David in the cave. And the question that caused me to slow down is this: Why would hurting, overlooked, struggling people follow a man hiding in a cave?

Here’s the answer I believe: Because broken people have a radar that polished people often don’t. They know the difference between the ones wanting to look impressive and ones that actually look real.

When life has squeezed you hard enough, you stop being impressed by performance. You stop being fooled by the guy who looks great on the outside but has nothing real underneath.

You start looking for safety. And these four hundred men looked at David, a fugitive, and sensed something genuine in him. Compare that to King Saul, who had the throne, the title, the army, and the image. But Saul ruled from insecurity, jealousy, and self-protection.

A selfish leader drains the people around him. A godly leader carries them. These men could feel the difference, even from a cave.

What happened next is where this story becomes almost unbelievable. These four hundred broken men didn’t stay broken. The cave of Adullam became a transformation center.

Those same men, in trouble, in debt, bitter of soul, eventually became David’s Mighty Men, some of the greatest warriors and leaders in Israel’s entire history.

David saw potential where everyone else saw problems. And honestly, that sounds exactly like how Jesus works too.

Jesus didn’t recruit from the top of the social ladder. He recruited fishermen, tax collectors, the rejected, the ashamed, and the weary. He didn’t celebrate their brokenness, but He never disqualified them because of it either.

Broken people ran toward Jesus for the same reason they ran toward David, they sensed safety, truth, and love that had no hidden agenda behind it. How are you viewed?

There is also something worth noticing about David’s family in this passage. Earlier, when David faced Goliath, some of his own brothers questioned and dismissed him. But now they come to the cave. What changed?

Pressure revealed who David really was. Anybody can appear strong in success. But caves, hardship, rejection, seasons of hiddenness, caves reveal the true person.

What was revealed in David was that he was not bitter, not power-hungry, not plotting revenge. He was trusting God and protecting people. His brothers saw that, and they came.

Psalm 34 was written by David during this exact period, and he wrote it from inside the cave: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and he saves those whose spirits have been crushed.” (Psalm 34:18 NCV)

He wasn’t writing a nice poem, all comfortable. He was writing from personal experience in real time. I just love journaling for this reason. It’s way to work through the real feelings and self-awareness.

I want to be honest with you for a moment. I have always wanted to lead like this. Not perfectly, because I haven’t. I’ve ebbed and flowed between selfishness and selflessness more times than I care to admit. But the desire was always there.

I wanted to love people well. I wanted to love God genuinely. People sometimes assume what I love about this season of life is the freedom or the travel, and yes, Wendy and I enjoy it. But that is not what gets me out of bed.

What I love is having the margin to sit with people who are tired, to be present with people who are hurt, to give away what God has blessed me with, time, money, wisdom, and physical presence.

That is not retirement. That is redeployment. I hope you retirees hear me on this. I don’t believe we were made for easy street. I believe we were made to be the kind of people that broken, bitter-of-soul men and women can find their way to. How in-tuned are you to others and their needs?

Jesus said it plainly: “Those who try to keep their lives will lose them. But those who give up their lives will save them.” (Luke 17:33 NCV)

Your cave is not your conclusion, in fact, it’s kind of your classroom. The character God is forming in you during this hidden season, the patience, the surrender, the quiet trust, that is the very thing that will make you someone safe for broken people to find later.

Never write off a broken person, including yourself. That cave was full of future warriors who had no idea what they were about to become. And neither do you.

So let me ask you directly, are you spending your life, or are you saving it? Because somewhere out there, four hundred broken people are looking for a cave worth walking into. They are looking for a person that you could become.

This lifestyle is worth pursuing. On some days I truly wonder if I make a difference. But my love - my love for you - my love for God, it lights my fire and gives me my daily strength.

GOD. So I bring before You right now every person reading this who is sitting in a cave. The one who feels overlooked and passed over. The one carrying debt, financial, emotional, spiritual. The one who is barely holding on. Remind them that David was anointed before the cave, and the cave didn’t cancel what You had already spoken over him. You are close to the brokenhearted. You save those whose spirits have been crushed. That’s not poetry, or good bible language, it’s a real promise. And for the person who has been saving their life instead of spending it, stir something in them that easy street cannot satisfy. Give them a broken person to sit with. Give them the courage to show up when it costs them something. Because that is where the kingdom gets built. Help me be a Kingdom Builder. IJNIP amen ♥️