Year 3, Day 285: 1 Chronicles 12

David Gains Support

In 1 Chronicles 11 most of the men listed there were David’s own kinsmen.  They were mighty men, but they were mostly men of Judah.  Of course this would make sense.  You’ve got to start somewhere.  You’ve got to start with the people that you know will support you before you can go elsewhere and try and convince others to support you.

However, as we enter into chapter 12 we are reminded by the chronicler of the times when David was fleeing Saul’s presence.  What we hear is that some of the first non-Judahites to come to his side were Benjaminites.  Remember that Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin.  The more Saul pursued David, the more his own people slipped through his hand.  The more Saul lost his mind and relentlessly pursued David, the more of Saul’s own leaders moved over to be with David.

What can we learn from this?  There is the thread that runs the whole way through the chronicler’s work.  Seek the hand of God and join it at work.  When you rebel against what God is doing, things will go poorly for you.  Saul rebelled against God’s anointing over David.  Things went poorly.

We can also learn a bit about leadership.  When we are crazy, the sane leaders underneath us will go and find the strongest sane leader and become loyal to that person instead of us.  When we act crazy, go off the deep end, speak in ways that are unreliable, make commotions for the sake of making commotions, and do other things like this what we actually end up doing is teaching people to listen elsewhere.  How many good strong leaders in the church have actually taught others around them to quit listening because they acted in crazy and unstable means rather than acting maturely and humbly before God?

We can actually see this strengthened in the verses that follow regarding the Gadites.  As David’s power and strong leadership grows, Hebrew people from across the Jordan River come to support him.  But notice what we are told in the paragraphs following the Gadites.  Even more people from Benjamin come to David.  As David’s power grows, Saul loses even more grip upon his own people.  Amasi, the leader of the second migration of Benjaminite strength, sees God in David.  He swears allegiance to David because David’s leadership is sound.  He swears allegiance to David because David’s leadership is rooted in God’s ways.  Good people and good leaders are attracted to people who display traits of being obedient to God.  As Saul’s craziness increases, David’s sanity becomes more pronounced.  The people follow.

Manasseh

Along with Benjaminites and Gadites, we also see David joined by people of Manasseh.  This happens at a time when Saul’s persecution against David is so strong that David can only find refuge among the Philistines.  Imagine this dynamic.  The chosen leader of God allies himself with the archenemies of the people of God because of the insanity and persecution of Saul.  Yet even still, Hebrew people are coming to David and offering their aid to him.  Of course, I should remind us that even when David allied with the Philistines he did not help the Philistines against the Hebrew people.

But this really begs the question: how bad must have Saul’s leadership been if Hebrew people would rather serve under someone allied with the archenemy of the Hebrew people than with the king of the Hebrew people himself!  The people know in whom God is at work.  The people know where to find good leadership.  The people eventually quit listening to the crazy talk of Saul and find God at work in their midst – even on the other side of the battlefield.

The Rest Of The Hebrew People

Eventually Saul died.  David could reign in peace from Saul.  As this happened, all of the Hebrew people came around him and pledged support.  We hear about a great army that is amassed from the soldiers of all the clans.  We hear about the gathering of over 300,000 men from all twelve tribes.  Finally, in spite of the craziness of Saul, God’s people are united.  I suppose it may even be possible to say that it was because of the craziness of Saul.  The more outrageous Saul acted and the worse his leadership was, the more willing people were to join up with David and what God was actually doing through him. 

The whole of the people united under David and a brief Golden Age of Hebrew life was born.  Under David, mistakes would be made.  But the people would be united.  Under David, it was clear that there was one God in Israel.  For the forty years of David’s reign, things would go well with respect to militaristic security, tribal unity, and religious purity.

I think this chapter is speaking loudly into my life.  There are many crazy voices happening in the world.  Some are close to home.  Others are broadcasting from far away and in arenas intentionally foreign to the voice of God.  As craziness increases, I need to be like David as a leader.  You need to be like David.  We all need to be like David.  We need to humble ourselves before God and submit to Him.  In that act we will find peace emerging out of the crazy.  People will be drawn to that peace that comes from God just like the tribes were drawn to God’s hand at work through David.

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