David's Mighty Men

Intro

Some of the most notable men and women, whether real people throughout history or our beloved characters from movies, TV shows and books, are the people who display a deep sense of loyalty.

If you’ve ever read or watched The Lord Of The Rings, then Samwise Gamgee has to be one of your favorite characters. Many have even called the bumbling hobbit, whose name literally means “half-wit,” the true hero of the story because of the incredible loyalty he displays to his friend Frodo on many occasions.

If you’re interested in Christianity during Nazi controlled Europe, you can’t help but be inspired by the stories of people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Corrie Ten Boom, who displayed fearless loyalty to God in the face of fierce persecution.

Loyalty is something we crave and something we consider to be one of the most admirable traits a human (or a hobbit, for that matter) can possess.

On the flipside of that, a lack of loyalty is one of the most repulsive things we can notice in someone.

We can’t stand the person who never stays true to their word or is always looking out for their personal gain.

In many situations, loyalty is what makes or breaks a person, and in the case of our passage tonight we will see that it makes or breaks kingdoms as well.

Selfless loyalty ought to mark the servant of God

State

This is an account of some of King David’s most loyal supporters proving their loyalty through acts of braveness and, most often, self-abandonment.

Jashobeam killing 300 at one time with a spear

Eleazar standing his ground with David and fighting when everyone else was running

Benaiah striking down 2 enemy heroes, a lion on a snowy day, and a 7.5 foot tall Egyptian with his own spear

There were many others who were also similarly loyal to King David and supported his reign in Israel

What strikes us the most about this passage with all of its war stories is the almost unnatural loyalty of these men. These were men who stuck by David’s side through thick and thin and were committed to remaining true to their king no matter the cost.

Now maybe some of you have heard this passage preached before and walked away thinking, “now you go and be a mighty man!,” I want to consider a different perspective. I am not saying that’s a wrong lesson to take from this passage, and in a spirit of transparency I just may end up giving you the same exhortation by the time we are done here, but I am afraid that we would be doing nothing here but setting ourselves up for either pride or failure if that is where we began and ended our study of this passage. So before we jump to picturing ourselves as the might Benaiah jumping into snowy combat with a lion, I want to back up and allow the rest of Scripture to shine some light on these stories.

Illustrate

We cannot discuss a topic like selfless loyalty without mentioning Christ and his loyalty to the Father.

Christs was, in every respect, perfectly loyal to the Father in his life on Earth.

Philippians 2:8 ESV

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

For all of the bravery and boldness of the Mighty Men, and for all of their war-stories showing their loyalty to their king, Christ was truly the Mighty Man of God. We know the stories of Christ’s temptation in the wilderness, being without food or water for 40 days and persisting through every temptation the enemy could throw at him.

We know all the stories of the attempts on Jesus’ life and the hatred thrown his way.

We know how he willingly endured torture and was even crucified for the sake of sinners, even though he could have put an end to it at any point!

And the physical suffering was only the beginning and far from the worst to come his way. We know that The Father’s mission to Christ was not just to come and suffer physically until he died; but the mission culminated in Christ taking on the wrath of God against all sin.

Isaiah 53:4–6 ESV

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Apply

We learn something from the suffering of Jesus Christ. Some people look at Christ and think “wow, we are so good, so lovable that Jesus came to die for us.” I disagree, and in fact I think it is just the opposite. “we are so bad, so sinful and disloyal to God that only the God-Man himself could save us from our sin. “ There was no other way.

You see, Adam was the representative for all of humanity, and in him we learn about just how disloyal we are. In the garden, Satan successfully tempted Eve and Adam to usurp the throne in the most disloyal act the world has ever known. Disloyalty is what runs in our blood, and it is what we all naturally tend towards since our original parents in the garden.

But is that what we are doomed to? Without God’s intervention, it would be.

Romans 5:17 ESV

For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Christ reversed the curse of our first representative Adam and has empowered us by giving us a new representative: Jesus Christ himself. Though all we once knew was disloyalty, through Christ we find the will to be loyal to him.

And at this point I recognize that different people have different definitions of loyalty and what it should look like. What should our loyalty look like? What does it require of us?

Looking at the mighty men, What seemed to be the goal of those men? What did they live for? What got them out of bed in the morning? What were they hoping to achieve by their loyalty?

Selfless loyalty cares only for the pleasure of the King

State: In the case of the Mighty Men, they lived for the pleasure of David. That was what got them out of bed in the morning, that’s what they were hoping to achieve through their loyalty to him.

A truly loyal servant lives and cares only for the wellbeing of the one to whom he is loyal.

Believe it or not, we see this best in the Mighty Men’s mission for a glass of water.

1 Chronicles 11:15–19 ESV

Three of the thirty chief men went down to the rock to David at the cave of Adullam, when the army of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then at Bethlehem. And David said longingly, “Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!” Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David. But David would not drink it. He poured it out to the Lord and said, “Far be it from me before my God that I should do this. Shall I drink the lifeblood of these men? For at the risk of their lives they brought it.” Therefore he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men.

One day, as the mighty men just happened to be near David while he was reminiscing about the water from his hometown that was now under enemy control, the mighty men did something that no normal person would do. In what some would call “going above and beyond the call of duty,” but what most people would probably just call “insane,” the Mighty Men broke through enemy lines on a life-threatening mission to get David a glass of water. It wasn’t that David didn’t have access to water, it wasn’t that anyone’s life was in danger, it was simply that David was feeling nostalgic about the water of his childhood and the Mighty Men wanted to provide that for him, even if it meant risking their lives.

And I don’t know about you, but David’s response to their mission probably would’ve made me at least a little upset. These men risked their lives for this special water, and David turns around and dumps it out on the ground. My first reaction was “man they must’ve been ticked!” But then I thought about it some more, and I highly doubt that these men were upset in the least;

Because their loyalty to David wasn’t seeking personal gain or favor or things to go their way, their loyalty was only seeking David’s pleasure, no strings attached.

Their desire was to give David the water, and then David was allowed to do whatever he wanted with that water.

Which, by the way, should be viewed as a righteous act in itself. You see, David proved his loyalty both to his men and to his God by pouring out the water. He proves his loyalty to his men by showing that he didn’t consider himself worthy of their selfless sacrifice, and he proves his loyalty to God by offering the prize to him.

But no matter David’s intentions, what this shows us about loyalty is that it is never out for personal gain, only the pleasure of the king.

Illustrate Christ lived for the pleasure of the Father

This is also the type of loyalty that Christ had to the Father.

there are so many passages we could go to that also affirm this loyalty, but one stands out to me when we consider that loyalty to the Father was Jesus’ highest pleasure

We read of a story where Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman at a well while his disciples were going to get food. In his conversation with this woman, Jesus was discussing worshipping the Father and even revealed himself as the Messiah to her. When his disciples came back they were trying to get Jesus to eat some of the groceries they managed to buy.

John 4:31–34 ESV

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Our basic needs, like the need for food, water, shelter, etc. are the things that create the greatest urges in us. When we lack them, they naturally become our top priority.

What was more important to Christ than food, water, shelter, or even his own life was pleasing his Father in heaven.

The pleasure of the Father was what got Jesus out of bed in the morning, it was what fueled him, it was his deepest desire.

Apply We ought to live for the pleasure of Christ

We have to recognize that this is not innate to human beings. Although we may respect loyalty very highly when we see it in movies or TV shows, human beings are not intrinsically loyal beings.

We know this because all too often our “loyalty” is dependent on what we can gain from the relationship.

At our best, we might be willing to go and get the water for our king, but we would still be upset if he dumped it out.

How do you react when serving Jesus leads you to difficult situations?

If it frays a relationship?

If it loses you a job?

If it means your house gets messed up from hosting gatherings?

What if God works in such a way that you weren’t expecting? Will you still remain loyal?

You might say “not everyone is called to be a mighty man. That type of stuff is for pastors and missionaries, some of us just need to get by.”

I believe Scripture disagrees. We are not called to live a life of box-checking as we skate by doing what we think is the bare minimum to have a relationship with God. We are called to devote everything that we are and everything that we have to the service of the Father.

We see this type of all-encompassing call in:

2 Timothy 2:3–4 ESV

Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

Here it seems that Paul almost has the mighty men in mind as he calls us to live the life of a loyal soldier that is completely sold out for his king.

Well now here is quite the dilemma isn’t it? On the one hand we don’t find this type of selfless loyalty in us, at least not naturally, and on the other hand we find a call to be defined by that loyalty.

Thankfully, this is where we recognize that although Jesus does serve as the best example of loyalty to us, he is so much more than just an example to follow.

Which of you ever had the math teacher that would drone on and solve problems on the board for an half an hour and then sit behind his desk and do nothing while half the students struggled to solve the problems themselves? That was the worst, it made you feel helpless, like you’ll never be able to learn the concepts and do it yourself.

I had a geometry teacher named Mr. Richards that went so above and beyond many of my other teachers. Mr. Richards was always looking for ways to engage the class, and when a student struggled he always came over to break it down to them in terms they could understand.

When it comes to our obedience, Jesus takes it a step further. You see, Jesus didn’t come to us as the students who really wanted to figure it out but just needed a little help. We were the kids throwing pencils into the ceiling tiles and stuffing erasers up our noses with no desire to learn, and Jesus reaches into us, takes away our disloyal hearts from Adam and creates something brand new. Jesus is more than just an example, and he’s even more than just a teacher who helps us understand, he is responsible for changing our very desires.

Is it your greatest desire to serve Christ and please him?

Have you come to Christ in the Word and in prayer and asked him to change your desires? Scripture says all we have to do is ask sincerely and he will give us even the Holy Spirit to guide us.

What is his pleasure, and what would he ask of us?

Much the same of what David expected from his mighty men: the unification of the Kingdom.

Selfless loyalty seeks unification of the kingdom

State The mighty men were loyal to do the will of David, which was the unification of ALL Israel

1 Chronicles 11:10 ESV

Now these are the chiefs of David’s mighty men, who gave him strong support in his kingdom, together with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of the Lord concerning Israel.

Long list at the end is a duplicate of the list to be found in 2 Samuel, except it adds a few more names at the end to show the inclusion of tribes outside of Judah

This would have been important to post-exilic Judah to show the importance of unity when they return home.

Illustrate Christ was loyal to the grafting in of the gentiles to God’s kingdom

A huge part of Christ’s mission from the Father was the unification of God’s people, including the gentiles that had been largely neglected by Israel up until this point.

John 10:14–16 ESV

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

Apply We ought to be loyal to the unification of Christ’s Kingdom

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

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.”

Just as Christ was loyal to seek the pleasure of the Father, we also ought to seek the pleasure of Christ, which is the unification of his Kingdom.

Our commitment is doublesided:

1) We must actively seek to add to the Kingdom of God by preaching the gospel to the lost

John 4:35 ESV

Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.

All around us there are those who do not know Christ that are desperate for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, even if they don’t know it yet. Every day we are surrounded with gospel work in the people that we see. I know that we live in a Covid world right now, and I know that there can be a million reasons why gospel work is just inconvenient right now, but I hardly think that the mighty men went to get the water because it was convenient, and I know for a fact Christ didn’t go to the cross because it was the easy thing to do.

What is preventing you from preaching the gospel to the lost around you?

What is preventing you from inviting that person over for dinner?

If we are to be loyal to King Jesus, we need to blow past those things that prevent us from serving him, no matter the cost.

2) We must actively promote unity within the body of Christ

actively seeking to incorporate as many as possible into the fellowship

After service tonight, go and talk to that person you’ve seen a thousand times but never talked to. Talk to the person you’ve never seen before. Say hi, I promise you it’s not going to be as awkward as you think it is; but even if it is, our unity is the pleasure of our King and so it ought to be our pleasure as well.

Just as Christ was loyal to the Father, we ought to be loyal to Christ.

Are you ready? I’m gonna say it. Christ has made you his mighty men and his mighty women and has empowered you to live a selflessly loyal life that seeks the pleasure of Jesus above all else, namely the unification of his kingdom.