1 Chronicles 12:1-2: Real courage does what’s right rather than popular
1 Chronicles 12 continues the account of David’s rise to power which began in chapter 10. Chapter 10 tells of the death of King Saul after a long, spiraling downfall. Chapter 11 records the mighty men who were most instrumental in David’s rise, and chapter 12 focuses on his other allies who helped. Overall, the chapter demonstrates that David’s rise to power was broadly supported by people in every one of the nation’s twelve tribes, but in 1 Chronicles 12:1-2, one group in particular catches the attention:
The following were the men who came to David at Ziklag while he was still banned from the presence of Saul son of Kish. They were among the warriors who helped him in battle. 2 They were archers who could use either the right or left hand, both to sling stones and shoot arrows from a bow. They were Saul’s relatives from Benjamin:
We see here a profoundly understated acknowledgment of the tension between David and his predecessor, King Saul. The chronicler reports only that David “was still banned from the presence of Saul,” but in reality, conflict had been building between the two for some time. It really began when Saul improperly offered sacrifices and refused to truly repent. God rejected him as king and announced through the prophet Samuel that he had chosen another. When David killed the Philistine champion Goliath, and the people began singing that Saul had killed thousands and David had killed tens of thousands, Saul realized David was the most likely candidate. To make matters worse, David became best friends with Saul’s son, Jonathan, who recognized that David was to be the next king. Despite the fact that David never lifted a hand against Saul, and even did great things to defend the fledgling nation of Israel, Saul tried multiple times to kill David. Rather than lift his hand against the reigning king, David fled for his life. Indeed, throughout this chapter, we see hints of just how terrible things were for David (e.g., vs 19, where it is noted that David “went with the Philistines to fight against Saul” (spoiler alert, the Philistines didn’t actually let him fight against Saul)).
All of this makes it stunning that the first group that noted by the chronicler defected to David’s camp “were Saul’s relatives from Benjamin.” Benjamin, of course, was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Each tribe settled in a specific region of the Promised Land. We might, therefore, liken them to American colonies prior to the Revolutionary War: the tribe was a person’s primary political allegiance. Moreover, in the case of Benjamin, this was an area about 25 miles east-west and, at most, 10 miles north-south. These, then, were Saul’s neighbors. Ultimately, though, each tribe was descended from a common ancestor, the tribe’s namesake. Thus, these defectors were Saul’s family.
Yet, when they saw how unjustly Saul had treated David, they resolved to follow David instead of their brother, cousin, and neighbor Saul.
In this world, we have all sorts of relationships demanding our allegiance. Examples include family, community, nation, and political party. While it is absolutely admirable to be loyal to such things, our ultimate allegiance should be to doing the right thing. In the case of these defectors, that meant leaving behind their family member Saul and the comforts of home to align themselves with David. What will it mean for you?