The Unmoveable Man: Covenant Loyalty in a World of Traitors Text: 2 Samuel 15:19-23
Introduction: The Great Divorce
We live in an age of profound disloyalty. Our entire civilization is built on the sandy foundation of convenience, personal preference, and subjective feeling. Vows, whether marital, civic, or ecclesiastical, are treated as temporary contracts with numerous fine-print escape clauses. We have divorced ourselves from our history, from our creeds, from our fathers, and ultimately, from our God. The modern man is a perpetual exile by choice, a spiritual tourist wandering from one identity to the next, loyal to nothing but his own appetites. He is a man who goes wherever he goes, which is to say, nowhere of any consequence.
Into this gelatinous modern scene, our text from 2 Samuel 15 lands with the force of a cannonball. We are in the midst of one of the most pathetic and tragic episodes in all of Scripture. David, the Lord's anointed, the sweet psalmist of Israel, is fleeing for his life. And from whom? Not from a foreign enemy, not from Saul's lingering loyalists, but from his own son, Absalom. The son he loved, the son whose name means "father of peace," has become the father of rebellion. The hearts of the men of Israel, once David's, have been stolen by the cheap flattery and political machinations of a handsome, long-haired demagogue.
This is David at his lowest. His sin with Bathsheba has come home to roost, and the sword that God promised would never depart from his house is now in the hand of his own child. David is a broken man, weeping, barefoot, his head covered, ascending the Mount of Olives. He is a king in name only, betrayed by his son, abandoned by his people, and reaping the bitter harvest of his own sin. And it is precisely here, in this moment of utter humiliation and weakness, that we encounter one of the brightest displays of masculine, covenantal loyalty in the entire Old Testament. It comes not from a blue-blooded Israelite, but from a foreigner, a Philistine from Gath, the hometown of Goliath. In the loyalty of Ittai the Gittite, God gives David a profound kindness and gives us a picture of the kind of faithfulness that He requires, that He provides, and that Christ perfectly embodied.
This passage confronts us with a fundamental question: When the king is rejected, when the cause seems lost, when loyalty will cost you everything, where will you stand? Are you a man of covenant, or a man of convenience?
The Text
Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why will you also go with us? Return and remain with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile; return to your own place. You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander with us, going about, while I go where I go? Return and cause your brothers to return; lovingkindness and truth be with you.” But Ittai answered the king and said, “As Yahweh lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely wherever my lord the king may be, whether for death or for life, there also your servant will be.” So David said to Ittai, “Go and pass over.” So Ittai the Gittite passed over with all his men and all the little ones who were with him. While all the country was weeping with a loud voice, all the people passed over. The king also passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness.
(2 Samuel 15:19-23 LSB)
The King's Gracious Offer (v. 19-20)
We begin with David's interaction with this foreigner, Ittai.
"Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why will you also go with us? Return and remain with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile; return to your own place. You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander with us, going about, while I go where I go? Return and cause your brothers to return; lovingkindness and truth be with you.”" (2 Samuel 15:19-20)
As David reviews the rag-tag band of loyalists who have followed him out of Jerusalem, he singles out Ittai. Ittai was the commander of 600 Philistine warriors who had, for reasons not fully detailed, thrown in their lot with David. They were mercenaries, professional soldiers. But something more than a paycheck is going on here. David, in his grief, shows a remarkable nobility of character. He is not thinking of his military strength; he is thinking of his obligation to this man.
He gives Ittai every reason to leave. First, he tells him to "remain with the king." By this, David means Absalom. In a moment of what appears to be grim realism, David acknowledges that Absalom now holds the throne in Jerusalem. From a pragmatic standpoint, the smart move for a mercenary captain is to pledge allegiance to the man in power. Second, David reminds Ittai of his status: "you are a foreigner and also an exile." Ittai is not a native son of Israel. He has no ancestral obligation to the house of David. His loyalty is, from a worldly perspective, entirely optional. Third, David notes the timing: "You came only yesterday." Ittai's commitment is recent. He hasn't had years to build up a deep-seated allegiance. David is essentially saying, "You just got here. You didn't sign up for this."
David's question, "shall I today make you wander with us, while I go where I go?" is a statement of profound uncertainty. The deposed king has no plan, no destination. He is a vagabond. To follow him is to embrace a future of complete instability. In all this, David is offering Ittai an honorable discharge. He releases him from any perceived obligation. He even blesses him with the great covenantal benediction: "lovingkindness and truth be with you." This is the Hebrew hesed and emeth, the very heart of God's covenant faithfulness. David is acting like a true king, caring for his subjects even at his own expense.
This is the test. Loyalty cannot be forced; it must be freely given. A loyalty that is compelled by contract or convenience is no loyalty at all. It is a business transaction. David clears the deck of all worldly incentives so that Ittai's decision, whatever it may be, will be a true reflection of his heart.
The Servant's Unbreakable Oath (v. 21)
Ittai's response is one of the great declarations of loyalty in all of literature. It is raw, resolute, and rooted in the fear of God.
"But Ittai answered the king and said, “As Yahweh lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely wherever my lord the king may be, whether for death or for life, there also your servant will be.”" (2 Samuel 15:21 LSB)
Notice how Ittai begins. "As Yahweh lives..." This is astounding. This is not a Philistine swearing by Dagon. This is a Gittite, a man from the city of Goliath, taking a solemn, binding oath in the name of the God of Israel. This tells us that Ittai is not merely a mercenary. He is a convert. He is a true believer, grafted into the covenant people of God. He has recognized that Yahweh is the living God and that David is His anointed king. His loyalty is not ultimately to a man, but to the God who anointed that man.
Our culture treats oaths like it treats wedding cake, as a decorative formality to be consumed and forgotten. But in the biblical world, an oath was a self-maledictory promise. To swear "as Yahweh lives" was to say, "May Yahweh strike me dead if I break this vow." Ittai is binding his very life to his word. He then doubles down, swearing by the life of his earthly king: "and as my lord the king lives." His loyalty is vertical, to God, and horizontal, to God's chosen vessel.
And what is the substance of the oath? "surely wherever my lord the king may be, whether for death or for life, there also your servant will be." This is the essence of covenantal commitment. It is unconditional. It is not "I will be with you if you win." It is not "I will be with you if it is safe." It is not "I will be with you if I feel like it." It is a declaration that his fate is now inextricably tied to David's fate. He is signing up for the wandering. He is signing up for the uncertainty. He is signing up for the potential of a violent death at the hands of Absalom's army. This is the voice of a true man, a man whose word is his bond because his God is the living God. This is the same spirit we see in Ruth's pledge to Naomi: "Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God" (Ruth 1:16).
The Procession of the Faithful (v. 22-23)
David, hearing this magnificent oath, does not argue. He accepts this gift of loyalty and commands Ittai to move forward.
"So David said to Ittai, “Go and pass over.” So Ittai the Gittite passed over with all his men and all the little ones who were with him. While all the country was weeping with a loud voice, all the people passed over. The king also passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness." (2 Samuel 15:22-23 LSB)
Ittai's loyalty is not a solo act. He brings his entire contingent with him, "all his men and all the little ones who were with him." This is a corporate commitment. He is a chieftain, and his people follow him as he follows his king. This is a picture of federal headship. The loyalty of the leader determines the direction of the whole clan. They are all in. They are burning their bridges back to Jerusalem. Their future is now in the wilderness with the rejected king.
The scene is filled with sorrow. "All the country was weeping with a loud voice." This is a national tragedy. The king is in exile. The kingdom is fractured. The weeping is the sound of a nation tearing itself apart. And in the midst of this grief, we have this solemn procession of the faithful.
And then we come to the final, deeply symbolic act: "The king also passed over the brook Kidron." The Kidron Valley was on the east side of Jerusalem. To cross it was to truly leave the city and head into the wilderness. But it was more than a geographical boundary. The Kidron was a place of refuse, where the filth from the temple was often discarded. It was a place associated with judgment and sorrow. To cross the Kidron was to enter a place of darkness and uncleanness.
And here, the typology shines with blinding clarity. A thousand years later, another Son of David, the true King, would be rejected by His own people. After being betrayed by one of his closest followers, He too would lead a small, faithful band out of Jerusalem and cross the Kidron Valley to a garden called Gethsemane (John 18:1). David crossed the Kidron weeping for his own sin and the rebellion of his son. Jesus crossed the Kidron to take upon Himself the sin of the world and to face the full rebellion of mankind. David was fleeing a usurper to save his life. Jesus was marching toward the usurper, Satan, to lay down His life. David's crossing was a picture of pathetic shame; Christ's crossing was a picture of sovereign, saving purpose.
The Unmoveable Disciple
This story is not in the Bible to make us admire Ittai. It is here to make us imitate Ittai in our devotion to the greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ. Ittai's oath is the very oath of Christian discipleship.
Like David, our King came to us and offered us every reason to abandon Him. He came to His own, and His own received Him not. He was despised and rejected of men. To follow Him is to be a foreigner and an exile in this world. To follow Him is to embrace a life of wandering, to take up a cross, and to go "where I go." He does not promise us earthly stability or worldly success. He promises us Himself, and with Himself, trouble.
And the call of the gospel is the call to make Ittai's oath our own. It is to say, "As the Lord lives, and as my Lord the King lives, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Wherever my Lord the King may be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be." This is not a decision you make when the crowds are shouting "Hosanna." This is a decision you make when the king is crossing the Kidron, when the cause looks lost, and the whole world is going the other way.
The Christian life is a long march out of the comfortable Jerusalem of this world, across the filthy Kidron of suffering and shame, and into the wilderness with our rejected King. And who is with us? A band of foreigners and exiles, men and women and little ones, who have sworn an unbreakable oath. Our loyalty is not to the Absaloms of this world, the flashy, popular, self-serving leaders who promise everything and deliver nothing. Our loyalty is to the true King, Jesus Christ.
Ittai the Gittite was a Philistine who became more of an Israelite than the Israelites. He showed what true faith looks like. It is an unshakeable, unconditional, sworn allegiance to the Lord's anointed. May God grant us the grace to be like Ittai, to be unmoveable men in a world of traitors, so that when we have crossed our own Kidron, we may hear our King say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."