The Kind of Men Who Make a Kingdom Text: 1 Chronicles 11:10-11
Introduction: The Anatomy of Loyalty
We live in an age that despises loyalty. It is an age of disposable relationships, disposable vows, and disposable identities. Our culture celebrates the autonomous self, the man who is his own law, who is committed to nothing and no one but his own fleeting desires. But a world without loyalty is a world without kingdoms, without families, without churches, and without any lasting good. It is a world of sand, constantly shifting, with no rock on which to build. A man who is not loyal to anything outside of himself is a man who cannot be trusted with anything, least of all with power.
The Bible, on the other hand, is a book about loyalty. It is a book about covenant. From beginning to end, God reveals Himself as a covenant-keeping God, a God who is loyal to His promises, even when His people are not. And because God is loyal, He builds His kingdom through loyal men. He does not build His kingdom with autonomous individuals pursuing self-actualization. He builds it with men who have pledged their swords, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to a king.
In our passage today, we are introduced to the kind of men God uses to establish a kingdom. After years of being hunted by Saul, after years of living in caves and strongholds, David is finally acclaimed as king over all Israel. But a king is not a king without a kingdom, and a kingdom is not a kingdom without loyal men. This chapter gives us a roster, a list of names. In our democratic, egalitarian age, we tend to skim over lists like this. But in the economy of God, names matter. These are not just names; they are men. They are men who bound themselves to David and his cause, and in so doing, they bound themselves to the cause of God. Their strength, their courage, and their fierce loyalty were the instruments God used to establish the throne from which the Messiah would one day come. This is not just a history lesson. This is a lesson in the anatomy of a godly kingdom, and it is a lesson in the kind of masculinity that our soft and effeminate age desperately needs to recover.
The Text
Now these are the heads of the mighty men whom David had, who gave him strong support in his kingdom, together with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of Yahweh concerning Israel. These constitute the list of the mighty men whom David had: Jashobeam, the son of a Hachmonite, the chief of the thirty; he lifted up his spear against three hundred slain by him at one time.
(1 Chronicles 11:10-11 LSB)
Kingdom-Building Loyalty (v. 10)
We begin with the summary statement in verse 10:
"Now these are the heads of the mighty men whom David had, who gave him strong support in his kingdom, together with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of Yahweh concerning Israel." (1 Chronicles 11:10)
The first thing to notice is the purpose of these men. They were not freelancers. They were not soldiers of fortune. They "gave him strong support in his kingdom." The Hebrew word for "gave strong support" means to hold fast, to strengthen, to exert oneself. These men were not passive observers; they were active participants. They threw their weight, their strength, and their lives behind David. Their identity was tied to their king. This is the essence of covenantal loyalty. It is a glad submission to a rightful authority for the sake of a shared, glorious cause.
Our culture tells men to be their own king. The Bible tells men to find the true king and pledge him their allegiance. This is not weakness; it is the only true source of strength. A man standing alone is a twig. A thousand men bound together under a worthy king is a fortress. These mighty men understood this. Their strength was magnified because it was submitted. It was channeled, focused, and directed toward a godly end: the establishment of David's kingdom.
And notice the ultimate authority behind this endeavor. They acted "according to the word of Yahweh concerning Israel." This is crucial. Their loyalty was not a blind, personal cult of personality. They were not loyal to David simply because he was charismatic or a good general. They were loyal to David because God had spoken. God had chosen David. God had promised David the kingdom. Therefore, their loyalty to David was an expression of their loyalty to God. They were obeying the word of the Lord.
This is the difference between godly submission and worldly sycophancy. We are to submit to authorities, yes, but always in the Lord. These men were not making David king in a vacuum. They were participating in God's unfolding plan of redemption. They were acting on scriptural warrant. This sanctified their strength. This is what transforms mere violence into righteous warfare. Their swords were not their own; they were instruments in the hand of Yahweh to fulfill His promise. This is why we must be men of the Book. Our actions, our loyalties, our ambitions must be governed by "what saith the Lord." Without that, we are just another gang of thugs, fighting for our own turf.
The Prowess of the Chief (v. 11)
Verse 11 then begins the list, highlighting the chief of these mighty men and his extraordinary feat.
"These constitute the list of the mighty men whom David had: Jashobeam, the son of a Hachmonite, the chief of the thirty; he lifted up his spear against three hundred slain by him at one time." (1 Chronicles 11:11 LSB)
The Chronicler begins with Jashobeam. His name means "the people will return," which is fitting for a man helping to establish the kingdom. He is the chief, the first among equals. And his prowess is staggering. He killed three hundred men at one time with his spear. The parallel account in 2 Samuel says eight hundred, and scholars can debate the scribal variations, but the point is the same. This is a man of almost supernatural strength and skill. This is not the action of an ordinary soldier.
What are we to make of this? First, we must see that God delights in strength. Our modern, neutered version of Christianity is often embarrassed by men like Jashobeam. We prefer our saints to be meek, mild, and preferably holding a lamb. But the Bible is full of warriors. God is called the Lord of Hosts, Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of Armies. He is the one who trains our hands for war and our fingers for battle. Godly masculinity is not soft. It is strong. It is courageous. It is, when necessary, lethal. This does not mean we are to be bullies or brutes. But it does mean that there is a time and a place for righteous violence in the defense of God's order and God's people. Jashobeam's spear, wielded in service to God's chosen king, was an instrument of divine justice.
Second, this prowess was a gift from God. No man, by his own strength, kills three hundred enemy soldiers in a single engagement. This is the hand of God. Just as Samson was empowered by the Spirit to tear a lion apart, so Jashobeam was empowered by God to be a one-man wrecking crew against the enemies of Israel. When God gives a man a mission, He provides the strength to accomplish it. The glory for Jashobeam's feat ultimately belongs to Jashobeam's God.
This is a picture for us. We are not called to take up literal spears against Philistines. But we are called to be mighty men for a greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in a spiritual war. And in this war, God calls for men of Jashobeam's caliber, men who will stand in the gap, who will wield the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, with deadly precision against the strongholds of the enemy. He calls for men who, by His strength, can stand against overwhelming odds and not flinch.
Conclusion: Mighty Men for a Greater King
This short passage gives us the blueprint for the kind of men who build a lasting kingdom. They are men of loyalty, men whose strength is submitted to a rightful king. They are men of the Word, whose actions are governed by the commands and promises of God. And they are men of valor, whose God-given strength is not for their own glory, but for the defense and establishment of the kingdom.
We serve a greater David, the Lord Jesus. His kingdom was not established by the sword of men, but by the nails driven through His own hands. He is the ultimate mighty man, who faced the dragon, Satan, and crushed his head. He is the king who conquered not by killing, but by dying. And now, risen and ascended, He calls us to be His mighty men.
What does that look like? It looks like husbands who give themselves up for their wives, exerting their strength to protect and provide. It looks like fathers who lift up the spear of God's Word to defend their children from the lies of this age. It looks like churchmen who give their strong support to their elders, who hold fast to the truth, and who refuse to bow to the spirit of the age. It looks like men in the workplace who are fiercely loyal to Christ, who do their work with all their might as unto the Lord, and who are not ashamed of the gospel.
The world is looking for mighty men. It is looking for men of courage, conviction, and loyalty. It is looking for Jashobeams. The tragedy is that it is looking in all the wrong places. It looks to Hollywood, to the sports arena, to the halls of political power. But true might, the kind of might that builds an eternal kingdom, is found only in submission to King Jesus. Let us, therefore, pledge our allegiance to Him anew. Let us ask Him to make us strong, not for our own name, but for His. Let us be the kind of men who give strong support to His kingdom, according to His Word, so that when the roster of His mighty men is read out on the last day, our names, by His grace, might be found on it.