The Water of the King Text: 1 Chronicles 11:15-19
Introduction: The Cost of Loyalty
We live in an age of cheap sentiment. Our culture traffics in hollow gestures, empty words, and loyalties that are as deep as a puddle in the summer sun. Men pledge allegiance to a brand of shoe or a sports franchise with more fervor than they pledge allegiance to their wives, their country, or their God. But the kingdom of God is not built on such flimsy materials. The kingdom of God is built on blood and sacrifice, on loyalties that are tested in the crucible of real-world risk.
The passage before us this morning is a brief episode, tucked away in a list of names and exploits. It is easy to read it as a quaint historical anecdote, a curious story about a thirsty king and his overzealous bodyguards. But to do so is to miss the point entirely. This is not just a story about water; it is a story about worship. It is a story about the kind of loyalty that Christ commands and the kind of sacrifice that Christ inspires. It is a story that reveals the heart of a true king and the nature of true devotion.
Here we see David, the anointed of God, in the stronghold, a fugitive king with a Philistine garrison occupying his hometown. And in a moment of weary nostalgia, he voices a longing, a simple human craving for a taste of home. But what happens next is anything but simple. Three of his men, hearing this idle wish, translate it into a sacred mission. They see in the king's desire a command, and in the fulfillment of that desire, an act of worship. Their response is immediate, reckless, and utterly devoted. And David's reaction to their devotion is just as profound. He recognizes that the water they bring him is no longer just water. It has been consecrated by their courage, sanctified by their sacrifice. It has become, in his eyes, blood.
This incident is a living parable. It teaches us about the nature of true leadership, which inspires such devotion not through tyranny but through character. It teaches us about the nature of true fellowship, which is forged in shared danger and mutual sacrifice. And most importantly, it points us forward to a greater David, a greater King, who would inspire an even greater devotion, and who would pour out not a cup of water, but His very own blood for His people.
The Text
Then three of the thirty chief men went down to the rock to David, to the cave of Adullam, while the camp of the Philistines was camping in the valley of Rephaim. And David was then in the fortress, while the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. Then David had a craving and said, “Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!” So the three broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water from the well of Bethlehem which was by the gate, and carried it and brought it to David. Nevertheless, David was not willing to drink it, but poured it out to Yahweh; and he said, “Be it far from me before my God that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives? For at the risk of their lives they brought it.” Therefore he was not willing to drink it. These things the three mighty men did.
(1 Chronicles 11:15-19 LSB)
The King's Idle Wish (vv. 15-17)
We begin with the setting and the desire that sets this whole account in motion.
"Then three of the thirty chief men went down to the rock to David, to the cave of Adullam, while the camp of the Philistines was camping in the valley of Rephaim. And David was then in the fortress, while the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. Then David had a craving and said, 'Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!'" (1 Chronicles 11:15-17)
The scene is one of conflict and constraint. David is in his stronghold, likely the cave of Adullam, a place of refuge. The Philistines, the perennial enemies of Israel, are camped nearby and, more pointedly, have a garrison in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is David's hometown, the city of his birth, the place of his anointing. For an enemy to occupy your home is a deep insult, a constant, galling reminder of your current state of affairs. It is in this context of weariness, of being an outcast from his own home, that David speaks.
He has a "craving." This is not a command. It is a sigh, a wistful expression of homesickness. "Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem." This is the kind of thing men say when they are tired and far from home, remembering the simple comforts of their youth. He is not issuing a military order. He is thinking out loud. But his men hear it differently. Why? Because true loyalty does not wait for a direct command when the desire of the king is known. True loyalty is not slavish; it is zealous. These men love David. They have bound their lives to his. His cause is their cause, his enemies are their enemies, and his desires are their delight to fulfill.
This is the kind of devotion that a godly leader inspires. David had gathered to himself a band of men who were in distress, in debt, and discontented (1 Samuel 22:2). He took a band of misfits and outcasts and forged them into a brotherhood of heroes. He did this not by being a tyrant, but by being a man after God's own heart. His courage, his faith, his integrity, his refusal to lift his hand against Saul, God's anointed, all of this had a profound effect on the men around him. They saw in him a king worth fighting for, a king worth dying for. And so, when he expresses a simple longing, they hear an opportunity for glory, an opportunity to demonstrate their love.
The Reckless Devotion (v. 18a)
The response of the three men is immediate and breathtakingly dangerous.
"So the three broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water from the well of Bethlehem which was by the gate, and carried it and brought it to David." (1 Chronicles 11:18a)
Notice the economy of words. "So the three broke through." There is no record of their planning session, no discussion of the risks, no weighing of the pros and cons. The king has a desire, and that is enough. They simply go. They break through the enemy camp, not once, but twice. They had to fight their way in, and they had to fight their way out, all while carrying a skin of water. This was not a stealth mission. This was a frontal assault for the sake of a drink.
This is what loyalty looks like when it is untainted by cynicism and self-preservation. This is love in action. It is a picture of the church at its best. Our King, the Lord Jesus, has expressed His desires in His Word. He desires that the gospel be preached to all nations. He desires that we love one another. He desires that we live holy lives. And our response should not be to conduct a cost-benefit analysis. Our response should be to say, "The King desires it," and then, like these men, to break through whatever enemy lines stand in our way, whether it be our comfort, our reputation, our fear, or our finances.
These men were not motivated by a desire for promotion or pay. They were motivated by love for their king. Their action was a form of worship. They were saying, with their swords and with their lives, "Your slightest wish is our command. Your refreshment is worth more to us than our own safety."
The Consecrated Water (vv. 18b-19)
When the men return, victorious, with the water, David's reaction is what elevates this story from a mere tale of military bravado to a profound lesson in theology.
"Nevertheless, David was not willing to drink it, but poured it out to Yahweh; and he said, 'Be it far from me before my God that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives? For at the risk of their lives they brought it.' Therefore he was not willing to drink it. These things the three mighty men did." (1 Chronicles 11:18b-19)
David is confronted with a gift that is too precious to receive. His idle wish has been transformed by the actions of his men into something sacred. He looks at the water, and he does not see H2O. He sees the lifeblood of his friends. He understands that to drink this water for his own refreshment would be to treat their lives, their sacrifice, as a trivial thing. He recognizes that this water, purchased at such a price, is fit only for God.
And so he does something remarkable. He "poured it out to Yahweh." This is the language of a drink offering, a libation. It was an act of worship. He takes this symbol of his men's devotion to him and deflects it upward, offering it to the God who is the only one worthy of such ultimate sacrifice. David is saying, in effect, "This kind of loyalty, this kind of love, belongs ultimately to God alone. I am not worthy of it. I will not drink to my own glory with the blood of my men. I will pour this out to the glory of God, who gave me such men."
In this, David shows himself to be a true king, a man who understands his place. A lesser man, a tyrant, would have drunk the water and clapped the men on the back, seeing their risk as his due. But David is a man after God's own heart. He is humbled by their devotion. He understands that leadership is not about being served, but about serving, and about pointing all glory and honor to God.
His equation is stark and theologically precise: "Shall I drink the blood of these men?" He is echoing the principle from Leviticus that the life of the flesh is in the blood (Lev. 17:11). The water represents the lives that were risked to obtain it. To drink it would be an act of profound arrogance. By pouring it out to God, he honors his men in the highest possible way. He declares that their sacrifice is a holy thing, an offering fit for the altar of God.
The Greater David and the Living Water
This entire episode is a magnificent type, a shadow pointing to a greater reality. David, in his longing, his leadership, and his humility, is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the devotion of his mighty men is a picture of the devotion that Christ inspires in His people.
Think of it. David longed for water from Bethlehem, the "house of bread." Centuries later, in that same town, the true Bread of Life was born. Jesus is the greater David, the true King. And He too, expressed a longing. On the cross, He said, "I thirst" (John 19:28). His was not a nostalgic craving, but the real, agonizing thirst of a man dying for the sins of the world.
But the parallel goes deeper. David refused to drink the water that was the blood of his men. But our King, Jesus, gives us His own blood to drink. At the Last Supper, He took the cup and said, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 26:28). David poured out the water as an offering to God. Jesus poured out His own life, His own blood, as the ultimate offering to God, for us.
The mighty men risked their lives to bring David water that he would not drink. But Jesus, our mighty champion, broke through the lines of the ultimate enemy, sin and death and Hell itself, not to bring us water from an earthly well, but to become for us a fountain of living water. He told the woman at the well, "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:14).
The sacrifice of David's men was a beautiful, horizontal display of loyalty to an earthly king. David, in his wisdom, turned it into a vertical act of worship. But the sacrifice of Christ is the ultimate vertical act of love from God to man, which then creates in us a horizontal love for one another. We love Him because He first loved us. And that love compels us to a new kind of reckless devotion. It compels us to say, with Paul, that we are being "poured out as a drink offering" upon the sacrifice and service of the faith (Philippians 2:17). Our lives, our risks, our sacrifices for the gospel are our response to the King who drank the cup of God's wrath for us, so that we might drink from the river of His delights forever.
This story, then, is a call to examine our own loyalties. Is our devotion to King Jesus this tangible? Are we willing to break through enemy lines, to risk comfort and reputation, to fulfill His desires? And it is a call to worship. We serve a King who did not send His men to die for a drink for Him, but who died to give a drink to His men. He is the King who poured Himself out for us. Therefore, let us pour ourselves out for Him, holding nothing back, until that day when we drink the fruit of the vine new with Him in His Father's kingdom.